obtaining contributions from members, and other donations. To place the Society upon sure ground, we have thought it important to have a permanent fund, the interest on which may always be counted upon in aid of the admission fees and yearly dues of members, to pay the current annual expenses. The Treasurer has, therefore, been directed to invest from time to time, in certificates of debt of the State of Virginia bearing interest, all the commutation fees which may be paid by life members and all sums of money which may be given to the Society. These certificates are directed to be taken in the corporate name of the Society, and will constitute its permanent fund.

After giving this direction, the Corresponding Secretary, Mr. Maxwell, was appointed general agent of the Society until this meeting, and as such was directed to take measures to establish the permanent fund, increase the yearly income, and extend the operations and influence of the Society. To this end he was authorized to visit such parts of the State as he might deem advisable to obtain donations to the Society, and the co-operation of persons fit and proper to be elected members.

The proceedings of Mr. Maxwell under the authority so given him, have met the cordial approbation of the committee. The persons whom he has seen, and at their instance proposed to the committeee as resident members, have been all of them gentlemen whom the committee took pleasure in recommending; and the Society has, by ballot, unanimously elected all brought before it.

Of the resident members, twelve have paid each fifty dollars as a commutation for all the regular fees and dues for life, amounting for the twelve to $600, of which $300 has been, and the rest will soon be, invested as part of the permanent fund. The example of becoming life members, it is believed, will shortly be followed by others; and the permanent fund will of course be enlarged in the same proportion.

Without the benefit yet of interest from this fund, there has nevertheless been received during the past year, from the admission fees and yearly dues of the other resident members, a sum sufficient to pay all the expenses of the Society.

We think the annual income may be expected regularly to increase and we hope from this income and by means of donations of books, to be constantly adding to the extent and value of the library, until it shall become not only an agreeable place to be visited by members of the Society, but a repository of ample materials for the investigators of history, and a just source of pride to every citizen of the State.

THE LIMITS OF VIRGINIA

UNDER THE CHARTERS OF KING JAMES THE FIRST.

In a work like ours which is to contain miscellaneous materials for a History of Virginia, rather than a History itself, it will not of course be expected that we shall always, or indeed hardly ever, be able to observe any thing like an exact order of time. We are happy however, in the present instance, to have it in our power to begin at the beginning, (or pretty near it) by giving our readers a part of a valuable manuscript entitled "Notes as to the Limits of Virginia," by the Hon. Littleton Waller Tazewell, of Norfolk, which was written some time ago for the Hon. E. W. Hubard, of Buckingham, then a Member of Congress, and which the venerable author has most obligingly put into our hands, with liberty to use as we please. We submit, accordingly, the following portion of the communication which gives a very full and clear view of the Limits of Virginia under the charters of James the First; which may be useful for reference, and in relation to some other matters which we may publish hereafter. The rest of the manuscript is of a controversial character, being written in answer to an argument against the old claim of Virginia to the North-Western territory, contained in the Report of a Committee of the House of Representatives of August 20th, 1842.-(Rep. No. 1063.) This is highly characteristic of its author, and indeed a very curious and interesting specimen of that extraordinary fertility and acuteness of argumentation for which he has been so greatly distinguished in his time. It is, however, quite too long to be inserted in our pages at once, and we must lay it by for the present.

To determine the original limits of the country now called Virginia, it is necessary that we should go back to a period of history antecedent to even the discovery of this region. In this history, we shall find that the whole continent of North America fronting upon the Atlantic ocean, was called Virginia, long before any portion of that particular district that now bears this name had been discovered. The Spaniards, who had first discovered the southern part of this continent in 1512, had named it Florida, on account of the gay and beautiful appearance of the great variety of flowers they found flourishing there. But afterwards, in 1584, when the English also discovered it further to the northward, Queen Elizabeth was pleased to name the coun

try Virginia, as a memorial that this happy discovery had been made in the reign of a virgin queen.-(See Hakluyt, vol. iii, page 246.)

By letters patent granted by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Walter Raleigh, which bear date March 26, 1584, she gave to him, and to his heirs and assigns, "free liberty to search for and find such barbarous lands, not possessed by any Christian people, as to him may seem good, and the same to occupy and enjoy forever." This grant was without any other defined limits.-(Hakluyt, vol. iii, page 243, also Williamson's History of North Carolina, vol. i, page 219.)

