History of Education in New Jersey (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... Chapter II. FROM THE CONSOLIDATION OF EAST AND WEST NEW JERSEY INTO A ROYAL COLONY TO THE ORGANIZATION OF A STATE. Neither East New Jersey nor West New Jersey was sufficiently extensive to remain long an independent and separate province. The proprietary body was not well fitted to undertake the political government of a territory. The proprietors chiefly resided in England and exercised their political authority through governors or lientenantgovernors who were sent over. It was impossible that such rulers could provide for their provinces the necessary protection against hostile Indians or against the jealousy and avarice of neighboring colonies. The proprietors, therefore, in 1702 voluntarily surrendered to the Crown the political powers which had been granted to them when the provinces were transferred to them by the Duke of York. They retained only the ownership of the land and trusted to the Crown for the continued possession of those civil and religious rights which they had guarded so jealously. Lord Cornbury, a cousin of Queen Anne, was appointed in 1702 as the governor of New York and of the consolidated colony of New Jersey. Neither he nor the responsible ministry of Queen Anne at this time appreciated at their true value the circumstances of this colony, nor the principles of liberty and popular independence which had been, up to this time, their most striking characteristic. Oorubury was an illiberal representative of the British aristocracy, who had not only no admiration for the brave and resolute spirit of his own country, but who came to America with a determination to impose on the colonists the worst features of his home government. The government of New Jersey, according to the plan initiated at the time of Cornbury's...