NEW ENGLAND, late a province of the British empire in America, is bounded on the north by Canada, on the east by Nova Scotia and the Atlantic ocean, on the south by the Atlantic and Long Island, and on the west by New York. It lies in the form of a quarter of a circle. Its west line, beginning at the mouth of Byram river, which empties into Long Island, found at the south-west corner of Connecticut, latitude 41°, runs a little east of north, until it strikes the 45th degree of latitude, and then
curves to the eastward almost to the gulf of St. Lawrence.
This country was discovered in the beginning of the last century, and called North Virginia; but no Europeans settled there till the year 1608. The first colony, which was weak and ill-directed, did not succeed; and, for some time, there were only a few adventurers who came over at times in the summer, built themselves temporary huts for the sake of trading with the savages, and, like them, disappeared again for the
rest of the year. At last some Brownists, headed by Mr Robinson, whom Neal styles the Father of the Independents, who in 1610 had been driven from England by persecution, fled to Holland, and settled at Leyden; but in 1621 determined, with Mr Brewster assistant-preacher to Mr Robinson, to found a church for their sect in the new hemisphere. They therefore purchased, in 1521, the charter of the English North Virginia-company. Forty-one families, making in all 120 persons, landed in the beginning of a very hard winter, and found a country entirely covered with wood, which offered a very melancholy prospect to men already exhausted with the fatigues of their voyage. Near one half perished either by cold, the scurvy, or other distrels. The courage of the rest was beginning to fail; when it was revived by the arrival of 60 savage warriors, who came to them in the spring, headed by their chief. The old tenants assigned for ever to the new ones all the lands in the neighbourhood of the settlement they had formed, under the name of New Plymouth; and one of the savages who understood a little English staid to teach them how to cultivate the maize, and instruct them in the manner of fishing upon their coast.
This kindness enabled the colony to wait for the companions they expected from Europe with seeds, with domestic animals, and with every assistance they wanted. At first these succours arrived but slowly; but the persecution of the Puritans in England increased the number of proselytes to such a degree in America, that in 1620 they were obliged to form different settlements, of which Boston soon became the principal. These first settlers were not merely ecclesiastics, who had been deprived of their preferments on account of their opinions; nor those sectaries influenced by new opinions, that are so frequent among the common people. There were among them several persons of high rank, who, having embraced Puritanism, had taken the precaution to secure themselves an asylum in these distant regions. They had caused houses to be built, and lands to be cleared, with a view of retiring there, if there endeavours in the cause of civil and religious liberty should prove abortive.
The inhabitants of New England lived peaceably for a long time, without any regular form of policy. Their charter had indeed authorized them to establish any mode of government they might choose; but these enthusiasts were not agreed among themselves upon the plan of their republic, and government did not pay sufficient attention to them to urge them to secure their own tranquillity. At length they grew sensible of the necessity of a regular legislation; and this great work, which virtue and genius united have never attempted but with diffidence, was boldly undertaken by blind fanaticism. It bore the stamp of the rude prejudices on which it had been formed. There was in this new code a singular mixture of good and evil, of wisdom and folly. No man was allowed to have a share in the government except he were a member of the established church. Witchcraft, perjury, blasphemy, and adultery, were made capital offences; and children were also punished with death, either for cursing or striking their parents. Marriages, however, were to be solemnized by the magistrate. The price of corn was fixed at 2s. 11d. per bushel. The savages who ne-
glected to cultivate their lands were to be deprived of them; and Europeans were forbidden under a heavy penalty to sell them any strong liquors or warlike stores. All those who were detected either in lying, drunkenness, or dancing, were ordered to be publicly whipped. But at the same time that amusements were forbidden equally with vices and crimes, one might be allowed to swear by paying a penalty of 11d. and to break the sabbath for 2s. 19s. 9d. Another indulgence allowed was, to atone, by a fine, for a neglect of prayer, or for uttering a rash oath. But it is still more extraordinary, that the worship of images was forbidden to the Puritans on pain of death; which was also inflicted on Roman Catholic priests, who should return to the colony after they had been banished; and on Quakers who should appear again after having been whipped, branded, and expelled. Such was the abhorrence for these sectaries, who had themselves an aversion for every kind of cruelty, that whoever either brought one of them into the country, or harboured him but for one hour, was liable to pay a considerable fine.
