a daily occurrence of border life, that the mechanics and their families, if there be any, must camp out" until the roofs which are to cover them, are constructed; and so it was with these. The solid, substantial growth of Philadelphia, indeed, can only be accounted for by the wealth the colonists brought with them, by its steady increase, by the orderly, careful, and thorough way in which they set about building their city, and by the determination of every family which had come, to stay. At a very early period we find the more opulent families in possession of country houses, to which they retired during the heats of summer, as well as of town houses, where they passed the winter; and to this day the neighborhood of Philadelphia is dotted over with antiquated residences, or with modern mansions which have taken their places, whose well-trimmed lawns and hedges, old though they be, are not as ancient as their names, which perpetuate the early settler's fond remembrance of the home he left behind him in England.

Nor are the physical features which distinguish this colony from the others, more marked than those which characterize it socially, religiously, and politically. The anomaly presented by a people professing the doctrine of passive obedience, and whose grateful regard for the intolerant House of Stuart never grew cold, actually stipulating for the free exercise of political principles which were sure to modify the form of government they were born under, has been already pointed out; but it is as remarkable as it was when Maryland and Rhode Island returned the world good for evil, that a people whose existence had always been at the mercy of intolerance, should be foremost in the establishment of toleration, and that those who had scarcely known any thing else than to be smitten on the one cheek, should make a political principle of the sacred injunction to turn the other. This passiveness, indeed, has been, at once, the glory and the bane of the Quakers. It has achieved for them some of the most splendid conquests ever gained by man over himself: but, then, by incesTaylor, afterward the Surveyor-General, in lines expressing the result of his astrological computations respecting Philadelphia, thus breaks forth:

A city built with such propitious rays,

Will stand to see old walls and happy days."-(1705.)

2 The Proprietary had his country house at Pennsbury. The Logans, Norrises, etc., contemporaries of William Penn, all retired in summer to their country-seats. Southwark, Spring Garden, Stenton, Germantown, Springettsbury, etc., were chosen places.

santly repressing the most active forces of social life, it has cramped some of the best qualities of human nature, it has forced the currents of existence into narrow channels, and has stinted society in the rich variety of personal characteristics which is the most pleasing feature of our race. The sworn foe of individuality, and chilling in the uniformity with which it has covered the Society of Friends, it is a poor compensation for the multiform variety which inventive nature is constantly asserting its right to produce.

Immobility is not a heroic quality nevertheless, vis inertia has more than once shown the world how effectually evil can be resisted by refusing to get out of its way. There are times, when, to resist evil, the most active assault is necessary; there are others, when the necessity is to be met by a vigorous defence; and there are yet others, where the end is gained by sheer immobility. Of these last were those in Pennsylvania which embraced the reign of James the Second, and which succeeded the Revolution of 1688, until terminated by the accession of the present reigning House. Every attempt to inoculate the body politic with the distemper of intolerance was resisted by the indisposition of the system to take the disease. As Quakerism embraced the majority of the people and most of the wealth, and, politically, was conservative, it acted as a restraint upon innovation, and became a corrective of notions which would tend to subvert established principles. Before this passive exertion of power, the attempts of intolerance were bootless, and every gale was ridden out in safety by the bark which held the treasure simply holding on to its anchor.

Thus, next in point of time after Rhode Island and Maryland, we are indebted for freedom of conscience to the Quakers. In Rhode Island, a purely democratic colony was established, after persecution and exile, by the efforts of the colonists. In Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, which were seignoral colonies, and where what democracy existed, existed by the bounty or sufferance of the Palatine, we see popular government placed firmly on its feet by the enlightenment or judgment of the founders. In New England, then, it was wrung from society; but on the Delaware, society accepted it from the hand of the philanthropist; and on the Potomac, from that of the courtier.

CHAPTER IV.

Religion in the Northern Provinces-Continued.

WE

Rationalism of New England.

E are now to witness freedom of conscience rising from the bosom of society instead of descending upon it, and to behold this social force asserting its existence by its own endeavor, unaided by the generosity of philanthropy or the exercise of authority.