In pursuance of this grant, Sir Walter Raleigh fitted out a small squadron, under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, to take possession of his newly acquired and unbounded territory; and a small settlement was actually established, on the 25th of August, 1584, on Roanoke island, in the present State of North Carolina. This was the first settlement made by the English in Virginia, and the first British settlement established anywhere on the continent of North America.-(See Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 251.) Owing to many causes, and after various adventures, which it would be unnecessary to mention here, this first settlement was abandoned by its founders in the year 1590; and we know nothing certainly of the fate of the unfortunate colonists who were then left there.-(See Smith's History of Va., vol. i, page 105.)

No other attempt to settle any colony in Virginia was made during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who died in 1603, and was succeeded by King James the First. But in the year 1606, this conceited prince issued his letters patent for that purpose, which letters bear date April 10, 1606. By these, he divided that portion of Virginia which stretches from 34° to 45° of northerly latitude, into two districts. In one of these districts, called the First or Southern Colony of Virginia, he authorized Sir Thomas Gates, and others, his associates, mostly resident in London, to plant a colony wherever they might choose, between 34° and 41° of north latitude; and he vested in them a right of property in the land, extending along the seacoast fifty statute miles, on each

side of the place of their first plantation, and reaching into the interior 100 statute miles from the seacoast. The other of these districts, called the Second or Northern Colony of Virginia, he allotted for the settlement of Thomas Hanham, and others, his associates, mostly residents of Bristol, Exeter, and Plymouth. These he authorized to plant a colony, wherever they might choose, between 38° and 45° of north latitude, and he gave to them a territory of similar limits and extent to that given to the first colony. He provided, however, that the plantation of the said two colonies which should be last made, should not be within 100 miles of the other, that might be first established. One of these two colonies (the first) was soon distinguished as the London Company; and the other (or second) was known as the Plymouth Company; but, in after time, these names were dropped, and the name of Virginia, which was at first applied to both the colonies, was retained by the southern colony only, while the northern colony was called New England-(For a copy of this charter, see Stith's History of Virginia-appendix, No. 1.)

The London Company commenced its operations before the Plymouth Company. The former fitted out a small ship of 100 tons burthen, and two barks, the command of which was given to Captain Christopher Newport, who sailed from Blackwall December 19, 1606, his first destination being Roanoke island, in quest of the unfortunate adventurers left there many years befere. Newport had a very long passage; and before he reached his destination, his little fleet encountered a severe southern gale, the violence of which was such as to oblige them to scud before it under bare poles one whole night. This was fortunate; for, in running in for the land the next day, (April 26, 1607,) they luckily fell in with the Capes of Chesapeake Bay, and entered this great estuary. Pursuing their course along the southern shore of the bay, they came to the mouth of a noble river, called by the natives Powhatan, but which Captain Newport named James River, after his sovereign. Up this river they sailed about 40 miles from its mouth, in search of a proper place whereon to plant the intended Colony. Such a place they at length found,

in a peninsula on the northern side of the river, connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus of naked sand, easily to be defended against any attack, let it come from what quarter it might. Here the adventurers landed on the 13th of May, 1607, and here they established their first habitation, to which they gave the name of "James Citty," in honor of King James I, the reigning monarch.-(See Smith's History of Virginia, vol. i, book iii, chap. i, page 149, &c.)

The facts stated above will enable us to determine, and with great accuracy, the limits of the grant made to the London Company, by their first charter of April 10, 1606. If a meridional line be drawn through James Citty, and extended each way to the distance of fifty statute miles from it; if parallels be drawn through the extremities of this meridian, and extended to the seacoast; if one hundred statute miles from thence be laid off upon each of these parallels; and if a straight line be drawn from the extremity of one of them so determined, to the extremity of the other, the diagram so to be constructed may be considered as a square, the base of which will be one hundred statute miles, and its area ten thousand square miles. Such a diagram, so constructed, will be delineated in precise accordance with all the calls of this charter of April 10, 1606.

We need but cast our eyes upon any map of this region to determine the ridiculous absurdity of confining the territory intended to be granted, by such limits. The only apology that can be offered for such an act, is, that the charter was granted before the country to which it was designed to apply was discovered. More than one moiety of all the lands within the prescribed limits will be found covered by wide and deep water-courses. By these, the dry land will be found divided into many small necks, widening as you advance upwards, and separated from each other by streams, the width and depth of which were such as to render them often impassable, and always dangerous; and the first plan. tation intended to be, and that long continued to be, the metropolis or chief-place of the Colony, will be found very near the western and most exposed frontier of the territory. Hence,