Those unfortunate members of the colony, who, less violent than their brethren, ventured to deny the coercive power of the magistrate in matters of religion, were persecuted with still greater rigour. This was considered as blasphemy by those very divines who had rather chosen to quit their country than to show any deference to Episcopal authority. This system was supported by the severities of the law, which attempted to put a stop to every difference in opinion, by inflicting capital punishment on all who dissented. Those who were either convicted, or even suspected, of entertaining sentiments of toleration, were exposed to such cruel oppressions, that they were forced to fly from their first asylum, and seek refuge in another. They found one on the same continent; and as New England had been first founded by persecution, its limits were extended by it.
This intemperate religious zeal extended itself to matters in themselves of the greatest indifference. A proof of this is found in the following public declaration, transcribed from the registers of the colony.
" It is a circumstance universally acknowledged, Law 2.
" that the custom of wearing long hair, after the gainst
" manner of immoral persons and of the savage In-
" dians, can have been introduced into England only
" in sacrilegious contempt of the express command of
" God, who declares that it is a shameful practice for
" any man who has the least care for his soul to wear
" long hair. As this abomination excites the indignation of all pious persons; we, the magistrates, in
" our zeal for the purity of the faith, do expressly
" and authentically declare, that we condemn the impious custom of letting the hair grow; a custom
" which we look upon to be very indecent and dishonest, which horribly disguises men, and is offensive
" to modest and sober persons, in as much as it corrupts good manners. We therefore, being justly incensed against this scandalous custom, do desire,
" advise, and earnestly request all the elders of our continent, zealously to shew their aversion for this odious practice, to exert all their power to put a stop to it, and especially to take care that the members of their churches be not infected with it; in
" order
" order that those persons who, notwithstanding these
" rigorous prohibitions, and the means of correction
" that shall be used on this account, shall still persist in
" this custom, shall have both God and man at the same
" time against them."
This severity soon exerted itself against the Quakers. They were whipped, banished, and imprisoned. The behaviour of these new enthusiasts, who in the midst of tortures and ignominy praised God, and called for blessings upon men, inspired a reverence for their persons and opinions, and gained them a number of proselytes. This circumstance exasperated their persecutors, and hurried them on to the most atrocious acts of violence; and they caused five of them, who had returned clandestinely from banishment, to be hanged. This spirit of persecution was, however, at last suppressed by the interposition of the mother-country, from whence it had been brought. Charles II. moved with the sufferings of the Quakers, put a stop to them by a proclamation in 1661; but he was never able totally to extinguish the spirit of persecution that prevailed in America.
The colony had placed at their head Henry Vane, the son of that Sir Henry Vane who had such a remarkable share in the disturbances of his country. This obdurate and enthusiastic young man had contrived to revive the questions of grace and free will. The disputes upon these points ran very high; and would probably have plunged the colony into a civil war, if several of the savage nations united had not happened at that very time to fall upon the plantations of the disputants, and to massacre great numbers of them. The colonists, heated with their theological contests, paid at first very little attention to this considerable loss. But the danger at length became so urgent and so general, that all took up arms. As soon as the enemy was repulsed, the colony resumed its former dissensions; and the frenzy which they excited broke out in 1692 in a war, marked with as many atrocious instances of violence as any ever recorded in history.
