In 1740 Mrs. Cursette, an English lady, travelling from New-York to

Boston, was obliged to stay some days at Hebron; when, seeing the

church not finished, and the people suffering great persecutions, she

told them to persevere in their good work, and she would send them a

present when she got to Boston. Soon after her arrival there Mrs.

Cursette fell sick and died. In her will she gave a legacy of 300_l._

old tenor (then equal to 100_l._ sterling) to the Church of England in

Hebron, and appointed John Handcock, Esq. and Nathaniel Glover, her

executors. Glover was also her residuary legatee. The will was obliged

to be recorded in Windham County, because some of Mrs. Cursette’s

lands lay there. Glover sent the will to Deacon S. H----, of Canterbury,

ordering him to get it recorded, and keep it private, lest the legacy

should build up the Church. The Deacon and Registrar were faithful to

their trust, and kept Glover’s secret twenty-five years. At length the

Deacon was taken ill, and his life was supposed in great danger. Among

his penitential confessions, he told of his having concealed Mrs.

Cursette’s will. His confidant went to Hebron, and informed the

wardens that for one guinea he would discover a secret of 300_l._ old

tenor consequence to the Church. The guinea was paid and the secret

disclosed. A demand of the legacy ensued. Mr. Handcock referred to

Glover, and Glover said he was neither obliged to publish the will nor

pay the legacy: it had lapsed to the heir-at-law. It being difficult

for a Connecticut man to recover a debt in the Massachusets-Bay, and

_vice versa_, the wardens were obliged to accept from Mr. Glover

30_l._ instead of 300_l._ sterling; which sum, allowing 200_l._ as

lawful simple interest at six per cent. for twenty-five years, ought

in equity have been paid. This matter, however, Mr. Glover is to

settle with Mrs. Cursette in the other world.

Newhaven is celebrated for having given the name of “pumpkin-heads” to

all the New-Englanders. It originated from the “Blue Laws,” which

enjoined every male to have his hair cut round by a cap. When caps

were not to be had, they substituted the hard shell of a pumpkin,

which being put on the head every Saturday, the hair is cut by the

shell all round the head. Whatever religious virtue is supposed to be

derived from this custom, I know not; but there is much prudence in

it: first, it prevents the hair from snarling; secondly, it saves the

use of combs, bags, and ribbons; thirdly, the hair cannot incommode

the eyes by falling over them; and fourthly, such persons as have lost

their ears for heresy, and other wickedness, cannot conceal their

misfortune and disgrace.

Cruelty and godliness were perhaps never so well reconciled by any

people as by those of Newhaven, who are alike renounded for both. The

unhappy story of Deacon Potter has eternalized the infamy of their

Blue Laws, and almost annexed to their town the name of Sodom. The

Deacon had borne the best of characters many years; he was the

peacemaker, and an enemy to persecution; but he was grown old, was

rich, and had a young wife. His young wife had an inclination for a

young husband, and had waited with impatience for the death of her old

one, till at length, resolving, if possible, to accelerate the

attainment of her wishes, she complained to the magistrate that her

husband did not render her due benevolence. The Judge took no notice

of what she said. She then swore that her husband was an apostate, and

that he was fonder of his mare, bitch, and cow, than of her; in which

allegation she was joined by her son. The Deacon was brought to trial,

condemned, and executed with the beasts, and with them also buried in

one common grave. Dr. Mather, with his usual quantity of faith, speaks

of the Deacon as very guilty, as having had a fair, legal, and candid

trial, and convicted on good and scriptural evidence. I am willing to

allow the Doctor as much sincerity as faith. He had his information

from the party who condemned the Deacon; but there are manuscripts,

which I have seen, that state the matter thus: Deacon Potter was

hanged for heresy and apostacy, which consisted in showing hospitality

to strangers, who came to his house in the night, among whom were

Quakers, Anabaptists, and Adamites. This was forbidden by the Blue

Laws, which punished for the first and second offence with fines, and

with death for the third. His wife and son betrayed him for hiding the

spies and sending them away in peace. The Court was contented with

calling his complicated crimes beastiality; his widow with a new

husband; and the son with the estate; while the public were deceived

by the arts of the wicked junto.

I have related this story to shew the danger of admitting a wife to

give evidence against her husband, according to the Blue Laws; and to

caution all readers against crediting too much the historians of

New-England, who, either from motives of fear or emolument, have in

numberless instances designedly disguised or concealed the truth. Such

persons whose stubborn principles would not bend to this yoke, were

not suffered to search the colonial records; and those who have dared

to intimate that all was not right among the first settlers, have been

compelled to leave the country with the double loss of character and

property.

To Newhaven now belongs Yale College, of which I have promised my

readers a particular account. It was originally, as already mentioned,

a School, established by the Rev. Thomas Peters at Saybrook, who left

it his library at his death. It soon acquired the distinguished

appellation of “Schola Illustris,” and about 1700 was honoured by the

General Assembly with a charter of incorporation, converting it into a

college, under the denomination of Yale College, in compliment to a

gentleman of that name, governor of one of the West India Islands, and

its greatest benefactor. The charter constitutes a president, three

tutors, twelve overseers, and a treasurer; and exempts it from any

visitation of the Governor or Assembly, in order to secure it against

the control of a King’s Governor, in case one should ever be

appointed. I have already observed that a power of conferring

Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees was granted by the charter, and that

the corporation have thought proper to assume that of conferring

Doctors’ degrees. By the economical regulations of the College, there

are a professor of divinity, mathematics, and natural philosophy; and

four classes of students, which were at first attended by the

president and the three tutors; but the president has long been

excused that laborious task, and a fourth tutor appointed in his

stead. Each class has its proper tutor. Once a week the president

examines them all in the public hall, superintends their disputations

and scientific demonstrations, and, if any student appears to be

negligent, orders him under the care of a special tutor--a stigma which

seldom fails of producing its intended effect. Greek, Latin,

geography, history, and logic, are well taught in this seminary; but

it suffers for want of tutors to teach the Hebrew, French, and Spanish

languages. Oratory, music, and politeness, are equally neglected here

and in the colony. The students attend prayers every morning and

evening, at six o’clock. The president, professor, and one of the

tutors, reads and expounds a chapter, then a psalm is sung, after

which follows a prayer. The hours of study are notified by the College

bell, and every scholar seen out of his room is liable to a fine,

which is seldom excused. The amusements for the evenings are not

cards, dancing, or music, but reading and composition. They are

allowed two hours’ play with foot-ball every day. Thus cooped up for

four years, they understand books better than men or manners. They

then are admitted to their Bachelor’s degree, having undergone a

public examination in the arts and sciences. Three years afterwards

they are admitted to their Master’s degree, provided they have

supported moral characters. The ceremony used by the president upon

these occasions is to deliver a book to the intended Master in Arts,

saying: “Admitto te ad secundum Gradum in Artibus, pro more

Acadæmiarum in Anglia; tradoque tibi hunc librum, una cum protestate

publici prælegendi quoties cunque ad hoc munus evocatus fueris.” For

Bachelors the same, mutatis mutandis. A diploma in vellum, with the

seal of the College, is given to each Master, and signed by the

president and six fellows or overseers. The first degrees of Masters

were given in 1702. The students in late years have amounted to about

180. They dine in the common hall at four tables, and the tutors and

graduates at a fifth. The number of the whole is about 200.

Yale College is built with wood, and painted a sky colour; it is 160

feet long and three stories high, besides garrets. In 1754, another

building of brick, 100 feet long and three stories high, exclusive of

garrets, with double rooms, and a double front, was added, and called

Connecticut Hall. About 1760, a very elegant chapel and library was

erected, with brick, under one roof. But it cannot be supposed the

latter is to be compared with the Vatican or the Bodleian. It consists

of eight or ten thousand volumes in all branches of literature, but

wants modern books; though there is a tolerable sufficiency, if the

corporation would permit what they call Bishops’ and Arminian books to

be read. Ames’ Medulla is allowed, while Grotius de Veritate

Religionis is denied. It was lately presented with a new and valuable

apparatus for experimental philosophy. The whole library and apparatus

was given by various persons, chiefly English.

The General Assembly have endowed this College with large tracts of

land, which, duly cultivated, will soon support the ample

establishment of an university; but, even at present, I may truly say,

Yale College exceeds the number, and perhaps the learning, of its

scholars all over British America. This seminary was in 1717 removed

from Saybrook to Newhaven; the extraordinary cause of its transition I

shall here lay before the reader.

Saybrook Dominion had been settled by Puritans of some moderation and

decency. They had not joined with Massachusets-Bay, Hertford, and

Newhaven, in sending home agents to assist in the murder of Charles I.

and the subversion of the Lords and Bishops; they had received

Hooker’s heretics, and sheltered the apostate from Davenport’s

millenarian system; they had shewn an inclination to be dependent on

the Mother Country, and had not wholly anathematized the Church of

England. In short, the people of Hertford and Newhaven suspected that

Saybrook was not truly protestant; that it had a passion for the leeks

and onions of Egypt; and that the youth belonging to them in the

“Schola Illustris” were in great danger of imbibing its lukewarmness.

A vote therefore passed at Hertford, to remove the College to

Weathersfield, where the leeks and onions of Egypt would not be

thought of; and another at Newhaven, that it should be removed to that

town, where Christ had established his dominion from sea to sea, and

where he was to begin his millenarian reign. About 1715 Hertford, in

order to carry its vote into execution, prepared teams, boats, and a

mob, and privately set off for Saybrook, and seized upon the College

apparatus, library, and students, and carried all to Weathersfield.

This redoubled the jealousy of the saints at Newhaven, who thereupon

determined to fulfil their vote; and, accordingly, having collected a

mob sufficient for the enterprise, they sat out for Weathersfield,

where they seized by surprise the students, library, &c. &c. But, on

the road to Newhaven, they were overtaken by the Hertford mob, who,

however, after an unhappy battle, were obliged to retire with only a

part of the library and part of the students. Hence sprung two

colleges out of one. The quarrel increased daily, everybody expecting

a war more bloody than that of Sassacus; and no doubt such would have

been the case, had not the peacemakers of Massachusets-Bay interposed

with their usual friendship, and advised their dear friends of

Hertford to give up the College to Newhaven. This was accordingly done

in 1717, to the great joy of the crafty Massachusets, who always

greedily seek their own prosperity, though it ruin their best

neighbours.

