The general assembly, after due consideration, "with many thanks to the commissioners, and great protestations of loyalty to the king," "chose to be as they were."

1665

At the north, the conference between the two parties degenerated into an altercation. "It is insufferable," said the government of Massachusetts, "that the colony should be brought to the bar of a tribunal unknown to its charter." At length, in May, the royal commissioners asked categorically: "Do you acknowledge his majesty's commission?" The colony declined giving a direct answer, and chose rather to plead his majesty's patent.

May 19.

Tired of discussion, they resolved to act, and declared their intention of holding a court to decide May 23. a cause in which the colony was cited to appear as defendant. The general court forbade the procedure. They refused to recede; the morning for the trial dawned; the parties had been summoned; the commissioners were preparing to go on with the cause, when, by order of the court, a herald stepped forth, and, having sounded the trumpet, made proclamation, in the name of the king, and by authority of the charter, that, in observance of their duty to God, to the king, and to their constituents, the general court could not suffer any to abet his majesty's honorable commissioners in their designs.

The herald sounded the trumpet in three several places, repeating his proclamation. We may smile at this ceremony; yet when had the voice of a herald proclaimed the approach of so momentous a contest? It was not merely a struggle of the general court and the commissioners, nor yet of Charles II. and Massachusetts: it was the dawning strife of the new system against the old system, of American politics against European politics.

The commissioners could only wonder that the May 24. arguments of the king, his chancellor, and his secretary, did not convince the government of Massachusetts. "Since you will misconstrue our endeavors," said they, “we shall not lose more of our labors upon you;" and so they retreated to the north. There they endeavored to inquire

into the bounds of New Hampshire and Maine, and to prepare for the restoration of proprietary claims; but Massachusetts was again equally active and fearless; its governor and council forbade the towns on the Piscataqua to meet, or in any thing to obey the commission, at their utmost peril.

1665.

On the first of August, the general court of MassaAug. 1. chusetts, as petitioners, thus addressed their complaints to the king: "Your poor subjects are threatened with ruin, reproached with the name of rebels, and your government, established by charter, and our privileges, are violated and undermined; some of your faithful subjects dispossessed of their lands and goods without hearing them speak in their cases; the unity of the English colonies, which is the wall and bulwark under God against the heathen, discountenanced, reproached, and undermined; our bounds and limits clipped and shortened. A just dependence upon and allegiance unto your majesty, according to the charter, we have, and do profess and practise, and have by our oaths of allegiance to your majesty confirmed; but to be placed upon the sandy foundations of a blind obedience unto that arbitrary, absolute, and unlimited power which these gentlemen would impose upon us, who in their actings have carried it not as indifferent persons towards us, this as it is contrary to your majesty's gracious expressions and the liberties of Englishmen, so we can see no reason to submit thereto."

In Maine, the temper of the people was more favorable to royalty; they preferred the immediate protection of the king to an incorporation with Massachusetts, or a subjection to the heir of Gorges; and the commissioners, setting aside the officers appointed by Massachusetts, and neglecting the pretensions of Gorges, issued commissions to persons of their selection to govern the district. There were not wanting those who, in spite of threats, openly expressed fears of "the sad contentions" that would follow, and acknowledged that their connection with Massachusetts had been favorable to their prosperity. In the country beyond the Kennebec, which had been recently granted

to the Duke of York as a province, the commissioners instituted a government in his name over the few and scattered inhabitants. When they were recalled, they retired in angry petulance, threatening the disloyal in New England with retribution and the gallows.

1666.

The frowardness of Massachusetts was visited by reproofs from the English monarch, to whom it was well known that "the people of that colony affirmed his majesty had no jurisdiction over them." It was resolved to transfer the scene of negotiations. By a royal mandate of April, 1666, Bellingham and Hawthorne were commanded, on their allegiance, to repair to England, with two or three others, whom the magistrates of Massachusetts were to appoint as their colleagues. Till the final decision of the claims of Gorges, the government of Maine was to continue as the commissioners had left it.

Apr. 10.

