the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other states; and the taxes for paying their proportion, shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the district or districts, or new states, as in the original states, within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. The legislatures of those districts, or new states, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona fide purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States; and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways, and for ever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory, as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other states that may be admitted into the Confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor.

Art. 5. There shall be formed in the said territory not less than three nor more than five states; and the boundaries of the states, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established as follow-to wit, the western state in the said territory shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and Wabash Waters; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Port Vincents, due north, to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, and by the said territorial line to the lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The middle states shall be bounded by the direct line, the Wabash, from Port Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the said territorial line, and by the said territorial line. The eastern state shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Penn

sylvania, and the said territorial line, provided however, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three states shall be subject so far to be altered, that if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient they shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line, drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of lake Michigan. And whenever any of the states shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such state shall be admitted, by its delegates into the Congress of the United States, on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever; and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and state government, provided the constitution and government so to be formed, shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles; and so far as it can be consistent with the general interest of the confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the state than sixty thousand.

Art. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labour or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labour or service as aforesaid.

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the resolutions of the 23rd April, 1784, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be, and the same are hereby repealed and declared null and void.

Done, &c. &c.

"Such," says Mr. Story, "is this most important ordinance, the effects of which upon the destinies of the country have already been abundantly demonstrated in the territory by an almost unexampled prosperity and rapidity of population, by the formation of republican governments, and by an enlightened system of jurisprudence. Already five states comprising a part of that territory have been admitted into the union, and others are fast advancing towards the same grade of political dignity."* The five states are―

Ohio, with a population, in 1840, of...... 1,519,464

It will be seen that there are two stages in the system adopted by America: the wild land becomes first a territory, and afterwards is admitted into the Union as a state. Two Acts of Congress are placed in the Appendix, for the purpose of giving a complete idea of the difference of their two conditions of political existence. The one act provides for the government of the territory of Oregon; the other, for the admission of Wisconsin to the Union.

What, then, are the general conclusions which this twofold history, brief as it has been, compels us to draw? In my opinion, the canons which it establishes respecting colonization are these:

* Story's Exposition, p. 141.

1. Any supervising power retained, and to be exercised with respect to a colony, should be retained entirely in the hands of the imperial government alone. No part of it should be entrusted to a company, or to a single proprietor. A company may be made useful as a means of collecting many minute portions of capital into one large and effective mass, and may be permitted, by the aid simply of the advantages which that combined wealth confers, to act as private persons, and in that capacity to promote the plantation of the new settlement. But to the company there should be confided no government powers, no mercantile monopoly or privileges. Such facilities as a joint-stock company requires to avoid mere legal obstructions, may be granted to a company wishing to carry on commerce, or effect any legitimate purpose of gain, but not one atom of political power. I will not clog this assertion with one particle of exception; the rule ought to be as I have laid it down, stringent and universal in its negation.

That which is true as respects a company, is just as true and as necessary in the case of an individual, no matter what may be his wealth, no matter what may be his virtue. Were Lord Baltimore, with all his real wisdom and goodness, his unostentatious and thoroughly modest and tolerant spirit, to appear again, and with the same benevolent aims and sanguine hopes, ask for the privileges which his family enjoyed in Maryland, and so worthily employed, he would meet from me with the same peremptory refusal that I should give to a grasping, mere money-getting company. The powers of government must not be delegated. If they are to

be in any hands, those hands must be of the government To none others ought such powers to be con

itself. fided.

2. Having determined that the supervision should never be delegated to a company or an individual, but should always be reserved by the government, the next canon commands us to reduce this supervision as much as is possible, retaining only what is needed to maintain our metropolitan rule, and to confide to the colony the government of its own affairs. The more completely this is done, the more certain and marked will be the prosperity of the colony.

3. The next rule is, that, certain extraordinary cases being excepted, the metropolitan government should confine its office to attracting settlers to a colony, and ought not to occupy itself in actually carrying them out, and thereby take part in the active business of planting the settlement. The duty of the government is to create those facilities on the spot to be settled which, being known to exist, will of themselves bring the population. The manner of doing this I shall soon attempt to describe.

4. The next rule which I think my short history justifies, is, to insist upon the colony being self-supporting, in everything except defence against hostile aggression. It is the duty of England to say to all of her subjects that plant settlements within her colonial territories, "I will defend you in the quiet possession of your homes, and of the produce of your labour. No enemy shall attack you from without. But this perfect defence being afforded—and that it be afforded, the