There lived in a town of New England, called Salem, two young women who were subject to convulsions, accompanied with extraordinary symptoms. Their father, minister of the church, thought that they were bewitched; and having in consequence cast his suspicions upon an Indian girl who lived in his house, he compelled her by harsh treatment to confess that she was a witch. Other women, upon hearing this, immediately believed, that the convulsions, which proceeded only from the nature of their sex, were owing to the same cause. Three citizens, casually named, were immediately thrown into prison, accused of witchcraft, hanged, and their bodies left exposed to wild beasts and birds of prey. A few days after, 16 other persons, together with a counsellor, who, because he refused to plead against them, was supposed to share in their guilt, suffered in the same manner. From this instant, the imagination of the multitude was inflamed with these horrid and gloomy scenes. Children of ten years of age were put to death, young girls were stripped naked, and the marks of witchcraft searched for upon their bodies with the most indecent curiosity; and those spots of the scurvy which age impresses upon the bodies of old men were taken for evident signs of the
infernal power. In default of these, torments were employed to extort confessions dictated by the executioners themselves. If the magistrates, tired out with executions, refused to punish, they were themselves accused of the crimes they tolerated; the very ministers of religion raised false witnesses against them, who made them forfeit with their lives the tardy remorse excited in them by humanity. Dreams, apparitions, terror, and confirmation of every kind, increased these prodigies of folly and horror. The prisons were filled, the gibbets left standing, and all the citizens involved in gloomy apprehensions. The most prudent quitted the country stained with the blood of its inhabitants; and nothing less than the total and immediate subversion of the colony was expected, when, on a sudden, all eyes were opened at once, and the excess of the evil awakened the minds which it had first stupified. Bitter and painful remorse was the immediate consequence; the mercy of God was implored by a general fast, and public prayers were offered up to ask forgiveness for the presumption of having supposed that Heaven could have been pleased with sacrifices with which it could only have been offended.
Posterity will probably never know exactly what was the cause or remedy of this dreadful disorder. It had, perhaps, its first origin in the melancholy which those persecuted enthusiasts had brought with them from their own country, which had increased with the scurvy they had contracted at sea, and had gathered fresh strength from the inconveniences and hardships inseparable from a change of climate and manner of living. The contagion, however, ceased like all other epidemical distempers, exhausted by its very communication. A perfect calm succeeded this agitation; and the Puritans of New England have never since been seized with so gloomy a fit of enthusiasm.
But though the colony has renounced the persecuting spirit which hath stained all religious sects with blood, it has preserved some remains, if not of intolerance, at least of severity, which remind us of those melancholy days in which it took its rise. Some of its laws are still too severe.
New England had, however, some remedy against bad laws, in the constitution of its mother-country, where the people who have the legislative power in their own hands are at liberty to correct abuses; and it has others derived from its situation, which open a vast field to industry and population.
The clearing of the lands in this colony is not directed by chance as in the other provinces. This matter from the first was subjected to laws which are still religiously observed. No citizen whatever has the liberty of settling even upon unoccupied land. The government, desirous of preserving all its members from the inroads of the savages, and of placing them in a condition to share in the protection of a well-regulated society, hath ordered that whole villages should be formed at once. As soon as 60 families offer to build a church, maintain a clergyman, and pay a school master, the general assembly allot them a situation, and permit them to have two representatives in the legislative body of the colony. The district assigned them always borders upon the lands already cleared, and generally contains 60,000 square acres. These new people chose the situation most convenient for their habita-
tion, which is usually of a square figure. The church is placed in the centre; the colonists divide the land among themselves, and each incloses his property with a hedge. Some woods are reserved for a common; and thus New England is constantly enlarging its territory, though it still continues to make one complete and well constituted province.
