*

major-general in the rebel army, and upon the latter devolved the task of expelling the members of Parliament from the House, and of executing commands of a similar violent character. They died as they lived, in the full belief of that fatal doctrine, that the end justifies the means: and afforded by their crimes, their cruelty, and their impenitence, an instructive lesson to fanatics that the religion of the head but too often hardens the heart; that speculative theories have a natural tendency to obliterate the distinctions between right and wrong, by withdrawing our attention from the practical obligations of life; and that the stern virtues inculcated by Scripture are accompanied, surrounded, and supported by the Christian graces of mildness, meekness, and charity, and a numerous train of social and relative duties.

As at the fall of Charles I. the conduct of the Puritans of Massachusetts differed widely from that of loyal Virginia, so did the death of Cromwell also affect them in an equally opposite manner. In the latter place, as soon as they had heard of the decease of the usurper, without waiting for news from England of their sovereign's movements, they immediately proclaimed him, subverted the authority, to which they had so reluctantly submitted, and recalled from retirement their former governor, and invested him with the chief command, thus securing to themselves the double honor of being the last to lay down their arms, and the first to re-assume them, in the defense of their king. In the former colony they would not or could not believe that Providence would ever suffer him to sit upon the throne of his ancestors, even after they received a copy of his proclamation. A motion for an address to him was put and lost in the General Court. When they called to mind the part they had taken in the rebellion, and the infamous conduct of their agent, Peters, their official and private letters to Cromwell, their own proclamation against the king's adherents, their acts against Virginia, their continual disobedience and disloyalty to his royal father, the reception and protection they had given the regicides, they were overwhelmed with doubts and fears as to the future. The resistance which their ministers had recommended to them on a former occasion, they knew would be unavailing against so powerful a monarch as Charles II., they therefore resorted to the *The well-known Richard Baxter was chaplain to Whalley's regiment.

other alternative, "evasion and delay." They first ventured to feel their way by an address, containing the following extraordinary passage:

Sir, we lie not before your sacred Majesty. The Lord God of Gods knoweth, and Israel he shall know, if it were in rebellion or in schism that we willingly left our dwellings in our own country for dwellings in this strange land, save us not this day. Royal Sir, your just title to the crown enthroneth you in our consciences, your graciousness in our affections; that inspires unto duty, this naturalizeth unto loyalty. Hence we call you lord, hence a saviour. Mephibosheth rejoices that the king hath come again to his house. The truth is, such were the impressions upon our spirits as transcends the faculty of an eremitical scribe. A desert condition in some sense is an object fittest to magnify princely radiance, inferior whereof can not make the wilderness rejoice. Opaque bodies occasion the most luculent reflections. Affection makes a rhetorician Croesus' dumb son speak to prevent misery, and Zedekiah's tongue breaketh loose to acknowledge mercy. Warm with the influence of your royal favor, we, by way of congratulation, comforted ourselves that the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, hath escaped: of whom we begin to say, under his shadow we shall live among the heathen."

The absurdity and extravagance of this language is thus gravely defended by Bancroft: "The spirit that breathes through it is republican. The style of hyperbole is borrowed from the manners of the East, so familiar from the study of the Hebrew Scriptures."

The truth of these protestations, so solemnly made, was well attested by the manner in which Charles was proclaimed. This ceremony had been deferred, from a natural repugnance to acknowledge him at all; but, in August, 1661, the aspect of affairs was so alarming, it was thought prudent to propitiate him, by complying with this usual and constitutional practice. To the act itself there could be no objection; the difficulty lay in so carefully conducting their proceedings, and in so wording the public document, as not to admit him, in express language, to have any authority in Massachusetts, beyond that of a temporal prince, with whose ancestors they had entered into a compact, whereby, for himself and his heirs, he had surrendered the territory, comprised within certain specified limits, on the nominal condition of

receiving a fifth of the produce of all silver and gold mines. Accordingly a number of forms were proposed and discussed, but were severally rejected, as admitting too much by words or by implication, until, at last, the following extraordinary one was adopted, as the shortest, simplest, and safest that they could suggest: "Forasmuch, as Charles II. is undoubtedly king of Great Britain, and all other his Majesty's territories and dominions, thereunto belonging, and hath been some time since lawfully proclaimed and crowned accordingly; we therefore, do, as in duty we are bound, own and acknowledge him to be our sovereign Lord and King; and do, therefore, hereby proclaim and declare his sacred Majesty, Charles II., to be lawful king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, and all other the territories thereunto belonging. God save the King."

