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New-Amsterdam, (now New-York,) having on board 6 or 700 men. [See New-York.] In the year 1672, the town of New-Castle was incorporated, by the government of New-York, and was to be subject to a bailiff and six assistants. After the first year the four eldest were to be removed from office, and four others elected. The bailiff was president of the corporation, and entitled to a double vote. They had power to try causes, not exceeding ten pounds, without any appeal from their jurisdiction. The office of Scout, who had been the chief of the council of six, was here converted into sheriff, who had jurisdiction within the corporation, and along the river, and was annually elected. From this new constitution the inhabitants had the benefit of a free trade without being obliged to make entry at New-York, as heretofore.

"During the early periods of the settlement of Delaware, wampum was the principal currency of the country. Gov. Lovelace of New-York, ordered by proclamation, that four white grains and three black ones, should circulate for a stiver, or penny. This proclamation was published in New-York, Albany, Long-Island, Delaware, and the adjacent countries, under the government of the Dutch. Large parcels of land had been purchased from the Indian proprietors, by the Dutch, previous to the conquest of Capt. Carr. And after the establishment of the government of the Duke of York, the governors, deputy-governors, and different county-courts, granted considerable quantities of land on the west side of the bay, as far as Upland, (now Chester,) reserving a quit-rent of one bushel of wheat for every hundred acres. In this situation the government continued until a war between the English and the States General comenced, in which the whole country being retaken, became again subject to the Dutch; but their possession was of short duration; for at the termination of the war in 1667, it was agreed at the peace of Breda, that the New

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Netherlands, then supposed to include the Delaware colony, should be exchanged for Surrinam, a province of Guiana, in South America, and thus restored to the English. This article of the treaty was considered at the time, as very disadvantageous to the British government. The value of Surrinam was estimated much higher than all that tract of country which now includes the States of NewYork, New-Jersey, and Delaware. This was then viewed as a principal part of the disgrace attending the peace of Breda, which closed a war in which the national character, for bravery, had shone out with lustre; but where the misconduct of the government was no less apparent.

"From the restoration of this country in 1667, until the administration of Mr. Dennis, in 1682, the counties of New-Castle, Kent, and Sussex, were held as an appendage to New-York; of course the public affairs of the colony were conducted nearly as they had been previously to the capture of the country by the Dutch. Sir Edmond Andross now governed the duke's territory, and exercised jurisdiction on both sides of the Delaware. His arbitrary impositions began to make his government and his character odious; the inhabitants remonstrated against his conduct; but their efforts proved ineffectual.

"The title of the Duke of York to the New-Netherlands, depended on a grant from the crown, dated the 12th of March, 1663-4. [See N. York.) In the duke's settlement of the country, and forming the government under his grant, the Delaware colony was included, as it was then supposed to be a part of New-Netherlands. This idea seems to have originated and to have been continued by a kind of voluntary deception, or rather from views of direct encroachment and usurpation. The very words of the grant are in direct opposition to such an extension of claim or jurisdiction. When William Penn, in 1680, petitioned the crown for the grant of Pennsylvania, in conVOL. II.

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sideration of a large debt due from the public to his father's estate, this question naturally presented itself, and was fully discussed. The petition was referred to the Lords Commissioners of foreign plantations. From the importance of the subject they chose to submit it, on the 8th of November, 1680, to the consideration of the AttorneyGeneral; and his report to them, on an examination of the subject was, "that the patent granted to his Royal Highness the Duke of York, was bounded westward by the east side of Delaware Bay." [See N. York.] In the year 1685, this question received a more formal adjudication,, when upon Lord Baltimore's opposition to William Penn's settlement under his grant, it was brought before a committee of the privy council a second time, and after a full argument and examination, their lordships reported among other things, " that they did then adjudge the land then called Delaware, to belong to his majesty."

"In the settlement of the Delaware colony, under two deeds of feoffment from the Duke of York, in 1682, William Penn became involved in a territorial contest with Lord Baltimore, which eventually became expensive, tedious, and troublesome to the representatives. The dispute was terminated in 1685, by an order "that for the avoiding of all further differences, the tract of land lying between the river and bay of Delaware, and the eastern sea, on the one side, and the Chesapeake Bay on the other, be divided into two equal parts, by a line from the Cape Henlopen to the 40th degree of north latitude, and that one half lying between the Bay of Delaware and the eastern sea, belong to his majesty, and the other half remain to the Lord Baltimore, as comprised within his charter." This decision was founded upon the principle that the king was deceived in his grant; that Delaware colony came within the exemption to which the patent was restricted, as that part of the country was proved to have

been previously possessed and settled by the Swedes and Dutch.

"Immediately after the deeds of feoffment were executed, agreeable to contract, between the Duke of York and William Penn, the latter assumed the government of the Delaware colony, in affairs of legislation, and connected it with Pennsylvania. After the union of the province and the three lower counties, the representatives held their first session at Upland, (Chester,) on the fourth day of the tenth month, 1682. [See Pennsylvania.] They enacted a law confirming the union, and delineating the particulars of the plan which was adopted. By this act, all the privileges, and advantages before granted to the province, were extended to the colony of Delaware. They were from that time to be considered as the same people, and subject to the same laws. The freemen, both of the province, and of Delaware were summoned to attend this assembly in person, but they chose to elect twelve members from each county, making in the whole 72, the precise number, which by the frame of the government was to compose one house only. The representatives were accompanied with petitions to the governor, importing "that the fewness of the people, their inability in estate, and unskilfulness in government, would not permit them to serve in so large an assembly; and therefore it was their desire that the number now returned from each county, might serve both for Provincial Council and General Assembly, with the same powers and privileges, which by charter were granted to the whole. The members were accordingly distributed into two houses; three out of each colony made a council, consisting of eighteen, and the remaining part formed an assembly of fifty-four. "In the settlement of this country, under the government of William Penn, the lands were purchased, and not forcibly taken from the natives; with whom it was observa

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ble that every new purchase considerably enhanced the value of the land; but the practice of contracting with the natives for lands on which settlements were made, is by no means peculiar to William Penn; previous to his coming into Delaware, the Dutch had practised the same ; and large purchases had been made of the Indians in America, particularly in Massachusetts. (See Pennsylvania.]

"During the time of William Penn's residence in his own province, the administration of the government was conducted wisely and properly; the council and the assembly were in harmony, but when his controversy with Lord Baltimore called him to England, (in less than three years after his arrival in the province,) it soon lost the benefit of his personal assistance, and the repose of government was of short duration. On William Penn's leaving the province, we find disorders arising in every department of government. A certain Mr. Moore, a chief in the proprietary's administration, was impeached by the assembly before the provincial council. He was represented in an address to William Penn, "as an aspiring and corrupt minister of state." Mr. John White, a representative from Delaware, and who signed the address as speaker, was soon arrested and committed to prison, and by a variety of artifices, the granting a habeas corpus was evaded. There being no steady hand to hold the balances between the council and the assembly, they soon fell into a controversy, in the construction of their respective powers and prvileges, and there had like to have been a very serious contest between the assembly and the proprietary, on his requiring from them a dissolution of their frame of gov ernment. At the time of William Penn's departure, he had committed the administration of the government into the hands of five commissioners of state, taken out of the provincial council, who were to preside in his place..

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