74*5                              BURNABY's   TRAVELS  IN   NORTH   AMERICA.
fevere prohibition, contrive to procure from England every year a confiderable
number of rams, in order to improve and multiply the breed. What the lands be-
yond the Alleghenny and upon the banks of the Ohio may be, I do not know ; they
are faid to be very rich : ' but the climate, I believe, is not lefs fevere ; and I think,
upon collating different accounts, that the feverity of heat and cold is not much abated
by cultivation. The air becomes drier and more wholefome, in proportion as the
woods are cut down, and the ground is cleared and cultivated ; but the cold is not lefs
piercing, nor the fnow lefs frequent. I think therefore upon the whole, that America,
though it may with particular care and attention, produce fmall quantities of tolerably
good wool, will yet never be able to produce it in fuch plenty and of fuch a quality as
to ferve for the neceffary confumption of its inhabitants.
The government of this province is lodged in the hands of a governor or lieutenant-
governor, appointed by the king j a counfel of twenty-eight perfons chofen annually,
with the governor's approbation, by the general affembly* ; and a houfe of'reprefen-
tatives f annually elected by the freeholders. The governor commiffions all the
militia, and other military officers ; and, with confent of the council, alfo nominates
and appoints all civil officers, except thofe that are concerned in the revenue. He
calls and adjourns the affembly, and has in every refpect a very extenfive authority.
His falary, with perquifites, amounts to about 1,3001. fterling per year. The governor
and council together have the probate of wills, and the power of granting adminiftrations
and divorces.
There are feveral courts of judicature. All actions under twenty fhillings fterling
are cognizable by a juftice of peace, from whofe determination there lies an appeal
to the inferior county-court of common-pleas ; and from hence to the fuperior pro-
vincial court in its circuits, which is alfo a court of oyer and terminer in criminal affairs,
and is held by a chief juftice and fome affiftant judges. In this court, if the determina-
tion is not fatisfactory, a rehearing of the caufe may be had with a different jury J ;
and even, by petition to the general affembly, a fcond rehearing : the dernier refort is
to His Majefty's council, but this is only in cafes of 300I. fterling value ; and the appeal
muft be made within fourteen days after judgment.
The eftablifhed religion here, as in all the other provinces of New England, is that of
the congregationalifts ; a religion different in fome trifling articles, though none very
material, from the Prefbyterian. There are, befides thefe however, great numbers of
people of different perfuafions, particularly of the religion of the church of England,
which feems to gain ground, and to become more fafhionable every day. A church
has been lately erected at Cambridge, within fight of the college, which has greatly
alarmed the congregationalifts, who confider it as the moft fatal ftroke that could pof-
fibly have been levelled at their religion. The building is elegant, and the minifter of
it (the reverend Mr. Apthorpe,) is a young man of fhining parts, great learning, and
pure and engaging manners |J.
* They are chofen by the new reprefentatives, and the laft year's counfellors ; fo that each counfellor
has a vote in his own re-eleftion. The governor has a negative to every counfellor's eleftion, without
being obliged to affign a reafon.
f Each reprefentative muft be refident in the townfhip for which he is elefted ; he muft alfo have a
plurality of votes refpefting the number of voters, and not in comparifon only of the other candidates ; he
is paid for his attendance and fervices, and fubjeft to a fine if he neglefts them.
X Juries are, I believe, appointed partly by lot, and partly by rotation.
}| This gentleman, I have heard, afterward met with fo much oppofition and perfecution from the con-
gregationalifts, that be was obliged to refign his cure, to quit the colony, and has fince lived in England
upon a living, (I believe in Surry,) which was given him by the late Archbifhop Seeker.
Arts