The College being thus fixed forty miles further west from Boston than

it was before, tended greatly to the interest of Harvard College; for

Saybrook and Hertford, out of pure grief, sent their sons to Harvard,

instead of the College at Newhaven. This quarrel continued until 1764,

when it subsided into a grand continental consociation of ministers,

which met at Newhaven to consult the spiritual good of the Mohawks and

other Indian tribes, the best method of preserving the American Vine,

and the protestant, independent liberty of America: a good preparatory

to the rebellion against Great Britain.

The Rev. Mr. Naphtali Dagget is the fourth president of Yale College

since its removal to Newhaven. He is an excellent Greek and Latin

scholar, and reckoned a good Calvinistic divine. Though a stranger to

European politeness, yet possessing a mild temper and affable

disposition, the exercise of his authority is untinctured with

haughtiness. Indeed, he seems to have too much candour and too little

bigotry to please the corporation and retain his post many years. The

Rev. Mr. Nehemiah Strong, the College professor, is also of an amiable

temper, and merits the appointment.

Were the corporation less rigid, and more inclined to tolerate some

reasonable amusements and polite accomplishments among the youth, they

would greatly add to the fame and increase of the College, and the

students would not be known by every stranger to have been educated in

Connecticut. The disadvantage under which they at present appear, from

the want of address, is much to be regretted.

_Beauford_, _Guilford_, and _Milford_, are much alike.

_Guilford_ is laid out in squares, after the manner of Newhaven,

twenty of which are built upon. The church and two meetings stand in

the centre square. One of the meetings is very grand, with a steeple,

bell, and clock. The parishes in it are eight, three of them

episcopal.

This town gave birth to the Rev. Samuel Johnson, D. D., who was the

first episcopal minister in Connecticut, and the first president of

King’s College in New-York. He was educated and became a tutor in the

College at Saybrook, was an ornament to his native country, and much

esteemed for his humanity and learning.

The Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, in a sermon he preached in the great

meeting, gave the character of the people of Guilford in 1740. His

text was, “Anoint mine eyes with eye-salve.” After pointing out what

was not the true eye-salve, he said: “I will tell you what is the true

eye-salve: it is faith, it is grace, it is simplicity, it is virtue.

Ah, Lord! where can they be found! Perhaps not in this grand

assembly.”

I have frequently quoted the Rev. George Whitefield, without that

ludicrous intention which, possibly, the reader may suspect me of. I

admire his general character, his good discernment, his knowledge of

mankind, his piety, his goodness of heart, his generosity, and hatred

of persecution, though I think his zeal was sometimes too fervent. I

ever viewed him as an instrument of Heaven, as the greatest Boanerges

and blessing America ever knew. He turned the profligate to God; he

roused the lukewarm christian; he tamed the wild fanatic, and made

Felix tremble.

It is true, he has also made wise men mad; but this is the natural

effect of the word, which is the savour of life and the savour of

death at one and the same time. New-England before his coming was but

the slaughter-house of heretics. He was admired by the oppressed

episcopalians, the trembling Quakers, the bleeding Baptists, &c., &c.

He was followed by all sects and parties, except the _Sober

Dissenters_, who thought their craft in danger. He made peace where

was no peace, and even his enemies praised him in the gate. Whitefield

did what could not have been done without the aid of an Omnipotent

arm: he planted charity in New-England, of which the increase has been

a thousand-fold. He is lauded where the wicked cease from troubling;

where his works of faith, love, and charity, clothe him; and where the

glory of eternity blesses him with a welcome ineffably transporting.

May his virtues be imitated, his imperfections forgiven, and his

happiness obtained by all!

_Wallingford_, _Durham_, _Waterbury_, and _Derby_, finish the County

of Newhaven. _Wallingford_ is the best of the four: it lies on the

Quinnipiack River, and forms eight parishes, two of which are

episcopal. The town street is one mile long, and the houses stand

pretty thick on both sides. The church and two meetings, one with a

steeple, bell, and clock, stand in the middle of the street. The

grave-stones point out the characters of the first settlers. An

extract from one follows:

“Here lies the body of Corporal Moses Atwater, who left

England in 1660, to enjoy the liberty of conscience in a

howling wilderness.”

The second county in the Kingdom of Quinnipiog is _Fairfield_. It is

situated west of Osootonoc River, and contains nine townships, five of

which lie on the sea, and resemble one another; and on the back of

them are situated four others, which also have a mutual resemblance.

The soil is rich and uneven; the chief productions, excellent wheat,

salt hay, and flax. Those townships which lie out on the sea are

_Fairfield_, _Norwalk_, _Stamford_, _Greenwich_, and _Stratford_. This

last I shall describe.

_Stratford_ lies on the west bank of the Osootonoc River, having the

sea, or Sound, on the south; there are three streets running north and

south, and ten east and west. The best is one mile long. On the centre

square stands a meeting, with steeple and bell, and a church, with a

steeple, bell, clock, and organ. It is a beautiful place, and from the

water has an appearance not inferior to Canterbury. Of six parishes

contained in it, three are episcopal. The people are said to be the

most polite of any in the colony, owing to the singular moderation of

the town in admitting latterly Europeans to settle among them. Many

persons come also from the Islands and southern provinces for the

benefit of their health. Here was erected the first episcopal church

in Connecticut. A very extraordinary story is told concerning the

occasion of it, which I shall give the reader the particulars of, the

people being as sanguine in their belief of it as they are of the

ship’s sailing over Newhaven.

An ancient religious rite called the Powwow was annually celebrated by

the Indians, and commonly lasted several hours every night for two or

three weeks. About 1690 they convened to perform it on Stratford

Point, near the town. During the nocturnal ceremony, the English saw,

or imagined they saw, devils rise out of the sea, wrapped up in sheets

of flame, and flying round the Indian camp, while the Indians were

screaming, cutting, and prostrating themselves before their supposed

fiery gods. In the midst of the tumult, the devils darted in among

them, seized several and mounted with them in the air, the cries and

groans issuing from whom quieted the rest. In the morning, the limbs

of Indians, all shrivelled and covered with sulphur, were found in

different parts of the town. Astonished and terrified at these

spectacles, the people of Stratford began to think the devils would

take up their abode among them, and called together all the ministers

in the neighbourhood to exorcise and lay them. The ministers began and

carried on their warfare with prayer, hymns, and abjurations; but the

powwows continued, and the devils would not obey. The inhabitants were

about to quit the town, when Mr. Nell spoke and said, “I would to God

Mr. Visey, the episcopal minister at New-York, was here; for he would

expel those evil spirits.” They laughed at his advice; but on his

reminding them of the little maid who directed Naaman to cure his

leprosy, they voted him their permission to bring Mr. Visey at the

next powwow. Mr. Visey attended accordingly; and as the powwow

commenced with howling and whoops, Mr. Visey read portions of the holy

scriptures, litany, &c. The sea was put into great commotion; the

powwow stopped; the Indians dispersed, and nevermore held a powwow in

Stratford. The inhabitants were struck with wonder at this event, and

held a conference to discover the reason why the devils and the

powwowers had obeyed the prayers of one minister, and had paid no

regard to those of fifty. Some thought the reading of the holy

scriptures, others thought that the litany and Lord’s prayer, some

again that the episcopal power of the minister, and others that all

united, were the means of obtaining the heavenly blessing they had

received.

Those that believed that the holy scriptures and litany were effectual

against the devil and his legions, declared for the Church of England;

while the majority ascribed their deliverance to complot between the

devils and the episcopal minister, with a view to overthrow Christ’s

vine planted in New-England. Each party acted with more zeal than

prudence. The Church, however, increased, though oppressed by more

persecutions and calamities than were ever experienced by puritans

from bishops and powwowers. Even the use of the Bible, the Lord’s

prayer, the litany, or any part of the prayer-book was forbidden; nay,

ministers taught from their pulpits, according to the Blue Laws, “that

the lovers of Zion had better put their ears to the mouth of hell and

learn from the whispers of the devil, than read the bishops’ books;”

while the Churchmen, like Michael the archangel contending with the

devil about the body of Moses, dared not bring against them a railing

accusation. But this was not all. When the episcopalians had collected

timber for a church, they found the devils had not left town, but only

changed their habitation--had left the savages, and entered into

fanatics and wood. In the night before the church was to be begun, the

timber set up a country-dance, skipping about and flying in the air

with as much agility and sulphurous stench as ever the devils had

exhibited around the camp of the Indian powwowers. This alarming

circumstance would have ruined the credit of the Church, had not the

episcopalians ventured to look into the phenomena, and found the

timber had been bored with augers, charged with gunpowder, and fired

off by matches--a discovery, however, of bad consequence in one

respect: it prevented the annalists of New-England from publishing

this among the rest of their miracles. About 1720, the patience and

sufferings of the episcopalians, who were then but a handful, procured

them some friends even among their persecutors; and those friends

condemned the cruelty exercised over the Churchmen, Quakers, and

Anabaptists, in consequence of which they first felt the effects of

those gentle weapons, the New-England whisperings and backbitings; at

length were openly stigmatized as Armenians, and enemies of the

American Vine. The conduct of the _Sober Dissenters_ increased the

grievous sin of moderation, and nearly twenty of their ministers, at

the head of whom was Dr. Cutler, President of Yale College, declared,

on a public commencement, for the Church of England. Hereupon the

General Assembly and Consociation, finding their comminations likely

to blast the American Vine, instantly had recourse to flattery, larded

with tears and promises, by which means they recovered all the

secessors but four, viz. Dr. Cutler, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Whitemore, and

Mr. Brown, who repaired to England for holy orders. Dr. Cutler had the

misfortune to spend his life and great abilities in the fanatical,

ungrateful, factious town of Boston, where he went through fiery

trials, shining brighter and brighter, till he was delivered from

New-England persecution, and landed where the wicked cease from

troubling. Dr. Johnson, from his natural disposition, and not for the

sake of gain, took pity on the neglected church at Stratford, where

for fifty years he fought the beast of Ephesus with great success.[37]

The Doctor was under the bountiful protection of the Society for the

Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, incorporated by William

III., to save from the rage of republicanism, heathenism, and

fanaticism, all such members of the Church of England as were settled

in our American colonies, factories, and plantations beyond the sea.

