in this present Parliament assembled and the Authoritie therof. That from and after the first day of December One thousand six hundred and Sixty and from thence forward noe Goods or Commodities whatsoever shall be Imported into or Exported out of any Lands Islelands Plantations or Territories to his Majesty belonging or in his possession or which may hereafter belong unto or be in the possession of his Majesty His Heires and Successors in Asia Africa or America in any other Ship or Ships Vessell or Vessells whatsoever but in such Ships or Vessells as doe truly and without fraud belong onely to the people of England or Ireland Dominion of Wales or Towne of Berwicke upon Tweede, or are of the built of, and belonging to any of the said Lands Islands Plantations or Territories as the Proprietors and right owners therof and wherof the Master and three fourths of the Marriners at least are English under the penalty of the Forfeiture and Losse of all the Goods and Commodityes . . . as of alsoe the Ship or Vessell with all its Guns Furniture Tackle Ammunition and Apparell. . . .

...

[IV] And it is further Enacted . . . that noe Goods or Commodityes that are of forraigne growth production or manufacture and which are brought into England Ireland Wales . . . in English built Shipping . . . and navigated by English Mariners as abovesaid shall be shipped or brought from any other place or Places, Country or Countries but onely from those of their said Growth Production or Manufacture, or from those ports where the said Goods and Commodityes can onely or are or usually have beene first shiped for transportation. ... Under the penalty of the forfeiture of all such of the aforesaid Goods as shall be Imported from any other place or Country . . . as alsoe of the Ship in which they were imported with all her Guns Furniture Ammunition Tackle and Apparel. . . .

[VIII] And it is further Enacted ... That noe Goods or Commodityes of the Growth Production or Manufacture of Muscovy or of any of the Countryes Dominions or Territories to the Great Duke or Emperor of Muscovia or Russia belonging, As alsoe that noe sorts of Masts Timber or boards noe forraigne Salt Pitch Tar Rozin Hempe or Flax Raizins Figs Prunes Olive Oyles noe Corne or Graine Sugar Pot-ashes Wines

23. Observa

tions of two foreign visitors, 17481760

[60]

Vinegar or Spirits called Aqua-vite or Brandy Wine shall from and after [April 1, 1661]... be imported into England . . . in any Ship or Ships Vessel or Vessells whatsoever but in such as doe truly and without fraude belong to the people therof . . . as the true Owners and proprietors therof, and wherof the Master and Three Fourths of the Mariners at least are English. . . .

[XVIII] And it is further Enacted. . . That from and after [April 1, 1661]... noe Sugars Tobaccho Cotton Wool Indicoes Ginger Fustick or other dyeing wood of the Growth Production or Manufacture of any English Plantations in America Asia or Africa shall be shiped carried conveyed or transported from any of the said English Plantations to any Land Island Territory Dominion Port or place whatsoever other than to such English Plantations as doe belong to His Majesty . . . or to the Kingdome of England or Ireland or Principallity of Wales or Towne of Berwick upon Tweede there to be laid on shore under the penalty of the Forfeiture of the said Goods or the full value thereof, as alsoe of the Ship with all her Guns Tackle Apparel Ammunition and Furniture. . . .

[XIX] And be it further Enacted. . . That for every Ship or Vessell which from and after [December 25, 1660]. . . shall set saile out of England . . . for any English Plantation in America Asia Africa sufficient bond shall be given . . . to the chiefe officers of the Custome house of such Port or place from whence the said ship set saile to the value of one thousand pounds if the Ship shall be of lesse burthen then one hundred Tuns, and of the summe of two thousand pounds if the Ship shal be of greater burthen. That in case the said Ship or Vessell shall loade any of the said Commodityes at any of the said English Plantations, that the same Commodityes shall be by the said Ship brought to some port of England ... and shall there unload and put on shore the same, the danger of the Seas onely excepted. . . .

Peter Kalm, Professor in the University of Abo, in Swedish Finland, and the Reverend Andrew Burnaby, Archdeacon of Leicester, England, made tours through the "middle settlements" in North America in the

years

1748-1749 and 1759-1760 respectively. The Swedish professor was particularly interested in the natural history of America, but turned aside often to make "several curious and important remarks on various subjects." Reaching New York, he writes:

The king appoints the governor according to his royal pleasure, but the inhabitants of the province make up his excellency's salary. Therefore a man entrusted with this place has greater or lesser revenues, according as he knows how to gain the confidence of the inhabitants. There are examples of governors in this, and other provinces of North America, who by their dissensions with the inhabitants of their respective governments, have lost their whole salary, his Majesty having no power to make them pay it. . . .

