hardships of the wilderness, the dangers of the savage foe, of a sterner climate than that of their native land, the privations of a settler's life, the alternating neglect and oppression of the mother country;-but they struggled successfully with all. The reformers of abuses in England, as they claimed to be called, brought a king to the block, scattered a house of lords, and saw their great military leader clothed with all the powers of state; and in twelve years the son of that king returned to the throne, not merely by an unconditional restoration, but amidst a jubilee of national rejoicing and without one security for liberty. All the while the fathers of New England held on their even way; not betrayed into extravagance when their cause at home (as they fondly called Old England) was triumphant; nor in despair at the miserable relapse which ensued. They did not indeed live to reap the fruit of their principles and their sacrifices; and it reflects but the greater honor upon them that they persevered in their great work from a sense of duty, deep-seated, controlling, fearless, and not the less so although, while they lived, unrewarded by worldly success.

In fact the founders of New England were actuated by the only principle sufficient to produce this result. It need not be said that this was religious principle. How easily it is uttered of our Pilgrim fathers that they were actuated by religious principle; how little in these prosperous days do we realize all that is wrapped up in that description of their character! It is difficult to comprehend of others what we have not experienced in ourselves. That easy frame of mind which prevails among a highly favored people, in periods of halcyon prosperity, is scarcely capable of being placed in sympathy with the moral heroism, the spiritual courage, the sublime equanimity of a generation truly animated by the religious principle, exalted by persecution, and purified by hardship. Happy if in such a period we can, by diligent contemplation of the venerated men of other days, exalt our imaginations, till by conceiving we form a desire to imitate their virtues! In proportion as we do this, we shall realize the secret of their perseverance and success. They did all things through Christ strengthening them. What cannot man do when he has learned habitually and distinctly to regard this life as a preparatory scene, a brief hour,-nay a fleeting moment, introductory to an eternal being? The fathers of New England were enabled, with their scanty means and feeble powers, to establish the foundation of institutions which will last to the end of time, for the very reason that they regarded all human interests and delights as transitory. That paradox in our moral natures which educes strength out of weakness, triumph out of self-denial, worldly power and success out of a stern preference of things not of

this world, received its most illustrious confirmation in the career of the pilgrim fathers of New England.

It

This principle of our natures is the key to the great problem of the success which attended the forlorn hope of humanity that landed on these shores. There is indeed a fanaticism, which violates all the laws of our nature, alike the higher ulterior principles which belong to an immortal spirit, and the humbler influences which grow from the relations of ordinary life. It leads to surprising deeds; it forms characters which dazzle us with brilliant eccentricities. It is near allied to madness; often runs into it. But the religiousness of the fathers of New England was a far different principle. It was eminently practical. allied itself with wise institutions of government; it sought the guidance of education; it encouraged the various pursuits of industry; it provided for the public safety and defence; and with chaste discrimination admitted the courtesies of polished life. It is difficult to say what sort of a commonwealth George Fox would have founded, had circumstances called him to assume the province of the legislator. It is most certain, that in setting up an immediate divine inspiration as the guide of every man, he maintained a principle at war with the very idea of a politcal system and all its institutions; nor is it less certain that the constitution which was actually granted to Pennsylvania, by its pure and noble-spirited proprietor, possessed little of the peculiarities of his sect but their mild, peaceful, and equitable temper. But the fathers of New England stopped short of the point where solemn conviction passes into enthusiasm. They pursued the ordinary occupations of life, planted the field, built vessels and navigated the sea, and carried on the usual mechanic arts. They made provision for protection against the Indians and the French. They organized a plan of civil government; they established by law a system of common school education, for the first time in the history of the world, and they founded a college for the avowed purpose of training up a class of educated men, well qualified to take the place of the learned and pious ministers who had emigrated with the first generation of pilgrims. These are the doings of intelligent and practical men, not of enthusiasts or fanatics; and yet they are the doings of men so resolutely bent upon the exercise of the right of worshipping God according to the dictates of their consciences, that they were willing to sacrifice to it home, fortune, and all that the mass of men hold dear.

To say that the fathers of New England were not faultless, is merely to say that they were men; to say that they established no institutions, the object of which was to bind the consciences of their successors is praise as just as it is high. If they adhered with undue tenacity to their

own opinions, and failed in charity towards those who differed, they at least left their posterity free, without the attempt to secure before hand the control of minds in other ages by transmitted symbols and tests. Humanity mourns over the rigors practised towards Roger Williams, the Quakers, and the unhappy persons suspected of witchcraft; but let it not be forgotten that, as late as 1749, a witch was executed at Wurzburg, and that even in 1760 two women were thrown into the water in Leicestershire, in England, to ascertain by their sinking or swimming whether they were witches. Above all, it may deserve thoughtful enquiry, before we condemn the founders of New England, whether a class of men less stern in their principles and austere in their tempers, could have accomplished, under all the discouragements that surrounded them, against all the obstacles which stood in their way, the great work to which Providence called them, the foundation of a family of republics, confederated under a constitution of free representative government. There is every reason to believe, great and precious as are the results of their principles, hitherto manifested to the world, that the quickening power of those principles will be more and more displayed, with every leaf that is turned in the book of Providence.