It belonged to the general court to execute such commands as exceeded the powers of the magistrates; it was therefore convened to consider the letter from Sept. 11. the king. The morning of the second day was spent in prayer; six elders prayed. The next day, after a lecture, some debate was had; and petitions, proposing compliance with the king, were forwarded from Boston, Salem, Ipswich, and Newbury. "Let some regular way be propounded for the debate," said Bellingham, the governor, a man who emphatically hated a bribe. "The king's prerogative gives him power to command our appearance," said the moderate Bradstreet; "before God and men we are to obey." "You may have a trial at law," insinuated an artful royalist; "when you come to England, you may insist upon it and claim it." "We must as well consider God's displeasure as the king's," retorted Willoughby; "the interest of ourselves and of God's things, as his majesty's prerogative; for our liberties are of concernment, and to be regarded as to the preservation; for if the king may send for me now, and another to-morrow, we are a miserable people." "Prerogative is as necessary as law," rejoined the royalist, who perhaps looked to the English court as an avenue to distinction. "Prerogative is not

above law," said Hawthorne, ever the advocate of popular liberty. After much argument, obedience was refused. "We have already," such was the reply of the general court, "furnished our views in writing, so that the ablest persons among us could not declare our case more fully." This decision of disobedience was made at a time when Louis XIV. of France, eager to grasp at the Spanish Netherlands, and united with De Witt by a treaty of partition, had, in consequence of his Dutch alliance, declared war against England. It was on this occasion that the conquest of Canada was first distinctly proposed to New England; but "a land march of four hundred miles, over rocky mountains and howling deserts," was too terrible an obstacle. Boston equipped privateers, and not without

success.

1666. Dec. 3.

At the same time, colonial loyalty did not content itself with barren professions; it sent provisions to the English fleet in the West Indies; and to the navy in England, a ship-load of masts; "a blessing, mighty unexpected, and but for which," adds Pepys, “we must have failed the next year."

1668.

Secure in the support of a resolute minority, the Puritan commonwealth, in 1668, entered the province of Maine, and again established its authority by force of arms. Great tumults ensued; many persons, opposed to what seemed a usurpation, were punished for "irreverent speeches;" some even reproached the authorities of Massachusetts "as traitors and rebels against the king;" but the usurpers made good their ascendency till Gorges recovered his claims by adjudication in England. From the southern limit of Massachusetts to the Kennebec, the colonial government maintained its independent jurisdiction.

The defiance of Massachusetts was not followed by immediate danger. The ministry of Clarendon was fallen, and he himself was become an exile; the board of trade, projected in 1668, never assumed the administration of colonial affairs, and had not vitality enough to last more than three or four years; profligate libertines gained the

1671.

May 26.

confidence of the king's mistresses, and places in the royal cabinet. While Charles II. was dallying with women, and robbing the theatre of actresses; while the licentious Buckingham, who had succeeded in displacing Clarendon, wasted the vigor of his mind and body by indulging in every sensual pleasure "which nature could desire or wit invent;" while Louis XIV. was increasing his influence by bribing the mistress of the chief of the king's cabal,- England remained without a good government, and the colonies flourished in purity and peace. The English ministry dared not interfere with Massachusetts; it was right that the stern virtues of the ascetic republicans should intimidate the members of the profligate cabinet. The affairs of New England were often discussed; but the privy council was overawed by the moral dignity which they could not comprehend. There were great debates, in which the king took part, “in what style to write to New England." Charles himself commended this affair more expressly, because "the colony was rich and strong, able to contest with all other plantations about them;" "there is fear," said the monarch, "of their breaking from all dependence on this nation." "Some of the council proposed a menacing letter, which those who better understood the peevish and touchy humor of that colonie were utterly against." After many days, it was concluded "that, if any, it should be June 6. only a conciliating paper at first, or civil letter; for it was understood they were a people almost upon the very brink of renouncing any dependence upon the crown." "Information of the present face of things was desired," and Cartwright, one of the commissioners, was summoned before the council, to give "a relation of that country; but, such was the picture that he drew, the council June 21. were more intimidated than ever, so that nothing was recommended beyond "a letter of amnesty." By Aug. 3. degrees, it was proposed to send a deputy to New England, under the pretext of adjusting boundaries, but "with secret instructions to inform the council of the condition of New England; and whether they were of such power as to be able to resist his majesty, and declare for themselves, as

وو