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week, at an average speed of rather less than three miles an hour. As the roads were rough and the wagons had no springs, it is not likely that the passengers clamored for faster travel. Pennsylvania boasted a number of fairly good roads which radiated from Philadelphia, but many of these were often impassable, especially in winter, and travel was quite as difficult as in any of the Southern colonies, where but little attention was paid to road building. In 1766, an enterprising citizen advertised what he called "the flying machine," which started from Powles' Hook three times a week and performed the journey during the summer season in a day and a half, at a price of twenty shillings per passenger. Travellers, however, were obliged to cross the ferry the evening before the departure of the machine, which under favorable circumstances flew at a speed of perhaps five miles an hour. The usual mode of travel between the principal seacoast cities was by sailing vessel. But the time required for making a journey in this fashion was exceedingly uncertain, and many travellers preferred going on horseback to avoid delays. If a wife accompanied her husband on a journey of this kind, she usually rode behind him on a pillion.

When the Revolutionary War broke out, there were no means of signalling news other than by semaphores, or similar devices, such as had existed in one form or another for twenty centuries. Nor was there a regular or reliable postal system. In 1692 a royal patent had appointed a postmaster-general of the British colonies in North America. But nothing whatever was done, we are told, "on account of the dispersed situations of the inhabitants," and letters could be sent only once in six weeks from the Potomac to Philadelphia. In 1710, Parliament passed "an act for establishing a General Post Office for all Her Majesty's dominions." The postmaster-general was authorized to keep "one chief letter-office in New York, and another chief office at some convenient place or places in each of Her Majesty's provinces or colonies in America." A line of posts was

established from the Piscataqua to Philadelphia, and later extended to Williamsburg in Virginia. The post left as often as letters enough were lodged to pay the expenses. The mails were scanty and were generally carried on horseback. The rates varied according to distance, from eight cents to twenty-five for a single letter. In 1753, Benjamin Franklin was appointed postmaster-general for America. He retained this position until 1774, and during his characteristically energetic and business-like administration of the American office the service was improved and the office came to yield three times as much revenue to the crown as the post office of Ireland, whereas before 1753 it had yielded nothing. By 1765, a post rider left New York City every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for Philadelphia. Every Monday and Thursday another left New York for Boston. Once every week a rider left for Albany on his way to Quebec. On the first Wednesday of each month a packet boat sailed from New York for England with the mail; this was the only mail between Great Britain and her American colonies.

Yet, in spite of the difficulties which beset intercourse between the several colonies, and in spite of the diversities. which seemed to make united action among them impossible, the reasonable observer could easily detect certain elements which pointed in the direction of a community of interests and a sympathy of purpose. The colonies were, in the main, English in speech and institutions. A common blood, a common tongue, a common pride of race, and common political ideals built upon the fundamental principles of English freedom, brought the colonies together in spirit and character. The pressure of circumstances had frequently resulted in united action where previously nothing but jealousy and rival interests appeared to prevail. Of the features manifested to a greater or less degree in all the colonies, none was more characteristic than the tendency toward democratic institutions, the acceptance of the principle that the people should have a share in the government.

There were, to be sure, differences in the strength of this sentiment and differences in the scope of privileges reserved to the representatives of the people. But everywhere, as we shall later point out in detail, the theory of government, or at least its practice, was different in the colonies from what it was in England at the time of the Revolution. The sentiment of human equality had already prevailed in most of the colonies over the influence of English caste and Puritan theocracy, and there were indications of a bolder, freer spirit than could be found across the Atlantic.

CHAPTER III

THE AMERICAN COLONIES IN 1763-(Continued)

It is customary to divide the thirteen original colonies, with regard to their internal polity, into the three Blackstonian classes: provincial establishments, proprietary governments, and charter governments. Objections have been made to this classification on the ground that the term "charter government" is loose and inexact, and that instead of three forms of colonial government there were really only two, the corporations and the provinces. But for all practical purposes the threefold division is a useful one; it is, moreover, consecrated by tradition, and we shall therefore adhere to it. In 1763, the charter colonies were Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island; the proprietary colonies were Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland; the others, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, were royal or provincial colonies. But the colonies differed not only with regard to the nature and organization of their central government. In the organization of their local affairs, they are also usually divided into three classes, as we shall see hereafter.

We may most appropriately begin a study of the political organization of the colonies by considering their central governments. In the first place, it is a notable fact that many of the early charters granted by England to her American colonies were exceedingly liberal in their terms. This liberality, this tendency toward the acceptance

of democratic ideas on the part of English rulers who at home were utterly opposed to free institutions, can best be explained by their fervid desire to be rid of their rebellious subjects, Puritans, Quakers, and Roman Catholics,-who would be attracted to the New World by the prospect of unwonted liberty. In fact, no other colonists in the world enjoyed the political liberty which England permitted her American subjects to enjoy, either purposely or because her attention was too largely engrossed by other matters to note the growth of free institutions in the New World. The Spanish and French governments in this country, unlike the English, were practically military despotisms, and admitted the settlers to no voice in legislation or administration. Holland was somewhat more liberal than Spain or France; but the Dutch colonists enjoyed fewer privileges than the English. The English colonists brought with them national traditions and political theories which they immediately began to adapt, consciously or unconsciously, to the needs of their new environment. Their remoteness from Europe, the high degree of social equality which existed in many of the colonies, and the seeming indifference of the mother country, contributed to the development of an independent and democratic spirit.

As the king could not himself attend to all the details of government in his American possessions, a body called the "Lords of the Board of Trade and Plantations" was commissioned in 1692 to exercise a general supervision of the colonies. This body, popularly called the "Lords of Trade," had its headquarters in London and received annual reports from the governors concerning the general condition and growth of their respective provinces. These Lords of Trade made recommendations to the provincial governors, bade them carry out this or that policy, instructed the colonial governors to encourage or to veto certain classes of laws. They examined all the laws sent over by the legislatures, and advised the king which of them should be disallowed or vetoed.