As no nation on the globe can rival us in the rapidity of our growth, since the conclusion of the revolutionary war—­so none, perhaps, ever endured greater hardships, and distresses, than the people of this country, previous to that period.

We behold a feeble band of colonists, engaged in the arduous undertaking of a new settlement, in the wilds of North America.  Their civil liberty being mutilated, and the enjoyment of their religious sentiments denied them, in the land that gave them birth, they fled their country, they braved the dangers of the then almost unnavigated ocean, and fought, on the other side the globe, an asylum from the iron grasp of tyranny, and the more intolerable scourge of ecclesiastical persecution.  But gloomy, indeed, was their prospect, when arrived on this side the Atlantic.  Scattered, in detachments, along a coast immensely extensive, at a remove of more than three thousand miles from their friends on the eastern continent, they were exposed to all those evils, and endured all those difficulties, to which human nature seems liable.  Destitute of convenient habitations, the inclemencies of the seasons attacked them, the midnight beasts of prey prowled terribly around them, and the more portentous yell of savage fury incessantly assailed them!  But the fame undiminished confidence in Almighty GOD, which prompted the first settlers of this country to forsake the unfriendly climes of Europe, still supported them, under all their calamities, and inspired them with fortitude almost divine.  Having a glorious issue to their labors now in prospect, they cheerfully endured the rigors of the climate, pursued the savage beast to his remotest haunt, and stood, undismayed, in the dismal hour of Indian battle!

Scarcely were the infant settlements freed from those dangers, which at first evironed them, ere the clashing interests of France and Britain involved them anew in war.  The colonists were now destined to combat with well appointed, well disciplined troops from Europe; and the horrors of the tomahawk and the scalping knife were again renewed.  But these frowns of fortune, distressing as they were, had been met without a sigh, and endured without a groan, had not imperious Britain presumptuously arrogated to herself the glory of victories, achieved by the bravery of American militia.  Louisburgh must be taken, Canada attacked, and a frontier of more than one thousand miles defended by untutored yeomanry; while the honor of every conquest must be ascribed to an English army.

But while Great-Britain was thus ignominiously stripping her colonies of their well earned laurel, and triumphantly weaving it into the stupendous wreath of her own martial glories, she was unwittingly teaching them to value themselves, and effectually to resist, in a future day, her unjust encroachments.

The pitiful tale of taxation now commences—­the unhappy quarrel, which issued in the dismemberment of the British empire, has here its origin.