A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 77 of James the First, which should make no mention of the 1787 attempts to colonise North America, would certainly not be considered either a complete or a philosophical one ; but all the histories that have been written of the times of George the Third may be searched in vain for a sketch of Captain Phillip or an account of the First Fleet. Had it been a secret expedition against a Spanish outpost or a French colony, it would no doubt have been watched with indiifcrenoe . . to oolonisft- the liveliest interest, and its movements would have figured tion. conspicuously in the annals of the time ; but being nothing more than a colonising movement, there seems to have been little in it either to attract the notice or touch the sympa- thies of the nation.* •
- Leck^s Historjr of England in the Eighteenth Centary— a much more
philosophic production than Masaey's — disposes of the whole subject in the following sentence : — *' The same enerffy which showed itself in reckless and distempered speculation showed itselF also in commercial enterprise ; the discoveries of Captain Cook extended the horizon of the world, and in New Zealand and Australia he founded colonies which already contain a far greater English poj^ulation than the American colonies at the time of their separation, and wmch seem likely to play a great and most beneficent part in the history of mankind." — ^VoL vi, p. 187. Digitized by Qoogk