The country was divided into four states, which at first had no connexion with one another. The necessity of maintaining an armed force against the savages, obliged them to form a confederacy in 1643, when they took the name of the United Colonies. In consequence of this league, two deputies from each establishment used to meet in a stated place to deliberate upon the common affairs of New England, according to the instructions they had received from the assembly by which they were sent. This association laid no constraint upon the right of every individual to act entirely as he pleased, without either the permission or approbation of the mother-country. All the submission required of these provinces was merely to acknowledge the kings of England for their sovereigns. Charles II. wished to make them more dependent. The province of Massachusetts bay, which, though the smallest, was the richest and the most populous of the four, being guilty of some misdemeanour against government, the king seized that opportunity of taking away its charter in 1684: and it remained without one till the revolution; when it received another, which, however, did not answer its claims or expectations. The crown reserved to itself the right of nominating the governor, and appointing to all military employments, and to all principal posts in the civil and juridical departments: it allowed the people of the colony their legislative power, and gave the governor a negative voice and the command of the troops, which secured him a sufficient influence to enable him to maintain the prerogative of the mother-country in all its force. The provinces of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, by timely submission, prevented the punishment which that of Massachusetts had incurred, and retained their original charter. That of New-Hampshire had been always regulated by the same mode of administration as the province of Massachusetts bay. The same governor presided over the whole colony, but with regulations adapted to the constitution of each province. To the above states, another has been added since the revolution, viz. VERMONT. These states are subdivided into counties, and the counties into townships.
New England is a high, hilly, and in some parts a mountainous country, formed by nature to be inhabited by a hardy race of free, independent republicans. The mountains are comparatively small, running nearly north and south in ridges parallel to each other. Between these ridges flow the great rivers in majestic meanders, receiving the innumerable rivulets and larger streams which proceed from the mountains on each side. To a spectator on the top of a neighbouring mountain, the vales between the ridges, while in a state of nature, exhibit a romantic appearance. They seem an ocean of woods, swelled and depressed in its surface like that of the great ocean itself. A richer though less romantic view is presented, when the valleys, by industrious husbandmen, have been cleared of their natural growth; and the fruit of their labour ap-
pears in loaded orchards, extensive meadows, covered with large herds of sheep and neat cattle, and rich fields of flax, corn, and the various kinds of grain. These valleys, which have received the expressive name of interval lands, are of various breadths, from two to 20 miles; and by the annual inundations of the rivers which flow through them, there is frequently an accumulation of rich, fat soil, left upon their surface when the waters retire.
There are four principal ranges of mountains, passing nearly from north-east to south-west through New England. These consist of a multitude of parallel ridges, each having many spurs, deviating from the course of the general range; which spurs are again broken into irregular hilly land. The main ridges terminate, sometimes in high bluff heads, near the sea-coast, and sometimes by a gradual descent in the interior part of the country. One of the main ranges runs between Connecticut and Hudson's rivers. This range branches and bounds the vales through which flows the Housatonic river. The most eastern ridge of this range terminates in a bluff head at Meriden; a second ends in like manner at Willingford, and a third at New Haven. In Lyme, on the east side of Connecticut river, another range of mountains commences, forming the eastern boundary of Connecticut vale. This range tends northerly, at the distance, generally, of about 10 or 12 miles east from the river, and passes through Massachusetts, where the range takes the name of Chickabee Mountain; thence crossing into New Hampshire, at the distance of about 20 miles from the Massachusetts line, it runs up into a very high peak, called Monadnock, which terminates this ridge of the range. A western ridge continues, and in about latitude 43° 20' runs up into Sumpter mountains. About 50 miles further, in the same ridge, is Mooscoog mountain. A third range begins near Stonington in Connecticut. It takes its course north-eastward, and is sometimes broken and discontinued; it then rises again, and ranges in the same direction into New Hampshire, where, in latitude 43° 25', it runs up into a high peak called Cowasawkeg. The fourth range has a humble beginning about Hopkinton in Massachusetts. The eastern ridge of this range runs north by Watertown and Concord, and crosses Merrimack river at Pantucket Falls. In New Hampshire, it rises into several high peaks, of which the White mountains are the principal. From these White mountains a range continues north-east, crossing the east boundary of New Hampshire, in latitude 44° 30', and forms the height of land between Kennebec and Chaudiere rivers. These ranges of mountains are full of lakes, ponds, and springs of water, that give rise to numberless streams of various sizes, which, interlocking each other in every direction, and falling over the rocks in romantic cascades, flow meandering into the rivers below. No country on the globe is better watered than New England.
On the sea-coast the land is low, and in many parts level and sandy. In the valleys, between the forementioned ranges of mountains, the land is generally broken, and in many places rocky, but of a strong rich soil, capable of being cultivated to good advantage, which also is the case with many spots even on the tops of the mountains.
