George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 2, 17th edition.

[413] broad, that flocks of sheep could nibble by the roadside;

Chap. XVII.}

troops of horses multiplied in the woods. In a few years, a law of the commonwealth, giving force to the common principle of the New England and the Scottish Calvinists, established a system of free schools. It was ‘a gallant, plentiful’ country, where the humblest laborer might soon turn farmer for himself. In all its borders, said Gawen Laurie, the faithful Quaker merchant, who had been Rudyard's successor, ‘there is not a poor body, or one that wants.’

Thus the mixed character of New Jersey springs from the different sources of its people. Puritans, Covenanters, and Quakers, met on her soil; and their faith, institutions, and preferences, having life in the common mind, survive the Stuarts.

Every thing breathed hope, but for the arbitrary cupidity of James II., and the navigation acts. Dyer, the collector, eager to levy a tax on the commerce of the colony, complained of their infringement; in April, 1686, a writ of quo warranto against the proprietaries, menaced New Jersey with being made ‘more dependent.’ It was of no avail to appeal to the justice of King James, who revered the prerogative with idolatry; and in 1688, to stay the process for forfeiture, the proprietaries, stipulating only for their right of property in the soil, surrendered their claim to the jurisdiction The province was annexed to New York.

In New York, the attempt to levy customs without

1682 Mar

a colonial assembly, had been defeated by the grand Mar jury; and trade became free, just as Andros was returning to England. All parties joined in entreating for the people a share in legislation. The duke of York temporized. The provincial revenue had expired; the ablest lawyers in England questioned his right to