To the foresight of that monarch, to the generous care and protection

of that society, under God, are owing all the loyalty, decency,

christianity undefiled with blood, which glimmer in New-England. Dr.

Johnson having settled at Stratford among a nest of zealots, and not

being assassinated, other dissenting ministers were induced to join

themselves to the Church of England, among whom were Mr. Beach and Mr.

Penderson. These gentlemen could not be wheedled off by the Assembly

and Consociation; they persevered, and obtained names among the

Literate that will never be forgotten.

The four remaining towns of Fairfield County, viz. _Newtown_,

_Reading_, _Danbury_, and _Ridgfield_, lie behind the towns on the

sea. I shall describe the last of them, which is _Danbury_. It has

much the appearance of Croydon, and forms five parishes, one of which

is episcopal, and another Sandemanian; a third is called Bastard

Sandemanian, because the minister refused to put away his wife, who is

a second wife. The town was the residence, and is now the tomb, of the

learned and ingenious Rev. Mr. Sandeman, well known to the literary

world. He was the fairest and most candid Calvinist that ever wrote in

the English language, allowing the natural consequences of all his

propositions. He taught that a bishop must be the husband of one

wife--that is, he must be married before he was ordained--and, if he

lost his wife, he could not marry a second; that a bishop might dress

with ruffles, a red coat, and sword; that all converted brothers and

sisters, at their coming into the Church, ought to salute with an holy

kiss; that all true christians would obey their earthly king: for

which tenets, especially the last, the _Sober Dissenters_ of

Connecticut held him to be a heretic.

It is strikingly remarkable, that near one-half of the people of the

Dominion of Newhaven are episcopalians, though it was first settled by

the most violent of puritans, who claimed so much liberty to

themselves that they left none for others. The General Assembly

computed that the Church of England professors amounted to one-third

of the whole colony in 1770. Hence has arisen a question, how it came

to pass that the Church of England increased rapidly in Connecticut,

and but slowly in Massachusets-Bay and Rhode-Island? The reason

appears obvious to me. It is easier to turn fanatical farmers from

their bigotry than to convert fanatical merchants, smugglers, and

fishermen. Pride and gain prevent the two first, and ignorance the

last, from “worshipping the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” The

General Assembly of Rhode-Island never supported any religion; nay,

lest religion should chance to prevail, they made a law that every one

might do what was right in his own eyes, with this proviso, that no

one should be holden to pay a note, bond, or vote, made or given to

support the Gospel. Thus barbarism, inhumanity, and infidelity, must

have overrun the colony, had not its good situation for trade invited

Europeans to settle therein. As to the people of Massachusets-Bay,

they, indeed, had the highest pretensions to religion; but then it was

so impregnated with chicane, mercantile policy, and insincerity, that

infidelity got the better of fanaticism, and religion was secretly

looked upon as a trick of State. Connecticut was settled by a people

who preferred the arts and sciences to the amusements which rendered

Europe polite; whence it has happened that their boys and girls are at

once amused and improved in reading, writing, and cyphering, every

winter’s night, whilst those in the neighbouring colonies polish

themselves at cards, balls, and masquerades.

In Connecticut, zeal, though erroneous, is sincere; each sect believes

religion to be a substantial good; and fanaticism and prejudice have

turned it into superstition, which is stronger than reason or the law

of humanity. Thus it was very observable, that when any persons

conform to the Church of England, they leave neither their

superstition nor zeal at the meetings; they retrench only fanaticism

and cruelty, put on bowels of mercy, and pity those in error. It

should be added, that every town in the colony is by law obliged to

support a grammar school, and every parish an English school. From

experience, therefore, I judge that superstition with knowledge and

sincerity is more favourable to religion than superstition with

ignorance and insincerity; and that it was for this reason the Church

thrives in Connecticut, and exists only in New-England provinces. In

further support of my opinion, I shall recite the words of Mr. George

Whitefield, in his first tour through America in 1740. He found the

people of Connecticut wise in polemical divinity, and told them much

learning had made them mad; that he wished to leave them with “sleep

on and take your rest in the Bible, in Baxter, Gouge, and Bunyan,

without the knowledge of Bishops’ books.”

Persons who supposed Churchmen in Connecticut possessed of less zeal

and sincerity than the various sects among the dissenters, are under a

mistake; for they have voluntarily preferred the Church under every

human discouragement, and suffered persecution rather than persecute.

Conducting themselves upon this truly christian though impolitic

principle, they have, in the space of sixty years, humanized above

sixty thousand puritans, who had ever been hating and persecuting one

another; and though the General Assembly and Consociation are alarmed

at the progress of christian moderation, yet many individuals among

them, perceiving that persecution declines wherever the Church

prevails, bless God for its growth; whilst the rest, more zealous for

dominion and the politics of their ancestors the regicides than for

the gospel of peace and love, compass sea and land to export and

diffuse that intolerant spirit which overthrew the Eastern Church and

has cursed the Western. For this purpose they have sent New-England

ministers as missionaries to the southern colonies, to rouse them out

of their religious and political ignorance; and, what is very

astonishing, they succeeded best with the episcopal clergy, whose

immorality, vanity, or love of self-government, or some less valuable

principle, induced them to join the dissenters of New-England, against

an American bishop, from a pure intention, they said, of preserving

the Church of England in America. If their reward be not pointed out

in the fable of the Fox and Crane, they will be more fortunate than

most men. Other missionaries were dispersed among the Six Nations of

Indians, who were under the care of the clergy and schoolmasters of

the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. There, for a time,

wonders were effected; the Indians were made drunk with zeal. But when

their fanaticism was abated, they cursed the protestant religion, and

ordered the ministers of all denominations to depart out of their

country in a fixed time, on pain of death. Another band of saints went

to Nova-Scotia to convert the unconverted, under the clergy appointed

by the Bishop of London; among whom, however, meeting with little

encouragement, they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and

returned home. These peregrinations, the world was taught to believe,

were undertaken solely to advance the interests of religion; but

righteousness and peace have not yet kissed each other in New-England;

and, besides, the pious pretences of the _Sober Dissenters_ ill accord

with their bitter revilings of the Society for the Propagation of the

Gospel, for sending clergymen to promote the spiritual good of the

Churchmen among them.

It is worthy of especial notice, that, among all the episcopal clergy

settled in Connecticut, only one of them has been accused, even by

their enemies, of a scandalous life, or of any violation of moral law.

They have exercised more patience, resignation, and self-denial, under

their various trials, fatigues, and oppressions, than can be

paralleled elsewhere in the present century. The countenance of the

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and an

allowance of 650_l._ per annum between eighteen of them, have proved

the means of averting from the professors of the Church of England

that rigour which has constantly marked the conduct of the General

Assembly and Consociation towards Anabaptists, Quakers, &c. &c. Had

the bishops shown as much concern for the welfare of the Church of

England in America as the Society have done, they would have prevented

many reproaches being cast upon them by the dissenters as hireling

shepherds, and have secured the affections of the American clergy in

every province to themselves, to the King, and the British Government.

If the religion of the Church of England ought to have been tolerated

and supported in America, (which, considering the lukewarmness of the

bishops in general, even since the Restoration of Charles II., seems

to have been a dubious point,) policy and justice long ago should have

induced the King and Parliament of Great Britain to have sent bishops

to America, that Churchmen at least might have been upon an equal

footing with dissenters. Against American bishops I have never heard

of any objections, either from the dissenters or the episcopal clergy

south of the Delaware River, so powerful as the following:

“That the Church of England increases in America, without bishops,

faster than it does in England, where are bishops to spare.” If the

dissenters in America err not in advancing, as a fact, that in 1715

the Church of England, under the bishops, had been upon the decline,

and the protestant dissenters upon the increase, in England, it may be

but natural to suppose that the dissenters in America wish to have the

English bishops resident there, and the dissenters in England to

retain them, as they appear to be so beneficial towards the growth of

the dissenting interests here; and so the dissenters in both countries

disputing about the residence of the bishops merely because the

absence of them is disadvantageous to the one, and their presence

advantageous to the other, would it not be the best way of

strengthening the interest of both those parties, and weakening that

of the Church of England, to retain half the bishops in England and

send the other half to America? Against this plan, surely, no

dissenter could object; it will neither add to the national expense

nor to the disadvantage of England or America, since it promises to be

equally serviceable to the protestant dissenting interest on both

sides the Atlantic, and will reconcile a difference between the

protestant dissenters, that has been supposen in New-England to be the

reason of bishops not being sent to about one million episcopalians in

America, who are left like sheep in a wilderness without a shepherd,

to the great danger of the protestant dissenting religion in those

parts. Nor can it be apprehended that this plan of dividing the

bishops will meet with the disapprobation of the episcopalians, except

a few licentious clergymen in the American southern colonies, who

dread their lordships’ sober advice and coercive power.

Of all the wonders of the English Church, the greatest is that the

rulers of it should hold episcopacy to be an institution of Christ,

and that the Gospel should be spread among all nations, and, at the

same time, should refuse the American Churchmen a bishop, and the

fanatics and heathen all opportunities of enjoying the Gospel

dispensation in the purity and lustre with which it shines in the

Mother Country. If bishops are necessary, let America have them; if

they are not necessary, let them be extirpated from the face of the

earth; for no one can be an advocate for their existence merely for

the support of pomp, pride, and insolence, either in England or

America.

