vated country and resort to a gloomy wilderness ? What have we gained, if, after adventuring in this wilderness many thousands of pounds, we are yet to be taxed at the mere will and pleasure of another? What is it but to say, that people, free by law under their prince at home, are at his mercy in his plantations abroad?

"We humbly say, that we have lost none of our liberty by leaving our country; that the duty imposed upon us is without precedent or parallel; that, had we foreseen it, we should have preferred any other plantation in America. Besides, there is no limit to this power; since we are, by this. precedent, taxed without any law, and thereby excluded from our English right of assenting to taxes, what security have we of any thing we possess? We can call nothing our own, but are tenants at will, not only for the soil, but for our personal estates. Such conduct has destroyed governments, but never raised one to any true greatness."

The commissioners adjudged the duties illegal and oppressive, and they were not afterwards demanded. Emigrants continued to arrive and the country to prosper. In 1681, the governor of West Jersey summoned a general assembly, by which several fundamental laws were enacted, establishing the rights of the people, and defining the powers of rulers.

In 1682, the territory of East Jersey passed from Carteret to William Penn, and twenty-three associates, mostly of the quaker persuasion. They appointed Robert Barclay, author of the

Apology for the Quakers," governor over it for life. The multitude of proprietors, and the frequent transfers and subdivisions of shares, introduced such confusion in titles to land, and such uncertainty as to the rights of government, that for twenty years afterwards, both Jerseys were in a state of continued disturbance and disorder. In 1702, the proprietors, weary of contending with each other, and with the people, surrendered the right of government to the crown. Queen Anne reunited the two divisions, and appointed lord Cornbury governor over the provinces of New Jersey and New York.

These provinces continued, for several years, to be ruled by the same governor, but each chose a separate assembly. In 1738, the inhabitants, by petition to the king, desired that they might, in future, have a separate governor. Their request was granted, Lewes Morris being the first that was appointed.

In the same year, a college was founded at Princeton and called Nassau Hall. New-Jersey then contained above forty thousand inhabitants. Being remote from Canada, the source of most of the Indian wars which afflicted the northern colonies, it enjoyed a complete exemption from that terrible calamity, and until the commencement of the revolution, furnished no materials for history.

CHAPTER VIII.

DELAWARE.

THIS Colony was first settled by a company of Swedes and Finns, under the patronage of King Gustavus Adolphus. They came over in 1627, and landing at cape Henlopen, were so charmed with its appearance, that they gave it the name of Paradise Point. The country they called New Sweden, and the river Delaware, New Swedeland Stream. They purchased of the Indians the lands on both sides of that river, from the sea to the falls, and seated themselves at the mouth of Christina creek, near Wilmington.

Being frequently molested by the Dutch, who claimed a right to the country, they for their protection built forts at Christina, Lewiston, and Tinicum. The last was their seat of government, and there John Printz, their governor, erected an elegant mansion, which he named Printz Hall.

In 1651, the Dutch built a fort at New Castle. Printz considering this place to be within the Swedish territories, formally protested against the proceeding. Risingh, his successor, made a visit, under the guise of friendship, to the commander of the fort, and being accompanied by thirty men, treacherously took possession of it, while enjoying his hospitality.

Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of New

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York, was not of a temper to permit an injury, thus committed, to pass unavenged. Accompanied by an armament, a part of which was furnished for the occasion by, the city of Amsterdam, in Holland, he, in 1655, returned the visit of the Swedes. He first reduced the fort at New Castle; then that at Christina creek, where Risingh commanded; and afterwards the others. Some of the Swedes, on taking the oath of allegiance to Holland, were permitted to remain; the rest were sent to Europe.

The settlements on the Delaware continued under the controul of the Dutch, until 1664, when the New Netherlands were conquered by the English. They were then considered as a part of New York. In 1682, William Penn purchased of the Duke of York, the town of New Castle, and the country twelve miles around it; and, by a subsequent purchase, obtained the land lying upon the Delaware, and between New Castle and Cape Henlopen. These tracts, which constitute the present state of Delaware, were called the Territories," and were, for twenty years, governed as a part of Pennsylvania.

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They were divided into three counties, New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, each of which sent six delegates to the general assembly. In 1703, these delegates, dissatisfied with the last charter which Penn had prepared, and a majority of the assembly had adopted, seceded, and, liberty being given, formed a separate and distinct assembly. The two portions of the province were never afterwards united, but the proprietor con

tinued to possess the same jurisdiction, and the same person uniformly acted as governor over both.

Sheltered by the surrounding provinces, Delaware enjoyed an entire exemption from wars, except those in which, as a part of the British empire, she was obliged to participate. In the war with France, which terminated in 1763, she was second to none in active zeal to assist the parent state. In the revolutionary war, the Delaware regiment was considered the most efficient in the continental army.

CHAPTER IX.

PENNSYLVANIA.

WILLIAM PENN, the founder of Pennsylvania, was the Son of Sir William Penn, an admiral in the British navy. In his youth, he joined the quakers, then an obscure and persecuted sect. While superintending the settlement of New Jersey, he became acquainted with an extensive tract of fertile, unoccupied land lying between the territories of the Duke of York and Lord Baltimore. At his solicitation, and in recompense for unrequited services which his father had rendered the nation, this tract was, in 1681, granted to him in full property, and by the king called Pennsylvania. Desirous of selling his lands and founding a