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justly and equally laid and collected, public monies rightly difpofed of, and the laws duly executed. For thefe purposes they have power to fend for perfons, paper, &c.; to pats public cenfure; to order impeachments, and to recommend the repeal of all laws which they fhall deem unconstitutional. Thefe powers they poffefs for one year after their election. They may pro pofe amendments to the conflitution, and call a convention to determine on fuch amendments.

Hillory.

THE fouth part of the territory of l'ermont was formerly claimed by

Mefachufetts. As carly as the year 1718, that government had granted forty-nine thousand acres, comprehending part of the prefent towns of Brattleborough, Fulton, and Putney, as an equivalent to the colony of Connec ticut, for fome lands which had been granted by Maffachufetts within the li mits of the Connecticut charter. In the year 1725, the government of Maffachufetts erected a fort in the town of Brattleborough. Around this fort were begun the first fetttements within the prefent limits of Vermont. On a final fettlement of a difpute between Maffachusetts and New-Hampshire, the prefent jurifdi&tional ¡ine between Vermont and Maffachusetts, was run and ellablished, in the year 1741. From that time untill the year 1764, this ter ritory was confidered as lying within the jurifdiction of New-Hampshire During this period, numerous grants were made, and, after the year 1760, fome confiderable fettlements were begun under the authority of that province. In the year 1764, by order of the king of Britain, this territory was annexed to the province of New-York. The government of that province pretended to claim the right of foil as well as jurifdiction, and held the grants formerly made under New-Hampshire to be void. This occafioned a long feries of altercation between the fertlers and clainants under New-Hampshire and the government of New-York and which, at the commencement of the late revolution, terminated in the effablishment of a feparate jurifdiction in the prefent ftate ef Vermont. A particular detail of this controverfy would be unentertaining. It is fufficient to observe, that on the 17th day of October, 1790, the difpute was finally compromifed, by commiffioners appointed by the flates of Vermont and New-York; and the claims of New-York, both to jurifdiction and property, extinguifhed in confideration of the fum of thirty thousand dollars to be paid by the flate of Vermont to that of New York and on the 4th of March, 1791, Vermont was admitted a member of the federal union. In the late war, between Britain and the United States, the inha bitants of this territory took a very early and active part. Immediately on the news of the battle of Lexington, a company of volunteers, under the late general Ethan Allen, attacked and took the British garrison of Crown-Point and Ticonderoga. A regiment was commifhoned by congrefs and continued in fervice under the command of the late col. Warner. Other troops were raised and conflantly kept in fervice by the convention of the New-Hampshire grants, and afterwards by the ftate of vermont. The Spirit of thefe troops, and the militia of the grants, in the battle of Hubberton and Bennington, in the year 1777, and the affiflance which they afforded in the capture of Burgoyne, are well known to the public. General Burgoyne, in a letter to the British miniftry, written at Saratoga, makes the following obfervation: "The inhabitants of the New-Hampshire grants, a territory unpeopled and al"moft unknown in the laft war, now pour forth by thousands, and hang ❝ like dark clouds on my left,

No. 25.*.

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BOUNDED

Between

Degrees.

2° 40′ and 4° 20' Eaft Longitude. 42° 50′ and 45° North Latitude.

OUNDED northwardly by the British province of Quebec: nh-east by the old province of Main; fouth-ealf by the Atlantic Ocean; auth by the fate of Maffachusetts; weft and north-west by the weftera bank of Connecticut river, which forms the line of divifion between NewHampshire and Vermont. The fhape of New- Hampshire refeinbles an open fan, Connecticut river being the curve, the fouthern line the shorteft, and the caflera line the longeft fide.

NEW HAM

Civil Divisions.

EW-HAMPSHIRE is divided into counties and township: ;

of the former are the five following, viz.

Counties.

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Chief Towns.
Portsmouth and Exeter,
Dover and Durham,
Amherst,

Keen and Charlefton,

Haveril and Plymouth.

