APPOINTED AGENT FOR GEORGIA.

261

before, and among them a tragedy, called Timoleon. He was also one of the managers of a society, composed of noblemen and gentlemen, for the encouragement of learning, of which most laudable institution24 the Duke of Richmond was president. These honours, however, fade before that more noble merit which he won for himself, that more lasting praise which he deserves from others, by his faithful, earnest, and warmhearted devotion to the colonial interests of Georgia. The Trustees showed their estimation of his services, by a formal resolution, declaring how ably and faithfully he had served them, from their organization as a corporation; and recommended him to the Lords of His Majesty's Privy Council, as the most fit person to be appointed agent for the province of Georgia, to transact its affairs with the several officers of government in England. He was so appointed; and during many years sustained the interests of that province, whose cradled infancy he had watched over with such disinterested zeal.

24 Gent. Mag., June, 1736, 353. Among the fellow-managers of this institution were the Earls of Hartford, Oxford, Abercorn and Stanhope, the

celebrated Dr. Richard Mead, Dr. Addison Hutton, George Sale, the translator of the Koran, and several other distinguished men of learning.

CHAPTER VIII.

REVIEW OF THE TRUSTEES POLICY.

It is the office of the historian, says the distinguished annalist of Rome,1 to rejudge the actions of men, that virtues may not be passed over in silence, and that the doers of evil actions may have before them the fear of that infamy which posterity will award to their deeds. The duty of the historian is thus not unlike that of the judge in a court of law. It is his business to hear the details of many differing witnesses; to examine documents of diverse characters; to sift evidence from many varying testimonies, and from the pleadings of a hundred great actionsfrom the records of a long series of noble or ignoble deeds from the evidence of multiplied witnesses for good or evil; to sum up in one charge the history of the past, and deliver over his solemn opinion to the unimpannelled jury of the future for their final verdict. Such is the judicial dignity and weighty responsibility of the historian's office; and if he fails to charge posterity aright as to the events and character of the past, he proves derelict to the cause of truth, and of human rights. There are times, when this duty

'Tacitus, Annales, iii. 65.

DIFFICULTIES OF ALL INFANT COLONIES.

263

becomes one of pain and regret; when the past is reviewed in grief, and judged in sorrow: but as we dare not write what is false, so we dare not suppress what is true, and are compelled therefore, while we accord to the Trustees deserved praise, to expose their errors-the errors, not of malice, but of what may truly be termed a parsimonious benevolence.

The early political institutions of Georgia have been the subject of much and just animadversion.

In the infancy of all colonial schemes we find difficulties, errors, and failings. It is so generally with all experiments, especially in those which have for their object the ordering of masses of men, and the arranging and scheming for their guidance, equity, and welfare. Theory has never yet made a good commonwealth. The "Republic" of Plato was even more visionary than the dreams of his philosophy. The "Fundamental Constitutions" of John Locke, though he was one of England's greatest metaphysicians, utterly miscarried in their aim, and brought Carolina to the verge of ruin. William Penn's "Frame of the Government of the Province of Pennsylvania," was, after one year, taken down to make room for a new one; and the first constitution, given by the Duke of York to the colony which bore his name, was in eight years changed for a wiser and more liberal patent. Stern experience is the only true teacher of governmental rules. She sees the necessities of men, and points out the means of compassing them; she ascertains their wants, and knows how to provide for them; she is the great instructress of nations; and to go contrary to her teachings, is to do violence to that law, "whose seat is the bosom of God, whose voice the harmony of the world."

264

2

THE THREE DESIGNS OF THE TRUSTEES.

It is strange, that with so many warning lights hung out from the drifting wrecks of former schemes, the Trustees for the colony of Georgia did not proceed on wiser principles, and more modern legislation. They too theorized the colony into the pangs of civil death, nor saw, nor remedied their error, till, wasted of its strength and substance, there scarcely remained vitality enough to give it a nominal existence. In reviewing the operations of the Trustees, two points demand special attention—the failure of their original expectations, and the ill effects of their legislative policy. The design of the Trustees comprised three points: to provide an asylum for the poor debtor and persecuted Protestant; to erect a silk, wine, and drug-growing colony; and to relieve the mother country of an overburdened population. No one at all acquainted with the body of Trustees, but will concede to them the most humane and generous intentions. They were mostly men of high birth and elevated station, of political experience and philanthropic aims; but they allowed their eager benevolence to warp their judgment, and their else cool imaginations to be fired by fanciful theories and overcoloured pictures of colonial success. It was not long however before their credulity was chastened into soberness by a series of disastrous calamities. The noble feature of benevolence was never indeed relinquished, even though the recipients proved unworthy the bounty; for, as early as 1735, the Trustees declared that

many of the poor who had been useless in England, were inclined to be useless also in Georgia." And though a strict scrutiny was made into the character

2 “Reasons for Establishing the New and Accurate Account," &c., in Colony of Georgia in America.” "A Geo. Hist. Col., i.

FAILURE OF COMMERCIAL HOPES.

265

and condition of each emigrant, most of the early settlers were altogether unworthy the assistance they received. Once in Georgia, they were disappointed in the quality and fertility of the lands; were unwilling to labour; hung for support upon the Trustees' store; were clamorous for privileges to which they had no right; and fomented discontent and faction, where it was hoped they would have lived together in brotherly peace and charity. The benevolence of the Trustees met no adequate return of gratitude; and their labours for the welfare of the colony, only provoked the obloquy and murmurs of those, to whom had been opened the prison-doors of England, and to whom had been granted an asylum in Georgia. The too sanguine hopes of the Trustees as to the commercial value of the colony, were also destined to disappointment. The wine which was to supply all the plantations, and to cultivate which they had employed a vigneron from Portugal, and planted in their garden the choicest cuttings from Madeira, resulted in only a few gallons, and was then abandoned. The drugs and exotics, which, at a great expense, they had procured and planted in the same place; the olive trees from Venice, barilla seed from Spain, the kali from Egypt, the cubebs cardimas, the caper plant, the madder root, and other like articles, were mostly destroyed by the snow and frost shortly after they were planted. The hemp and flax, which were to sustain the linen manufactures of Great Britain, and throw the balance of trade with Russia into England's favour, never came to a single ship-load; and indigo, though there were one or two plantations of it near St. Simons and on the Altamaha, was never generally introduced, and its culture soon abandoned.