TRANQUILLITY OF NEW JERSEY.

295

pointment, till his dismissal from office, the history of New Jersey consists of little else than a detail of his contests with the colonial assemblies; and exhibits the resolution with which they opposed his arbitrary proceedings, his partial distribution of justice, and fraudulent misapplication of the public money. After repeated complaints, the queen yielded to the universal indignation; and he was superseded, in 1709, by Lord Lovelace.

In 1738, the inhabitants of New Jersey, by petition to the king, desired that they might in future have a separate governor; their request was granted. And the office was first conferred on Lewis Morris, Esq., under whom the colonists. enjoyed peace and prosperity. The population now amounted to 40,000. In the same year the college, called Nassau Hall, was founded at Princeton.

The situation of New Jersey, remote from the Canada border, gave it a complete exemption from the direful calamities of Indian and French warfare, which afflicted the northern colonies; while the Indian tribes in the neighbourhood, whom they always treated with mildness and hospitality, were ever willing to cultivate a friendly relation with the Europeans. This province furnished no further materials for history of any importance, till it united with the other colonies in the great struggle for national independence. In this later period of her history it will be seen that New Jersey more than compensated for the immunity which she had previously enjoyed, by becoming the theatre of hostile operations during the most dark and distressing period of the war. period of the war. In these perilous times her patriotism was put to the severest test, and was ever found to be of the true temper, daring and enduring all things with heroic self-sacrifice.

COLONIZATION OF DELAWARE AND PENNSYLVANIA.

HE date of the first European settlement upon South, or Delaware river, cannot now be ascertained with any precision. It was planted according to some authorities as early as 1627, but it is certain that a Swedish factory existed, shortly after the year 1632, near the confluence of the Delaware, on the eastern bank. About this time we find a governor of the

Dutch colony of New Netherlands, making a remonstrance on the subject, and asserting that the whole South river had been in possession of the Dutch for many years. The Swedes, however, quietly pursued their operations, which did not extend beyond the purchase of some small tracts of land from the Indians, without heeding either the assertions or threats of their rivals. In order to keep in awe the Dutch, who frequently molested them, they built forts at Christiana, Lewistown and Tinicum. This last place they made the seat of government. The Dutch, in opposition, built a fort at New Castle, in 1651, against the erection of which, Printz, the Swedish governor, formally remonstrated. Risingh, his successor, with a suite of thirty men, under arms, made an apparently friendly visit to the commander of the fort at New Castle, where observing the weakness of the garrison, he treacherously took possession. of it, and, after enjoying the hospitality of the soldiers, he proceeded to disarm them, and compelled them to swear allegiance to his sovereign.

Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, procured a fleet from Holland, and in 1655 returned Risingh's visit. He first reduced the fort at New Castle, then that at Christiana creek, where Risingh commanded; and afterwards the others. Such of the Swedes as were willing to take the oath of allegiance to Holland were allowed to remain where they were, and adopt the Dutch government, laws and manners, whilst the remainder were sent to Europe. The Dutch held the whole territory until in 1664 the English conquered the colony of New Netherlands. The settlements were considered as a part of New York, until William Penn, in two purchases, one made in 1682, the other at a later period, obtained all the land lying on the Delaware between New Castle and Cape Henlopen from the Duke of York. This tract, forming the "Lower Counties of the Delaware," constituted a part of Pennsylvania for twenty years. In 1703, the Lower Counties were separated from Pennsylvania, and erected into a separate colony, under the name of Delaware. This is one of the smallest States of the union; but some of the

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bravest soldiers of America, and many of those statesmen who have at all periods down to the present moment exerted a great influence in the affairs of the nation, were natives and representatives of Delaware.

Pennsylvania was founded in the year 1681 by the justly celebrated William Penn. His father, Admiral Sir William Penn, effected the conquest of the island of Jamaica, and annexed it to the British crown, during the protectorate of Cromwell. He also faithfully served the Stuart family, and after the restoration, enjoyed high favour at court. He entered his son, for whose advancement he naturally entertained ambitious hopes, as a gentleman commoner at Oxford. Hearing the Quaker sentiments highly extolled by an itinerant preacher, young Penn, with several others, espoused the cause with so much warmth as to be expelled from the university. This was a grievous disappointment for his father, who sent him to travel with some young men of quality in France. Here he appeared to have lost something of his previous lively sense of religion; but having gone into Ireland, after his return, to inspect an estate belonging to his father, he met with the same Quaker preacher who had before made a proselyte of him, and he now again embraced Quaker principles with greater zeal than ever. He would not even take his hat off before the King. For this inflexibility he was disowned by his father. As a preacher, he gained many proselytes, and though frequently imprisoned and continually persecuted, he persevered with such integrity and patience, that his father at length became reconciled to him.

In 1670, he was tried at the Old Bailey for street preaching, and pleaded his cause so well in person, that he was honourably acquitted. Although he was enriched by the death of his father, he still continued his labours and sufferings in the Quaker ministry, and, aided by Barclay and Keith, he formed the Society of Friends into order.

Having an interest in New Jersey, Penn's attention was directed towards American colonization; and, learning that a certain region was unoccupied between the possessions of the

GRANT TO PENN.

299

Duke of York and Lord Baltimore, he petitioned Charles II. for a tract of land, lying west of the Delaware, and northward of Maryland. His petition was urged on the ground of a debt incurred by the crown to his father, and its prayer was granted. A charter, making conveyance of such a territory, was signed and sealed by the king. It constituted William Penn and his heirs true and absolute proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania, saving to the crown their allegiance and the sovereignty. It gave him, his heirs, and their deputies, power to make laws, with the advice of the freemen, and to erect courts of justice for the execution of those laws, provided they should not be repugnant to the laws of England.

Penn now advertised for purchasers. Many single persons and whole families of Quakers soon after resolved to remove to the new colony, and a company of merchants purchased twenty thousand acres of this land at the rate of twenty pounds per thousand acres. In May, 1681, he despatched Markham his relative with a few associates to take possession of the newly acquired territory, and with him he also despatched a letter to the Indians, assuring them of his pacific intentions towards themselves, and providing that, if any difference should happen between them, it should be settled by arbitrators, an equal number being chosen by both parties. In the autumn three ships arrived in the colony with emigrants. In April 1682, Penn published "the Frame of government for Pennsylvania."

In May the code of laws for the government of the colony, which had been framed by Penn and the adventurers in London, was also published, and is highly creditable to the framers. To prevent the Duke of York, of whom Penn appears to have been suspicious, from making future claims on the province, he obtained from that nobleman his deed of release for it; and as an additional grant, he procured from him also, his right and interest in that tract of land which was at first called the "Territories of Pennsylvania," and afterwards the Three Lower Counties on Delaware. This additional grant of the Duke of York occasioned much joy in the "Lower Counties," the English rejoicing in their deliverance from the sway