RHODE ISLAND. 411 



annually, viz. on the first Wednesday in May, and the last Wednes- 

 day in October. 



The governor is President of the Council of Assistants and has a 

 casting vote. He signs commissions, but has no important appoint- 

 ments in his gift. 



Religion.. ..Liberty of conscience has been inviolably maintained 

 in this state ever since its first settlement. So little has the civil au- 

 thority to do with religion here, that no contract between a minister 

 and a society (unless incorporated for that purpose) is of any force. 

 It is probably for these reasons that so many different sects have 

 ever been found here ; and that the Sabbath, and all religious institu- 

 tions, have been more neglected in this than any other of the New- 

 England states. 



College. ...There is a public Library at Newport, called the Red- 

 wood Library, in honour of Abraham Redwood, the founder. He 

 presented the company with 1294 volumes, valued at 5001. sterling, 

 at the lime it was founded, which was in or about the year 1747. A 

 college, called Rhode Island college, is established at Providence. It 

 is a spacious edifice, and contains upwards of sixty students. It has 

 a library, containing nearly 3000 volumes, and a valuable philosophi- 

 cal apparatus. The funds amount to about two thousand pounds. 



History. ...This state was first settled from Massachusetts. Mr. 

 Roger Williams, a minister, who came over to New-England in 1631, 

 was charged with holding a variety of errors, and was on that account 

 forced to leave his house, land, wife, and children, at Salem, in the 

 dead of the winter, and to seek a residence without the limits of Mas- 

 sachusetts. Governor Winthrop advised him to pursue his course to 

 Nehiganset, or Narraganset bay, which he did, and fixed himself at 

 Secunk, or Seekhonk, now Rehoboth. But that place being within 

 the bounds of the Plymouth colony, governor Winslow, in a friendly 

 manner, advised him to remove to the other side of the river, where 

 the lands were not covered by any patent. Accordingly, in 1636, Mr. 

 Williams, and four others, crossed Seekhonk river, and landed among 

 the Indians, by whom they were hospitably received, and thus laid 

 the foundation of a town, which, from a sense of God's merciful pro- 

 vidence to him, he called Providence. Here he was soon after joined 

 by a number of others ; and though they were secured from the In- 

 dians by the terror, of the English, yet they, for a considerable time, 

 suffered much from fatigue and want: but they enjoyed liberty of con- 

 science, which is still maintained in this state, with the greatest lati- 

 tude. The people pay no taxes for the support of the clergy, the 

 ministers depending wholly on the liberality of their hearers for sup- 

 port. The most numerous sect is that of the Baptists. The president 

 of the college at Providence is always of that religious society. 



