insurrection was the consequence, headed by Nathaniel Bacon, a member of the council; and for some months, a civil war raged in Virginia with all its peculiar horrors. James Town was burned, and some of the finest and best cultivated districts were laid waste. The arrival of fresh troops from England, and the death of Bacon, terminated the insurrection; many of the rebels were tried by courts-martial, and executed; and at length, tranquillity was restored. Notwithstanding these disorders and the arbitrary restrictions upon commerce, the colony had so far recovered in the year 1688, that the number of inhabitants exceeded 60,000.*

The State of Virginia, though its territorial limits are much more contracted than those of the original colony, which embraced North Carolina and Maryland as well as Kentucky, still includes a territory as large as England. In 1790, its population had risen from 60,000 to 747,610 persons. It now amounts to 1,133,410, of whom 450,000 are slaves. Virginia ranks first in power and population among the southern States, and it has hitherto maintained a predominant influence over the rest of the Union. The illustrious Washington was a native of Virginia, which boasts of having given four presidents, out of five, to the American Federacy. This circumstance has been not unreasonably adduced as a proof of the ascendancy of the Virginian aristocracy, who, while encouraging the prevalence of democracy in the other States, have cautiously excluded it from the precincts of their own State.+ Although the attachment to

Hale, pp. 26-30.

The right of suffrage in Virginia is restricted to freeholders. The senate consists of twenty-four members, chosen for four years, one-fourth going out every year, by which means it secures the ad

royalty has become extinct among the Virginian landholders, in no part of the Union has there survived so much of the spirit of feudal and monarchical institutions.

Of the two Companies incorporated by King James, the history of one only has now been traced. To the Plymouth Company was assigned a territory further to the north, at that time called North Virginia. The first ship sent out by this Company in 1606, was captured by the Spaniards. The next year, forty-five men were sent out as settlers, who were left at the mouth of the river Kennebec; but in 1608, dispirited by the hardships they had endured, they returned to England in ships which had brought them provisions and succour; and the Company, disappointed and dissatisfied, desisted for a while from any further attempts to effect a settlement. In 1614, Captain

John Smith (the same who acted so conspicuous a part in the settlement of Virginia) made a voyage to the northward, touching first at the mouth of the Kennebec, whence he proceeded, in an open boat, to survey the coast as far as the southern boundary of Massachusetts Bay. On his return to England, he presented to Prince Charles a map of the country, and gave him so glowing a description of its beauty and other recommendations, that the prince, in the warmth of his admiration, declared that it should bear the name of NEW ENGLAND.

Smith afterwards made an attempt to transport a colony thither, which was unsuccessful; and New England might long have remained the abode only of wild beasts and savages, had not motives more powerful

vantages of a permanent council. Its laws forbid real property to be attached for debt, and landed estates are generally left to the eldest son.

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than the love of gain or the spirit of adventure, impelled men, differing in character from all others who had been founders of colonies, to select it as the place of their residence.

In the year 1618, a body of zealous and exemplary English Puritans,* who had emigrated to Leyden, in Holland, in order to enjoy that liberty of conscience which was denied them by the high commission court under James I., were led to turn their eyes towards America as an asylum from the evils to which they were still exposed. After due inquiries concerning the country, and many consultations with their friends in England concerning the dangers and difficulties that might attend the enterprise, they resolved to make the attempt, and accordingly applied to the London or South Virginian Company for a grant of land. To ensure success, they represented, "that they were well weaned from the delicate milk of their mother country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land; that they were knit together by a strict and sacred bond, by virtue of which they held themselves bound to take care of the good of each other and of the whole; that it was not with them as with other

At their head were Mr. John Robinson and Mr. William Brewster; the former subsequently the minister, the latter the ruling elder of the congregation. Many English writers," remarks Dr. Dwight, "have confounded Mr. Robinson and his people with the Brownists. Baylie more justly observes, that he was a principal overthrower of the Brownists '-' a man of excellent parts, of the most learned, polished, and modest spirit which ever separated from the Church of England." "-Dwight, vol. i. p. 104. Neale states, that, upon his removal to Leyden, he erected a congregation upon the model of the Brownists, but that, by conversing with Dr. Ames and other learned men, he was led to adopt less rigid principles; and that his catholic views on the subject of communion, "gained him the character of a semi-separatist." He is styled by Neale," the father of the Independents."-Neale, vol. ii. p. 43,

men, whom small things could discourage, or small discontents cause to wish themselves home again."

"A grant was obtained, and in September 1620, a part of them set sail for Hudson's River; but the master of the ship, bribed, it is said, by the Dutch, who claimed the sole right of trading in that quarter, carried them further north; and the first land they discovered, was Cape Cod. This, they were aware, was beyond the limits of the London Company; but it was now November, and too late in the season to put again to sea. They therefore determined to land at the first place they could find suitable for a settlement.

"Before leaving the ship, the heads of families and freemen, forty-one in number, signed a solemn covenant, combining themselves into a body politic, for the purpose of making equal laws for the general good. They ordained that a governor and assistants should be annually chosen ; but the sovereign power remained in the whole body of freemen. John Carver was elected governor.

“On the 11th of December (O. S.), they landed on a desolate coast. Sterile sands and gloomy forests were the only objects that met their view. The severity of the cold, greater than they had yet experienced, admonished them to seek protection against it; and their first employment was the erection of huts in the most convenient and sheltered situations. In these miserable abodes they passed the winter; those, at least, who survived it. By the succeeding spring, one half of their number had perished, exhausted by continual suffering, and by the privation of every worldly comfort which they had been accustomed to enjoy.*

The whole number that sailed from Plymouth, was 101. Six

"Their settlement was found to be within the limits of the Plymouth Company, from which they solicited and obtained a grant of land; but they were never incorporated by the King. They called the place New Plymouth. They often received small additions to their number, which, in 1630, amounted to 300.

"In the mean time, the same causes that drove Mr. Robinson and his congregation from England, had continued to operate. In 1627, an association of English puritans, residing in Dorchester and the vicinity, was formed for the purpose of planting a colony in New England, to which they and their brethren might repair, and, in seclusion and safety, worship God according to the dictates of conscience. They obtained from the Plymouth Company, a grant of the territory which now constitutes a part of the State of Massachusetts; and sent over, under the direction of John Endicott, a small number of people to begin a plantation. These, in September, landed at a place called by the Indians, Naumkeag, and by themselves, Salem.

"The next year, they obtained a charter from the Crown, by which the usual powers of a corporation were conferred upon the grantees, by the name of the 'Governor and Company of Massachusetts' Bay, in New England.' It ordained, that the officers of the Company should be a governor, a deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, to be named, in the first instance, by the Crown, and afterwards elected by the corporation. Four stated meetings of all the members were to be held annually, under the denomination of the General Court, at which they were authorized to admit freemen or members, and to make such ordi

died in the month of December, and 46 more in the course of the winter.