fhould fit on the 14th following, with power to chufe a speaker and other officers, and be judges of the qualifications and elections of their own members; fit upon their own adjournments, prepare bills, impeach criminals, and redrefs grievances; and poffefs all other powers and privileges of an Affembly, according to the rights of the free-born fubjects of England, and the customs, obferved in any of the king's plantations in America. If any county or counties should neglect to fend deputies, thofe who met, provided they were not fewer in number than two thirds of the whole, were to be confi dered as the legal reprefentatives of the province.

By the eighth article, in cafes of fuicide, all property was to defcend to the next heirs, as if the deceased had died a natural death; nor was the governor to be entitled to any forfeiture, if a perfon fhould be killed by cafualty or accident. The fame article provided, that no act, law or ordinance whatsoever, fhould at any time after be made, to alter or diminish the form or effect of this charter, or of any part of it, without the confent of the governor for the time being, and fix parts in feven of the Affembly met-that the first article, relating to liberty of confcience, fhould be kept without any alteration inviolably-and that William Penn, for himself, &c. did folemnly declare, that neither he, &c. fhould do any thing whereby the liberties in this charter contained, nor any part thereof, fhould be infringed; and that if any thing fhould be done by any perfon contrary thereto, it fhould be held of no effect.

This new constitution differed greatly from the original. The governor might nominate his own council, and he was left fingle in the executive part of the government, and had liberty to restrain the legislative, by refusing his affent to their bills. The Affembly, on the other hand, acquired the important privilege of propounding laws, as well as of amending or rejecting them; but though this new conftitution was thankfully accepted by the province, it was rejected by the territories; and affairs ftood in this untoward state when the proprietary failed for England. The reprefentatives of the province and thofe of the territories divided, and acted as two diftinct bodies, and the after attempts to unite them proved ineffectual.

The territories confifted of the three counties, Newcastle, Kent, and Suffex on the Delaware, commonly known by the name of the three Lower Counties on the Delaware.

From the time of Mr. Penn's departure for England to the year 1704, the difputes in this province ran high. At this time the Af fembly came to nine refolutions, which were formed into a remon

ftrance

ftrance, and fent to Mr. Penn in England, under the title of "Heads of Complaint." The three firft, only immediately apply to himself; the next five to officers acting under his commiffion; and the ninth is an injunction to him not to furrender the government. Those against himself import, ft. That by his artifices, the feveral charters granted at the first fettling of the province were defeated: 2dly. That the power of diffolution and prorogation, and calling Affemblies by his writs, granted to his prefent and former deputies, were contrary to the faid charter: and 3dly. That he had received great fums of money when laft there, for negotiating the confirmation of their laws, for making good terms for the people of the province, and eafing his friends there of oaths, &c. but that the expected benefits had not appeared. The two first evidently relate to the alte rations effected by the charter of 1701. But Dr. Franklin (in his Historical Review) after comparing the privileges they had given up with what they had gained by that charter, admits, that " upon the whole, there was much more reafon for acknowledgments than complaints:" and with refpect to the laft, it does not appear that the fums received were not faithfully expended, although the advantages they were intended to procure might not appear till afterwards. The other heads of complaint refer to defects in the constitution, or to the opinions, extortions, and other mal-practices of fome of the officers of government, for which the proprietary could be only chargeable on his neglect to pay proper attention to those complaints; which does not appear. One of the latter complaints, indeed, is attributed to his refufal, in 1701, to pass a bill to regulate fees, &c. but the circumstances which attended, and might justify that refusal, are not stated.

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This violent diffenfion happened in the time of the Deputy-governor Evans, whofe government Dr. Franklin describes as continued broil from the beginning of it to the end." But as it is remarked by the fame author, that the General Affembly in two or three years after, affumed a very different tone, "almost as com plaifant as he (the deputy-governor) could wifh," it is prefumable, either that the occafions of complaint had ceased, or that they differed with their predeceffors in opinion of their having ever exifted. That at least they were greatly exaggerated is eafy to believe, when we advert to the circumftances of what the doctor calls "this tur. bulent period," wherein he fays, "heat kindled heat; animofity ex cited animofity; and each party refolving to be always in the right, were often both in the wrong."

STATE

STATE OF

NEW-YORK.

SITUATION, EXTENT, &c.

THIS State is fituated between 40° 40′ and 45° north latitude, and

5° weft and 1° 30' eaft longitude from Philadelphia. Its length is about three hundred and fifty miles, and its breadth about three hundred. It is bounded fouth-eaftwardly by the Atlantic ocean; eaft by the States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont; north by the 45th degree of latitude, which divides it from Canada; northweftwardly by the river Iroquois, or St. Lawrence, and the lakes Ontario and Erie; fouth-weft and fouth by Pennfylvania and New Jerfey.

FACE OF THE COUNTRY, SEA COAST, &c.

