ENGLAND, LITTLE ENGLAND, NEW. 



39 



ENGLAND, LITTLE, beyond Wales, is a por- 

 tion of country lying alone the south-western coast 

 of South Wales, remarkable for being inhabited by 

 the descendants of a colony of Flemings, who came 

 over from Flanders under king Henry I. 



ENGLAND, NEW; the name of the North-eastern 

 States of the North American Union ; bounded N. by 

 Canada, E. by New Brunswick and the Atlantic, S. 

 by the Atlantic and Long Island sound, and W. 

 by New York. This division comprises the States 

 of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 

 Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Lon. 66 49' to 73 

 IS' W. ; lat. 41 to 48 12' N. Population in 1810, 

 1,271,974; in 1820, 1,659,793. By the census 

 of 1830, the population of the United States was 

 estimated at above 12,000,000 ; but the exact popu- 

 lation of New England we have not ascertained. 

 The soil of this part of America is various, from 

 barren sand to the richest clays and loams. It 

 is generally better fitted for grazing than tillage. 

 The most important production is grass. Beef, 

 mutton, pork, butter, and cheese are abundant. 

 Indian corn, rye, wheat, barley, and oats are exten- 

 sively cultivated. New England is the most populous 

 part of the United States. The inhabitants are mostly 

 of English descent. There is no country in the 

 world where education is so generally diffused among 

 all classes of people. It is the most manufacturing 

 part of North America. (See, among other articles, 

 Cotton Manufacture.) The statement of the secretary 

 of the treasury, of the commerce of the United 

 States for the year ending Sept. 30, 1829, gives the 

 following results : 



Imports. Exports. 



Dollars. Dollars. 



New England States, 14,382,155 10,754,739 

 Middle States, Ohio, i 



District of Columbia, 50,667,191 29,958,729 

 &MichiganTerritory,3 

 Southern States and i 



Florida, 



9,443,181 31,645,203 



74,492,527 72,358,671 



The inhabitants of New England have several peculia- 

 rities, distinguishing them from the inhabitants of the 

 other United States, owing to their descent from the 

 Puritans, and other causes. In the other states, they 

 are familiarly called Yankees (q. v.), which name, in 

 Europe, is given to the citizens of 'all the United 

 States. The Notions of a Travelling Bachelor, by 

 Mr Cooper, contains some good remarks on New 

 England. The name of New England was once 

 official. Thus a charter was granted to the first 

 settlers at Salem, by the name of " governor and 

 company of Massachusetts bay, in New England." 

 The country was at first called North Virginia ; but 

 after captain Smith had surveyed it, and presented 

 the map to Charles I., then prince of Wales, he gave 

 it the name of New England. Sebastian Cabot dis- 

 covered the coast of this region, and Plymouth, then 

 called Neio Plymouth, in Massachusetts, was the first 

 settlement here. 



The first settlers landed Dec. 11 (old style), 1620. 

 Before landing, they signed a solemn covenant, 

 forming themselves into a body politic for the purpose 

 of making equal laws for the general good. They 

 were republicans before they landed, and have virtu- 

 ally remained so ever since a circumstance always 

 to be considered in comparing the American revolu- 

 tion with that of other countries. This republican 

 spirit showed itself early at several periods. Charles 

 II., after his restoration, sent commissioners to New 

 England (in 1664) to inquire into and examine the 

 state of the colonies, and to reform the administration 

 of affairs there. A report was made by the commis- 

 sioners about 1665, which will be found in Hutchin- 

 son's Collection of State Papers, &c., p. 412, &c., in 



which they give an account of the state of the 

 colonies, and are particularly severe in their animad- 

 versions upon the colony of Massachusetts. Before 

 that period, the judicial and other processes issued in 

 some of the colonies of New England, at least in 

 Massachusetts, had been in the name or under the 

 authority of the colony, and not in the name of the 

 king. The commissioners remark (p. 417), that 

 " the colony of the Massachusetts was the last and the 

 hardliest to use his majesty's name in the forms of 

 justice."* They also added (p. 417), that they 

 " visited all other colonies before this, hoping that 

 the submission and condescension of the other 

 colonies to his majesty's desires would have abated 

 the refractoriness of this colony, which they much 

 feared." " They (the Massachusetts' colony) pro- 

 claimed by sound of trumpet, that the general court 

 (of the colony) was the supremest judicatory in the 

 province ; that the commissioners pretending to hear 

 appeals was a breach of their privileges granted to 

 them by the king's royal father, and confirmed to 

 them by his majesty's own letter, and that they should 

 not permit it." (p. 418.) " They say that king 

 Charles the First gave them power to make laws, 

 and to execute them, and granted them a charter as 

 a warrant against himself and his successors, and that 

 so long as they pay the fifth part of all gold and 

 silver ore which they shall get, they shall oe free to 

 use the privileges granted them ; and they are not 

 obliged to the king, but by civility." (p. 420.) They 

 further added That " they (the Massachusetts 

 colony) did solicit Cromwell, by one Mr Winslow, 

 to be declared a free siate, and many times in their 

 laws styling themselves ' this state,' ' this common- 

 wealth,' and wow believe themselves to be so." (p. 420.) 

 They close by remarking, " Their way of government 

 is commonwealth-like ; their way of worship is rude, 

 and called Congregational ; they are zealous in it, for 

 they persecute all other forms." (p. 422.) The declara- 

 tion of the general court (of the colony) of their 

 rights under the charter in 1661, strongly supports 

 the views which the commissioners gave ot the 

 claims of Massachusetts, (I Hutch. Hist. Mass, sup- 

 plement, vol. 13, p. 529.) These documents 

 abundantly prove how early the colony aspired to 

 substantial independence, and how slowly it allowed 

 the interposition of the king in any of its internal 

 concerns, and how jealous it was of every exercise of 

 prerogative. 



A people so alive to their own rights, and so 

 persevering in maintaining them, could not fail of 

 being involved in disputes with the government of 

 Great Britain from a very early period in their history. 

 Down to the annulling of their first charter, and the 

 grant of their new charter by William and Mary in 

 1692, there was scarcely any harmony between the 

 government in England and that in the Massachusetts 

 colony. In 1643, four of the New England colonies, 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, Plymouth, and New 

 Haven, on account of the dangers from the Indians, 

 from the Dutch at New York, and from the French 

 in Canada and Acadia, entered into a league offen- 

 sive and defensive. By the articles of this confederacy, 

 each colony was to appoint two commissioners, who 

 were to assemble alternately in the respective 

 colonies, and were empowered to enact ordinances 

 of general concern ; and, in case of invasion, each 

 colony was bound to furnish a certain quota of men 

 and money. See Hubbard's Hist, of New England ; 

 Hist, of New England, by Hannah Adams : Hutchin- 

 son's Hist, of Massachusetts ; Prince's New England 

 Chronology ; Tudor's Letters on the Eastern States ; 

 D wight's Travels in New England. 



* See 1 Hutchio. Hiit. of Matt., 223, 233, note. Id. 462. 