In 1776, there was 165 fettled townships in this flate. Since that time the number has been greatly increased; and, as a confiderable part of the State is unlocated, the number will continue to increase. Thofe townships which were laid out in the infancy of the ftate are large, and differ in their fize; but those of later date are uniformly fix miles fquare.

PORTSMOUT

Chief Towns.

ORTSMOUTH is much the large town in this State. It ftands on the east fide of Pifcataqua river, about two miles from the fea, and contains about 600 houses, and 4000 inhabitants. The town is hand forely built and pleafantly fituated. Its public buildings are a court-houfe, two churches for congregationalifts, one for Epifcopalians, and one other houfe for pubie worship.

Its harbour is one of the finest on the continent, having a fufficient. depth of water for veffels of any burthen. It is defended against forms by the adjacent land, in fuch a manner as that fhips may fecurely ride there in any feafon of the year. Befides, the harbour is fo well fortified by nature that very little art will be neceffary to render it impregnable, I's vicinity to the fea renders it very convenient for naval trade. A lighthouse, with a ingle light, ftands at the entrance of the harbour.

*The first aft for dividing New-Hampshire into counties was paffed as late as 1769.

Exeter is a pretty town, fifteen miles fouth-wefterly from Portsmouth, on the fouth fide of Exeter river. It has a harbour of eight and a half feet water, and was formerly famous for fhip building.

Dover neck, which makes a part of the town of Dover, is fituated between twobranches of Pifcataqua river, and is a fine, dry and healthy fituation ; fo h gn as to command the neigbouring fhores, and afford a very extenfive and delightful profpect.

There are many confiderable and flourishing towns on Connectict river, ia the western part of this flate.

THE

Rivers, Bay and Lakes.

HE Pifcataqua river has four branches, Berwick, Cochechy, Exeter, and Durham, which are all navigable for small vessels and boats, fome fificen, others twenty miles from the fea. These rivers unite about eight miles from the mouth of the harbour, and from one broad, deep, rapid Atream, navigable for fhips of the largeft burthen.

This river forms the only port of New-Hampshire. Its principal branch called Nywichmannok, fprings from the fouthermoft of Lovel's ponds, and tumbling over feveral falls, in its foutherly courfe, meets the other ftreams, which uniting form Pifcataqua river. A line drawn from the northern head of this river, until it meets the boundary of the province of Quebec, divides New-Hampfhire from the province of Main.

The Merrimack bears that name from its mouth to the confluence of Pemigewaffet and Winipifiokee rivers; the latter has its fource in the lake of the fame name; one branch of the former rifes in Squam Pond, latitude 43° 50'. Their junction is in about latitude 43° 50'.

In its courfe it receives numberless small ftreams, iffuing from ponds and fwamps in the vallies. It tumbles over two confiderable falls, Amafkacg, twenty-fix feet perpendicular, and Pantucket great falls, which has two pitches, and the fream fhoots with an inconceivable rapidity between the upper and lower pitches. The upper fall is ten feet perpendicular; the rapid between the two falls descend ten feet in the course of its fhot; the latter falls twenty-four feet in fixty rods. In the whole the water falls forty-feet. From Haverhill the river runs winding along through a pleasant rich vale of meadow, and paffing between Newburyport and Salisbury, empties into the

ocean.

Great Bay, fpreading out from Pifcataqua river, between Portfmouth and Exeter, is the only one that deferves mentioning.

There are several remarkable ponds or lakes in this flate. Umbagog is a large leke, quite in the northeast corner of the ftate. Winnifipiokee lake is nearly in the centre of the flate, and is about twenty miles long, and from three to eight broad.

T

Face of the Country-Mountains.

HE land next to the fea is generally low, but as you advance into the country the land rifes into hills. Some parts of the flate are mountainous.

The White Mountains are the highest part of a ridge, which extend north-east, and fouth-west, to a length not yet afcertained. The whole circuit of them is no lefs than fifty miles. The height of thefe mountains, above

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