COL 
of the year to plough fome part of the lord’s land ; and 
from hence comes the word clown, who is called by the 
Dutch boor. 
CO'LONY - ,/ [colonia, Lat.] A body of people drawn 
from the mother-country to inhabit fome diftant place. 
•—Ofiris, or the Bacchus of the ancients, is reported to 
have civilized the Indians, planting colonies, and building 
cities. Arbuthnot. —The country planted ; a plantation : 
The rifing city, which far you fee. 
Is C arthage, and a Tyrian colony. Dryden. 
Colonies may be divided into three'claffes or kinds : Firft, 
thole ferving to eafe or difcharge the inhabitants of a 
country, where the people are become too numerous, fo 
that they cannot any longer conveniently fubfilt. The 
fecond are thofe eftablifned by victorious princes and 
people in the middle of vanquifhed nations, to keep 
them in awe and obedience. The third may be called 
colonies of commerce; becaufe, in effeft, it is trade that 
is the occafion and objeft of their fettlement. 
It was by means of the firft kind of colonies, fome ages 
after the deluge, that the eaft firft, and fucceffively all the 
other parts of the earth, became inhabited : and with¬ 
out mentioning any thing of the Phoenician and Grecian 
colonies, fo famous in ancient hiftory, it is certain that 
it was for the eftablifhment of fuch colonies, that, during 
the declenfion of the empire, thofe torrents of barbarous 
nations, iffuing out of the north, over-ran the fouthern 
parts of Europe ; and, after feveral bloody battles, divid¬ 
ed the country with the ancient inhabitants. 
The fecond kind of colonies were adopted by the Ro-. 
mans more than by any other people; and that to fecure 
the conquefls they had made from the weft to the eaft. 
Many cities in Gaul, Germany,Spain, and even in England, 
value themfeives on their having been of the number of 
Roman colonies. There were indeed two kinds of colo¬ 
nies among the Romans : thofe fent by the fenate; and 
the military ones, confilting of foldiers, broken and dif- 
abled with the fatigues of war, who were thus provided 
with lands as the reward of their fervices. The colonies 
planted by the fenate were either Roman or Latin, i. e. 
compofed either of Roman citizens, or Latins. The Co¬ 
lonise Latin* were fuch as enjoyed the jus Latii : faid to 
confift in two things: one, that whoever was edile or 
pretor in a town of Latium, became for that reafon a Ro¬ 
man citizen : the other, that the Latins were fubjeft to 
the edifts of their own, and not to thofe of the Roman 
magiftrates: in the year of the city fix hundred and fix- 
ty-two, after the focial war, the city was granted to all La¬ 
tium, by the lex Julia. The colonioe Roman*, were fuch 
as had the jus Roraanum, but not in its full extent; 
namely, in the right of fuffrage, putting up for honours, 
magiftracies, commands in the army, &c. but the jusQuiri- 
tium only, or priyate right; as right of liberty, of genti¬ 
lity, or dignity of family, facrifice, marriage, &c. Ac¬ 
cording to Ulpian there were other colonies, which had 
little more than the name ; only enjoying what they call¬ 
ed jus Italicum , i. e. free from the tributes and taxes paid 
by the provinces. Such were the colonies of Tyre, Be- 
rytus, Heliopolis, Palmyra, &c. M. Vaillant has filled a 
volume with medals ftruck by the feveral colonies, in ho¬ 
nour of the emperors who founded them. 
