sent period. Indeed, it has little claim on our attention, in an outline of general history, till very modern times. The few details that can be afforded, both of its earlier and later history, will appear below. Like most other Asiatic countries, it has been often and easily conquered, but without materially affecting the form of its government, or its manners and customs. Successive dynasties have ruled over most of the oriental nations, but they have left the latter where they found them. So far back as authentic records carry us, we find among the people, little or no advances made in civilization, refinement, or knowledge. They are the same in indolence, effeminacy, and luxury, that they were two thousand years ago; not ignorant, yet without a spirit of enterprise; accomplished in certain arts, yet incapable of learning others.

§ India was but little known to the ancients. Alexander the Great, first invaded, though he did not conquer it, except in part. The country was afterwards visited by Seleucus, to whose share it fell in the partition of Alexander's empire; and Antiochus the Great, two hundred years subsequently, made a short expedition thither.

The Arabians penetrated into Hindoostan, about 710, and founded an empire extending to the Ganges, which, in 1155, was usurped by the Persians. After this, followed the march of Genghis Khan, who is said to have given the name of Mogul, to India; and subsequently, the conquering career of Tamerlane, both of which have been elsewhere mentioned. The descendants of Tamerlane enjoyed no more than the northern parts, till after 1498, when sultan Baber subdued almost all the country, except the Deccan, Grezerat, and Bengal.

Aureng Zeeb, who reigned between 1660 and 1707, conquered Bengal, and the greater part of the Deccan. At his death, he left an empire of great extent, and producing a revenue of more than £35,000,000 sterling. But a succession of weak princes and wicked ministers reduced this vast empire, in the course of fifty years, to insignificance. In 1739, Hindoostan was invaded by Kouli-Khan, who annihilated the Mogul empire. It was, however, afterwards revived, for a time, but soon fell into decay, and can now be scarcely said to exist.

The British are now the principal possessors of India. Their dominions in India have been created, first, by the establishment of factories for trade; 2d, by wars made upon the natives by the residents of those factories; and lastly, by the capture of the Portuguese, Dutch, and French colonies in India.

The British Indian dominions, which were extensive before, and which began as early as 1757, have been greatly increased within the last thirty or thirty-five years. A statement, somewhat recent, makes the number of square miles of territory, under British jurisdiction or influence, 776,000, and the population not less than eighty

six millions. To the above it must be added, that their Indian dominions have been lately increased by a portion of the Burman em. pire, in consequence of a war with the latter.

The government of this immense country, is vested in a Governor General, and a council of four, appointed by the British crown, who reside at Calcutta.

THE UNITED STATES.

70. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, which, at the be ginning of this period, were in a colonial condition, assumed before the conclusion of it, their separate and equal station among the nations of the earth. It was with them an era of great events, and the change from colonies to a state of independence, though it lay in the natural course of things, was equally unexpected and instructive to the world.

The colonies enjoyed a degree of tranquillity from the peace of Utrecht, to the year 1744. In that year, a war breaking out between Great Britain and France, America was involved in it, the result of which was the capture of Louisburgh, on the island of Cape Breton, a place of great strength. This conquest was effected principally by the troops of Massachusetts. A small proportion of the soldiers was furnished by the other New England states. The place, however, was restored to France, by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748.

After the peace of Utrecht, the French had built Louisburgh, as a security to their navigation and fishery, and had fortified it at a vast expense. Twenty-five years had been spent upon the fortifications, and though not entirely completed, they were considered the strongest in America. It was deemed indispensable to take this fortress, as it afforded a convenient resort to such privateers as disturbed the New England fisheries. Accordingly, efforts were made to engage the colonies in the enterprise, and circulars were addressed by the government of Massachusetts to the colonies as far south as Pennsylvania for their assistance. But New England alone undertook the expedition. Massachusetts furnished nearly three fourths of the troops, who were placed under the command of General Pepperell.

Their success was peculiar and almost unexpected. With some assistance from an English fleet, they brought the French to the necessity of surrendering the city of Louisburgh and the island of Cape Breton to the British king, after a siege of forty-nine days.

71. In 1746, a powerful French armament was sent against America with a view to revenge the loss of Louisburgh; but by means of shipwrecks, sickness, and other disasters, it providentially failed of its object. The peace of Aix-la-Cha

pelle now took place, which lasted eight years, or until 1756. For several succeeding years, powerful efforts were made on the part of the Americans and British, against the places and forts occupied by the French, particularly Louisburgh, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Fort du Quesne, (Pittsburgh,) and Niagara. This war, which commenced in 1756, and ended in 1763, is commonly called the French and Indian war. Success eventually attended the Americans and British, and by the peace of Paris, in 1763, all the Canadas, together with Nova Scotia, and the island of Cape Breton, were confirmed to Great Britain. George Washington, the future deliverer of America, first came into public notice during these con

tests.

The French armament consisted of forty ships of war, fifty-six transports, with three thousand five hundred men, and forty thousand stands of arms, for the use of the French and Indians in Canada. The consternation of the colonies, as might be expected, was great; but Providence, by the means above mentioned, dispelled their fears, and blasted the hopes of their enemies.

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, which followed this attempt, left the respective parties, as to their rights and possessions, the same as they were at the commencement of the war. Great losses, however, had been sustained by the colonies in their commerce, and their pecuniary concerns were in a very embarrassed state. The return of

this peace, and its continuance through eight short years, altered the aspect of the colonies much for the better. Commerce again flourished, population increased, settlements were extended, and public credit revived.

