sober reason and experience concerning such projects has been always unfavourable, that of human avidity has been quite otherwise, and adventurers have seldom paused to consider that the value of the precious metals has in all ages and nations arisen chiefly from their scarcity, pp. 141-43.

A project of commerce to the East Indies gave occasion to the first discovery of the West. A project of conquest gave occasion to all the establishments of the Spaniards in those newly discovered countries. The motive was the gold and silver mines, and a course of accidents rendered the project successful. The first adventurers of all the other nations of Europe were animated with the same views, but were not equally successful, pp. 143, 144.

PART II.

Causes of the Prosperity of New Colonies.

THE colony of a civilised nation advances more rapidly to wealth and greatness than any other human society. The colonists carry out with them a knowledge of agriculture, and of other useful arts, superior to what can grow up of its own accord in the course of many centuries among savage nations. They carry out with them too the habit of subordination, some notion of the system of government and of the laws of their own country.2 Every colonist gets more land than he can cultivate. He has no rent and few taxes to pay. The extensiveness of his land makes him endeavour to col

This has been seen to take place twice since the commencement of authentic history, once in the foundation of the colonies of Magna Græcia, and once in the foundation of those of America and Australia. Richard Jones, Literary Remains.

See

2 For the tendency of all colonies to copy even the social arrange ments of the mother country, see Sir H. Maine, Early History of Institutions, p. 94.

lect labourers, and to reward them with the most liberal wages. These labourers soon become landlords. The liberal reward of labour encourages marriage. Children, during infancy, are well taken care of, and when they grow up the value of their labour greatly overpays their maintenance. Arrived at maturity, they follow without difficulty in the steps of their fathers, pp. 144, 145.

In other countries, rent and profit eat up wages, and the two superior orders of the people oppress the inferior one. But in new colonies the inferior order is treated with humanity, if it is not in a state of slavery. Waste lands of the greatest fertility are to be had for a trifle. The profit of the proprietor is very great, but this cannot be made without employing the labour of other people. This he is willing to do at any price. High wages encourage population. The plenty of good land encourages improvement; for high as the wages of labour may be, they are low when considered as the price of what is so very valuable. What encourages the progress of population and improvement encourages that of real wealth and greatness, pp. 145, 146.

The progress of many of the Greek colonies towards wealth seems accordingly to have been very rapid. In a century or two they rivalled their mother cities. The history of the Roman colonies is by no means so brilliant, on account of the want of land, and want of liberty to manage their own affairs in the way they judged best.

In the plenty of good land the European colonies established in America resemble those of ancient Greece. In their dependency upon the mother state they resemble those of ancient Rome. But owing to their situation, they were left in many cases to pursue their own interest, in their own way; and their progress in wealth, population, and improvement has been very great, pp. 146, 147.

The crown of Spain, by its share of the gold and silver, derived some revenue from its colonies, from their first establishment. They accordingly attracted the notice of their mother country, whilst those of the other European nations were for a long time neglected. The former did not, perhaps, thrive the better for this attention, nor the latter the worse in consequence of this neglect.1 The Spanish colonies are considered as less populous and thriving than those of almost any other European nation; nevertheless their progress in improvement has certainly been very rapid. Before the conquest there were no cattle fit for draught, and only the feeble llama as a beast of burden, either in Mexico or Peru. The use of iron was not known. They had no coined money, nor any established instrument of commerce, pp. 147, 148.

After the settlements of the Spaniards, that of the Portuguese in Brazil is the oldest of any European nation in America. But as for a long time after the first discovery neither gold nor silver mines were found in it, and as it afforded but little revenue to the crown, it was in a great measure neglected, during which time it grew up to be a powerful colony: no one in America is supposed to contain a greater number of people of European extraction, pp. 148, 149.

About the end of the fifteenth, and during great part of the sixteenth century, Spain and Portugal were the two great naval powers. The Spaniards claimed all America as their own, though they could not hinder the Portuguese from settling in Brazil. The French who attempted to settle in Florida were all murdered by the Spaniards. By the destruction of the invincible Armada they became unable to obstruct the settlements of other European nations. In the course of the seventeenth

It was wittily said that George Grenville 'lost the American Colonies because he read the American despatches, which none of his predecessors ever did.'

century, therefore, the English, French, Dutch, Danes, and Swedes attempted to make settlements in the New World, p. 149.

The Swedes established themselves in New Jersey ; but they were soon swallowed up by the Dutch colony of New York, which again fell under the dominion of the English, p. 150.

The Danes possessed only the small islands of St. Thomas and Santa Cruz. These settlements were under the government of an exclusive company, which is, perhaps, the worst of all governments; they nevertheless made some progress in improvement, and since the company was dissolved, the prosperity of these colonies has been very great, p. 150.

The Dutch settlements were originally put under the government of an exclusive company. Their progress has been slow, in comparison with that of the greater part of new colonies, pp. 150, 151.

The French colony of Canada was, during the greater part of the last century, and some part of the present, under the government of an exclusive company. Its progress was necessarily slow, but it became rapid when the company was dissolved. The colony of St. Domingo was established by pirates, who for a long time neither required protection nor acknowledged the authority of France; and when that race of banditti became so far citizens as to acknowledge this authority it was for a long time necessary to exercise it with great gentleness. During this period the population and improvement of the colony increased very fast, p. 151.

But there are no colonies of which the progress has been more rapid than those of the English in North America. Plenty of good land and the liberty of managing their own affairs in their own way seem to be the two great causes of the prosperity of all new colonies. These they have possessed in full measure, and the

political institutions of the English colonies have been more favourable to the improvement of this land than those of any of the other three nations,1 p. 152.

I. The engrossing of uncultivated land has been more restrained in the English colonies than in any other, p. 152.

II. In Pennsylvania there is no right of primogeniture. In three of the provinces of New England, the oldest has only a double share. In the others, the right of primogeniture takes place. But the tenure of lands is such as facilitates alienation (which is not the case in the French, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies), and the grantee of any extensive tract of land generally finds it for his interest to alienate, p. 152.

III. The taxes of the English colonies are more moderate and their civil establishments more frugal than those of the colonies of any other European nation, and the expense of their defence has been almost entirely defrayed by the mother country, pp. 153-55.

IV. The English colonies have been allowed a more extensive market than those of other countries. Every European nation has endeavoured more or less to monopolise to itself the commerce of its colonies. But the manner in which this monopoly has been exercised in different nations has been very different, p. 155.

Some nations have given up the whole commerce of their colonies to an exclusive company, of whom the colonies were obliged to buy all such European goods as they wanted, and to whom they were obliged to sell the whole of their own surplus produce. This has been the policy of Holland, and is the most effectual expedient that can be adopted to stunt the growth of a new colony, p. 155.

Our author might have added that the several ownership of the soil by individuals, as opposed to common ownership by cultivating groups, was then fully developed in England, and being transplanted to the colonies tended to hasten their prosperity. See Sir Henry Maine, Early History of Institutions, pp. 115, 126,