Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/72

 40 Governor Nicolls in New York. spoken in the streets of New Amsterdam might be an exaggeration, but there can be no doubt as to the cosmopolitan character of the settlement. In addition to the Dutch population there were Walloons, Swedes, Lutherans from Germany, and Waldenses from Piedmont, while the possibilities of commercial profit had sufficed to attract Jews and Armenians. But most important of all in the present connexion was the number and the influential position of emigrants from New England. On Long Island settlements had sprung up, founded by emigrants from New Haven and Connecticut, and in every respect conforming to the life and usages of New England. It is moreover clear that the English were treated by Stuyvesant with an amount of favour which offended the Dutch ; and at least one Englishman held office under him. Thus, before the actual conquest took place, the colony had been in a great measure anglicised. Nicolls, however, did not yield to the temptation of endeavouring to set up anything like a system of race ascendancy. Practically, for administrative purposes, he divided the province into an English- speaking and a Dutch-speaking district, and dealt with each on separate principles. In February, 1665, a convention of representatives from the English-speaking towns met at Hempstead on Long Island. Acting in concert with them Nicolls drew up a code of laws and instituted a system of local government. Each township was invested with powers of assessment, and was to elect a court of overseers with judicial powers in small civil cases. The ecclesiastical system was to be one of denominational endowment. Each township was to have a church, the denomination being chosen by the majority of the freemen. Practically their choice was limited to the reformed Churches, as no one might be appointed a minister who had not received Protestant ordination. The Dutch townships of New York and Albany kept each its mayor and aldermen, with judicial powers. It is clear that no attempt was made to interfere with the use of the Dutch language. Nor were any steps taken towards consolidating the whole colony under one representative government. There was one portion of the English conquest which might be regarded as, for all practical purposes, a separate province. In 1638 the government of Sweden had formed a colony on the southern bank of the Delaware. Unjust though the English conquest might be, yet the Dutch had estopped themselves from any right of complaint by the measure which they had dealt out towards the Swedes. The claim of the Dutch Company to the soil occupied by the Swedes was not one whit better than the claim of England to the Hudson. Yet in 1655 Stuyvesant, acting under the instructions of the Company, had attacked and annexed the Swedish settlement. The Dutch West India Company, instead of retaining the territory, sold it to the city of Amsterdam,