INTRODUCTION

TO THE

THIRD VOLUME

OF THE

HISTORY OF THE BRITISH COLONIES.

NORTH AMERICA presents in its history one of the most extraordinary acts in the great drama of human life. For ages its very existence as a portion of our planet, was unknown to the inhabitants of the Old World, and at the commencement of the seventeenth century no Europeans were colonised on its shores,* while, in spite of innumerable difficulties at first starting, in the commencement of the second quarter of the nineteenth century, there are upwards of 12,000,000 Europeans and their descendants, scattered over its vast and fertile territories,† and the numerous Indian tribes that once called this vast continent their own are now in the melancholy process of final extinction.‡

It is neither within my scope, nor limits, to enter into a

* Sir Walter Raleigh made several ineffectual efforts at colonization from 1584 to 1587;-Virginia was named by that gallant knight in honour of the virgin Queen.

+ There are 11,000,000 white inhabitants in the United States according to the census of 1831, and there are upwards of 1,000,000 Europeans and their descendants in the British Provinces.

I have adverted to this distressing fact in the Introduction to Vol. II.

detail of the early settlement of America; many circumstances gave rise to its rapid peopling from Europe, after the year 1610, when the English, French, Dutch, and Swedes. formed colonies there.* Political tyranny, and religious disputes, aided by the speculative adventurers of the day,† contributed much to the migration of numerous brave, enterprising, and moral characters from Great Britain; and the refuse of English gaols helped to clear the forests of the New World; while such men as William Penn, by their conciliation of the Indians, and their prudent policy, as regards the formation of incipient governments, gave security and solidity to the infant colonies.§

From this period the progress of the British colonies in America was exceedingly great in numbers, and in wealth: a natural spirit of commercial enterprise was fostered by the prudence of the mother country in leaving the colonists at full liberty to prosecute their trade (with very few exceptions)

* At Virginia, Canada, New York and the Delaware.

+ It is a singular circumstance that Oliver Cromwell was prevented from embarking for America by Charles the First.

The secret of William Penn's gaining the confidence of the Indians, was by purchasing their lands at what was then considered a fair remunerating price, thus-for 'all the land between two rivers as far as a man could ride in two days with a horse, Penn gave the Indians 20 guns, 20 fathoms match-coal, 20 fathoms stroud water, 20 blankets, 20 kettles, 20lbs. of powder, 100 bars of lead, 40 tomahawks, 100 knives, 40 pairs of stockings, 1 barrel of beer, 20lbs. of red lead, 100 fathoms of Wampum, 30 glass bottles, 30 pewter spoons, 100 awl blades, 300 tobacco pipes, 100lbs. of tobacco, 20 tobacco tongs, 20 steels, 300 flints, 30 pairs of scissors, 30 combs, 60 looking glasses, 200 needles, I skepple of salt, 30lbs. of sugar, 5 gallons of molasses, 20 tobacco boxes, 100 jews' harps, 20 hocs, 30 gimlets, 30 wooden screw boxes and 100 strings of beads.'

§ It was a favourite maxim of William Penn's that whatever be the form of a Government, the people always are free when they share in the legislative power, and are governed only by the laws.'

in every quarter of the globe, and by yielding them the full privilege of governing themselves, and the right of forming such laws as the wisdom of their respective legislatures should consider necessary, reserving only the political connexion of the same sovereign, strengthened by the ties of mutual commercial interest. Nothing at this period could exceed the loyalty of the British colonists; although many were puritanical republicans, whose sympathies were not likely to be enlisted in favour of a Church and King or Imperial government; yet a general enthusiasm was felt and evinced towards the mother country; and to the New England settlers, &c. was chiefly owing the conquest of Canada, and the total expulsion of the French nation from the North American continent,*-(witness the attacks on Quebec and Louisburg), while the vast naval armaments, which enabled England, in the middle of the 18th century, to wield so powerfully the trident of the ocean, were much indebted to the prowess and nautical skill of the sailors and fishermen of Boston and Massachusets. The treaty of Paris in 1763, terminated to the glory and advantage of England, who, in addition to her other vast possessions, now enjoyed the sovereignty of North America from the Gulf of Florida to the Arctic Ocean.