Colonies of commerce, are thofe which have been efta- 
blifhed in more modern times by the Britifh, French, Spa¬ 
niards, Portuguefe andothernationsin feveral parts of Afia, 
Africa, and America; either to keep up a regular com¬ 
merce with the natives, or to cultivate the ground, by 
planting fugar-canes, indigo, tobacco, and other com¬ 
modities, The practice of fettling commercial colonies in 
diltant countries was alfo adopted by the wifeft nations of 
antiquity. This was the cafe with the ancient Egyp¬ 
tians, the Chinefe, the Phoenicians, the commercial ftates 
of Greece, the Carthaginians, and even the Romans ; for, 
though the colonies of the latter were chiefly military, it 
could eafily be fliewn that many of them were likewife 
made ufe of for the purpofes of trade. In glancing over 
o n y. 787 
our own fettlements on the coaft of Africa, the fettle* 
ment's of the Eaft India Company in India, the Chin a 
trade, Nootka Sound, and many other places, we fee land s 
and territories under very different circumftances, and 
dependent upon political confiderations of infinite va¬ 
riety; refpefting fome of which it mult be extremely dif¬ 
ficult to determine whether they are within the ftatute 7 
and 8 Will. III. c. 22, (for regulating the plantation 
trade,) as colonies or plantations; or indeed, which is 
a further doubt, whether they are within any part of the 
aft of navigation, as lands, iflands, or territories to his 
majefty belonging, or in his pofteflion. Thefe are quef- 
tions of great importance to the navigation lyftem, and 
deferve a ferious attention. 
As to the terms colony or plantation, whatever diftinftion 
may, at one time, have been made between them, there 
feems now to be none at all. The plantations of Ulfter, 
Virginia, Maryland, and other places, all implied the 
fame idea of introducing, inftituting, and eftablifhing, co¬ 
lonies, where every thing was defert before. Colony did 
not come much into ufe, with us, till the reign of Charles 
II. and it feems to have denoted the fort of political rela¬ 
tion in which fuch plantations (food to this kingdom. 
Thus the different parts of New England were, in a great 
meafure, voluntary focieties planted without the direction 
or participation of the Englifh government; fo that, in 
the time of Charles II. there were not wanting perfons 
who pretended to doubt of their conlfitutional depend- 
ance upon the crown of England ; and it was recom¬ 
mended, in order to put an end to fuch doubts, that the 
king ftiould appoint governors, and fo make them colo¬ 
nies. A colony therefore might be confidered as a plan¬ 
tation, when it had a governor and civil eftablifhment,, 
fubordinate to the mother country. All the plantations 
in America, except thofe of New England, had fuch an 
eftablifhment; and they were, upon that idea, colonies 
as well as plantations. Thofe terms feem accordingly to 
be uled without diftinftion in 7 and 8 Will. III. and in 
thofe made afterwards. 
Plantations or colonies, in diftant countries, (fays 
Biackftone,) are either fuch where the-iands are claimed 
by right of occupancy only, by finding them defert and 
uncultivated, and peopling them from the mother coun¬ 
try ; or where, when already cultivated, they have been 
either gained by conqueft, or ceded by treaties. And 
both thefe rights are founded upon the law of nature, 
or at leaft upon that of nations. But there is a difference 
between thefe two fpecies of colonies, with refpeft to the 
laws hy which they are bound, For it hath been held, 
that if an uninhabited country be difeovered and plant¬ 
ed by Englifh fubjefts, all the Englifh laws then in being, 
which are the birth-right of every fubjecc, are immedi¬ 
ately there in force. Salk. 411: 2 P. IVms. 75. But this 
mult be underftood with very many, and very great, re- 
ftriftions. Such colonifts carry with them only fo much 
of the Englifh law as is applicable to their own fituation 
and the condition of an infant colony; fuch, forinftance, 
as the general rules of inheritance, and of protection 
from perfonal injuries. The artificial refinements and 
diftinftions incident to the property of a great and com¬ 
mercial people, the laws of police and revenue, (fuch 
efpecially as are inforced by penalties,) the mode of 
maintenance for the eftablifhed clergy, the jurifdiftion of 
fpiritual courts, and a multitude of other provifions, are 
neither neceffary nor convenient for them, and therefore 
are not in force. What final be admitted and what re- 
jefted, at what times, and under what reftriftions, mutt, 
in cafe of difpute, be decided in the firft inftance by their 
own provincial judicature, fubjeft to the revifion and con¬ 
trol of the king in council: the whole of their conftitu- 
tion being alfo liable to be new-modelled and reformed 
by the general fuperintending power of the legislature in 
the mother country. But in conquered or ceded coun¬ 
tries, that have already laws of their own, the king may 
indeed alter and change thofe laws: but, till he does ac¬ 
tually change them, the ancient laws of the country re- 
4 mala. 
