PROVIDENCE PRUDHON. 



729 



also extensive manufactures of leather, boots and 

 shoes, soap and candles, cabinet furniture, hats, &c., 

 and pickers, and sundry articles used in other depart- 

 ments of the manufacturing business. The capita- 

 lists of Providence have, besides, an amount equal 

 to 2,000,000 dollars invested in cotton, woollen, 

 and other factories, in other towns of Rhode Island 

 and the adjoining states, agencies of which are 

 established within the city. For the consumption 

 of the town and its vicinity, including, as this does, 

 many manufacturing villages, there were imported, 

 in the year 1830, 45,166 bales of cotton, and, in 

 the year 1831, 55,707 ; and of bread-stuffs, in 1830, 

 68,473 barrels of flour, 358,181 bushels of corn, 

 and 16,967 of rye ; in 1831, 71,369 barrels of flour, 

 216,662 bushels of corn, and 7772 of rye. 



This town was founded by Roger Williams, who 

 was born in Wales, and educated at Oxford. He 

 removed to America in 1631, and, after preaching 

 at Salem and Plymouth, was settled at the latter 

 place, as pastor of the congregational church, in 

 1634. He there preached against the king's patent 

 to the Plymouth colonists, on the ground that the 

 king had no authority to grant and dispose of the 

 lands of the natives, without their consent. For 

 this course, together with his peculiar religious 

 tenets, and particularly his open and fearless decla- 

 ration of the principles, not of toleration merely, 

 but of entire and unrestricted religious freedom, 

 and his avowal that the civil magistrate had no 

 right " to deal in matters of conscience and relig- 

 ion,'' he was banished, and ordered to depart the 

 Plymouth jurisdiction within six weeks. This 

 sentence was passed in the autumn of 1635 ; but 

 he was afterwards informed that permission was 

 granted him to remain until the ensuing spring. 

 So great, however, was the fear of his influence, 

 that an officer was sent to apprehend and carry him 

 on board a vessel at Nantasket, in order that he 

 might be conveyed to England. Before the arrival 

 of the officer, Williams, having intimation of this 

 design, had departed for Rehoboth. Being there 

 informed by governor Winslow that he was still 

 within the bounds of the Plymouth patent, he cross- 

 ed the Seekonk river, in the spring of 1636, and 

 commenced a new settlement in the wilderness, 

 near the mouth of the small river Mooshasuck, giv- 

 ing it, in acknowledgment of the divine protection, 

 the name of Providence. The first settlement of the 

 town was thus made on the point of land between 

 the Seekonk or Blackstone river on the east, and 

 the arm of the Narraganset bay on the west. The 

 latter was afterwards gradually contracted by the 

 extension of the land in the present westerly part 

 of the town, until the two parts were, at length, 

 connected by Weybossett bridge, now nearly in 

 the centre of the town. The sheet of water re- 

 maining north of this bridge was thus formed into a 

 beautiful cove, which, at its northern extremity, 

 receives the Mooshasuck river, and forms the basin 

 of the Blackstone canal. In 1 676, during the war 

 which was made, at the instigation of kin; 

 Philip, for the extermination of the New Englan 

 colonists, an attack was made on Providence by 

 the Indians, and about forty houses burned and de- 

 stroyed. In 1801, it suffered severely from an ex- 

 tensive fire. In 1807, a violent storm and flood 

 destroyed nearly all the bridges, and a great num- 

 ber of buildings, in the town and its vicinity. In 

 the great storm of September, 1815, about 500 

 buildings were destroyed by the wind and the wa- 

 ter of the bay. The loss of property on that occa- 

 sion was then estimated at more than 1,000,000 

 dollars ; but that eventually proved of much benefit 

 to the place, by removing a great number .of old 



and comparatively useless buildings, whereby an 

 opportunity was afforded for new and commodious 

 streets in those sections which are devoted to com- 

 mercial business. In October, 1831, Providence 

 was incorporated as a city, divided into six wards. 

 Its municipal government is vested in a mayor, a 

 Ijoard of six aldermen, and a common council of 

 twenty-four members. 



PROVIDENCE, OR NEW PROVIDENCE ; the 

 second island, in point of size, among the Bahamas, 

 being thirty miles in length and eight in breadth ; 

 lat. 25 2 f N. ; Ion. 77 20' W. A part of it is 

 very fertile ; but its principal business arises from 

 the misfortunes of those ships which are compelled 

 to seek it for a harbour. The port is called Nassau, 

 and is situated on the north part of the island. Its 

 liarbour is rather shallow ; but it is the capital, and 

 by far the most commercial town of the Bahamas. 

 The population of the island is supposed to be 

 about 8000, the greater part of whom are slaves. 

 See Bahamas. 



PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. See New 

 England, and Providence. 



PROVINCE (j>rovincia\ among the Romans ; a 

 district of conquered country, governed by a pro- 

 consul or propretor (see Proconsul), and called 

 therefore provincia consularis, or prastoria. But 

 this name was only applied to lands lying beyond 

 the boundaries of Italy. In the time of Augustus, 

 they were divided into the provincia senatorial, or 

 populares (the people's provinces), and the provincite 

 imperatoricB (the emperor's provinces). The latter 

 comprised those which were most exposed to hostile 

 inroads, and the administration of which was left 

 entirely to the emperor, under the pretence of spar- 

 ing the senate and people the trouble of managing 

 them, but in reality to keep the army in his own 

 hands. They were different according to circum- 

 stances. In modern times, the term has been ap- 

 plied to colonies, or to dependent countries, at a 

 distance from the metropolis, or to the different 

 divisions of the kingdom itself. Thus the Low 

 Countries belonging to Austria and Spain were 

 styled provinces (see Netherlands) and the same 

 term is applied to some of the English colonies. The 

 different governments into which France was divid- 

 ed, previous to the revolution, were also called 

 provinces. The name has sometimes been retained 

 by independent states. Thus the republic of Hol- 

 land, after it had thrown off" the Spanish yoke, was 

 called the United Provinces; and the Argentine 

 republic has assumed the name of United Provinces 

 of the Plata. In England, the jurisdictions of the 

 two archbishops are styled provinces. 



Provincial is a monastic officer who has the su- 

 perintendence of the monasteries of his order within 

 a certain province or district, and is himself subor- 

 dinate to the general of his order. 



PROVOST (from prcepositus) ; in some of the 

 Scotch cities, the title of the chief municipal officer. 

 (See Privet.) The heads of several of the colleges 

 in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge are 

 also styled provosts. 



Provost marshal of an army is an officer appoint- 

 ed to arrest and secure deserters and other crimin- 

 als, to hinder the soldiers from pillaging, to indict 

 offenders, and to see sentence passed upon them 

 and executed. He also regulates weights and 

 measures. 



PRUDHON, PIERRE PAUL; a French painter, 

 born in 1760, at Cluny, where he was educated by 

 the monks of the celebrated abbey of the place. 

 The sight of the pictures here awakened his taste 

 for painting, which being observed by the monks, 

 the bishop of Macon had him instructed in drawing 



