they called the East India School. For the maintenance of the master and usher, one thousand acres of land were appropriated, with five servants and an overseer. From this

school, pupils were to be transferred to the college at Henrico, when the latter should be sufficiently endowed. These establishments in Virginia, however, failed of success, and in 1692, their funds were given to William and Mary's college, which we shall notice hereafter.

Still more attentive to education were the northern colonies. In 1630, a general court of Massachusetts Bay ap propriated the sum of four hundred pounds towards the commencement of a college. In 1637, the college was located at Newtown, which, not long after, was called Cambridge, in memory of Cambridge, in England, where many of the colonists had received their education. Mr. John Harvard, a worthy minister, dying at Charlestown about this time, bequeathed nearly eight hundred pounds to the college, in consideration of which legacy, it was called after him. In 1642, was held the first commencement, at which nine were graduated.

To this institution, the plantations of Connecticut and New-Haven, so long as they remained unable to support a similar one at home, contributed funds from the public purse; and sent to it such of their youth as they wished to be educated. Private subscriptions were also made from the united colonies, to aid the institution.

Great attention was also paid by all the colonies to the subject of common schools. As a specimen of the arrange-. ments common to the New-England colonies, we may notice those of Connecticut. By her first code, in 1639, only six years from the time the first house was erected within the colony, it was ordered that every town, consisting of fifty families, should maintain a good school, in which reading and writing should be well taught, and that in every county town a good grammar school should be instituted. Large tracts of land were appropriated by the legislature as a permanent support of these schools,-and the selectmen of every town were required to see that all heads of families instructed their children and servants to read the English tongue well.

REFLECTIONS.

Sec. 58. At the commencement of this period, our history presented us with a continent, over whose surface an interminable wilderness had for ages cast its deep and solemr

shade. If we approach the shore, and look through the gloom that gathers over it, the scenes which strike the eye are Indians at their war dance, or perhaps flames curling round some expiring captive, or wild beasts mangling their prey.

Passing from this point of time to the close of our period, a space of eighty-two years, the prospect is greatly changed. We now see smiling fields and cheerful villages in the place of dismal forests; instead of beasts of prey, we see grazing herds; instead of the kindling faggot, we witness the worship of Jesus Christ; and instead of the appalling war whoop, we listen to the grateful songs of David. In the beautiful words of scripture, the wilderness has begun to blossom as the rose, and the desert is becoming vocal with the praises of God.

But how is it that a change so wonderful has been brought to pass? We have indeed seen the hardy spirit of enterprise leaving the luxuries of Europe, and plunging into the forests of America. But we have also seen our forefathers struggling with difficulties, and often trembling on the very brink of ruin. We have seen them amidst Indian war, desolating famine, and pestilence; and we have wondered, after the storm has passed, to see them rise with renovated strength, and seem to gather power and advantage from circumstan ces calculated to overwhelm them.

Admitting, then, the extraordinary energy, wisdom, enterprise, and hardihood, of the first settlers of America, still we are driven to the admission of a benign providence working in their favor, and mysteriously establishing their strength and security, by exercising them for years with danger, trial, and misfortune.

Nor are these the only considerations which excite our admiration, in regard to the first settlers of North America. Although, in the eloquent words of Mr. Walsh," It was their peculiar lot, at one and the same time, to clear and cultivate a wilderness; to erect habitations and procure sustenance; to struggle with a new and rigorous climate; to bear up against all the bitter recollections inseparable from distant and lonely exile; toefend their liberties from the jealous tyranny and bigotry of the mother country; to be perpetually assailed by a savage foe, the most subtle and the most formidable of any people on the face of the earth:"still, they looked forward to the welfare of future generations; laid broad and deep foundations for religious institutions made the most careful provisions for learning, and

enacted wholesome laws, the benefit of which is distinctly felt to this day.

It may be further remarked, that history shows the influence of the manners of a people upon their government, and the reciprocal influence of government upon the manners of a people. The history of this period furnishes striking examples of this. In Virginia, the free and licentious manners of society produce a government unsteady and capricious. This government re-acts upon their manners, and aids rather than checks their licentiousness. On the contrary, in New-England, the severe puritanical manners of the people produce a rigid, energetic government, and the government returns its puritanical influence back upon the manners of the people.

UNITED STATES.

PERIOD III.

DISTINGUISHED FOR THE WARS OF KING WILLIAM QUEEN ANNE, AND GEORGE II.

Extending from the accession of William and Mary to the throne of England, 1689, to the Declaration of the War by England against France, 1756, called "the French and Indian War."

Sec. 1. The news of William's accession to the throne of England, filled the colonies with ecsta-. cy. Under the sudden impulse of their feelings, the inhabitants of Boston seized Sir Edmund Andross, with about fifty of his associates, and put them in close confinement, where they lay, until ordered to England, to answer for maleadministration. Connecticut and Rhode Island immediately resumed their charters, and were permitted by his majesty to re-establish their former governments. Massachusetts soon after obtained a new charter, in some respects less favorable to the colony, but in others, more so, than its former one.

Andross had formerly been governor of NewYork, under the duke of York, in which province his administration had been distinguished for measures both arbitrary and severe. Subsequent governors, under the duke, and after he came to the throne, had generally pursued a similar

course. The discontents of the people had been gradually increasing, and they were ready for revolution, when the above intelligence of the proceedings at Boston arrived. A revolution soon commenced, and, although attended by unhappy events, issued in the restoration of the rights of the people, and the formation of a constitution, which laid the foundation of their provincial code.

From the reduction of New-York, in 1664, to 1683, the people had no share in the government. In 1681, the council court of assizes, and corporation, had solicited the Duke of York to permit the people to choose their own rulers. Accordingly, the next year, Thomas Dongan, a papist, was appointed governor, with instructions to call an assembly, to consist of a council of ten, and of eighteen representatives, elected by the freeholders.

On the accession of the Duke of York to the throne, under the title of James II., he refused to confirm to the people the privileges granted them when he was duke. No assembly was permitted to be convened; printing presses were prohibited, and the more important provincial offices were conferred on papists.

Such was the state of things, when intelligence of the seizure of Andross arrived. This gave a spring to the general dissatisfaction, which burst forth into open resistance to the existing administration.

One Jacob Leisler, with several others, immediately took possession of the fort. Governor Dongan had just embarked for England, leaving the administration of the government, during his absence, to Charles Nicholson, at that time his deputy. Nicholson and his officers made what opposition to Leisler they were able, but he having been joined by six militia captains, and four hundred and seventy men, Nicholson absconded. Upon this, Leisler assumed the supreme command.

This assumption of Leisler was far from being pleasant to the council and magistrates, at the head of whom were Col. Bayard and the mayor. Finding it impossible, however, to succeed against Leisler in New-York, they retired to Albany, and there employed their influence to foment opposition. Both Leisler, in New-York, and the people at Albany, held their respective garrisons in the name of Will