The soil, as may be collected from what has been said, must be very various. Each tract of different soil is distinguished by its peculiar vegetation, and is pronounced good, middling, or bad, from the species of trees which it produces; and from one species generally predominating in each soil, has originated the descriptive names of oak land, birch, beech, and chestnut lands, pine, barren, maple, ash, and cedar swamps, as each species happens to predominate. Intermingled with those predominating species are walnut, fir, elm, hemlock, magnolia, moose-wood, sassafras, &c. &c. The best lands produce walnut and chestnut; the next, beech and oak; lands of the third quality produce fir and pitch-pine; the next, whortleberry and barberry bushes; and the poorest produce nothing but marshy imperfect shrubs. Among the flowering trees and shrubs in the forests are the red-flowering maple, the sassafras, the locust-tree, the tulip-tree, honeyfuckle, wild rose, dogwood, elm, leather-tree, laurel, hawthorn, &c. which in the spring of the year give the woods a most beautiful appearance, and fill them with a delicious fragrance. Among the fruits which grow wild, are the several kinds of grapes; which are small, sour, and thick skinned. The vines on which they grow are very luxuriant, often overspreading the highest trees in the forests; and without doubt, may be greatly meliorated by proper cultivation. Besides these, are the wild cherries, white and red mulberries, cranberries, walnuts, hazel nuts, chestnuts, butter nuts, beech nuts, wild plums and pears, whortle-berries, bilberries, gooseberries, strawberries, &c.
The soil in the interior country is calculated for the culture of Indian corn, rye, oats, barley, flax, and hemp (for which the soil and climate are peculiarly proper), buck-wheat, beans, peas, &c. In many of the inland parts wheat is raised in large quantities; but on the sea-coast it has never been cultivated with success, being subject to blasts. The fruits which the country yields from culture, are apples in the greatest plenty; of these cyder is made, which constitutes the principal drink of the inhabitants; also, pears of various sorts, quinces, peaches (from which is made peach brandy,) plums, cherries, apricots, &c. The culinary plants are such as have already been enumerated. New England is a fine grazing country; the valleys between the hills are generally intersected with brooks of water, the banks of which are lined with a tract of rich meadow or interval land. The high and rocky ground is, in many parts, covered with honeyfuckle, and generally affords the finest of pasture. It will not be a matter of wonder, therefore, that New England boasts of raising some of the finest cattle in the world; nor will she be envied, when the labour of raising them is taken into view. Two months of the hottest season in the year the farmers are employed in procuring food for their cattle; and the cold winter is spent in dealing it out to them. The pleasure and profit of doing this, is however a satisfying compensation to the honest and industrious farmer.
New England is the most populous part of the United States. It contains at least 823,000 souls. One fifth of these are fencible men. New England then, should any great and sudden emergency require it,
could furnish an army of 164,600 men. The great body of these are land-holders and cultivators of the soil. The former attaches them to their country; the latter, by making them strong and healthy, enables them to defend it. The boys are early taught the use of arms, and make the best of soldiers. Few countries on earth, of equal extent and population, can furnish a more formidable army than this part of the union.
New England may, with propriety, be called a nursery of men, whence are annually transplanted, into other parts of the United States, thousands of its natives. The state of Vermont, which is but of yesterday, and contains about 100,000 souls, has received more inhabitants from Connecticut than from any other state; and yet between the years 1774 and 1782, notwithstanding her numerous emigrations to Vermont, Sassequahannah, and other places, and the depopulation occasioned by a seven years bloody war, it is found, from an actual census of the inhabitants in the years before-mentioned, that they have increased from 197,856, their number in 1774, to 290,150, their number in 1782. Vast numbers of the New Englanders, since the war, have emigrated into the northern parts of New York, into Kentucky and the Western Territory, and into Georgia; and some are scattered into every state, and every town of note in the union.