The Great Movement, which closed its grand era of destruction with the investiture of the Protector, so affected the people of England, that henceforth they appear in a new character, and then began a period in their career which still continues. The history of England in those times is our history. We were subjects of the English crown or citizens of the Commonwealth, and, being Englishmen, any thing that affected England was not foreign to us, but affected us as it did those in the old country.' In fact, the very settlement of some portions of our land, and notably of New England, was by no means an indication of sympathy with that great movement, but was a direct expression, a very part of that movement itself. The colonization of New England, then, occurring when it did, is of the highest historical importance, as it was one of the earliest manifestations of the spirit of revolution, 1 "Old England, dear England still left indeed by us in our perThere is no land that

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sons, but never yet forsaken in our affections.

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claims our name but England; * * * there is no name that calls us countrymen but the English. Brethren, did we not there draw in our first breath? Did not the sun first shine there upon our heads? Did not that land first bear us, even that pleasant island, that garden of the Lord, that paradise?"-William Hooke's " New England's Tears for Old England's Fears."

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PURITANISM IN AMERICA.

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and the most decided and practical indication of the leavening then going on which had so far been given.

It was, indeed, the most positive and emphatic expression of insubordination possible at that time for Englishmen to enunciate. The mass of the colonists came to New England during a period when the old order of things at home was still too strong to be successfully resisted, and the true colonization of those wilds began with Winthrop's expedition in 1630.

When the Parliament of 1629 was dissolved, the hopes of rising Puritanism were stricken to the ground: henceforth the Puritan saw no chance for him or his in Old England. The crown was fully committed to the support of the Church, which, under the leadership of Laud, had, on laying aside the conservative policy of Parker and Whitgift, adopted the most radical form of intolerance, and the complete union of the powers of Church and State in an active and aggressive policy. Resistance was apparently hopeless. In times not much later, and when revolution was boldly cleaving its way, the men that now fled would have resisted. to the death. Some of them actually did so; they recrossed the Atlantic and joined their forces to a warfare which resulted in the downfall of Church and State; but in 1630 the mind had not yet cast off its old fetters, and, apparently, there was nothing else to do but escape. This they did, and thus Puritanism became American as well as English. The same Puritanism which, unopposed, developed quietly in Massachusetts, opposed brought on the struggle in England that terminated only with the Commonwealth. The Puritanism of America sympathized with and countenanced that of England. It did more: it gave physical aid toward the accomplishment of Puritan ends at home. It did not make itself one with it, for it was already and ever had been one and the same thing, and hence it is necessary to a knowledge of Puritanism in New England to know what it was in Old England— the more so, as, from the opposition it there met, its characteristics were more clearly brought before the world, and its nature can be more easily and fully determined, while the very freedom of its course in New England prevented the most active and interesting qualities of its nature from making themselves conspicuous.

That the motive which led to the colonization of New England was one in nature with that which brought about the Puritan

revolution in Old England, needs no argument. Religion was the inciting cause of both; though the remote cause, as we have seen, is to be found in the necessity of supplying the new wants which resulted from an antecedent expansion of intellectual action. The historical importance of this identity is strikingly shown by the epoch of the Puritan colonization, by the duration of emigration, by the sudden cessation of that emigration, and by the history of its activity as a social force on American soil.

The way for emigration had already been pointed out by several feeble bands of Brownists or Separatists, who had sought shelter in Holland, and had thence betaken themselves to America. The first of these (who have since been exalted by the appellation of "Pilgrims") had directed their course to the Hudson, but had been compelled to land in Massachusetts Bay. Their numbers were sufficient only to augment their misery and to disclose the impotence of efforts to colonize where means, influence, supplies, and even ordinary foresight were lacking.'

The dropping of their anchor was the signal for a compact, which was intended to be the first step toward organization. It was as follows:

"In the name of God, amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, etc., etc., having undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian Faith, and the honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, we do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid: and by virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience."

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Their improvidence and helplessness are shown by the facts, that, for four years after their arrival, their chief dependence was on the corn purchased from the Indians. They did not even have nets to catch the fish, with which the waters teemed, nor salt to preserve them, had they been caught. In 1623, all they could set before the third arrival of colonists were a lobster, a piece of fish, and a cup of water. Bread there was none. Yet these people had contracted to pay forty-five per cent, interest per annum on loans. This and community of property repressed energy and fairly choked the enterprise from the start.