But, unfortunately for Britain, short-sighted ministers, unmindful of the glorious efforts and profound policy of Chatham, commenced the persecution of our northern colonists by interfering with their foreign commerce-restricting the progress of their domestic industry-cutting off those supplies of bullion which enabled them to pour the wealth of

See details of the British Conquest of Lower Canada and Cape Breton -Chapters I. and IV.

†There was at this period a disgraceful truckling to Spain by England similar to that which has recently taken place with France.

Mexico into the lap of Albion*—while at the very same moment the paper currency, which would have supplied the place of the precious metals,† was restrained in its circulation. by an imperial enactment. The colonists were no longer able to make remittances to the mother country, their trade with other nations, which enabled them to supply the deficiencies of their own natural exports to England, was lessened at the dictates of commercial jealousy,-British manufactures, tea, &c. was at the same time forced on them, and to crown the whole, in the midst of all the distress and excitement, caused by these mad proceedings, the stamp act was imposed, thus striking a death-blow at the utility and independence of the Colonial Legislatures, which had heretofore been wisely and prudently protected. The climax of colonial mis-government was now reached, and it was soon seen that though it require the exercise of great talents to frame and construct an empire, madmen, knaves, and fools may most readily destroy it. The declaration of American independence took place not, however, without great reluctance on the part of the colonists, who experienced similar feelings to what a child does when compelled to separate entirely from the natural authority of its parent :§ the French ever imbued with hos

In some provinces the making of hats was forbidden, and it was boasted by the framers of these unwise proceedings that the colonists should send to England for even horse-shoe nails.

+ Those economists who are driving a revolution in England by the contraction of the currency, lowering the wages of labour, and diminishing the income of all the productive classes, would do well to bear in mind that nothing prepared the public mind of the Americans to be exasperated by every otherwise trifling circumstance so much as the distress which followed unexampled prosperity, and came home to every man's door, by checking the supply of the precious metals, and at the same moment diminishing the paper currency by order from the Parent State.

See my work on the "Past and Present State of the Tea Trade of England and of the Continents of Europe and America."

§ In the early part of 1775, the united colonies still clinging to the

tile spirit against us, had it renewed with ten-fold violence, after their expulsion from Canada,* and the Americans, aided by their former enemies, fought bravely for, and obtained that political independence, which the foes of England, in every part of Europe, ardently desired, and which, even very many Englishmen, witnessing their unjust treatment by ministers, wished to see them obtain. I need not pursue a detail which, while it reflects glory on the Americans, covers British statesmen with irretrievable infamy.

So far then I see nothing to blame in the conduct of the United States, but on the contrary, everything to commend; I confess, however, that since the organization of the American republic the proceedings of that government are far different from what might have been expected, from people whose lineage and language had a common source with those of Britain, even making many allowances for the fact that the strongest love when severed becomes often the deadliest hate.

a

Since the separation of the United States from England,

mother country, offered to maintain their own civil list, and to give a clear contribution of £100,000 per annum for 100 years in aid of a sinking fund towards paying the national debt, with the proviso only of being treated like other parts of the Empire-a proposition which was scouted-not by Parliament, but by the Ministers of the Crown-who even personally insulted the deputies sent to make the proposition!

The French Navy declined from the day that Canada passed into the hands of Great Britain;-the possession of St. Domingo for a while enabled the French to keep a force on the ocean, but the revolution and independence of that island was a blow as fatal, if not more so, to the maritime power of the Gaul as were the victories of the Nile, Trafalgar, &c. With the loss of her colonies in America therefore fell the navy of France— next her commerce-then her resources-and finally the overthrow of Napoleon, which was as much owing to discontent and distress at home as to the victory at Waterloo or the strength of the enemy from without.