The New Englanders are generally tall, stout, and well built. They glory, and perhaps with justice, in possessing that spirit of freedom which induced their ancestors to leave their native country, and to brave the dangers of the ocean and the hardships of settling in a wilderness. Their education, laws, and situation, serve to inspire them with high notions of liberty. Their jealousy is awakened at the first motion toward an invasion of their rights. They are indeed often jealous to excess; a circumstance which is a fruitful source of imaginary grievances, and of innumerable groundless suspicions and unjust complaints against government. A law, respecting the descent of estates which are generally held in fee simple, which for sublimitance is the same in all the New England states, is the chief foundation and protection of this liberty. By this law, the possessions of the father are to be equally divided among all the children, excepting the eldest son, who has a double portion. In this way is preserved that happy mediocrity among the people, which, by inducing economy and industry, removes from them temptations to luxury, and forms them to habits of sobriety and temperance. At the same time, their industry and frugality exempt them from want, and from the necessity of submitting to any encroachment on their liberties.
In New England, learning is more generally diffused among all ranks of people than in almost any other part of the globe; arising from the excellent establishment of schools in every township. Another source of information to the people is the newspapers, of which not less than 30,000 are printed every week in New England, and circulated in almost every town and village in the country. A person of mature age, who cannot both read and write, is rarely to be found. By means of this general establishment of schools, the extensive circulation of newspapers, and the consequent spread of learning, every township throughout the country is furnished with men capable of conducting.
ting the affairs of their town with judgment and discretion. These men are the channels of political information to the lower class of people; if such a class may be said to exist in New England, where every man thinks himself at least as good as his neighbour, and believes that all mankind are, or ought to be, equal. The people from their childhood form habits of canvassing public affairs, and commence politicians. This naturally leads them to be very inquisitive. This desire after knowledge, in a greater or lesser degree, prevails throughout all classes of people in New England: and from their various modes of expressing it, some of which are blunt and familiar, bordering on impertinence, strangers have been induced to mention impertinent inquisitiveness as a distinguishing characteristic of New England people.—Each man also has his independent system of politics; and each assumes a dictatorial office. Hence originates that restless, litigious, complaining spirit, which forms a dark shade in the character of New Englandmen.
Before the American war, which introduced into New England a flood of corruptions, with many improvements, the Sabbath was observed with great strictness; no unnecessary travelling, no secular business, no visiting, no diversions, were permitted on that sacred day. They considered it as consecrated to divine worship, and were generally punctual and serious in their attendance upon it. Their laws were strict in guarding the Sabbath against every innovation. The supposed severity with which these laws were composed and executed, together with some other traits in their religious character, have acquired, for the New Englanders, the name of a superstitious bigotted people. But superstition and bigotry are so indefinite in their significations, and so variously applied by persons of different principles and educations, that it is not easy to determine how far they deserved that character. Leaving every person to enjoy his own opinion in regard to this matter, we will only observe, that, since the war, a catholic tolerant spirit, occasioned by a more enlarged intercourse with mankind, has greatly increased, and is becoming universal; and if they do not break the proper bound, and liberalize away all true religion, of which there is much danger, they will counteract that strong propensity in human nature, which leads men to vibrate from one extreme to its opposite.
There is one distinguishing characteristic in the religious character of this people, which we must not omit to mention; and that is, the custom of annually celebrating fasts and thanksgivings. In the spring, the several governors issue their proclamations, appointing a day to be religiously observed in fasting, humiliation, and prayer, throughout their respective states, in which the predominating vices, that particularly call for humiliation, are enumerated. In autumn, after harvest, that gladtime era in the husbandman's life, the governors again issue their proclamations appointing a day of public thanksgiving, enumerating the public blessings received in the course of the foregoing year. This pious custom originated with their venerable ancestors, the first settlers of New England; and has been handed down as sacred through the successive generations of their posterity. A custom so rational, and so happily calculated to cherish in the minds of the people a sense of their dependence on the great Bene-
factor of the world for all their blessings, it is hoped will ever be sacredly preserved.
