THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK (1674-1686) VII. FOUNDATION OF THE JERSEYS (1660-1677). VIII. DEVELOPMENT OF THE JERSEYS (1674-1689) IX. FOUNDATION OF THE CAROLINAS (1663-1671). DEVELOPMENT OF MARYLAND (1649-1686). XVI. DIFFICULTIES IN NEW ENGLAND (1675-1686) IN EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION N the history of the English colonies there comes a natural break at the point where the original system of charter colonies directed from England was thrown into confusion by the disruption of the English monarchy. The year 1652 marks this change, for in that year the southern colonies yielded to a parliamentary fleet; and soon after began a hostile feeling towards the Dutch, which ended ten years later in the annexation of their American possessions. It is at 1652, therefore, that Tyler's England in America ends and this volume begins. The period is further characterized by the development of a new colonial system, which for a century and a quarter was consistently followed by the English government; hence chapters i. and ii. are devoted to a study of the navigation acts and of the administrative councils to which eventually the name Lords of Trade was applied. Upon both subjects Professor Andrews has found new material and expounds new views. The neglected problem of the execution of the acts of trade has been fairly faced, and by delving in manuscript records Professor Andrews has, for the first time, been able to disen tangle the early council of trade and council of foreign plantations. Chapters iii. and iv. describe the territorial and political readjustment in New England, and throw new light on the charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island and the first movement against the Massachusetts charter, subjects which heretofore have been involved in much confusion. Closely connected with the status of New England are the annexation and organization of the new colony of New York (chapters v. and vi.); and this volume solves some of the most perplexing problems as to the motives for the conquest and the status of the Duke's Laws. Chapters vii. to x. deal with the foundation and development of the Jerseys and the Carolinas. Here the English archives have yielded rich material on the underlying motives for these simultaneous colonies, on the personal influences behind them, and on the perplexing questions of territorial claims and transfers. New Jersey has always been a specially difficult subject; but Professor Andrews disentangles the various threads of proprietary, Quaker, and Puritan settlements. In the Jerseys and the Carolinas appear the Concessions, which were a sort of popular constitution bestowed by the proprietor; and in the Carolinas there is opportunity for the discussion of John Locke's celebrated Grand Model, an example to succeeding generations of what a colonial constitution could not be. On the beginnings of Pennsylvania, the same care ful investigation of out-of-the-way sources, both printed and manuscript (chapters xi. and xii.), has given to Professor Andrews control over the difficult subject of the circumstances of Penn's grant and his efforts to establish a free government in a prosperous colony. The place of Pennsylvania is made clear, as the seat of German and other foreign immigration, the first on any considerable scale. In chapters xiii. to xv. the author takes up the account of Virginia and Maryland where Tyler left it off in the preceding volume; but, besides his lucid account of the commercial and political development of the two colonies, he has a fine field for treating a dramatic episode in his account of Bacon's Rebellion. This period of disturbance in the South was also a period of unrest and contentions in New England; and in chapters xvi. and xvii. Professor Andrews depicts Sir Edmund Andros, the representative of a purpose to make one colony out of the whole New England group, together with New York and New Jersey. The volume is concluded by two chapters describing the social and economic conditions of the colonies about 1689, especially interesting as showing the wide commercial relations of New England and the middle colonies. The most commanding figure of this period is William Penn, at the same time a great Englishman and a great American, whose portrait is pre |