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At Watertown, SAMUEL W. SOUTHMAYD, Esq. Counsellor at Law, aged 39.

At Brownsville, (Penn.) Rev. JACOB JENNINGS, D D. aged 68.

At Charlotte, (Vt.) on the 25th Jan. last, Rev. ABEL NEWELL, aged 82 years, formerly, for a number of years, minister of the gospel in Goshen, (Con.)

Rev. JAMES BOYD, pastor of the churches of Warren and Newton, in New Connecticut, and a Missionary in the service of the Missionary Society of Connecticut.

In Russia, PIERRE FREDERICK GEORGE, Prince of Oldenburgbrother to the Empress of Russia.

In Williamsburg, (Va.) Hon. Judge WILLIAM NELSON, Professor of Law and Police in the College of William and Mary, aged 54.

1813.

Donations to the Missionary Society of Connecticut.

March 9. From Rev. Marshfield Steele,collected in new settlements, 81 50

10. From Rev. Elihu Mason,

do.

do.

2

15. From Rev. Ebenezer Kingsbury,

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16. From Flijah Porter, of Farmington; a Bequest of Sarah

Strong, of Burlington, in her last Will,

100

22. From Rev. Israel Brainard, collected in new settlements, 3 90

$113 55

م

Donations to the Foreign Missionary Society, as reported by their

Treasurer.

Between December 30, 1812, and January 27, 1813-8 1,815 01,
From January 28, to February 27-8 1,255 50

Received by Mr. PETER W, GALLAUDET, to be transmitted to the Treasurer of the Foreign Missionary Society.

1813.

March 11. From Three Sisters in Hartford, to be applied as the Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions judge best remitted to the Treasurer

$ 100

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An Historical View of the First
Planters of New England.

No. XX.

(Concluded from p. 131.)

6. IN

Na review of what has been offered in the preceding numbers, it is natural to remark that the leading characters in the settlement of the New England colonies were great and eminent men, raised up by the special Providence of God, for the performance of this important

[NO.5.

philanthropists, has been generally withheld. Among the ancients, the leaders of infant colonies were ranked with the greatest heroes. The establishment of the Trojan Prince in Italy, with his small wandering band, was deemed by the most perfect of poets, the fittest subject for his inimitable poem. We have no doubt that posterity will do justice to the memory of our venerable ancestors; and it is incumbent on us to seek such a knowledge of their characters as that we may not be wholly insensible to their distinguished merits.

work. It has been usual to contemplate the founders of these colonies as good men, honestly engaged in promoting the interests of the religion of Christ.But the character of greatness, so liberally applied to the scourgers and destroyers of the human race-from these illustriousdom; they relied on them for

VOL. VI. NO. 5.

The great care of planting and rearing these colonies depended, principally, on a few individuals. On these, the great majority of the settlers depended: they confided in their wis

W

them every needful assistance. At the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, they held a conspicuous rank among their cotemporaries, and several of them, by continuing at the seat of the muses after the expiration of the ordinary academic course, attained to an eminence in science, which gave them a rank among the first scholars of their time. Some of them were much distinguished as authors, and many of their works may still be read with great profit and delight. The sufferings they endured from ecclesiastical persecution, and the innumerable cares which devolved upon them in the establishment of the infant colonies, were a great obstruction to their literary pursuits; yet their attainments were such as would have procured the first honors for one always enjoying the peaceful labors of a university. In the first rank of scholars, we place Eaton, Cotton, Hooker, and Davenport; and, not far distant, Winthrop, Bradford, Prince, Hopkins, Haynes, Johnson, Wilson, Brewster, Shepard, Stone, Elliott, with a number of others, that might be de

protection and support. And these, by their incorruptible integrity, by their zeal for the common welfare, always retained the confidence merited by their virtues. This general confidence produced a government of influence, which enabled those venerable chiefs to devise and mature their incomparable system of civil and religious polity. The great difficulty with all legislators is to obtain a fair experiment for their respective institutions. As some form of government is necessary in every stage of human society, to restrain the lawless and corrupt.... and as change is always attended with difficulty and hazard, it - is almost impossible to obtain a fair trial of any political theory. And this is a great cause why the best legislators have been to so great a degree unsuccessful. ❘ In the infancy of the New England colonies, the most of their public institutions were objects of experiment. Yet such was the influence of the leading characters, and such the confidence reposed in them, that the public tranquillity could be maintained without the aid of ancient authorities; and all their institu-servedly added, who would have

tions were received with candor, and an expectation of their salutary effects.

held an honorable station among the literati of their native country, in any period since the revival of letters. And it is highly questionable whether their descendants, in any one age, have been able to furnish an equal number of scholars, equal