The English and Dutch have always kept their colonies under a state of

religious persecution, while the French and Spanish have acted with

generosity in that respect towards theirs. The Dutch presbyterians in

New-York were held in subordination to the Classis of Amsterdam, till,

a few years since, they discovered that subjection to be

anti-constitutional and oppressive; upon which a majority of the

ministers in their cœtus erected a classis for the ordination of

ministers and the government of their churches, in defiance of the

ecclesiastical judicatory of Amsterdam. Mr. Smith, in his history of

that province, p. 252, justifies the schism upon the following ground:

“The expense,” says he, “attending the ordination of their candidates

in Holland, and the reference of their disputes to the Classis of

Amsterdam, is very considerable; and with what consequences the

interruption of their correspondence with the European Dutch would be

attended, in case of war, well deserves their consideration.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Smith agrees with his protestant dissenting

neighbours, that the American episcopalians suffered no hardship in

being obliged to incur the same expense in crossing the Atlantic for

ordination. If the Dutch are justifiable in their schism, I cannot

perceive why the American episcopalians might not be justified in a

like schism from the bishops of London. Had the episcopalians as

little aversion to schism as the protestant dissenters, the clergy

north of the Delaware would, in 1765, have got rid of their regard of

an English, and accepted of a Greek bishop, whom they could have

supported for half the expense their candidates were at in going to

England for ordination. But they were said by some to be conscientious

men, while others said they were Issachar’s sons couching down beneath

their burthens.

To proceed in my description of the country:

Connecticut is situated between 41 and 42 degrees of north latitude,

and between 72 and 73 degrees 50 minutes west longitude from London.

Notwithstanding, from this latitude, New-London lies 600 miles nearer

the line than the capital of England, the winter sets in there a month

before it does here, and not only continues longer, but is more

severe. This extraordinary coldness is said by naturalists to arise

from the vast frozen lakes and rivers, and mountains eternally covered

with snow, throughout the northernmost parts of America. The mountains

may have their share in producing this effect; but I am apt to think

the lakes and rivers have a contrary influence. If I ask why lands

bordering on them are three weeks earlier in their productions than

lands ten miles distant, it will readily be imputed to the warmth of

the air, occasioned by the reflection of the sun’s rays from the

water. On the same principle, I argue that the rays of the sun,

multiplied and reflected by ice also, will render the air warmer. But

it may be further said, that the cause is perhaps to be ascribed to

the soil being more sandy and loose near a lake or river, and,

therefore, naturally warmer than that which is remote and not sandy. I

reply, that there are loose, sandy plains, twenty miles off from any

lake or river, three weeks later in their products, and very

perceptibly colder, than lands upon them. It would be to no purpose to

urge that the damps and fogs from unfrozen lakes, rivers, &c. &c.

affect the distant but not the adjacent country; because I apprehend

there are no unfrozen lakes and rivers in the north of America in

winter. Besides, if there were, the mists arising from them would

naturally be intercepted by the first mountains or forests they

approached. But I pretend to little philosophical knowledge in these

matters; I write from experience, and can thence, moreover, assert

that mountains with snow upon them are not so cold as they would be

without it; and that mountains covered with trees are the coldest of

all places, but without trees are not so cold as forests or plains. I

am clearly of opinion, therefore, that not the lakes or rivers, but

the infinite quantity of timber in the immense regions of

North-America, whether upon mountains or not, is the grand cause of

the coldness of the winters in Connecticut. I will add, moreover, in

support of my argument, that beasts, in the coldest weather, are

observed to quit the woods and woody mountains for lakes, rivers, and

cultivated open country; and that Connecticut, having lost most of its

timber, is by no means so intensely cold in winter as it was forty

years ago, and as Susquehanna is at present, a wilderness in the same

latitude. The snow and ice commonly cover the country, without rains,

from Christmas to March; then rains, attended with boisterous winds

from the north and east, melt the snow, which converting brooks into

rivers and rivers into seas, in four or five days the ice is rent from

its groaning banks in such mighty sheets as it shakes the earth for

twenty miles. Nature being thus in convulsions, the winds turn her fit

into madness, by driving ice upon ice, whose thunders cease not till

the ocean swallows up the whole.

It is but natural to suppose that the summers in Connecticut are much

hotter than those in England; nevertheless, from the clearness and

serenity of the sky, the climate is healthy both to natives and

foreigners of all nations. Connecticut is a hospital for invalids of

the Islands and southern provinces; but, in general, they no sooner

amend their own constitution, than the pestilence, which rages in that

province, drives them to Rhode-Island or New-York, where fanaticism is

lost in irreligion.

The people of Connecticut reckon time almost five hours later than the

English. The longest day consists of fifteen hours, the shortest of

nine. The brightness of the sun, moon, and stars, together with the

reverberated rays on ice, snow, water, trees, mountains, pebbles, and

flat stones, dazzle and weaken the eyes of the New-Englanders to such

a degree, that, in general, they are obliged to use glasses before

they are fifty years of age. For the most part, also, they have bad

teeth, which has been ascribed to the extreme heats and colds of

summer and winter; but, as the Indians and negroes in the same climate

have remarkably good teeth, it may be said, with great reason, that

the many indulgences of the one, and the temperance of the other, and

not the heats and colds, are the causes of good and bad teeth.

_Soil and Produce._--The soil is various in different parts of the

province: in some black, in others brown, and elsewhere red, but all

rich. Some plains are sandy and of a whitish colour, and they produce

rye, beans, and Indian-corn. The meadows and lowlands are excellent

pasturage, and yield great crops of hay. The hills and uplands have a

rich, deep soil, but are subject to droughts in July and August, which

in many places are relieved by water drawn from rivers, ponds, and

brooks, in troughs and ditches. The crops of European grain are always

good, when the snow, which in general is the only manure, covers the

earth from December to March. One acre generally yields from twenty to

thirty bushels of wheat; of Indian-corn, from forty to sixty bushels

on even land, and from thirty to forty on hilly land; but it is to be

observed, that one bushel of it raised on hilly land weighs thirteen

pounds more than a bushel raised on river land. All European grains

flourish here, and the grass is as thick, and much longer than in

England. Maize, or Indian-corn, is planted in hillocks three feet

apart, five kernels and two pumpkin-seeds in a hillock, and between

the hills are planted ten beans in a hillock; so that, if the season

prove favourable, the beans and the pumpkins are worth as much as the

corn. If from an acre the crop of corn be twenty bushels, add the

beans and pumpkins, and it will be equal to sixty bushels; so, if

there be sixty bushels of corn, a proportionate growth of beans and

pumpkins will render the product equal to one hundred and eighty

bushels. One man plants an acre in a day; in three days he hoes the

same three times; and six days more suffice for plowing and gathering

the crop. For these ten days’ work the price is thirty shillings; and,

allowing ten shillings for the use of the land, the whole expense is

two pounds, and no more, while the corn is worth two shillings a

bushel. The gain is seldom less than 300, and often 600 per cent. It

is thus that the poor man becomes rich in a few years, if prudent and

industrious.

The limits of Connecticut are reckoned to comprise 5,000,000 acres,

half of which is supposed to be swallowed up in rivers, ponds, creeks,

and roads. The inhabitants are estimated at 200,000, so that there

remains but twelve and a half acres for each individual. Let it now be

considered that the people buy no provisions from other provinces,

but, on the contrary, export full as much as they consume, and it will

appear that each person has in fact only six and a quarter acres for

his own support, two of which must be set apart for the growth of

wood, the only fuel of the colony. Should I, then, not be justified in

saying that Connecticut is as good and flourishing land as any part of

Great Britain?

The face of the country resembles Devonshire, Gloucestershire, Surrey,

and Kent. The farmers divide their lands into four, five, and ten

acres, with stone walls or post and rails. The roads from north to

south are generally level and good; from east to west hilly, and bad

for carriages. The various fruits are in greater perfection than in

England. The peach and apple are more luscious, beautiful, and large;

1000 peaches are produced from one tree; five or six barrels of cider

from one apple tree. Cider is the common drink at table. The

inhabitants have a method of purifying cider by frost and separating

the watery part from the spirit, which, being secured in proper

vessels, and colored by Indian-corn, becomes in three months so much

like Madeira wine, that Europeans drink it without perceiving the

difference. They make peachy and perry, grape, cherry, and currant

wines, and good beer of pumpkin, molasses, bran of wheat, spruce, and

malt. The spruce is the leaves and limbs of the fir tree; their malt

is made of maize, barley, oats, rye, chets, and wheat. The pumpkin, or

pompion, is one of the greatest blessings, and held very sacred in

New-England. It is a native of America. From one seed often grow forty

pumpkins, each weighing from forty to sixty pounds, and, when ripe, of

the colour of a marigold. Each pumpkin contains about 500 seeds,

which, being boiled to a jelly, is the Indian infallible cure for the

strangury. Of its meat are made beer, bread, custards, sauce,

molasses, vinegar, and, on thanksgiving days, pies, as a substitute

for what the Blue Laws brand as anti-christian minced pies. Its skin,

or shell, serves as a cap to cut the hair by, (as already mentioned,)

and very useful lanthorns. There are no trees, grain, or fruits,

growing in England but what will grow in Connecticut. The English oak

has been thought much superior to the American. Whatever policy may be

in this opinion, I will venture to say there is no truth in it in

respect to the white oak in Connecticut, which is tough, close, hard,

and elastic as the whalebone dried. The red, black, and chestnut oak

are, indeed, much inferior to the white oak. The ash, elm, beech,

chestnut, walnut, hazel, sassafras, sumach, maple, and butternut, are

the chief timber trees of this province, and grow to an amazing bulk.

The last is a native of America, and takes its name from a nut it

produces, of the shape and size of a pullet’s egg, which contains a

meat much larger than an English walnut, in taste like fresh butter;

it also makes an excellent pickle. The butternut furnishes fine but

tender boards; and its bark dyes black, and cures cutaneous disorders.

In February this tree yields a sap, of which are made sugar, molasses,

and vinegar. The upland maple also affords a sap equally good, and

both saps make a pleasant beverage without boiling, and the best punch

ever drank in Connecticut.

Here are many iron mines, nay, mountains of iron ore; and, if they had

been attended to with the same diligence as the farms, they would have

supplied Great Britain with iron, to the great prejudice of Sweden and

other European nations. For this commercial loss the inhabitants are

indebted to their own quarrels, jealousy, and religious feuds,

together with the intrigues of their neighbours. Some pig and bar iron

they send, out of pure spite or folly, to New-York and Boston, to be

shipped for England by the merchants there, who always pay so much

less for it as the duty on Swedish iron amounts to, so that

Connecticut allows a duty to these merchants which they do not pay

themselves.