On the

This State, to speak generally, is interfected by ridges of moun tains running in a north-eaft and fouth-weft direction. Beyond the Allegany mountains, however, the country is a dead level, of a fine rich foil, covered in its natural state with maple, beech, birch, cherry, black walnut, locuft, hickory and fome mulberry trees. banks of lake Erie are a few chefnut and oak ridges. Hemlock swamps are interspersed thinly through the country. All the creeks that empty into lake Erie have falls which afford many excellent mill-feats.

The lands between the Seneca and Cayuga lakes are represented as uncommonly excellent, being most agreeably diverfified with gentle rifings, and timbered with lofty trees, with little underwood. The legislature of this State have granted one million and a half of acres of land as a gratuity to the officers and foldiers of the line of this State. This tract is bounded weft by the east shore of the Seneca lake, and the Maffachusetts lands in the new county of Ontario; north by part of lake Ontario near fort Ofwego; fouth by a ridge of the Allegany mountains and the Pennfylvania line; andeaft by the TufVOL. II,

caroro

caroro Creek, which falls nearly into the middle of the Oneida lake, and that part of Montgomery which has been fettling by the NewEngland people very rapidly fince the peace.

This pleafant country is divided into twenty-five townships of fixty thousand acres each, which are again fubdivided into one hundred convenient farms, of fix hundred acres, making in the whole two thousand five hundred farms.

Eaft of the Allegany mountains the country is broken into hills with rich intervening vallies. The hills are clothed thick with timber, and when cleared, afford a very fine pasture: the vallies, when cultivated, produce wheat, hemp, flax, peas, grafs, oats, and Indian corn. The rivers in this State are numerous.

Hudfon's river is one of the largest and fincft in the United States it rifes in the mountainous country between the lakes Onta rio and Champlain. In its courfe fouth-easterly it approaches within fix or eight miles of lake George; then, after a fhort courfe east, turns foutherly and receives the Socondaga from the fouth-west, which heads in the neighbourhood of Mohawk river. The course of the river thence to New-York, where it empties into York bay, is uniformly fouth, twelve degrees, or fifteen degrees weft. Its whole length is about two hundred and fifty miles; from Albany to lake George is fixty-five miles. This diftance, the river is navigable only for batteaux, and has two portages, occafioned by falls, of

half a mile each.

The banks of Hudson's river, especially on the western fide, as far as the highlands extend, are chiefly rocky cliffs. The passage through the highlands, which is fixteen miles, affords a wild romantic fcene: in this narrow pafs, on each fide of which the mountains tower to a great height, the wind, if there be any, is collected and compressed, and blows continually as through a bellows: veffels, in paffing through it, are often obliged to lower their fails. The bed of thi river, which is deep and fimooth to an aftonifling distance, through a hilly, rocky country, and even through ridges of fome of the highest mountains in the United States, muft undoubtedly have been pro duced by fome mighty convulfion in nature. The tide flows a few miles above Albany, which is one hundred and fixty miles from New York; it is navigable for floops of eighty tons to Albany, and for fhips to Hudson: fhip navigation to Albany is interrupted by a num ber of islands, fix or eight miles below the city, called the Over laugh. It is in contemplation to confine the river to one channel, by

3

which means the channel will be deepened, and the difficulty of approaching Albany with veffels of a larger fize be removed. About fixty miles above New-York the water becomes fresh. The river is ftored with a variety of fish, which renders a fummer paffage to Albany delightful and amusing to those who are fond of angling.

The advantages of this river for carrying on the fur trade with Canada, by means of the lakes, have been already mentioned:* its conveniencies for internal commerce are fingularly great: the produce of the remoteft farms is eafily and speedily conveyed to a certain and profitable market, and at the lowest expense; in this respect, New-York has greatly the advantage of Philadelphia. A great proportion of the produce of Pennsylvania is carried to market in waggons, over a great extent of country, fome of which is rough; hence it is that Philadelphia is crowded with waggons, carts, horfes and their drivers, to do the fame bufiness that is done in New-York, where all the produce of the country is brought to market by water, with much lefs fhew and parade. But Philadelphia has other advantages, which will be mentioned in their proper place, to compensate for this natural defect. The increasing population of the fertile lands upon the northern branches of the Hudfon muft annually increase the amazing wealth that is conveyed by its wa ters to New-York: added to this, the ground has been marked out, the level ascertained, a company incorporated, by the name of "The Prefident, Directors, and Company of the Northern Inland Lock Navigation, in the State of New-York," and funds fubfcribed for the purpose of cutting a canal from the nearest approximating point of Hudfon's river to South bay, which empties into the fouth end of lake Champlain the distance is eighteen miles. The difference of level and the face of the country are fuch, as to justify a belief that the opening of this canal will not be less practicable than useful.

Saranac river paffes through Plattsburg into lake Champlain : it has been explored nearly thirty miles, and there found equal in fize to the mouth. In this river is the greatest abundance of fifh, fuch as falmon, bass, pike, pickerel, trout, &c.

Sable river, not far from the Saranac, is fcarcely fixty yards wide. On this stream are remarkable falls: the whole defcent of the water is about two hundred feet in feveral pitches, the greatest of which is forty feet perpendicular: at the foot of it the water is unfathomable. A large pine has been seen, in a frefhet, to pitch over endwife, and