trade, amounting to at least thirtyeight thousand tons; one half of these vessels traded to Europe. About six thousand persons were employed in its fisheries. Connecticut appears to have made steady progress, and in 1750 is computed to have had one hundred thousand inhabitants. Rhode Island, which at the beginning of the eighteenth century had about ten thousand inhabitants, in 1730 possessed a population of eighteen thousand, of whom nine hundred and eighty-five were Indians and one thousand six hundred and fortyeight negro slaves: in 1750, there were thirty thousand inhabitants in this colony. Newport, which was the metropolis, contained a population of something less than five thousand, including Indians and negroes. The first newspaper was published in this colony in 1732. In the year 1738, Newport contained seven places of worship; there was a large society of Quakers at Portsmouth, and in the other eleven townships of the colony there were twenty-five assemblages for Christian worship. In regard to New Hampshire, we find in Holmes's Annals that its population, in 1750, is computed to have been twenty-four thousand. 1738. The militia of New England, as a whole, is computed to have amounted to fifty thousand. Iron was the only metallic ore which the colonists had undertaken to improve; and there were now six furnaces for hollow ware, and nineteen forges, in New England. In 1730, fifty hundred weight of hemp, produced in New England and Carolina, were exported to Britain. to Britain. In 1712, certain adventurers in Connecticut conceived hopes of great enrichment from the discovery of two copper mines, which were erroneously supposed to contain also some veins of more precious metals. One of these mines at Simsbury, was worked to a great extent, but to little profit. The excavation which they made was afterwards converted into a prison, whereby, as Trumbull rather drily says, it yielded more advantage to the province than by all the copper that had been extracted from it. We have before spoken of the troubles that arose between between New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the matter of the former having a governor for themselves. After much unpleasant litigation the question was settled. The trade of New Hampshire, at this date, consisted chiefly in the exportation of lumber and fish to Spain, Portugal and the Carribee Islands. In winter small vessels were despatched to the southern colonies with English and West India goods, and returned with cargoes of corn and pork. The manufacture of linen was considerably increased by the coming of Irish emigrants to this colony. Although New Hampshire was justly considered to be a healthy region, it was about this time visited with a fatal epidemic, called the throat distemper, which broke out again in 1754 and 1784, and was very destructive on all these occasions. The symptoms were a swelled throat, with white or ash-colored specks, an efflorescence on the skin, extreme debility of the whole body, and a strong tendency to SOCIAL LIFE AND MANNERS. CH. VII.] nature. New England was still distinguished by the zeal in behalf of religion of the great body of its inhabitants. This zeal happily was less intolerant than in earlier days of the Puritan colonies; and when fanatical exhibitions broke out, they were content to treat them as they deserved, and did not attempt to put a stop to delusions and folly, by hanging, or burning, or mutilating the bodies of those, who, for the time, showed that they were not in their right minds. In 1725, a proposition was set on foot to hold a synod of all the Congregational churches in New England; but the design was abandoned, owing to the opposition of the government. 215 finement, and liberality. The royal governors often maintained a somewhat splendid style of living, and formed the centre of a society composed of "persons in office, the rich, and those who had connections in England, of which they were very proud." These were the gentry of the country, in those days. Modes of life, manners, and personal decoration, were the indications of superiority. Most of the gentry embraced the side of government, when those serious disputes began to arise, which ultimately drove a large portion of them from the colony; but the same indications continued among some who remained, and adhered to the side of their countrymen. There was a class of persons, no longer known, who might be called the gentry of the interior. They held very considerable landed estates, in imitation of the landowners in England. These persons were the great men in their respective counties. They held civil and military offices, and were members of the General Court. This sort of personal dignity gradually disappeared, as the equalizing tendency of the growth and fortunes of the country began to produce its effect upon the whole community. In early days, the stern old Puritans had endeavored to restrain