VOL. LV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 231 



the inhabitants, and partly to prevent, but principally to secure against the 

 spreading of the contagion in the colony, the assembly prohibited inoculation 

 within the limits of this colony, on very severe penalties; and in case" people 

 went into any other government to obtain it, ordered them not to return again 

 to the colony, without first having remained out at least 20 days after leaving 

 the hospital, or place of infection, on the penalty of -^^20; and if after remain- 

 ing out of the colony 20 days, they should unfortunately happen, either by 

 their clothes or otherways, to communicate the infection, they were made liable 

 to pay to the party injured, treble damages, and costs of suit. Thus the prac- 

 tice of inoculation for the small-pox stands wholly interdicted within the colony, 

 and laid under such disadvantages and discouragements, when persons go abroad 

 to procure it, that we are in a great measure deprived of the only method, ever 

 discovered to the world, to escape the hazards attending that disease which has 

 made such havock of the human species. 



Was inoculation, on some of our small islands on the sea coast, or on some 

 point of land at a proper distance from inhabitants, impracticable with safety to 

 the inhabitants of this colony, he should not think it unreasonable wholly to 

 suppress it; but doubtless it may be so regulated as to be quite safe, and with- 

 out danger of communication; and therefore he thinks he may justly say, to 

 deny liberty of inoculation to persons in trade, seamen, and such as are more 

 immediately exposed to the disease, or to lay those who would go out of the 

 colony to obtain it, under so great disadvantages, is an invasion of the natural 

 rights of mankind, and an obstruction to their pursuing the first law of human 

 nature. 



The well-peopling the colonies, and securing our new acquisitions, are 

 matters of great importance to our mother country, as well as to ourselves ; and 

 the more it is effected from the colonies themselves, without transporting settlers 

 from the kingdoms of Great-Britain and Ireland, the greater advantages must 

 accrue to the manufacturers of the mother country, as colonizing from the 

 plantations will keep the price of labour at so high a rate, as will effectually 

 prevent our engaging in manufactures, and greatly increase the sale of British 

 manufactures in America. The number of the inhabitants in our old American 

 settlements double once in 20 or 25 years, and in our new made settlements, 

 once in 1 5 or 20 years. The New England colonies are better peopled than the 

 other provinces and colonies in America; which he principally attributes to the 

 tenure of their landi>, which are held in fee-simple, according to the tenure of 

 the manor of East Greenwich in Kent; and he conceives nothing would so 

 much facilitate the settlement of crown lands, obtained by new acquisitions in 

 America, as their being granted in like manner : paying quit-rents to monopoli- 

 zers of large tracts of land, is not well relished by Americans, and has in itself 