English, Barbary, and Dutch horses abound in this province; they are

not so heavy, but more mettlesome and hardy than in England. Here are

more sheep than in any two colonies in America; their wool also is

better than that of the sheep in any of the other colonies, yet not so

fine and good as the English. A common sheep weighs sixty pounds, and

sells for a dollar, or 4_s._ 6_d._ The horned cattle are not so large

as the English; yet there have been a few instances of oxen six years

old weighing 1900 pounds each. The fat hogs here excel any in England;

many weigh five or six hundred pounds. Connecticut pork is far

superior to any other.

There are only two small parks of deer in Connecticut, but plenty of

rabbits, hares, grey, black, striped and red squirrels, otters, minks,

raccoons, weasels, foxes, whapperknockers, woodchucks, cubas, and

skunks. The following description of the four last-mentioned animals

may be new to the reader:

The whapperknocker is somewhat larger than a weasel, and of a

beautiful brown colour. He lives in the woods on worms and birds; is

so wild that no one can tame him, and, as he never quits his harbour

in the daytime, is only to be taken by traps in the night. Of the

skins of these animals--which are covered with an exceedingly fine

fur--are made muffs, at the price of thirty or forty guineas apiece; so

that it is not without reason the ladies pride themselves on the

possession of this small appurtenance of female habiliment.

The woodchuck, erroneously called the badger by some persons, is of

the size of a large raccoon, in form resembles a Guinea pig, and, when

eating, makes a noise like a hog, whence he is named woodchuck, or

chuck of wood. His legs are short, but his claws sharp, teeth strong,

and courage great on occasions of self-defence. He burrows in the

earth, feeds on clover and pumpkin during summer, and sleeps all the

winter. His flesh is good to eat, and his skin makes excellent

leather.

The cuba I suppose to be peculiar to New-England. The male is of the

size of a large cat; has four long tushes sharp as a razor; he is very

active in defending himself, and, if he has the first blow, will spoil

a dog before he yields. His lady is peaceable and harmless, and

depends for protection on her spouse, and, as he has more courage than

prudence, always attends him to moderate his temper. She sees danger,

and he fears it not. She chatters at him while he is preparing for

battle, and, if she thinks the danger is too great, she runs to him

and clings about his neck, screaming her extreme distress; his wrath

abates, and by her advice they fly to their caves. In like manner,

when he is chained, and irritated into the greatest rage by an

impertinent dog, his lady, who is never chained, will fly about his

neck and kiss him, and in half a minute restore him to calmness. He is

very tender of his family, and never forsakes them till death

dissolves their union. What further shows the magnanimity of this

little animal, he never manifests the least anger towards his lady,

though I have often seen her extremely loquacious, and, as I guessed,

impertinent to him. How happy would the rational part of the creation

become if they would follow the example of these irrational beasts! I

the more readily suppose the cuba to be peculiar to New-England, not

only from my never having yet seen the creature described, but also on

account of its perverse observance of carnival and neglect of

_carême_.

The skunk is also peculiar to America, and very different from the

pole-cat, which he is sometimes called. He is black, striped with

white, and of the size of a small raccoon, with a sharp nose. He

burrows in the earth like a fox, feeds like a fox on fowls and eggs,

and has strong teeth and claws like a fox. He has long hair, and

thick, good fur; is the beauty of the wilderness; walks slowly, and

cannot run as fast as a man; he is not wild, but very familiar with

every creature. His tail, which is shaggy and about one foot in

length, he turns over his back at pleasure, to make himself appear

larger and higher than he really is. When his tail is thus lying on

his back he is prepared for war, and generally conquers every enemy

that lives by air, for on this lies his only weapon: about one inch

from his body or rump, in a small bladder or bag, which is full of

essence, whose tint is of the brightest yellow, and odour somewhat

like the smell of garlic, but far more exquisite and piercing than any

volatile spirit known to chemists. One drop will scent a house to such

a degree that musk, with the help of brimstone and tar burnt, will not

expel it in six months. The bladder in which this essence lies is

worked by the animal like an engine, pump, or squirt; and when the

creature is assaulted, he turns his head from his enemy and discharges

from his tail the essence, which fills the neighbouring air with a

mist that destroys the possibility of living in it. I have seen a

large house-dog, by one discharge of the skunk, retire with shame and

sickness; and, at another time, a bullock bellowing as if a dog had

held him by the nose. Were it not for man, no creature could kill this

animal, which, instead of the lion, ought to be crowned king of

animals, as well on account of his virtues and complaisance as his

courage. He knows his forte; he fears nothing, he conquers all; yet he

is civil to all, and never gives, as he will not take, offence. His

virtues are many. The wood of calambac, which cures fainting-fits and

strokes of the palsy, and is worth its weight in gold, is far less

valuable than the above-mentioned essence of this animal. The bag is

extracted whole from the tail, and the essence preserved in glass;

nothing else will confine it. One drop sufficiently impregnates a

quart of spring water, and half a gill of water thus impregnated is a

dose. It cures hiccups, asthmatic, hysteric, paralytic, and hectic

disorders, and the odour prevents faintness. The flesh of this animal

is excellent food, and its oil cures sprains and contractions of the

sinews.

The feathered tribe in Connecticut are the turkey, geese, ducks, and

all kinds of barn-door poultry; innumerable flocks of pigeons, which

fly to the south in the autumn; cormorants of all sizes; hawks, owls,

ravens, and crows; partridges, quails, heath-hen, blackbirds, snipes,

larks, humility’s, whippoorwills, dew-minks, robins, wrens, swallows,

sparrows, the flax, crimson, white, and blue birds, &c. &c.; to which

I may add the humming-bird, though it might wantonly be styled the

empress of the honey-bees, partaking with them of the pink, tulip,

rose, daisy, and other aromatics.

The partridges in New-England are nearly as large as a Dorking fowl,

the quail as an English partridge, and the robin twice as big as those

in England. The dew-mink, so named from its articulating those

syllables, is black and white, and the size of an English robin. Its

flesh is delicious. The humility is so called because it speaks the

word humility, and seldom mounts high in the air. Its legs are long

enough to enable it to outrun a dog for a little way; its wings long

and narrow; body maigre and of the size of a blackbird’s; plumage

variegated with white, black, blue, and red. It lives on tadpoles,

spawn, and worms; has an eye more piercing than the falcon, and the

swiftness of an eagle; hence it can never be shot, for it sees the

sparks of fire even before it enkindles the powder, and by the extreme

rapidity of its flight gets out of reach in an instant. It is never

known to light upon a tree, but is always seen upon the ground or

wing. These birds appear in New-England in summer only; what becomes

of them afterwards is not discovered. They are caught in snares, but

can never be tamed.

The whippoorwill has so named itself by its nocturnal songs. It is

also called the Pope, by reason of its darting with great swiftness

from the clouds to the ground and bawling out Pope, which alarms young

people and the fanatics very much, especially as they know it to be an

ominous bird. However, it has hitherto proved friendly, always giving

travellers and others notice of an approaching storm by saluting them

every minute by Pope! pope! It flies only a little before sunset,

unless for this purpose of giving notice of a storm: It never deceives

the people with false news. If the tempest is to continue long, the

augurs appear in flocks, and nothing can be heard but Pope! pope! The

whippoorwill is about the size of a cuckoo, has a short beak, long and

narrow wings, a large head, and mouth enormous, yet is not a bird of

prey. Under its throat is a pocket, which it fills with air at

pleasure, whereby it sounds forth the fatal word Pope in the day, and

Whip-her-I-will in the night. The superstitious inhabitants would have

exorcised this harmless bird long ago, as an emissary from Rome and an

enemy to the American Vine, had they not found out that it frequents

New-England only in the summer, and prefers the wilderness to a

palace. Nevertheless, many cannot but believe it a spy from some

foreign court, an agent of antichrist, a lover of persecution, and an

enemy of protestants, because it sings of whipping, and of the Pope,

which they think portends misery and a change of religion.

The principal insects are the hornet, bull-fly, glow-bug, humble-bee,

and black and yellow wasp.

The bull-fly is armed with a coat of mail, which it can move from one

place to another, as sliders to a window are moved. Its body is about

an inch long, and its horns half an inch, very sharp and strong. It

has six feet, with claws as sharp as needles, and runs fast. In

sucking the blood or juice of its prey, the creature holds the same in

its claws; otherwise the prey is carried between its horns.

The glow-bug both crawls and flies, and is about half an inch long.

These insects fly, in the summer evenings, nearly seven feet from the

ground, in such multitudes that they afford sufficient light for the

people to walk by. The brightness, however, is interrupted by

twinklings; but they are instantaneous and short as those of the eye,

so that darkness no sooner takes place than it vanishes.

The humble-bee is almost as large as the humming-bird, but cannot fly

near so fast. It builds its nest in the ground, where it makes a

honey-comb of the size of a man’s hand, and fills it with bees’-bread,

wax, and honey, excelling that of the honey-bee in taste. Two or three

begun, and having shortly multiplied to about forty, the young ones

leave home as soon as they can fly, to begin new settlements. These

bees are wrongly named: they are warriors, and only want a quantity of

poison to be more fatal than rattle-snakes.

The honey-bees can sting but once, while the humble-bee will sting a

thousand times. Their body is black and white; wings of a Doric

colour; sight piercing, hearing quick, and temper cruel.

Among the reptiles of Connecticut are the black, the water, milk, and

streaked snakes, all harmless. The belled or rattle-snakes are large,

and will gorge a common cat. They are seldom seen from their rocky

dens. Their bite is mortal if not speedily cured; yet they are

generous, and without guile; before they bite they rattle their bells

three or four times, but after that their motion is swift and stroke

sure. The Indians discovered and informed the English of a weed,

common in the country, which, mixed with spittle, will extract the

poison.

The toads and frogs are plenty in the spring of the year. The

tree-frogs, whippoorwills, and whooping owls, serenade the inhabitants

every night with music far excelling the harmony of the trumpet, drum,

and jews-harp.