extravagance and luxury, by sumptuary regulations; but their power was no longer Notwithstanding a certain stiffness felt, at least to any great extent, in such still remaining-the result of the long matters: and as wealth increased, disreign of strict Puritanism-the social play and even luxurious indulgence and domestic condition of the people obtained place in New England. A was vastly improved, and to a large ex- picture like the following is decidedly tent there prevailed cheerfulness, re-instructive as well as suggestive: "In the principal houses of Boston," says the writer, "there was a great hall, ornamented with pictures, and a great lantern, and a velvet cushion in the window-seat that looked into the garden. A large bowl of punch was often placed in the hall, from which visitors might help themselves as they entered. On either side was a great parlor, a little parlor, or study. These were furnished with great looking-glasses, Turkey carpets, window curtains and valance, pictures and a map, a brass clock, red leather-back chairs, and a great pair of brass andirons. The chambers were well supplied with feather-beds, warming-pans, and every other article that would now be thought necessary for comfort or display. The pantry was well filled with substantial fare, and dainties-prunes, marmalade, and Madeira wine. Silver tankards, wine cups, and other articles of plate were not uncommon, and the kitchen was completely stocked with pewter, iron, and copper utensils. Very many families employed servants, and in one we see a Scotch boy, valued among the property, and invoiced at £14." Negro slaves also often formed part of a New England household of that day. Even before this period, in the matter of dress, certain of the ladies were eager to copy the London and Paris fashions, as we learn from a splenetic old writer. "Methinks," he says, "it should break the heart of Englishmen to see so many goodly Englishwomen imprisoned in French cages, peering out of their hoodholes for some men of mercy to help them with a little wit;" and he sharply complains of their eagerness to learn what dress the queen is in, and to copy it in all haste. As a matter of interest, it may be noted here, that the first portrait painter in America was John Smibert, a Scotch artist, who came over with Berkeley, and painted that picture of the bishop and his family which is preserved at Yale College. An art so pleasing was not long in making its way over the colonies, and has preserved to posterity the youthful appearance of Washington. But though art and literature were making their way, public amusements were still frowned upon by the New England magistrates. Otway's play of "The Orphan" was acted in 1750, at a coffee-house in Boston; but such exhibitions were forthwith prohibited, as "tending to discourage industry and frugality, and greatly to increase impiety and contempt of religion." A London company of actors contrived, however, shortly afterwards, to gain a footing in New York, Philadelphia, and other towns further south. The probable designs of the New Englanders at this date, in regard to the question of by and by throwing off the yoke of the mother country, afforded matter for considerable discussion in England. Some members of the Board of Trade entertained and expressed apprehension of such a determination on the part of the colonists. They even went so far as to give it as their opinion, that nothing but the effective interposition of parliament could arrest the manifest tendency to independence. The colonists treated all such charges as without foundation, and we believe quite justly, so far as CH. VII.] POPULATION OF MARYLAND AND THE CAROLINAS. any settled or clearly defined purpose in their own minds was concerned: it is not quite so clear, however, that, when their attention was turned to the evident design of the mother country to mpose heavy burdens upon them, and when they both felt their own strength, and knew their own unyielding resolve never to submit to tyranny or unlawful imposition of any sort ;-we say, when they thought over these things, it is not quite so clear, that the idea of independence had not found place among them, as a thing possible, though not then at all probable. The folly of provoking such discussions in the colonies, we need not enlarge upon: the youthful giant would throw off all parental control soon enough, without provoking him to measure his strength prematurely with his sire. In 1734, the population of Maryland appears to have been thirty-six thousand taxable inhabitants, by which is meant the white men above six1734. teen years of age, and negroes, male and female, from sixteen to sixty. The state of society and manners in Maryland was, naturally, very much the same as in Virginia. A printing-press was established in Maryland, in 1726, three years before Virginia enjoyed that privilege. The people of this The people of this colony are said to have derived much advantage from their knowledge of the medicinal uses of certain herbs and plants, from the fact that long peace and friendship with the Indians had induced great freedom of intercourse between the white and the red men. The salaries of public officers were very low. In 1732, the Assembly In 1732, the Assembly VOL. I.