ence or by powerful friends, had succeeded in all his wishes. At this very juncture, an order respecting his claims arrived in Boston, and was couched in terms which involved an assertion of the right of parliament to reverse the decisions and control the government of Massachusetts, and so struck at the groundwork of the rising commonwealth. Had the Long Parliament succeeded in revoking the patent of Massachusetts, the Stuarts, on their restoration, would have found not one chartered government in the colonies, and the tenor of American history would have been changed. The people rallied with great unanimity in support of their magistrates. A law had been drawn up, conferring on all residents equal power in town affairs, and enlarging the constituency of the state. It was deemed safe to defer the enactment till the present controversy should be settled; the order against Anabaptists was likewise left unrepealed; and, notwithstanding strong opposition from the friends of toleration in Boston, it was resolved to convene a synod to give counsel on the permanent settlement of the ecclesiastical polity.

1646.

In November, 1646, the general court assembled for the discussion of the usurpations of parliament Nov. 4. and the dangers from domestic treachery. The elders did not fail to attend in the gloomy season. One faithless deputy was desired to withdraw; and then, with closed doors that the consultation might remain in the breast of the court, the nature of the relation with England was made the subject of debate. After much deliberation, it was agreed that Massachusetts owed to England the same allegiance as the free Hanse Towns had rendered to the empire; as Normandy, when its dukes were kings of England, had paid to the monarchs of France. It was also resolved not to accept a new charter from the parliament, for that would imply a surrender of the old. Besides, parliament granted none but by way of ordinance, which the king might one day refuse to confirm, and always made for itself an express reservation of “ a supreme power in all things." The elders, after a day's consultation, confirmed the decisions: "If parliament should be

less inclinable to us, we must wait upon Providence for the preservation of our just liberties."

The colony then proceeded to exercise the independence which it claimed. The general court summoned the disturbers of the public security into its presence. Robert Childe and his companions appealed to the commissioners in England. The appeal was not admitted. "The charter," he urged, "does but create a corporation within the realm, subject to English laws." "Plantations," replied the court," are above the rank of an ordinary corporation; they have been esteemed other than towns, yea, than many cities. Colonies are the foundations of great commonwealths. It is the fruit of pride and folly to despise the day of small things."

To the parliament of England, which was then Presbyterian, the legislature remonstrated with the noblest frankness against any assertion of the paramount authority of that body.

1646. Dec.

"An order from England," say they, "is prejudicial to our chartered liberties, and to our well-being in this remote part of the world. Times may be changed; for all things here below are subject to vanity, and other princes or parliaments may arise. Let not succeeding generations have cause to lament and say, England sent our fathers forth with happy liberties, which they enjoyed many years, notwithstanding all the enmity and opposition of the prelacy, and other potent adversaries; and yet these liberties were lost in the season when England itself recovered its We rode out the dangers of the sea: shall we perish in port? We have not admitted appeals to your authority, being assured they cannot stand with the liberty and power granted us by our charter, and would be destructive to all government. These considerations are not new to the high court of parliament, the records whereof bear witness of the wisdom and faithfulness of our ancestors in that great council, who, in those times of darkness when they acknowledged a supremacy in the Roman bishops in all causes ecclesiastical, yet would not allow appeals to Rome.

own.

"The wisdom and experience of that great council, the

English parliament, are more able to prescribe rules of government and judge causes than such poor rustics as a wilderness can breed up; yet the vast distance between England and these parts abates the virtue of the strongest influences. Your councils and judgments can neither be so well grounded, nor so seasonably applied, as might either be useful to us, or safe for yourselves, in your discharge, in the great day of account. If any miscarriage shall befall us when we have the government in our own hands, the state of England shall not answer for it.

"Continue your favorable aspect to these infant plantations, that we may still rejoice and bless our God under your shadow, and be there still nourished with the warmth and dews of heaven. Confirm our liberties; discountenance our enemies, the disturbers of our peace under pretence of our injustice. A gracious testimony of your wonted favor will oblige us and our posterity."