The principal characters, among the first planters of New England, were men of finished education, and accomplished scholars. They had been led in the paths of literature from ❘ly eminent for their attainments

their infancy, enjoying all the advantages which could be derived from the best literary establishments, encouraged by parents and friends possessing the disposition and ability to give

in universal science. Dr. Owen, the celebrated vice-chancellor of Cambridge, stands to this day among the first divines that have adorned the British nation. He was cotemporary with the fa

thers of New-England, and determined to remove to America with them, but was providentially prevented. He was not superior as a divine or a scholar to some of his friends who emigrated from their native country; but, after their separation, he remained in the enjoyment of all literary privileges, while they were toiling in the laborious service of him that dwelt in the bush. Several others might be mentioned, if necessary, of the most distinguished authors of that day, in Great Britain, who were intimate friends, and no more than equals in science, with several of the emigrants to

In the

One of the most difficult duties in the business of a law-giver, is to suppress the inclination of his own mind to the adoption of speculative theories. case before us, little or nothing of this kind seems to have been indulged, while the word of God, and principles consecrated by the experience of ages, were made the basis of their civil and ecclesiastical constitutions.--As they loved learning, and knew its value, the principles of education constituted a leading feature in all their public institutions. And in consequence of the regulations by them established, it has always been char

America. Notwithstanding the | acteristic of New-England that

a greater portion of useful knowledge has been enjoyed by all classes of society, than by any other people. The ancient literary foundations of opulent countries 'may produce individuals more highly distinguish

expense and difficulty of transporting heavy and bulky articles, the first settlers brought with them a number of large and very valuable libraries.Such was their attachment to literary pursuits, that they could not abandon them, though en-ed in science, than any that are pounds; which rating together the value of money and the customs of life, we may reckon more than equivalent to ten thousand at the present time." Dr. Johnson wrote about fifty years ago; since which time, this difference has much increased. To rate the value of money, at the time of the settlement of New England, three times higher than at the present time, is a low estimate.

cumbered with all the cares of rearing an infant state. The library of Mr. Hooker was appraised after his decease at 300 pounds, sterling. That, at the present time, would be about 4000 dollars. It may here be added, that the most of these libraries, by the unaccountable negligence and indiscretion of their descendants, are now irrecoverably lost.

That the fathers of NewEngland were able statesmen and divines, thoroughly skilled in the knowledge of the human character, and in the history of raan, we need no further evidence than the nature of their institutions, and the success with which these have been attended. They were, eminently, practical men.

found among us; but in no country do the yeomanry enjoy such advantages for education, and, in none, do they arrive at such attainments in useful knowledge.

Many of the New-England fathers were opulent. Without the possession of great estates, they could never have borne the heavy expenses which were necessarily incurred in the establishment of the colonies. Gov. Winthrop possessed a landed interest in England, exclusive of personal property, producing an annual income of more than six hundred pounds. This was converted into money and brought to this country. Gov. Haynes possessed a landed estate in Essex, worth a thousand

pounds a year. I do not find
how great a portion of this was
brought to America; the whole
of it was not, but I conclude
there was more than one half.
Gov. Eaton and Gov. Hopkins,
who had been merchants in Lon-
don for a number of years, and
very prosperous in trade, brought
the most of their property with
them, which appears to have
been as great, and I think, great-
er than that of those just
mentioned. Mr. Johnson, who
died at Boston a few months af-
ter his arrival, is said to have
been the most wealthy of all
the original planters. He di-
rected in his will that his fune-
ral charges should not exceed
250 pounds. But a small part
of this was actually expended.
The inventory of Mr. Hooker's
property amounted to 1336
pounds, fifteen shillings. This
vas, undoubtedly, much less than
what he possessed at the time of
his arrival in the country. Mr.
Cotton's property, from the ac-
count of his life, I think, must
have been greater than that of
Mr. Hooker's. The greater part
of the leading characters in the
colonies, at the time of their
removal from their native coun-
try, were men of wealth. To
form correct ideas of the sums
which have been specified, it is
necessary to consider the differ-
ence in the value of money at
that and the present time, ac-
cording to its nominal account.
Dr. Johnson, in his life of the
poet Waller, who was born in
1605, and of course cotempora-lish.
ry with the Planters of New-
England, observes, "His father
died while he was yet an infant,
but left him a yearly income of
three thousand five hundred

7. To the early colonists of New England, our country is indebted for a great portion of their most valuable privileges. It was observed in our seventeenth number, that, if these English colonists had not taken possession of the American wilderness at the time when they commenced their settlement, the country must have fallen into the hands of the French or the Dutch, from whom must have arisen a totally different state of society, and a set of civil and religious institutions, wholly different from those which we now enjoy. The first settlers of these colonies were entirely from England, and, while they fled from the oppression of ecclesiasticalintolerance, they knew the privileges of their native country, they had too just an estimation of their value to part with any of them which could be retained. These, they endeavored to incorporate in their public regulations, so far as they could be consistent with such a state of society as they sought to estab

The existence of the American colonies depended, in a great degree, on the perseverance of the planters of New England. For more than forty years pre

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