The French and Indian war was occasioned by the alleged encroachments of the French upon the frontiers of the colonies in America, belonging to the British crown. Besides the encroachments that were made on Nova Scotia, in the north and west they were settling and fortifying Crown Point, and in the west, were not only attempting to complete a line of forts from the head of St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, but were intrenching far on Virginia.

By an understanding between England and the colonies, hostilities were carried on between the latter and the French during two years, without any formal proclamation of war. The Virginians, who were particularly concerned in the beginning of these hostilities, entrusted to George Washington the difficult and dangerous service of going to the French commandant on the Ohio, a distance of several hundred miles, through a wilderness, to demand of him the reasons of his hostile conduct, and to summon the French to evacu ate their forts at the west. He was then but twenty-one years of age, and at that early period stepped forth the champion of his try's rights. He executed his errand, but the result showed the necessity of force, which was accordingly resorted to under the com

coun

mand of Washington. He met with partial success, but the superior number of the enemy obliged him at length, after surrendering a fort he had taken, to retire to Virginia.

This was as early as 1754, but in the spring of 1755 more vigorous exertions were made by the colonies against the enemy. Four expeditions were planned-one against the French in Nova Scotia ; a second against the French on the Ohio; a third against Crown Point; and a fourth against Niagara. The expedition against Nova Scotia, which consisted of three thousand men, chiefly from Massachusetts, met with entire success. The expedition against the French on the Ohio was disastrous in the extreme. It was led by Gen. Braddock, a British officer, at the head of two thousand men. His rashness, hauteur, and ignorance of the mode of Indian warfare, cost him his own life, and that of hundreds of his brave companions. Refusing to take counsel of Washington, he suffered himself to be ambuscaded by a body of French and Indians, who would have destroyed his whole army, had it not been saved by the skill and intrepidity of Washington, his aid on that occasion. The expedition against Crown Point, though it failed as to its main object, yet its results were cheering to the colonies after the gloom occasioned by Braddock's defeat. A body of the enemy which had landed at Southbay, now Whitehall, and which were marching towards Fort Edward to destroy the provisions and military stores there, were signally defeated by the Americans under the command of Gen. William Johnson. The expedition against Niagara was eventually abandoned, on account of the lateness of the season and other unfavorable circumstances.

After hostilities had been conducted in this manner for two years, war was declared in 1756 by Great Britain against France, and soon after by France against Great Britain, in turn. The operations of the British till the year 1758 were singularly unsuccessful, through the indecision of the commander-in-chief, the earl of Loudon; but a change in the English ministry that year, which placed Lord Chatham at the head of the administration, materially altered the aspect of affairs. Of three expeditions which were planned and carried into effect in the course of the year, two, viz. those against Louisburgh and Fort du Quesne, succeeded. That against Ticonderoga failed.

The campaign of 1759 had for its object, the entire conquest of Canada. Accordingly, it was determined on the part of the English and the colonists to attack all the strong holds of the French in that country-viz. Ticonderoga and Crown Point, Niagara and Quebec. These were taken in due time, three armies having entered Canada by different routes, nearly at once. The conquest of Quebec was the most important and difficult enterprise undertaken during this war, and has been greatly celebrated through the heroism and death of each of the opposing commanders-in-chief, Wolfe and Montcalm. Wolfe died in the field before the battle was ended, but he lived long enough to know that the victory was his. The words "they fly" "Whe caught his ear, as he was sinking in the agonies of death.

fly," the hero asked. "The French," was the reply. "Then," said he, "I die happy." Montcalm, in talents, in military skill, and in personal valour, was not inferior to Wolfe. He lived, after receiving a mortal wound, to be carried to the city, where his last moments were employ ed in writing, with his own hand, a letter to the English general, recommending the French prisoners to his care and humanity.

72. We come now to the most important period of the American history, that of the Revolution, when the colonies passed from a state of dependence on the British Crown, into free and independent communities. The long cherished democratic principles realized by the constitutions of most of the provinces, a consequent weaker political connexion with the mother country, and the feeling of growing strength, already tried in the seven years' war, were among the causes of the struggle after independence. Nothing was wanting but an occasion for a breach, and that could not long be wanting.

73. The origin of the dispute was not so much in any sensible oppression, as in a question of right. Had the British parliament a right to tax the colonies? Parliament maintained the affirmative; the colonies denied it, on the ground that they were not represented. Representation and taxation, according to their views, were inseparable. If their property could be taken without their consent, they had no safety.

74. The dispute arose as early as 1764, occasioned by an act, the avowed purpose of which was to raise a revenue in America without her consent. The famous stamp act followed, March 22d, 1765. This act was peculiarly obnoxious in its character, aside from the principle which it involved, as a revenue measure. The immediate consequence was a great commotion in all the colonies, especially in Massachusetts and Virginia, and a congress was convened at New York in October, which published a declaration of the people's rights. The stamp act was repealed March 19, 1766; but the principle was at the same time confirmed, by the bill, declaring the supremacy of the parliament in all cases whatever.

The stamp act came into operation on the first of November, 1765. In Boston and Portsmouth, the day was ushered in by a funeral tolling of the bells. In the latter place, in the course of the day, a coffin, with appropriate decorations, and inscribed with the word Liberty, was carried to the grave. During the movement of the mourning procession, minute guns were fired; and an oration was