The people of New England generally obtain their estates by hard and persevering labour: They of consequence know their value, and spend with frugality. Yet in no country do the indigent and unfortunate fare better. Their laws oblige every town to provide a competent maintenance for their poor; and the necessitous stranger is protected and relieved from their humane institutions. It may in truth be said, that in no part of the world are the people happier, better furnished with the necessaries and conveniences of life, or more independent than the farmers in New England. As the great body of the people are hardy independent freeholders, their manners are, as they ought to be, congenial to their employment, plain, simple, and unpolished. Strangers are received and entertained among them with a great deal of artless sincerity and friendly informal hospitality. Their children, those imitative creatures, to whose education particular attention is paid, early imbibe the manners and habits of those around them; and the stranger, with pleasure, notices the honest and decent respect that is paid him by the children as he passes through the country.
As the people, by representation, make their own laws and appoint their own officers, they cannot be oppressed; and living under governments which have few lucrative places, they have few motives to bribery, corrupt canvassings, or intrigue. Real abilities and a moral character unblemished are the qualifications requisite in the view of most people for offices of public trust. The expression of a wish to be promoted is the direct way to be disappointed.
The inhabitants of New England are generally fond of the arts, and have cultivated them with great success. Their colleges have flourished beyond any others in the United States. The illustrious characters they have produced, who have distinguished themselves in politics, law, divinity, the mathematics and philosophy, natural and civil history, and in the fine arts, particularly in poetry, evince the truth of these observations.
Many of the women in New England are handsome. They generally have fair, fresh, and healthful countenances, mingled with much female softness and delicacy. Those who have had the advantages of a good education (and they are considerably numerous) are genteel, easy, and agreeable in their manners, and are sprightly and sensible in conversation. They are early taught to manage domestic concerns with neatness and economy. Ladies of the first rank and fortune make it a part of their daily business to superintend the affairs of the family. Employment at the needle, in cookery, and at the spinning-wheel, with them is honourable. Idleness, even in those of independent fortunes, is universally disreputable. The women in the country manufacture the greatest part of the clothing of their families. Their linen and woollen cloths are strong and decent. Their butter and cheese is not inferior to any in the world.
Dancing is the principal and favourite amusement in New England; and of this the young people of both sexes are extremely fond. Gaming is practised by none but those who cannot or rather will not find a reputable employment. The gamster, the horse-jockey, and the knave, are equally despised, and their company is avoided.
avoided by all who would sustain fair and irreprouachable characters. The odious and inhuman practices of duelling, gouging, cock-fighting, and horse-racing, are scarcely known here.—The athletic and healthy diversions of cricket, football, quoits, wrestling, jumping, foot-races, &c. are universally practised in the country, and some of them in the most populous places, and by people of almost all ranks. Squirrel-hunting is a noted diversion in country places, where this kind of game is plenty. Some divert themselves with fox-hunting, and others with the more profitable sports of fishing and duck-hunting; and in the frontier settlements, where deer and fur game abound, the inhabitants make a lucrative sport of hunting them. In the winter season, while the ground is covered with snow, which is commonly two or three months, sleighing is the general diversion. A great part of the families throughout the country are furnished with horses and sleighs.
New England has no one staple commodity. The ocean and the forests afford the two principal articles of export. Cod-fish, mackerel, haddock, salmon, and other fish, whale-oil and whale-bone, masts, boards, scantling, staves, hoops, and stringers, have been and are still exported in large quantities. The annual amount of cod and other fish for foreign exportation, including the profits arising from the whale-fishery, is estimated at upwards of half a million.—Besides the articles enumerated, they export from the various parts of New England ships built for sale, horses, mules, live stock, pickled beef and pork, pot-ash, pearl-ash, flax-seed, butter and cheese, rum, &c. The balance of trade, as far as imperfect calculations will enable us to judge, has generally been against New England; not from any unavoidable necessity, but from her extravagant importations. From a view of the annual imports into New England, it appears that the greatest part of them consists of the luxuries, or at best the dispensable conveniences of life; the country affords the necessaries in great abundance.