PREFACE.

THE publication of this Volume has been delayed by causes which I could neither foresee nor control; and it is only left for me to hope, that, if God so will, the remainder of the work may be completed with greater expedition.

It has been found impossible to bring down the history in this Volume beyond the end of William the Third's reign; a period, which falls far short of that which I had once hoped to reach. But a careful survey of the ground which has been here traversed, will show, I trust, that I have not tarried too long by the way. The religious and political divisions of England in the seventeenth century,— the effects of which are felt by her to this very hour, -operated, directly and palpably, in every quarter of the globe, to which the knowledge of her name was extended, during that period; and the difficulties, which her Colonial Church had, at the same

time, to encounter, would have been very imperfectly represented, had not their relation with events at home been distinctly pointed out.

It would, doubtless, have been much easier for me. to have refrained from describing this relation, and to have directed attention only to the local circumstances of each Settlement. But, the medley of incongruous details, thus presented to the view, would have been most perplexing; and the lessons arising from the contemplation of them, which it is the office of all history to teach, would have been thereby weakened or lost. In the attempt here made to recognize and enforce those lessons, I have found a new interest imparted to some of the most familiar incidents recorded in our national annals, and an explanation supplied of the state of affairs in our different Colonies, which it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to obtain by any other means. the reader should feel the like interest, or be led to admit the like results, it will be my best recompense for the labour which has attended the enquiry.

If

The number of subjects which it has been necessary to comprise in the present Volume, has compelled me to advert to some of them very briefly, and to defer their fuller description to a later period. For the same reason, I have abstained altogether from introducing an account, which I had prepared, of the Roman Catholic Missions; and intend to give it hereafter.

In addition to those persons, whose help has been acknowledged in the Preface to the First Volume, I beg to express, upon the present occasion, my thanks to J. P. Mayers, Esq., Q. C., of the Middle Temple; Edward S. Byam, Esq.; J. H. Darrell, Esq., Her Majesty's Attorney-General for the Bermudas; and John D. Dickinson, Esq., Deputy Secretary of the East India Company, for important information, most kindly communicated to me by them, on points connected with the West Indies, the Bermudas, and India. I gratefully acknowledge, also, the words of cheering encouragement which have reached me from Virginia; and trust that they may be regarded as an earnest of the help, which I am most anxious to receive from all who, in different quarters of the globe, may be disposed to aid me with their information and counsel.

Brighton, October 16, 1848.