Charters of the Old English Colonies in America: With an Introduction and Notes (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Charters of the Old English Colonies in America: With an Introduction and Notes

The present volume comprises ten of the Charters which were granted \to our early American Colo nies. The same Charters were originally collected by a bookseller, named Almon, at the close Of the last century; but as his edition has become scarce, and is much sought after, they are now reprinted, with the addition of some explanatory statements and notes. It has not been thought necessary to add to their number, though many are wanting to complete the seriesfi inasmuch as Almon's edition contains the principal specimens of each class into which they have been appropriately distinguished. An attempt only has been made to improve upon Almon's method, who, to borrow a simile from Mr. Carlyle, edited them as you edit bricks, by tilting the wagon. Be the result as it may, it is necessarily imperfect, as the intention was conceived but a week or two since, in connexion with the question of Colonial misgovern ment. The Object was to furnish at a critical time materials for comparison between our present attempts, and the grandest and most successful colonizing opera In fact, to the time of the founding of New South Wales, when the convict system involved the adoption by England of the centralized methods of France and Spain, a Colony had a Charter as an indis pensable condition of its political existence.

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