fection and errour, and sometimes with horrible crimes. It cannot surprise us,-in a period, in which all the actors have been subjected to the closest scrutiny, where their whole conduct, public and private, has been tried by the nicest tests, and where faults have been recorded with greater caution than acts of the severest virtue,-if the historian finds much to censure. It ought not to be demanded of our ancestors, that they should be entirely free from the vices of the times in which they lived, or from the faults to which their situation particularly exposed them. We should not too severely censure them for intolerance, in an age when the virtue of toleration was unknown, or for an excessive zeal in support of their opinions, when they had sacrificed all the ordinary comforts of life to purchase the free enjoyment of them. Yet their faults, however natural, ought not to be concealed or entirely excused by the historian. He should write for the general instruction,--and, that he may do this effectually, he should thoroughly understand the character of the people of this country, and the nature, object, and tendency of its laws and institutions, he should be able to relate, in a clear, accurate, and engaging manner, the events of our history, and to bestow praise or censure with truth and judgment, without prejudice or partiality, so that his decisions may be received with confidence, and be confirmed by the judgment of enlightened men of all ages and countries.

No one of the states has preserved a more decided and distinctly marked character than Connecticut. Among the first settlers of that colony, were some of the most intelligent, pious and discreet of the early pilgrims; and in building up their little republic, it was an object of their special care, to provide for perpetuating the virtues which had driven them to this country. They not only made abundant provision for the general education of their children, and for the religious instruction of the people, but guarded, by a strict civil and ecclesiastical discipline, against immorality in every form, and particularly against the fashionable vices of other countries. The growth of that state has been principally by the natural increase of its inhabitants, so that their character has been liable to little change from the intermixture of a foreign population; and such has been the nature of their pursuits, and the compactness of their situation, that they have had comparatively little intercourse with the people of Vol. VIII. No. 1.

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foreign countries, or of the neighbouring colonies and states. To these causes of their distinct national, or rather provincial character, should be added their strong attachment to their native state-the high estimate which they have always put upon their peculiar privileges-and the pride with which they have regarded their own institutions and laws, and their general character and condition. In the early part of their history, they probably viewed the neighbouring colonies with some degree of jealousy; yet, at the same time, they found abundant reason for self-complacency, when they considered the spirit and success by which they had been distinguished in several difficult emergencies-their superior civil privileges and liberties, secured as they had been by their own foresight and intrepidity-the exemplary fidelity of their public menthe liberal provision which they had made for general instruction-the acknowledged purity of their morals and the severe discipline and orthodox faith of their churches. There has therefore prevailed among the common people of Connecticut, more than of any other state, a sentiment, that whatever belongs to them is better than the like thing belonging to any other people—that the usages with which they are conversant, are the standard of what is proper—and that whatever exists among them cannot be mended by looking abroad for models. These feelings, in relation to certain subjects, may have been in some measure controlled by recent events and temporary excitements, but they do not the less constitute a characteristic trait of the mass of the people. This trait is not meant to be here designated as a fault. It may in some instances be productive of ludicrous effects, but it is in general, one of the most powerful aids of patriotism, and the surest safeguard of the state against useless innovations. While it preserves the citizen against the contagion of foreign vices, it secures to the people an identity of character, and prevents them from becoming assimilated in their manners and character to their neighbours.

The well educated classes of society, of course, are not included in these general remarks. They approach nearer to one standard in all countries. National characteristics must be taken from those, whose intercourse is confined principally to native inhabitants; and whatever there is peculiar in the state of society and manners among them, renders their history the more an object of curiosity and interest. That this

is true with respect to the enterprising people, who form the subject of the present work, we think will be apparent from the view we are about to give of it.

The first and most important volume of this valuable work brings down the history of Connecticut to the year 1713, and was originally published in the year 1797. The second volume, which completes the work, is now published in conjunction with a new edition of the former. We rejoice that the life of the venerable author has been so far prolonged, as to enable him to complete this laborious undertaking. It is the first professed history of Connecticut, deserving the name, which has ever appeared. Yet the materials for such a history were very abundant. Besides the several general histories and narratives of the first settlement of New England, and the records of the United Colonies, of the Colonies of Connecticut and New Haven before the union, and of Connecticut since that event, there are still in existence entire records of most of the towns and churches of the state from their origin, many unpublished histories of towns, and narratives of remarkable events, drawn up near the time of their occurrence, and many manuscript letters which preserve the memory of important facts. These materials are of course much scattered, and the public are greatly indebted to the author who undertakes the labour of consulting them, and brings together, from the confused mass into regular order, all the facts which deserve a place in the history of the state. That this task has been performed by the author of this history with great labour and fidelity, every reader of it must be satisfied. He has fallen into some errours, undoubtedly, and a few of them we shall endeavour to point out. But every page of the work bears the marks of patient inquiry and candid examination. This is a most powerful recommendation of it to public notice, and the reader, not conversant with the annals of New England, must be surprised to find the history of so small a people, so fertile in remarkable events and striking incidents, as is this unassuming narrative. It needs but the charms of an elegant style, and powerful description, to render it one of the most interesting portions of history yet on record.

