w England was a region given up to the dreams of fancy and the
unrestrained experiments of innovators.

The English colonies (and this is one of the main causes of their
prosperity) have always enjoyed more internal freedom and more political
independence than the colonies of other nations; but this principle of
liberty was nowhere more extensively applied than in the States of New
England.

It was generally allowed at that period that the territories of the
New World belonged to that European nation which had been the first to
discover them. Nearly the whole coast of North America thus became a
British possession towards the end of the sixteenth century. The means
used by the English Government to people these new domains were of
several kinds; the King sometimes appointed a governor of his own
choice, who ruled a portion of the New World in the name and under the
immediate orders of the Crown; *j this is the colonial system adopted by
other countries of Europe. Sometimes grants of certain tracts were made
by the Crown to an individual or to a company, *k in which case all the
civil and political power fell into the hands of one or more persons,
who, under the inspection and control of the Crown, sold the lands and
governed the inhabitants. Lastly, a third system consisted in allowing a
certain number of emigrants to constitute a political society under the
protection of the mother-country, and to govern themselves in whatever
was not contrary to her laws. This mode of colonization, so remarkably
favorable to liberty, was only adopted in New England. *l

[Footnote j: This was the case in the State of New York.]

[Footnote k: Maryland, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey were
in this situation. See "Pitkin's History," vol. i. pp. 11-31.]

[Footnote l: See the work entitled "Historical Collection of State
Papers and other authentic Documents intended as materials for a History
of the United States of America, by Ebenezer Hasard. Philadelphia,
1792," for a great number of documents relating to the commencement
of the colonies, which are valuable from their contents and their
authenticity: amongst them are the various charters granted by the King
of England, and the first acts of the local governments.

See also the analysis of all these charters given by Mr. Story, Judge
of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the Introduction to his
"Commentary on the Constitution of the United States." It results from