sant, but the musket balls which rattled against its sides made no impression on the stone walls, while those aimed higher struck the sloping roof covered with copper, and glanced harmlessly into the air. The sound was one never to be forgotten by those who heard it, and a child' born in the neighborhood dated his earliest recollections seventy-five years afterwards from the firing on Wilson's house. The door of the house was soon forced. As the mob rushed in, "they received a fire from the staircases and cellar windows which dropped several of them." They succeeded, however, in pulling Col. Chambers out of the house, and wounding him with bayonets. He was rescued by some friends, and was carried down Third Street. The door was again closed, and barricaded with tables and chairs, and the siege was about to be renewed. At this critical moment President Reed rode rapidly down Third Street, accompanied by two of Baylor's dragoons. They were soon followed by a small detachment of the Troop, which had hastily assembled, under Major Lenox. When the cry of "the horse! the horse!" was raised, the rioters, ignorant of the number, fled in all directions, but not before two other detachments of the Troop had reached the scene. The best possible use was made of the diversion which had been created. Wilson and his friends sallied out, and a number of persons were seized and hurried to the prison. President Reed and a number of the Troopers then rode up Third Street, and at the corner of Market intercepted a party of the rioters, who had with them a brass field-piece, and who were bent on reinforcing their friends. A number of them were taken and placed in the old gaol which stood near by, and the cannon was dragged away. Quiet was thus restored, but the Troop patroled the streets for the remainder of the day, and all of the night following.

The next morning a meeting was held at the State House.

1 Richard Willing who was b. at the corner of Willing's Alley and Third Street.

2 Westcott's History of Phila., note to chap. cclxx.

It was composed of the principal citizens, a number of the clergy being present, and everything was done to allay the excitement. The militia assembled with the intention of releasing their companions who had been arrested. They were persuaded to desist from violence, and during the day nearly all their number who had taken part in the riot were liberated on bail. Mr. Wilson and his friends were also held in bail, and for a short time absented themselves from the city. Proceedings were not pressed against either party, and in less than a year a general pardon was granted to all. Three lives were lost in the riot, and with this tragedy ended the most serious outbreak of passion in any way caused by the depreciation of Continental money.

Insignificant as the affair may now appear, the alarm which it excited at the time spread over the continent as far as Boston.' Enacted wellnigh in the presence of Congress, and in a mistaken zeal to serve its purposes, it was almost national in its character, and, had it not been quelled, its example would have been disastrous.

Happy was it for America that day, that the tyranny against which she rebelled was not one in which, for long years, oppressed and oppressors had been brought face to face. Her sons had gathered from their widely-scattered homes, in which rank was unknown, at the first attempt to abridge that liberty which they had learned to believe the privations of their ancestors had made their birthright. And if, in the first attempts to use the power they had usurped, they showed themselves impatient to solve by force those questions which remain unsettled to-day, certain it is, they possessed little of that spirit which, the next year, under the convenient cry of "No Popery," made the citizens of London tremble; which fired four of her prisons, and liberated their inmates; that set six and thirty of her dwellings ablaze at once; and which

1 "In Boston we are much alarmed by the last accounts from Philadel phia. Some are not a little apprehensive that a like tragedy may be acted upon this stage."-Life of Pickering, vol. i. p. 242.

VOL. III.-27

was not subdued until two hundred and fifty persons had been shot to death, and until as many more had been sent wounded to the hospitals. Nor had the scholars on this side of the Atlantic lapsed into that state of sentimentality that they required the visible sign of Voltaire and Franklin, kissing in the presence of the French Academy, to tell them "that the war for American Independence was a war for the freedom of mind." Such scenes give zest to the pages of fiction, and coloring to those of history; but well is it for the people from whose annals they are spared.

The hour of weakness which I have tried to describe to you was followed by a season of depression and care; but out of its darkness was born that love of order, that self-control, that spirit of government which in eight years took form in the Federal Constitution.

THE FOUNDING OF NEW SWEDEN, 1637-1642.

BY PROFESSOR c. T. ODHNER,

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LUND.

TRANSLATED BY PROFESSOR G. B. KEEN.

(Concluded from page 284.)

Minuit's death was an irreparable loss for the newly-formed company, since it was not easy to meet with as clever a man as the late commander, or one so familiar with American affairs. Nevertheless, regarded from the Swedish point of view, perhaps the event was not greatly to be lamented. That is to say, probably the colonization scheme would never have acquired so national a complexion, if he had remained the leader in it. Blommaert,' at least, declares it was the Governor's intention to settle New Sweden with people from his native war-wasted land of Cleves; and it is likely so strong a man as Minuit seems to have been, particularly if he colonized the territory with fellow-countrymen, might have assumed a more independent attitude than would have been compatible with the interests of Sweden.

With reference to the prosecution of the enterprise, thus auspiciously begun, the Swedish partners in the company were from the first agreed; they viewed the question under its national and political aspect, and conceived the great importance the colony might, in such relations, eventually possess. For the future Clas Fleming became special leader of the work in Sweden, a position which he, by this time, likewise held in virtue of his office as President of the College of Commerce, conferred upon him in November, 1637. He and his Secretary in the College, Johan Beyer, henceforth evinced

1 Blommaert to the chancellor, November 13, 1638.

2 This man was the only paid functionary of the college. When Beyer became postmaster-general in 1642, and Fleming died in 1644, the college was entirely dissolved; in 1651 first begins its existence as a fully-organized authority.

great interest in the young Swedish colony, which may even be said to have been the first and principal work of that body. Their earliest care was to provide a successor for Minuit, and such a person, Fleming believed, was found in the Dutch captain, Cornelis van Vliet, who had been engaged for several years in the Swedish service. It is said in this man's commission from the Admiralty, written in Dutch, and dated at Vesterås, January 26, 1639,1 that Her Majesty, Queen Christina, had resolved not only to support, but also energetically to prosecute, the expedition to "the Indies," and, full information of the nature of that region not having as yet been furnished, (Minuit not having had time to compose a regular account of his journey,) it was the Royal pleasure that v. Vliet should set out on the Kalmar Nyckel for "Virginia," and the territory which had been taken possession of in the King's name by Minuit, and there gain accurate acquaintance with the condition of the country and its inhabitants, it being the Royal purpose to people the land with Swedes. Measures, also, were taken to procure a sufficient number of colonists. At first it was sought to accomplish this through suasion, but the people entertained a repugnance to the long sea-voyage to the remote and heathen land. It is affirmed in the letters of the administration to the Governors of the Provinces of Elfsborg and Värmland, that no one spontaneously offered to accompany Captain van Vliet. The government ordered these officers, therefore, to lay hands on such married soldiers as had either evaded service or committed some other offence, and transport them, with their wives and children, to New Sweden, with the promise to bring them home again within two years-to do this, however, "justly and discreetly," that no riot might ensue. It was still more difficult, in times so grievous, to obtain funds for the expedition. The thought, at length, was entertained of allowing the Ship and Southern Company to

1 Amiralitetets registr. i Sjöförvaltn.s arkiv.

• Dated August 7 and 8, 1639: registr. Handl. rör. Skand. Hist., xxix. p.

210.