In the same spirit, Edward Winslow, the agent for Massachusetts in England, publicly denied that the jurisdiction of parliament extended to America. "If the parliament of England should impose laws upon us, having no burgesses in the house of commons, nor capable of a summons by reason of the vast distance, we should lose the liberties and freedom of English indeed." It marks an honest love of liberty and of justice in the Long Parliament, that the doctrine of colonial equality was received with favor. "Sir Henry Vane, though he might have taken occasion against the colony for some dishonor which he apprehended to have been unjustly put upon him there, yet showed himself a true friend to New England, and a man of a noble and generous mind." After ample deliberation, the committee of parliament magnanimously replied: "We encourage no appeals from your justice. We leave you with all the freedom and latitude that may, in any respect, be duly claimed by you."

1647.

Such were the arts by which Massachusetts preserved its liberties. Its magistrates were sustained with great unanimity; hardly five-and-twenty persons could be found in the whole jurisdiction to join in a complaint against

the strictness of the government; and when the discontented introduced the dispute into the elections, their candidates were defeated by an overwhelming majority.

The harmony of the people had been confirmed by the courage of the elders, who gave fervor to the enthusiasm of patriotism. "It had been as unnatural for a right New England man to live without an able ministry as for a smith to work his iron without a fire." The union between the elders and the state could not, therefore, but become more intimate than ever; and religion was venerated and cherished as the security against political subserviency. When the synod met by adjournment, it was by the common consent of all the Puritan colonies that a system of church government was established for the congregations. The platform retained authority for more than a century, and has not yet lost its influence. It excluded the Presbyterian modes of discipline from New England.

1650 to The Long Parliament asserted its power over the 1655. royalist colonies in general terms, which seemed alike to threaten the plantations of the north; and, after royalty was abolished, it invited Massachusetts to receive a new patent, and to hold courts and issue warrants in its name. But the men of that commonwealth were too wary to merge their rights in the acts of a government of which the decline seemed approaching. In a public state paper, they refused to submit to its requisitions, and yet never carried their remonstrance beyond the point which their charter appeared to them to warrant.

After the successes of Cromwell in Ireland, he vol1651. untarily expressed his interest in New England, by offering its inhabitants estates and a settlement in the island which his arms had subdued. His offers were declined; for the emigrants loved their land of refuge, where their own courage and toils had established "the liberties of the gospel in its purity." Our government, they said among themselves, "is the happiest and wisest this day in the world."

1651 to 1654.

The war between England and Holland hardly disturbed the tranquillity of the colonies. The western

settlements, which would have suffered extreme misery from a combined attack of the Indians and the Dutch, were earnest for attempting to reduce New Amsterdam, and thus to carry the boundary of New England to the Delaware. At a meeting of the commissioners at Boston, three of the four united colonies declared for war; yet the dissentient Massachusetts interposed delay; cited the opinions of its elders that "it was most agreeable to the gospel of peace and safest for the colonies to forbear the use of the sword;" and at last refused to be governed by the decision. The refusal was a plain breach of covenant, and led to earnest remonstrance and altercations. The nature of the reserved

1654.

rights of the members of the confederacy became the subject of animated discussion; and the union would have come to an end, had not Massachusetts receded, though tardily, from her interpretation of the articles; but in the mean time the occasion for war with Manhattan had passed away. A ship which had a short passage brought word that the European republics had composed their strife, before the English fleet, which was sent against New Netherland, reached America. There was peace between England and France; yet the English forces, turning to the north, made the easy conquest of Acadia, an acquisition which no remonstrance or complaint could induce the protector to restore.

The inhabitants of New England ever enjoyed the confidence of Cromwell. They were satisfied that his battles were the battles of the Lord; and "the spirits of the brethren were carried forth in faithful and affectionate prayers in his behalf." Cromwell, in return, confessed to them that the battle of Dunbar, where "some, who were godly," were fought into their graves, was, of all the acts of his life, that on which his mind had the least quiet; and he declared himself "truly ready to serve the brethren and the churches" in America. The declaration was sincere. The people of New England were ever sure that Cromwell would listen to their requests, and would take an interest in the details of their condition. He left them independence, and favored their trade. When in 1655 1655.