Each English Colony in North America is independent of the other, and each has its proper [own] laws and coin, and may be looked upon in several lights as a state by itself. From hence it happens, that in time of war, things go on very slowly and irregularly here: for not only the sense of one province is sometimes directly opposite to that of another; but frequently the views of the governor and those of the assembly of the same province are quite different: so that it is easy to see that, while the people are quarrelling about the best and cheapest manner of carrying on the war, an enemy has it in his power to take one place after another. It has commonly happened that whilst some provinces have been suffering from their enemies, the neighboring ones were quiet and inactive, and as if it did not in the least concern them. They have frequently taken up two or three years in considering whether they should give assistance to an oppressed sister colony, and sometimes they have expressly declared themselves against it. There are instances of provinces who were not only neuter [neutral] in these circumstances, but who even carried on a great trade with the power which at that very time was attacking and laying waste some other provinces.

The French in Canada, who are but an inconsiderable body, in comparison with the English in America, have by this position

of affairs been able to obtain great Advantages in times of war ; for if we judge from the number and power of the English, it would seem very easy for them to get the better of the French in America. It is however of great advantage to the crown of England, that the North American colonies are near a country, under the government of the French, like Canada. There is reason to believe that the king was never earnest in his attempts to expel the French from their possessions there; though it might have been done with little difficulty. For the English colonies in this part of the world have encreased so much in their number of inhabitants, and in their riches, that they almost vie with Old England. Now in order to keep up the authority and trade of their mother country, and to answer several other purposes, they are forbid to establish new manufactures which would turn to the disadvantage of the British commerce: they are not allowed to dig for any gold or silver, unless they send them to England immediately: they have not the liberty of trading to any parts that do not belong to the British dominions, excepting some settled places, and foreign traders are not allowed to send their ships to them. These and some other restrictions occasion the inhabitants of the English colonies to grow less tender for their mother country. This coldness is kept up by the many foreigners such as Germans, Dutch, and French settled here, and living among the English, who commonly have no particular attachment to Old England. . . .

I have been told by Englishmen, and not only by such as were born in America, but even by such as came from Europe, that the English colonies in North America, in the space of thirty or fifty years, would be able to form a state by themselves,1 entirely independent on Old England. But as the whole country which lies along the sea-shore is unguarded, and on the land side is harrassed by the French, in times of war these dangerous neighbors are sufficient to prevent the connection of the colonies with their mother country from being quite broken off. The English government has therefore sufficient reason to

1 It was actually less than thirty years from the date of Kalm's writing (1748) that the colonies, by throwing off the allegiance to England, formed "a state by themselves."

consider the French in North America as the best means of keeping the colonies in their due submission.

The Reverend Archdeacon, after rather caustic criticisms of the manners and institutions of the colonists, in his journey from Virginia to Massachusetts Bay, ends his story with the following pessimistic estimate of the colonies as a whole:

America is formed for happiness but not for empire: in a course of 1200 miles I did not see a single object that solicited charity, but I saw insuperable causes of weakness, which will necessarily prevent its being a potent state.

Our colonies may be distinguished into the southern and northern, separated from each other by the Susquehannah and that imaginary line which divides Maryland from Pensylvania.

The southern colonies have so many inherent causes of weakness that they can never possess any real strength. The climate operates very powerfully upon them, and renders them indolent, inactive, and unenterprising; this is visible in every line of their character. I myself have been a spectator, and it is not an uncommon sight of a man in the vigour of life, lying upon a couch, and a female slave standing over him, wafting off the flies, and fanning him, while he took his repose.

The southern colonies (Maryland, which is the smallest and most inconsiderable, alone excepted) will never be thickly seated [populated]; for as they are not confined within determinate limits, but extend to the westward indefinitely; men sooner than apply themselves to laborious occupations, occupations militating with their dispositions, and generally considered too as the inheritance and badge of slavery, will gradually retire westward, and settle upon fresh lands, which are said also to be more fertile; where by the servitude of a negro or two, they may enjoy all the satisfaction of an easy and indolent independency; hence the lands upon the coast will of course remain thin of inhabitants.

The mode of cultivation by slavery is another insurmountable cause of weakness. The number of negroes in the southern