The tree-frog cannot be called an insect, a reptile, or one of the

winged host; he has four legs, the two foremost short, with claws as

sharp as those of a squirrel; the hind-legs five inches long, and

folding by three joints. His body is about as big as the first joint

of a man’s thumb. Under his throat is a wind-bag, which assists him in

singing the word I-sa-ac all the night. When it rains, and is very

dark, he sings the loudest. His voice is not so pleasing as that of

the nightingale; but this would be a venial imperfection, if he would

but keep silence on Saturday nights, and not forever prefer I-sa-ac to

Abraham and Jacob. He has more elasticity in his long legs than any

other creature yet known. By this means he will leap five yards up a

tree, fastening himself to it by his fore legs, and in a moment will

hop or spring as far from one tree to another. It is from the singing

of the tree-frog that the Americans have acquired the name of Little

Isaac. Indeed, like a certain part of them, the creature appears very

devout, noisy, arbitrary, and phlegmatic, and associates with none but

what agree with him in his ways.

The oysters, clams, quauhogs, lobsters, crabs, and fish, are

innumerable. The shad, bass, and salmon, more than half support the

province. The sturgeon is made no use of. From the number of seines

employed to catch the fish passing up to the lakes, one might be led

to suppose the whole must be stopped; yet, in six months’ time they

return to the sea with such multitudes of young ones as to fill

Connecticut River for many days, and no finite being can number them.

_Population and Inhabitants._--Connecticut, in proportion to its

extent, exceeds every other colony of English America, as well in the

abundance of people as in cultivation of soil. The number of the first

settlers at Saybrook, in 1634, was 200; in 1636, at Hertford, 106; in

1637, at Newhaven, 157; in all, 463. In 1670 the residents of these

three settlements amounted to 15,000, of whom 2000 were men capable of

bearing arms; the rest old men, women, and children. In 1680 the

residents were 20,000; in 1770, 200,000. Hence it appears that the

people of Connecticut did, during the 90 years, double their number

ten times over. Should the 200,000 which existed in Connecticut in

1770 double their number in the same manner for the ensuing 90 years,

the province will, in the year 1860, contain 2,000,000; and if the

fighting men should then be in the same proportion to the rest of the

inhabitants as they were in 1670, they will amount to no less than

266,000. I see no reason in Nature why it may not be so.

Since 1670, emigration from Europe, or elsewhere, to Connecticut, has

been trifling, in comparison to the emigration from Connecticut to

New-Jersey, Newhampshire, Massachusets-Bay, Nova-Scotia, &c.

_Manufactures._--The inhabitants manufacture coarse and fine flannels,

linen, cotton and woollen cloths, woollen stockings, mittens, and

gloves, for their own use; they spin much cotton and flax, and make

common and the best kind of beaver hats. Ship-building is a great

branch of business in Connecticut, which is carried on much cheaper

than in Europe, by means of saw-mills worked by water. The planks are

cut by a gang of ten or twelve saws, more or less, as occasion

requires, while the carriage is backed but once. Great part of the

ship-timber is also cut by water. Anchor-making is done by water and

trip-hammers, without much fatigue to the workmen. Distilling and

paper-making increase every year. Here are many rope-walks, which want

neither hemp nor flax; and formerly here were rolling and slitting

works, but they have been suppressed by an act of Parliament, to the

ruin of many families.

_Commerce._--The exports of Connecticut consist chiefly of all sorts of

provisions, pig and bar iron, pot and pearl ashes, staves, lumber,

boards, iron pots and kettles, anchors, planks, hoops, shingles, live

cattle, horses, &c. &c. To what amount these articles are annually

exported, may be judged from the following very low estimate:

Pork 98,750_l._

Beef 100,000

Mutton 5,000

Horses 40,000

Wheat 340,000

Butter, cheese, rye, oats, onions, tobacco, cider,

maize, beans, fowls, eggs, tallow, and hides 90,000

Ships’ anchors, cables, cordage, pig and bar

iron, pots, kettles, pot and pearl ashes,

boards, and lumber 250,000

-------

918,750_l._

besides hay, fish, &c. &c. The salmon, large and small, are exported

both pickled and dried.

In the above statement of exports I have allowed only for horses bred

in the colony, and not for those brought for exportation from Canada

and other northern parts, which are very numerous. The calculation of

the wheat, the common price of which is three shillings sterling per

bushel, is founded upon the allowed circumstance of the exportation

being equal to the consumption, viz. 2,600,000 bushels among 200,000

persons, according to the acknowledged necessary portion of thirteen

bushels to one person. The pork is estimated according to the reputed

number of houses in the province, viz. 30,000, allowing one and a

quarter barrels for each house, at 2_l._ 10_s._ per barrel.

The imports in 1680, when the number of inhabitants was 20,000,

amounted to 10,000_l._, i. e. at the rate of 10_s._ for each

individual. Supposing the increase of imports only to keep pace with

that of the people, they would, in 1770, when the province contained

200,000 souls, amount to 100,000_l._; but I believe that to be not

above one-quarter of their value.

Boston, New-York, and Newport, have the greatest share of the exports

of Connecticut, and pay for them in English or Dutch goods at cent.

per cent. profit to themselves, upon a moderate computation. What few

of them are sent from the colony to the West Indies, are paid for

honourably in rum, molasses, sugar, salt, brandy, cotton, and money.

Consequences very prejudicial attend the commerce of Connecticut, thus

principally carried on through the medium of the neighbouring

colonies. I will here point out one material instance: Connecticut

pork, a considerable article of exportation, excels all others in

America, and fetches a halfpenny per pound more. Of this difference in

the price the merchants in New-York, Boston, &c. have taken care to

avail themselves, by mixing their own inferior pork with that of

Connecticut, and then selling the whole at the full price of the

latter. This fair dealing was managed thus: The pork of Connecticut

was packed up in barrels, each of which, according to statute

regulations, must weigh 220 lbs. and contain not more than six legs

and three half heads. The packer is to mark the barrel before it is

shipped, and is liable to a heavy punishment if there should be found

four half heads and seven legs in the barrel when it is delivered for

exportation. But of large pork, two legs and half a head will be a

sufficient proportion of those parts in a barrel. This gives the

New-York and Bostonian merchants an opportunity of taking out the best

part of the Connecticut pork, and substituting in its place an equal

weight of their own, whereby it often happens that four legs and two

half heads are found in a barrel of reputed Connecticut pork. Though

it then remains a barrel according to the statute, it cannot but be

supposed that the practice must greatly hurt the credit of Connecticut

pork with all who are not apprised that it passes through the

renounded provinces of Massachusets-Bay and New-York.

The people of Connecticut have long been sensible of the many great

impositions and disadvantages which beset their commercial system;

yet, though sufficient power is in their own hands, they have no

inclination or resolution to attempt a reformation of it. The reason

is, the mutual animosities and rancour subsisting between the

dominions of New-London, Hertford, and Newhaven, each of which prefers

the general ruin of the province to a coalition upon any terms short

of conquest. The seeds of this discord were thus sown by these two

insidious neighbours. The port of New-London is by far the best in the

province, and extremely well calculated for its capital and grand

commercial emporium; and about fifty years since, a number of

merchants there began to export and import goods, seemingly to the

satisfaction of the whole colony, but to the great displeasure and

chagrin of those of New-York and Boston, whom it threatened with ruin.

Something was necessary to be done. The poor Bostonians, according to

custom, privately sent for their faithful allies at Hertford, to

infuse into them an idea that their town ought to be the capital, and

not New-London, which belonged to the Dominion of Sassacus, who had

murdered so many christians; adding that, if they would engage in such

an attempt in favour of Hertford, the Boston merchants would supply

them with goods cheaper than they could buy them at New-London. The

good people at Hertford, forgetting their river was frozen for five

months in the year, remembering how they had obtained their Charter,

hating Sassacus, and loving self, immediately gave in to the designing

Bostonians’ suggestions, and refused to receive any more goods from

New-London. The friendly Mynheers of New-York played off a similar

trick upon Newhaven, and promised to support that town as the capital

of the colony. The plots succeeded. Contentions and quarrels arose

among the three parties, the effects of which remain to this day. The

merchants of New-London were obliged to quit Connecticut, and the

trade of the province was chiefly divided between New-York and Boston,

at cent. per cent. disadvantage to an ill-natured colony, and at the

same time advantage to its cunning neighbours. When party spirit

yields to self-interest, New-London will again become the emporium of

Connecticut, where merchants will settle and import goods from foreign

countries at 35_l._ per cent. extra profit to the consumers, and

15_l._ per cent. extra profit to themselves, and withal save as much

in the exports from Connecticut, by taking the full price and bounty

of its goods at foreign markets, instead of yielding the same to the

people of New-York and Boston, who have too long kept 200,000 as

negroes on their own farms, to support twice 20,000 artful citizens.

Thus has Connecticut, by contention and folly, impoverished and kept

in obscurity the most fruitful colony in America, to support the fame

and grandeur of Boston and New-York among the trading nations of

Europe. When I view the less fertile soil of Boston, the conscience of

merchants, the pride of the pretended Gospel ministers, the blindness

of bigotry, and the mercantile ignorance of farmers, I forgive Boston,

New-York, and Rhode-Island, but condemn Connecticut. I will leave a

legacy to the people of my native country, which possibly may heal

their divisions, and render them partial to their own province, as the

Bostonians are to theirs. It consists of two lines:

“But if men knaves and fools will be,

They’ll be ass-ridden by all three.”