-30 217 made tobacco a legal tender for the payment of all debts, at a penny per pound, and Indian corn at twenty pence per bushel. Probably the Roman Catholics still were in the majority in the colony: many Protestants, however, settled on the frontier counties of Virginia and Maryland. The population of North Carolina, in 1710, was six thousand; probably it had considerably increased some years later; it must be confessed, however, as we have in substance noted before, that in the early part of this century the people of North Carolina formed one of the most turbulent, irreligious, and illiterate communities in America. In the year 1700, the population of South Carolina was less than six thousand: in 1723, it amounted to thirty-two thousand; of whom eighteen thousand were slaves. Beside the commercial intercourse with England, an extensive trade, carried on almost entirely in British ships, was kept up between Carolina and the West Indies, New England, Pennsylvania and New York. tween 1720 and 1730, rice, to the amount of over forty-four thousand tons, was exported from South Carolina: in the year 1730, the negroes amounted to twenty-eight thousand, and large accessions to this class of population continued to be made from year to year. In respect to social life, the habits of the planters were generally frugal, and luxury had not yet obtained much influence. Printing was introduced in 1730, and a newspaper established in 1734. The majority of the inhabitants were attached to the Church of England; Be 1730. but the Presbyterian denomination al- in Latin, Greek, and the mathematics so flourished. During the summer of 1728, the weather in South Carolina proved uncommonly hot; the surface of 1728. the earth was parched, the pools of water were dried up, and the beasts of the field reduced to the greatest distress. This was followed in the autumn by a furious hurricane, which occasioned wide-spread destruction. In the same year that fearful scourge, the yellow fever, broke forth to an extent and with a malignity that swept off large numbers. Subsequently to this, the increase of wealth among the Carolinians led to a corresponding increase in expensiveness of living and its usual concomitants of display and luxurious indulgence. At the beginning of the century, New York numbered thirty thousand persons; in 1732, this number had more than doubled, of whom about seven thousand were slaves; and in 1750, there were nearly one hundred thousand inhabitants in the province. The annual imports of this colony were reckoned at £100,000; and in 1736, two hundred and eleven vessels with cargoes entered, and two hundred and twentytwo vessels with cargoes departed from the port of New York. A taste for tea was gradually making progress: this led to considerable contraband trade on the part of the colonists, so that they might obtain tea at a less rate than that charged by the English East India Company; in fact, they did get it by this means some thirty per cent. lower. A public school was founded in New York city by the Legislature, in 1732, where were to be taught. A newspaper was first published in New York in 1725. Some remaining influence of the Dutch manners and habits still prevailed in New York, although it was evident that English and French tastes were predominant. The citizens were lively and sociable in manners; there were weekly evening clubs; and in the winter, balls and concerts. Living was on a less expensive scale than at Boston, and the New Yorkers were at that day, as well as now, devoted to business and the gains of trade. Albany, at this date on the outskirts of civilization, retained much more of the flavor of its Dutch origin. The architecture was like that of Delft or Leyden; all the houses stood with their angular zigzag gables turned to the street, with long projecting gutterpipes, which, like those of the towns of continental Europe at the present day, discharge their unsavory current of dirty water or melted snows upon the heads of the unwary passengers. The stoopes, or porches, were furnished with side-seats, well filled in the evening with the inmates, old and young, of both sexes, who met to gossip or to court, while the cattle wandered almost at will about the streets of the halfrustic city. In the interior of the dwellings, Dutch cleanliness and economy were established; the women, as at the present day in Holland, were considered over-nice in scrubbing their floors, and burnishing their brass and pewter vessels into an intensity of lustre. From the dawn of day until late at night they were engaged in the |