The work opens with the following bold eulogium on the people of Connecticut. We copy it as a fair specimen of the author's style,-which is not entirely free from blemishes,

and for the purpose of giving our testimony to the general accuracy of the picture.

The settlement of New England, purely for the purposes of religion, and the propagation of civil and religious liberty, is an event which has no parallel in the history of modern ages. The piety, self-denial, sufferings, patience, perseverance and magnanimity of the first settlers of the country are without a rival. The happy and extensive consequences of the settlements which they made, and of the sentiments which they were careful to propagate to their posterity, to the church and to the world, admit of no description. They are still increasing, spreading wider and wider, and appear more and more important.

The planters of Connecticut were among the illustrious characters, who first settled New England, and twice made settlements, first in Massachusetts, and then in Connecticut, on bare creation. In an age when the light of freedom was but just dawning, they, by voluntary compact, formed one of the most free and happy constitutions of government which mankind have ever adopted. Connecticut has ever been distinguished by the free spirit of its government, the mildness of its laws, and the general diffusion of knowledge, among all classes of its inhabitants. They have been no less distinguished by their industry, economy, purity of manners, population and spirit of enterprise. For more than a century and half, they have had no rival, as to the steadiness of their government, their internal peace and harmony, their love and high enjoyment of domestic, civil and religious order and happiness. They have ever stood among the most illuminated, first and boldest defenders of the civil and religious rights of mankind.

The history of such a people must be curious, entertaining and important. It will exhibit the fairest models of civil government, of religious order, purity and human happiness.'~ vol. i. pp. 17, 18.

The first emigrants, in resorting to this country, regarded it as a part of the dominions of Great Britain, and they always afterwards rested their title to the soil on grants derived from the sovereign of that kingdom. The king himself had no other right than that which resulted from discovery made by his subjects, or under his authority. A considerable tract of the Atlantic coast, including the shores of Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, had not been visited by any European navigator, as late as the beginning

of the seventeenth century, though Great Britain had made a general claim to the whole country. This coast, from the Delaware to Martha's Vineyard, was first visited by Captain Henry Hudson, in the year 1609, while in the employ of the Dutch East India company. It does not appear, however, that he entered Long Island Sound, or visited any part of the coast of Connecticut. In relating this discovery, the author, by following Smith's History of New York, and some early English narratives, has been led into several errours. The following is his account of this discovery.

Capt. Henry Hudson, commissioned by king James I. in 1608, sailed, in the employment of several London merchants, to North-America. He came upon the coast in about 40 degrees of north latitude, and made a discovery of Long-Island and Hudson's river. He proceeded up the river as far as the latitude of 43, and called it by his own name.

About two years after, he made a second voyage to the river, in the service of a number of Dutch merchants: and some time after, made sale of his right to the Dutch. The right to the country, however, was antecedently in king James, by virtue of the discovery which Hudson had made under his commission. The English protested against the sale; but the Dutch, in 1614, under the Amsterdam West India company, built a fort nearly on the same ground where the city of Albany now is, which they called fort Aurania. Sir Thomas Dale, governour of Virginia, directly after despatched Capt. Argal to dispossess the Dutch, and they submitted to the king of England, and under him to the governour of Virginia.' p. 19.

This account is full of errours. The discovery did not take place until the year 1609. There are extant in Purchas' Pilgrim, a work published in 1625, one entire copy of which only is known to be in this country-circumstantial narratives of four voyages made by Capt. Hudson, entitled, Divers Voyages, and Northerne discoveries of that worthy, irrecoverable discoverer, Master Henry Hudson, the authenticity of which there is no reason to doubt. The two first of these voyages were made in the service of English merchants, in the years 1607 and 1608, and both being entirely occupied in exploring the North Seas, he did not, in either of those years, come near the American coast. In 1609 he engaged in the service of the Dutch East India Company, and sailed from Amsterdam, in command of a Dutch ship, on the 25th of March of