_Revenue and Expenditure._--In 1680 the whole corporation were

estimated to be worth 120,000_l._ They had 30 small vessels, 26

churches, and, as above mentioned, 20,000 inhabitants. If their value

had increased only in proportion with the inhabitants, who, as I have

said, amounted to 200,000 in 1770, the corporation would then have

been worth no more than 1,200,000_l._, a sum not equal to 10_s._ per

acre, though in a great measure cultivated, and surrounded with stone

walls which alone cost 10_s._ by the rod; but in that year, viz. 1770;

land sold in Connecticut from 4_l._ to 50_l._ per acre; their vessels,

also, had increased to about 1200, and the churches--least in

proportion--to about 300. The true method, therefore, of forming the

valuation of Connecticut in 1770, is not by calculating upon this

State in 1680, but by estimating the number of its acres, appreciating

them by purchases then made, and adding a due allowance for the stock,

&c. Now, Connecticut has been reputed to contain 2,500,000 solid

acres, which, at the very moderate price of 8_l._ each, are worth

20,000,000_l._ sterling; and 14,000,000_l._ being added as a

reasonable allowance for stock, shipping, &c. the whole valuation of

Connecticut would amount to 34,000,000_l._ The annual income,

supposing the 2,500,000 acres and stock rented at 10_s._ per acre, one

with another, would be 1,250,000_l._ A list of rateables, called the

General List, is the foundation upon which the revenue is raised in

Connecticut, being the valuation of a man’s property by the year. It

is formed in the following manner:

One acre of land, per annum 0_l._ 10_s._

One horse 3 00

One house 3 00

One ox 3 00

One swine 1 00

One cow 3 00

One two-year-old heifer 2 00

One yearling do. 1 00

One poll or male, between 16 and 60 years 18 00

One lawyer for his faculty 20 00

One vessel of 100 tons 10 00

--------------

65_l._ 10_s._

Every person annually gives his list, specifying the property he

possesses, to the selectmen, who send the sum total of each town to

the General Assembly, when a tax of one shilling, more or less,

according to public exigencies, is imposed on each pound.

According to the general list of the colony for 1770, I have

underrated its annual worth, which then was fixed at 2,000,000_l._;

for, though that list includes the poll-tax of 18_l._ per head for all

males above sixteen and under sixty years of age, the faculty tax, and

the tax on shipping, all which may amount to 600,000_l._, there

nevertheless remains a surplus of 150,000_l._ above my calculation.

But, supposing a tax of one shilling in the pound (the common colonial

assessment) on 1,250,000_l._, the produce will be 62,500_l._,

exclusive of the poll, faculty, and other taxes. Small, however, as

this assessment is, it has never been collected without much

difficulty and clamour; yet the people lose, by trading with Boston,

New-York, and Newport, in exports and imports, 600,000_l._ annually;

and that for nothing but to oblige the traders of those towns, and

disoblige one another.

The annual expenditure of the colony is as follows:

Salary of Governor 300_l._ 00_s._

“ Lieutenant-Governor 150 00

“ Treasurer 150 00

“ Secretary 150 00

“ the twelve assistants in Council

with the Governor 800 00

“ 146 Representatives 2,500 00

“ 300 Ministers, 100_l._ each 30,000 00

Allowance for contingencies 28,450 00

------------------

Total 62,500_l._ 00_s._

The above-mentioned list of the colony, including the poll-tax, &c.

would afford 32,500_l._ more for contingencies.

_Religion and Government._--Properly speaking, the Connectitensians

have neither, nor ever had; but, in pretence, they excel the whole

world, except Boston and Spain. If I could recollect the names of the

multifarious religious sects among them, it might afford the reader a

pleasant idea of the prolific invention of mankind. I shall mention a

few of the most considerable, specifying the number of their

congregations:

CONGREGATIONS.

Episcopalians 73

Scotch presbyterians 1

Sandemanians 3

Ditto Bastard 1

Lutherans 1

Baptists 6

Seventh-day ditto 1

Quakers 4

Davisonians 1

Separatists 40

Rogereens 1

Bowlists 1

Old Lights 80

New Lights 87

---

300

An account of some of these sects is to be found in the history of

Munster; but the Bowlists, Separatists, and Davisonians are peculiar

to the colony. The first allow of neither singing nor prayer; the

second permit only the elect to pray; and the third teach universal

salvation, and deny the existence of a hell or devils. The

presbyterians and episcopalians are held by all to be the enemies of

Zion and the American Vine; nay, the former are even worse hated than

the Churchmen, because they appear to be dissenters, and are not

genuine enemies to episcopacy, but “hold the truth in unrighteousness.”

Some travellers have called the fanatical sects of Connecticut by the

general name of Legionists, because they are many; and others have

called them Pumguntums, Cantums, &c. because they groan and sing with

a melancholy voice their prayers, sermons, and hymns. This disgusting

tone has utterly excluded oratory from them; and did they not speak

the English in greater perfection than any other of the Americans, few

strangers would disoblige them with their company. Their various

systems are founded upon those of Peters, Hooker, and Davenport, of

which I have already spoken; yet the modern teachers have made so many

new-fangled refinements in the doctrine and discipline of those

patriarchs, and of one another, as render their passions for

ecclesiastical innovation and tyranny equally conspicuous. But the

whole are enveloped with superstition, which here passes for religion,

as much as it does in Spain, France, or among the savages.

I will instance that of an infant, in 1761. Some children were piling

sand-heaps in Hertford, when a boy, only four years old, hearing it

thunder at a distance, left his companions and ran home to his mother,

crying out, “Mother, mother, give me my book, for I heard God speaking

to me!” His mother gave him his book, and he read A, B, C, D, &c.;

then gave up his book, saying, “Here, mother, take my book; I must go

to my sand-houses: now I am not afraid of all the thunder and

lightning in the world.”

As to their government, we may compare it to the regularity of a mad

mob in London, with this exception: the mob acts without law, and the

colonists by law. They teach that legal righteousness is not saving

grace. Herein they are right; but it appears they believe not their

own doctrine, for legal righteousness is their only shield and

buckler. In January County Court, at Hertford only, 1768, there were

about 3000 suits on the docket; and there are four of these courts in

a year, and perhaps never less suits at a court than 2000.

In the course of this work my readers must necessarily have observed,

in some degree, the ill effects of the democratical constitution of

Connecticut. I would wish them to imagine, for I feel myself unable

adequately to describe, the confusion, turbulence, and convulsion

arising in a province where not only every civil officer, from the

governor to the constables, but also every minister, is appointed as

well as paid by the people, and faction and superstition are

established. The clergy, lawyers, and merchants or traders, are the

three efficient parties which guide the helm of the government. Of

these, the most powerful is the clergy, and, when no combinations are

formed against them, they may be said to rule the whole province; for

they lead the women captive, and the women the men; but when the

clergy differ with the lawyers and merchants, the popular tide turns.

In like manner, when the clergy and lawyers contend with the

merchants, it turns against these; and is the same when the clergy and

merchants unite against the lawyers. This fluctuation of power gives a

strange appearance to the body politic at large. In Hertford, perhaps,

the clergy and merchants are agreed, and prevail; in Weathersfield,

the clergy and lawyers; in Middletown, the lawyers and merchants; and

so on, again and again, throughout the colony. Thus the General

Assembly becomes an assembly of contending factions, whose different

interests and pursuits it is generally found necessary mutually to

consult in order to produce a sufficient coalition to proceed on the

business of the State.--_Vos ipsos pseudo-patres patriæ, veluti in

speculo aspicite?_--Sometimes, in quarrels between the merchants and

lawyers of a particular parish, the minister is allowed to stand

neuter; but, for the most part, he is obliged to declare on the one

side or the other; he then, remembering from whence he gets his bread,

espouses that which appears to be the strongest, whether it be right

or wrong, and his declaration never fails to turn the adverse

party.--_En rabies_ _vulgi!_--I must beg leave to refer my readers to

their own reflections upon such a system of government as I have here

sketched out.

The historians of New-England boast much of the happiness all parties

there enjoy in not being subject, as in England, to sacramental test

by way of qualification for preferment in the State; on which account,

with peculiar propriety, it might be called a free country. The truth

is, there never has been occasion for such a test-act. The Assemblies

never appointed any, because the magistrates are annually chosen by

the people, of whom the far greater part are church members; and this

church-membership, in its consequences, destroys all liberty in a

communicant, who is necessitated to swear to promote the interests of

that church he is a member of, and is duly informed by the minister

what that interest is. The minister is the eye of conscience to all

freemen in his parish, and tells them that they will perjure

themselves if they give their votes to an episcopalian, or any person

who is not a member of the Church of the _Sober Dissenters_. Those

freemen dare not go counter to the minister’s dictate, any more than a

true Mussulman dare violate the sacred law of Mahomet. What need,

then, is there of a civil test, when a religious test operates much

more powerfully, and will ever keep Churchmen, Separatists, Quakers,

Baptists, and other denominations from governmental employments in

Connecticut, and confine them to the Old and New Lights; whilst the

test act in England prevents no dissenter from holding any civil or

military commission whatsoever? Upon this subject Mr. Neal has exerted

himself in so signal a manner, that he ought to be styled the Champion

of New-England. He represents that there were two State factions in

New-England: the one out of place he calls spies and malcontents,

chiefly because they had no share in the government. He adds, p. 615:

“I can assure the world that religion is no part of the quarrel; for

there is no sacramental test for preferment in the State.”--Many

people in New-England have not been able to assign a reason for Mr.

Neal’s choosing to hide one truth by telling another, viz. that there

was no statute in New-England to oblige a man to receive the sacrament

among the _Sober Dissenters_ as a qualification for civil office. This

assertion is really true; and when Mr. Neal speaks a truth, he, above

all men, ought to have credit for it. But Mr. Neal well knew it to be

the truth, also, that no man could be chosen a corporal in the

train-band unless he was a member of the Church of the _Sober

Dissenters_, because then every voter was subject to a religious test

of the Synod or Consociation. Mr. Neal, indeed, seems to think that a

civil test is heresy itself, but that a religious test is liberty, is

gospel, and renders “all parties of christians in New-England easy--a

happy people.” The reason, however, of his muffling truth with truth,

was, he wrote for the Old Lights and against the New Lights for hire;

the New Lights being the minority, and out of place in the State.

Those two sects differed about the coercive power of the civil

magistrate. The Old Lights held that the civil magistrate was a

creature framed on purpose to support ecclesiastical censure with the

sword of severity; but the New Lights maintained that the magistrate

had no power or right to concern himself with Church excommunication,

and that excommunication was all the punishment any one could undergo

in this world, according to the rules of the Gospel. These were, and

always have been, two great articles of faith in New-England;

nevertheless, Mr. Neal says he can assure the world that “religion is

no part of the quarrel.” I hope Mr. Neal did not mean to quibble, as

the New-Englanders generally do, by Jesuitism, viz. that religion is

peaceable and admits not of quarrels; and yet, if he did not, he meant

not a full representation of the matter, for he well knew that the

difference in respect to the intent and power of the magistrates was a

religious point, and formed the partition wall between the Old and New

Lights. The civilians and magistrates were too wise to countenance the

New Lights, who promised little good to them; while the Old Lights

gave them a power of punishing, even unto death, those whom they had

anathematized, and who would not submit to their censures by penitence

and confession. The Old Lights, in short, supported the practice of

the inquisitors of Spain and Archbishop Laud--the ostensible occasion

of their ancestors flying from England to the wilderness of America.