That part of the United States denominated NEW ENGLAND, comprises SIX STATES, SIXTY ONE COUNTIES, and TWELVE HUNDRED AND Their extent, divisions, and population at several

EIGHTY TOWNS.

Mass.

R. I.

Ct.

523,287 610,408 701,33 94,

7,500 14 36 318,787 422,45 472 04
1,350 5 21 68,825 69,122 73,931 83,05 97,195 108.763 80

4,674 8 136 237,946 251,002 261,942 275,202 297.678 304,755 5 [65,025|61|1,280,009,522 1,233,011|1,471,973|1,659,80×11,954,704|2 195. 3 34

The population of Maine and Massachusetts, in 1837, is given as by a census taken in that year. The population of New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut, for 1837, is estimated according to the ratio of increase, from 1820 to 1830.

In 1830, there were in New England 1,112 persons deaf and dumb; 798 blind, and 18,668 aliens. The number of colored persons in 1820, was 20,782-1830, 21,310.

New England increased in population, from 1790, to 1800, 22.1 per cent: from 1800, to 1810, 19.3 per cent: from 1810, to 1820, 12.7 per cent: from 1820, to 1830, 17.7 per cent; and from 1830, to 1837, 12.4 cent. When it is considered, that most of the western states were originally peopled by New Englanders, and that vast numbers annually emigrate to those states, this increase of population is favorable, compared with other Atlantic states. The population of New England in 1700, is stated at 120,000; in 1755, at 345,000; and in 1775, at 714,000.

BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. This territory is bounded north and northwest by Lower Canada, about 375 miles, and east by the Province of New Brunswick, 275 miles. Its whole eastern, southeastern and southern borders are washed by the Atlantic ocean and the waters of Long Island Sound, a distance of about 600 miles. It is bounded west by the state of New York, 280 miles. Its circumference is about 1,530 miles.

New England is situated between 41°, and 48° 12′ north latitude, and 65° 55', and 74° 10' west longitude from Greenwich. Its greatest length is between the sources of the Madawaska, Me., and Greenwich, Ct., about 575 miles; and its greatest breadth is between Machias, Me., and Highgate, Vt., 300 miles. Its narrowest part is between Boston and West Stockbridge, Mass., 135 miles.

NAME. During the unsuccessful attempts of Sir Walter Raleigh to plant colonies within the territory of North America, from 1584 to 1587, the whole country was called Virginia, in honor of Queen Elizabeth, who was then on the British throne. In 1606, James I. divided the country into two sections, North and South Virginia; but the French having taken possession of the Canadas, and founded Quebec, in 1608, and the Dutch having established colonies at New York and Albany, in 1613, the intermediate territory, now the New England States, was called New England, in compliment to its luxuriance and beauty, and in honor to his native land, by the celebrated John Smith, one of the first settlers of Virginia, in 1607; and who visited this coast in 1614.

We are

The New England people are frequently called Yankees warranted in stating, from the best authority, that of the late learned HECKEWELDER, that the Lena Lenape, a tribe of Indians belonging to the Six Nations, on the arrival of our fore fathers to these shores, pronounced the word English, Yengees. The word was thus originally spelt, but in the course of years, in common with thousands of other Indian names and phrases, it became corrupted to Yankee.

1

The first

settlers of New England were English, or Englishmen, from Old England; and however the term Yankee, or English, may be applied to New Englanders-the descendants of the Puritans consider the term honorable to themselves, and reproachful only to those who misapply it.

SURFACE, SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS. New England is distinguished for its varied surface. Mountains in immense ranges, bold spurs, and solitary eminences; beautiful swells, extended valleys, and alluvial intervales meet the eye in every direction. Large rivers, unrivalled for their rapid courses and hydraulic power; brooks, rivulets, expansive lakes, countless ponds; and a sea coast of more than six hundred miles, decorated with delightful bays, harbors, and romantic islands, form and beautify the outline of a picture of New England.

The soil of New England is as varied as its surface. Loam, clay, and sand exist in all their varieties and mixtures. The soil most generally diffused through this country, is a light brown loam, mixed with gravel; fitted, in different degrees of moisture and dryness, for every production common to the climate; and capable, with proper culture, of the highest fertility.

The agricultural productions of this country are exceedingly numerous and valuable. The staple articles, and such as are cultivated in all their varieties, are grass, Indian corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, beans, peas, flax, hemp, broom corn, millet, potatoes, onions, beets, carrots, turnips, squashes, melons, &c.

The fruits of New England, both wild and cultivated, are also numerous and abundant. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, quinces, grapes, in all their varieties; walnuts, chesnuts, Madeira nuts, butternuts; strawberries, whortleberries, blackberries, mulberries, raspberries, &c. This is but the commencement of a list of the fruits, plentiful in New England, and remarkable for their richness and flavor.

The forests of New England exhibit a noble variety of trees, not only delightful to the eye, but valuable for all the uses of man. The number of these is so great that a catalogue of them would cover pages.Among the most valuable are the varieties of the pine, cedar, oak, walnut, spruce, maple, beech, birch, ash; the hemlock, hacmatack, elm, fir, &c.

The botanical resources of New England are not inferior to any other section of our country. Among the most beautiful native flowering shrubs are the laurel, rose, honeysuckle, and woodbine.

MINERALOGY. New England unquestionably possesses a vast and