In the performance of our work we have derived assistance from many valuable maps and books on New England. Among the number a respectful tribute is due, particularly, to BELKNAP's History of New Hampshire; WILLIAMSON's Maine; DWIGHT's Letters; SAVAGE's Winthrop; THATCHER'S Plymouth; FOLSOM's Saco and Biddeford; BENTON and BARREY'S Statistics:-HALE's Map of New England; STEVENS' Rhode Island; CARRIGAIN's New Hampshire; and GREENLEAF's Maine:-to WORCESTER'S Gazetteer; THOMPSON's Vermont; PEASE and NILES' Rhode Island and Connecticut; SPOFFORD'S Massachusetts, and FARMER and MOORE's Gazetteer of New Hampshire. From the latter work, and from its authors, the lamented JOHN FARMER, Esq., a celebrated antiquarian and writer, and JACOB B. Moore, Esq., of Concord, N. H., author of several valuable historical and miscellaneous works, we are indebted for much of that which is valuable in regard to New Hampshire. From a beautiful volume, entitled "Connecticut Historical Collections," by JOHN WARNER BARBER, Esq., we have been permitted to enrich our pages with some of their most valuable and interesting articles, To Heads of Departments at Washington, and to the Secretaries of the several States to which the work refers, for valuable public documents; to Postmasters; and to numerous other friends who have kindly assisted us in our labors; whose names we should feel proud to mention, were it in accordance with their wishes; we tender the acknowledgments of a grateful heart. For the purpose of enlarging our work, as well as for its correction, our editions will be designedly small: contributions are therefore respectfully solicited. While it is our determination to devote our time and humble talents to render our publications worthy of general approbation; we are gratified with the assurance of co-operation from eminent men in all parts of the country; and we trust with confidence to receive that patronage, which Yankees, both at home and abroad, invariably bestow on every effort whose obvious design is USEFULNESS, BOSTON, May, 1839. THE NORTHERN REGISTER. It was our intention to have connected this publication with the GazETTEER; but it was found that by compressing the matter, sufficiently to unite them in one volume, both would fail of the object contemplated. A great mass of materials for the Register is already received; indeed, a considerable portion is now ready for the press; but as we have extended our plan, some months will elapse before its appearance. The work will comprise the rise and progress of all the important literary, religious, moral and charitable institutions in NEW ENGLAND:an account of the Churches and Ministers in the several towns, from their origin, and settlement to the present time :—the rise and extent of internal improvements:-statistics of various kinds : lists of Courts, Attorneys at law, Physicians, Literary and Religious Journals, Newspapers, Banks, Postmasters, &c. &c. to which will be added brief notices of distinguished men. In short, the REGISTER is designed to comprise all that may be considered important and useful,in a work of this kind, in relation to New England, and which is not contained in the GAZETTEER. : The number of eminent men, of every profession, who have kindly tendered the Editor their co-operation, is so great, that we feel confident that the REGISTER will be entitled to a share of public favor. All letters and papers for the Editor, are requested to be left at the Boston Post Office. NEW ENGLAND. In presenting the public with a Gazetteer of New England, it has seemed proper to make a few introductory remarks of a general nature, on the character of its inhabitants. They may with great propriety be called a peculiar people: and perhaps New England and Pennsylvania are the only parts of the new world, which have been colonized by a class of men, who can be regarded in that light. The whole of Spanish and Portuguese America was organized, under the direct patronage of the mother countries, into various colonial governments, as nearly resembling those at home as the nature of the case admitted. The adventurers who sought their fortunes beyond the sea, in those golden tropical regions, carried the vices and the virtues with the laws and the manners of their native land, along with them, and underwent no farther change than was unavoidably incident to the new physical and political condition in which they were placed in America. The same remark, with nearly the same force, may be made of the Virginia colonists: they differed from Englishmen at home in no other way, than a remote and feeble colony must of necessity differ from a powerful metropolitan state. Pennsylvania was settled by a peculiar race; but its peculiarity was of that character which eventually exhausts itself; and would speedily perish but for an amalgamation, necessary though uncongenial, with the laws, the manners, and institutions of the world. If all mankind were Friends they might subsist and prosper. A colony of Friends, thrown upon a savage shore and environed by hostile influences from foreign colonial establishments, would perish, if not upheld by forces and principles different from its own. In the settlers of New England alone we find a peculiar people;—but at the same time a people whose peculiarity was founded on safe practical principles; reconcileable with the duties of life; capable of improvement in the progress of civilization, and of expanding into a powerful state, as well as of animating a poor and persecuted colony. Had not America been discovered and a tract upon our continent reserved for English colonization ;-nay, further, had it not been precisely such an uninviting spot as furnished no temptation to men of prosperous fortunes, the world would have lost that noble developement of character which the fathers of New England exhibit. A tropical climate would have made it uninhabitable to Puritans; or rather would have filled it up with adventurers of a different class. A gold mine would have been a curse to the latest generation. Had the fields produced cotton and sugar, they would not have produced the men whom we venerate as the founders of the liberties of New England. Puritanism sprang up in England, but there it could not develope itself with vigor or consist with happiness. The conflict with the hostile institutions of society was too sharp, and admitted of the cultivation of none but the militant or patient elements of character. To struggle with temporary success and to bow in permanent subjection was the necessary fate of the persecuted sect. So it was wisely ordained. Had Puritanism permanently mastered the church and the throne in England, it would have been corrupted. It would have picked up and worn the trampled diadem: it would have installed itself in the subjected church. Regarding Cromwell and the Rump Parliament as the gift of Puritanism to English liberty, it is a bequest at which we know not whether most to sigh or smile. The seed sown in England fell by the way side and the fowls came and devoured it up. The cause of political and social reform, which was conducted with self-denying wisdom and moderation in the outset, by single-hearted, honest men, degenerated as it prospered. In the moment of its triumph it sunk under the corruptions of selfishness, as a noble vessel which has braved the tempest in mid-ocean sometimes goes to pieces on the rocks as it approaches land. But the precious seeds of liberty, civil and religious, which were sown in New England, fell upon a genial soil, and brought forth worthy and abiding fruit. Undertaking the same work which was undertaken by their brethren in England, our fathers conducted it through the days of small things, through hardships, trial, and disasters, to a triumphant issue. It is true there were greater obstacles to be encountered in England, in the resistance of established institutions. Deep rooted errors were to be torn up; the towers of feudal oppression, which had stood for centuries, were to be overthrown. But the influence of these formidable institutions was not limited to Old England. The rod of arbitrary power reached across the Atlantic. The little colonies had to struggle with the crown and the hierarchy, with the privy council and with special commissions, with writs and acts of parliament; and they had besides to struggle with the |