But Mr. Neal contented not himself with one mistake; he added, “that

the people of New-England are a dutiful and loyal people.” They never

merited this character, and they always had too much honesty and

religion to claim it. From the first they have uniformly declared, in

Church and State, that America is a new world, subject to the people

residing in it, and that none but enemies of the country would appeal

from their courts to the King in Council. They never have prayed for

any earthly king by name. They have always called themselves

republicans, and enemies to kingly government, to temporal and

spiritual lords. They hate the idea of a Parliament, consisting of

King, Lords, and Commons; they declare that the three branches should

be but one, the king having only a single vote with the other members.

Upon this point they have always quarrelled with the governors. They

never have admitted one law of England to be in force among them till

passed by their assemblies. They have sent agents to fight against the

kings of England. They deny the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London,

which extends over America by a royal patent. They hold Jesus to be

the only King, whom if they love and obey they will not submit,

because they have not submitted, to the laws of the King of Great

Britain.

Mr. Neal, furthermore, professes his want of conception why the

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts should send

missionaries into New-England, when Oliver Cromwell had, in 1640,

instituted a society to propagate christian knowledge there. Mr. Neal

might have learnt the cause of this phenomenon from the charter

granted to the first-mentioned society by King William III., who was a

friend to civil and christian liberty, and who endeavoured to suppress

the intolerable persecutions in his days prevailing in New-England.

But, besides, Mr. Neal could not but know that there were many

Churchmen in New-England desirous of the use of the liturgy and

discipline of the English Church; and for what reason should they not

have ministers of their own persuasion, as well as the sober and

conscientious dissenters? I hope my readers will not think me a

partial advocate for the Church of England, which, perhaps, has lost

the opportunity of civilizing, christianizing, and moderating the

burning zeal of the dissenters of New-England, who were honest in

their religion merely by the sinful omission of not sending a bishop

to that country, who would have effected greater things among them

than an army of 50,000 men. I avow myself to be liberal-minded towards

all sects and parties; and, if I had power, I would convert all sorts

of ministers into popes, cardinals, prelates, dominies, potent

presbyters, and rich Quakers, that the world might be excused from

hearing again of preaching, defamation, insurrections, and spiritual

jurisdictions, which result more from pride, poverty, avarice, and

ambition, than the love of peace and christianity.

It has been said by the deists, and other politicians, that ministers,

by preaching, have done more hurt than good in the christian world. If

the idea will hold in any part it will be in New-England, where each

sect preaches, for Gospel, policy and defamation of its neighbour;

whence the lower classes think that christianity consists in defending

their own peculiar Church and modes, and subverting those of others,

at any rate; while the higher ranks value religion and the Gospel as

laws of a foreign country, and the merchants powwowers, subtle, cruel,

and greedy of riches and dominion over all people. For this reason the

savages have taken an aversion to the protestant religion, and they

say they would rather follow Hobbomockow and the Roman priests than

New-England christians, who persecute one another, and killed their

ancestors with a pocky Gospel. With scorn they cry out: “We value not

your Gospel, which shews so many roads to Kicktang; some of them must

be crooked, and lead to Hobbomockow. We had, therefore, better

continue Indians like our ancestors, or be Catholics, who tell us of

only one way to Kicktang, or the invisible God.”

_Laws._--A stranger in the colony, upon hearing the inhabitants talk of

religion, liberty, and justice, would be induced to believe that the

christian and civil virtues were their distinguishing characteristics;

but he soon finds his mistake in fixing his abode among them. Their

laws grind the poor, and their religion is to oppress the oppressed.

The poll-tax is unjust and cruel. The poor man is compelled to pay for

his bread eighteen shillings per annum, work four days on the

highways, serve in the militia four days, and pay three shillings for

his hut, without a window in it. The best house and richest man in the

colony pays no more!

The law is pretended to exempt episcopalians, Anabaptists, Quakers,

and others, from paying rates to the _Sober Dissenters_, but, at the

same time, gives the _Sober Dissenters_ power to tax them for

minister, school, and town rates, by a general quota; and no law or

court can put asunder what the town has joined together. The law also

exempts from paying to _Sober Dissenters_ all Churchmen “who live so

near that they can and do attend Church.” But hence, if a man is sick,

and does not attend more than twenty-six Sabbaths in a year, he

becomes legally a _Sober Dissenter_; and if the meeting lies between

him and the Church, he does not live so near the Church that he can

attend, because it is more than a Sabbath-day’s journey, and therefore

unnecessary travel.[38]

The law provides whipping, stocks, and fines, for such as do not

attend public worship on the Sabbath. The Grand Jury complains, and

the Justice inflicts the punishment. This has been the practice for

many years. About 1750, Mr. Pitt, a Churchman, was whipped for not

attending meeting. Mr. Pitt was an old man. The episcopal clergy wrote

to England, complaining of this cruel law. The Governor and Council

immediately broke the Justice who punished Mr. Pitt, and wrote to the

Bishop of London that they had done so as a mark of their

disapprobation of the Justice’s conduct, and knew not what more they

could do. This apology satisfied the Bishop, and the next year the

Governor and Council restored the Justice to his office; however,

Quakers and Anabaptists only were whipped afterwards.

Formerly, when a _Sober Dissenter_ had a suit in law against a

Churchman, every juryman of the latter persuasion was by the Court

removed from the jury and replaced by _Sober Dissenters_. The reasons

assigned for this extraordinary conduct was, “that justice and

impartiality might take place.” The episcopalians, Quakers, and other

sects not of the _Sober Dissenters_, were not admitted to serve as

jurymen in Connecticut till 1750. Such of them whose annual worth is

rated at not less than 40_l._ in the general list, have enjoyed the

liberty of voting for civil officers a much longer term; but for

parish concerns they are still totally excluded.

Other laws I have occasionally animadverted upon in the course of this

work; and a specimen of the Blue Laws, and of various courts, is

inserted.

Nothing can reflect greater disgrace upon the colony than the number

of suits in all the County Courts, amounting in the whole to between

20 and 30,000 annually; the greater part of which are vexatiously

commenced from expectations grounded upon the notorious instability of

the judges’ opinions and decisions.

The spirit of litigation which distracts the province in general is,

however, a blessing to the judges and lawyers. The court has one

shilling for every action called, and twenty shillings for those that

come to trial; and the fee to each lawyer is twenty shillings, whether

the action be tried or not, besides various other expenses. There are

as many suits of conscience before the justices of the peace, and

ministers, and deacons; so that the sum annually expended in law in

the whole colony is amazing. It was not without reason, therefore,

that the judges, the lawyers, the ministers and deacons, the sheriffs

and constables, opposed the stamp-act with all their might. They told

the people that, if this act took place, their liberties would be

destroyed, and they would be tried by King’s judges without jury.

The singular nature of some of the suits entitles them to particular

notice. When the ice and flood prevail in the great river Connecticut,

they frequently carry off large pieces of ground on one side, and

carry them over to the other. By this means the river is every year

changing its bed, to the advantage of some persons and the

disadvantage of others. This has proved the source of perplexing

lawsuits, and will most likely continue to produce the same effects so

long as the demi-annual assemblies remain in the colony; for the

judgment of the Assembly in May is rescinded by that in October, and

so _vice versa_. Thus a lawsuit in Connecticut is endless, to the ruin

of both plaintiff and defendant.

The County and Superior Courts, also, in different years give

different judgments; and the reason is the popular constitution of the

colony, whereby different parties prevail at different times, each of

whom carefully undoes what the others have done. Thus the glorious

uncertainty of the law renders the possession of property in

Connecticut extremely precarious. The question, however, touching the

lands being removed from place to place by the floods and ice,

requires the skill of both juries and casuists. The most simple case

of the kind that has been communicated to me is the following:

A piece of land belonging to A., in Springfield, with a house, &c.

standing upon it, was removed by the flood to another town, and

settled on land belonging to W. A. claimed his house and land, and

took possession of them; whereupon W. sued A. for a trespass, and the

court ejected A. But A. afterward obtained a revision of the judgment;

when W. again sued A., and got a decree that A. should remove his own

land off from the land of W., or pay W. for his land. Further

litigation ensued, both parties pleading that the act of God injured

no man according to the English law. The judges said that the act of

God in this case equally fell upon A. and W. The dispute rests _in

statu quo_, the jurisprudence of Connecticut not having yet taught

mankind what is just and legal in this important controversy.

Supposing the flood had carried A.’s ship or raft on W.’s land, the

ship or raft would still belong to A., and W. could recover damages;

but then A. must take away his ship or raft in a reasonable time. Yet,

in the case where an island, or point of land, is removed by the

waters, or an earthquake, upon a neighbouring shore, _Q._ Ought not

the islanders to keep possession of the superficies? This may be a new

case in Europe.

_Manners and Customs._--Gravity and serious deportment, together with

shyness and bashfulness, generally attend first communications with

the inhabitants of Connecticut; but after a short acquaintance they

become very familiar, and inquisitive about news. Who are you? whence

come you? where going? what is your business? and what your religion?

They do not consider these, and similar questions, impertinent, and

consequently expect a civil answer. When the stranger has satisfied

their curiosity, they will treat him with all the hospitality in their

power, and great caution must be observed to get quit of them and

their houses without giving offence. If the stranger has cross and

difficult roads to travel, they will go with him till all danger is

past, without fee or reward. The stranger has nothing to do but

civilly say, “Sir, I thank you, and will call upon you when I return.”

He must not say, “God bless you,” or “I shall be glad to see you at my

house,” unless he is a minister; because they hold that the words “God

bless you” should not be spoken by common people; and “I shall be glad

to see you at my house” they look upon as an insincere compliment,

paid them for what they do out of duty to the stranger. Their

hospitality is highly exemplary; they are sincere in it, and reap

great pleasure by reflecting that, perhaps, they have entertained

angels.