It is observable that his Majesty is here described as king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, and all other the territories thereunto belonging, which term is satisfied by the Orkneys and Channel Islands; but no mention is made of America, Massachusetts, or the words colonies or plantations. Brief and cold, however, as this declaration was, it was adopted with great repugnance, and the day passed in ominous gloom. An order of the Court was issued at the same time, and posted up in various parts of Boston, forbidding all disorderly behavior on the occasion, declaring that no person might expect indulgence for the breach of any law, and, "in a particular manner, that no man should presume to drink his Majesty's health, which he has in an especial manner forbidden."

CHAPTER VIII.

The King appoints a Council for the Colonies-Their Advice-Connecticut and Rhode Island send Agents, who obtain for them Charters containing full Powers of Self-government-Navigation Laws-They fall heavily on Virginia, and alarm all the Provincials-The General Court publishes a Declaration of Rights--Their Reasoning as to the Origin of their Title to the Country-They send Agents to England-Instruction given to them, and Letters of Introduction to Noblemen of Low Church or Dissenting principles-They meet with a favorable Reception, and return with a Letter from the King requiring certain Changes in their Laws and Modes of Procedure-An affected Show of Compliance-Dissipation of Churchmen, of Baptists, and especially of Quakers-Severe Treatment of latter--A Commission of Inquiry issues to Colonel Nichols and others-Their Instructions-General Court orders the Charter to be put into a Place of Concealment-Prepares to receive the Commissioners.

THE Convention Parliament had scarcely adjourned, when Charles II. performed the promise he had made at parting, and endeavored to carry into effect the various acts of a foreign and domestic nature they had made. He established, in December, 1660, a council for the general superintendence of the colonies, and enforcing the laws of trade. Had he always acted upon their suggestions, he would have saved his own reputation, and spared himself and his successors many vexations and annoyances. They urged him "to agree with such as have any property in his plantations, and take the same into his own hands, in order to prevent the granting any for the future." Sir William Berkeley, the old and loyal Governor of Virginia, repeated the same recommendation, most truly foretelling "that those patents in the next age will be found more advantageous to the crown than is ceptible in this."

per

Notwithstanding this judicious advice, and the pending difficulties and controversies, he at once made two of the most extraordinary grants, of a pure, unmixed, and unrestrained democracy, that were ever issued by any monarch. The constitution of Massachusetts, it was well known, was an usurpation-the application of a local charter, by a company in London, for the purposes of civil government in America; but these were bonâ fide concessions, no deception was practiced, no information with

held. Republicanism was asked, and obtained. Connecticut and Rhode Island having favors to seek, were more prompt in proclaiming the king than Massachusetts, and at once sent delegates to congratulate him on his restoration, and to solicit charters. On their arrival in England they were introduced to some Low Churchmen, of rank and influence, in whom they found most active partisans. Men whose lives are chiefly spent in making professions, are seldom able to find sufficient time to practice what they so loudly extol. Their sectarian sympathy was stronger than their loyalty, and the interest of the king and the nation were transferred, by hypocritical politicians, into the hands of crafty republicans. The charters they obtained for the delegates, vested in the propriety of freemen of Connecticut and Rhode Island the right of admitting new associates, and of choosing annually from among themselves a governor, magistrates, and representatives, with power of legislative and judicial authority. No appellative jurisdiction, and no negative on the laws, were reserved to the crown any more than in Massachusetts and Maryland. They were, to all intents and purposes, entitled to self-government; so much so, indeed, that these same royal patents remained the basis of their polity long after they became independent states. Even the oath of allegiance was not required of them. The usual clause, stipulating that their laws should be conformable to those of England, was modified, or rendered nugatory by an extraordinary reference "to the constitution of the place, and the nature of the people." It granted universal toleration to all mankind, without limitation to Christian sects.

It is no wonder the joy of the Provincials knew no bounds. The grant exceeded their fondest and most ardent hopes. In Rhode Island the inhabitants were assembled " for its solemn reception." The Charter was read in the audience and view of all the inhabitants, and the letters with his Majesty's royal stamp and the broad-seal, with much beseeming gravity, were held up on high, and presented to the "perfect view of the people." So completely had the king denuded himself of all power, that in a subsequent reign, when the Rhode Islanders claimed the protection and interference of the sovereign against the oppressions of their own legislature, arising from frauds practiced on them in a depreciated currency, that monarch replied, under the advice of the Crown officers, that he could afford them no redress, since his