_drawn-up in 1756_ for the Duke of Cumberland.[41] Nobody in
our own day, after the experience of more than a century, has portrayed
more vividly the two masses of waters,--one composed of the great lakes
and their dependencies, and the other of the Mississippi and its
tributaries. The great lakes are described as "a wilderness of waters
spreading over the country by an infinite number and variety of
branchings, bays, and straits." The Mississippi, with its eastern
branch, called the Ohio, is described as having, "so far as we know, but
two falls,--one at a place called, by the French, St. Antoine, high up
on the west or main branch"; and all its waters "run to the ocean with a
still, easy, and gentle current." The picture is completed by exhibiting
the two masses of water in combination:--

"The waters of each respective mass--not only the lesser streams, but
the main general body of each going through this continent in every
course and direction--have by their approach to each other, by their
communication to every quarter and in every direction, an alliance and
unity, and form one mass, or one whole."[42]

Again, depicting the intercommunication among the several waters of the
continent, and how "the watery element claims and holds dominion over
this extent of land," he insists that all shall see these two mighty
masses in their central throne, declaring that "the great lakes which
lie upon its bosom on one hand, and the great river Mississippi and the
multitude of waters which run into it, form there a communication,--an
alliance or dominion of the watery element, that commands throughout the
whole; that these great lakes appear to be the throne, the centre of a
dominion, whose influence, by an infinite number of rivers, creeks, and
streams, extends itself through all and every part of the continent,
supported by the communication of, and alliance with the waters of the
Mississippi."[43]

If these means of internal commerce were vast, those afforded by the
Atlantic Ocean were not less extensive. The latter were developed in the
volume entitled "The Administration of the Colonies," the fourth edition
of which, published in 1768, is now before me. This was after the
differences between the Colonies and the mother country had begun, but
before the idea of independence had shown itself. Pownall insisted that
the Colonies ought to be considered as parts of the realm, entitled to
representation in Parliament. This was