Massachusetts, "that their letters patent and the enrolment thereof be annulled;" and in July, 1685, an official copy of this judgment was received by the secretary of the general court. Thus was the freedom of Massachusetts, so long maintained, sacrificed to please a tyrannical king. Surely we may trace even here, the beginning of which the War of Independence was the end.

HE oppressive rule of James II. extended to New
England. In the latter part of the reign of Charles
II., Colonel Kirke had been appointed governor of
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Plymouth.
The death of Charles interrupted his schemes for
humiliating the colonists, and Colonel Kirke, who had

become notorious for his brutality and excesses, was recalled. James II. appointed a temporary commission to administer the government of the colonies which had been under Kirke; but the rule of the commissioners was too mild to suit that monarch. He devised an arbitrary government, and appointed Sir Edmund Andros governor.

Many tyrannical regulations were now introduced, one of which was that no printing-press should be used in the colony. Andros arrived in December, 1686.

The whole aspect of things was now changed. Instead of the sober, pious manners observed by the Puritan rulers, the gaiety and license of the English court was introduced. Toleration was now extended to all sects. But the taxes were increased, and this created much complaint, and in some cases a slight degree of resistance. In the midst of confusion. and discontent, Increase Mather escaped by night, reached England and laid the complaints of the colonists before the king. Their demands of redress were peremptorily rejected. But James was now at the crisis of his fate. The people of England, wearied with his tyranny, welcomed William of Orange as a deliverer. When the news of the revolution reached Massachusetts, the people rose in arms, imprisoned Andros and his adherents, restored the charter, elected a governor, assistants and deputies. William and Mary were proclaimed at Boston, on the 29th May, 1689.

During King William's War, which began in 1689, and continued until the peace of Ryswick, in 1697, the frontier settlements were constantly exposed to the attacks of the French and Indians. The events of this war, however, will be found in the history of the general affairs of the colonies. Early in 1692, Sir William Phipps, the agent of the colonies, obtained a new charter, by which the appointment of the governor was vested in the king, and Plymouth, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia were united under one government. This charter was the source of much discontent. New England had received no aid from the mother country during the bloody and destructive contest upon her frontiers, and therefore, this abridgement of her privileges was felt as a flagrant act of injustice.

A new calamity visited Massachusetts. The belief in witchcraft was prevalent and deep-rooted among the Puritans of New England, and also among the people of the mother country. By the laws of Massachusetts, witchcraft was made a capital offence. In February, 1692, the superstition began to produce strange and lamentable consequences. In Danvers, a suburb of Salem, the daughter and niece of the minister were at first moved by strange caprices, and their conduct was readily ascribed to the influence of witchcraft. Tituba, an Indian domestic, was suspected as the evil worker, and by beating and other hard usage, she was driven to confess her guilt. The account of this affair spread rapidly among a credulous people. Every symptom of disease was thought to be caused by evil spirits at work all through the country. Fear aggravated nervous derangement. The consequences were disastrous. Every old woman, with haggard looks, was suspected and imprisoned; but, finally, neither age, sex, nor station afforded a safeguard against suspicion. Magistrates were condemned, and a clergyman of note executed.

Upon the trials of the suspected ones, many of them made confessions, which prove them to have firmly believed themselves under the guidance of an evil spirit. At length the delusion reached its extreme, and the people began to awaken from their dream. When the legislature met in October, remonstrances against the recent proceedings were presented. Twenty persons had suffered death, fifty-five persons had been tortured into confessions of witchcraft, and a hundred and fifty imprisoned. The spell was broken. A few more persons were convicted, but none executed. The most prominent actors during the prevalence of the delusion expressed great regret for their conduct, and Mr. Paris, the minister of Salem, in whose family the delusion began, was forced to leave that town, on account of the hostility of public opinion.

The whole weight of Queen Anne's war in the north was borne by the

New England colonies, New York being effectually screened from attack by the alliance of the Five Nations. Many towns were attacked, and the most heart-rending cruelties perpetrated by the French and Indians. The frontier was desolated, and the extension of the settlements effectually checked. During the thirty years following Queen Anne's War, few events of general interest occurred in Massachusetts. Throughout this period a violent controversy was maintained between the royal governors, Shute, Burnett and Belcher, and the representatives of the people, concerning the question whether the salary of the governor should be permanent or graduated according to the utility of the administration. A compromise was at length effected, and a particular sum was annually voted as compensation to the governor.

During King George's war, which began in 1744, and ended in 1748, the New England colonies furnished their quotas of men and money, and bore their full share of the horrors of Indian warfare. Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, proved himself an able officer, and the success of the expedition against Louisbourg must be attributed partly to the excellent plan of attack formed by him. The frontier depredations of the Indians. somewhat retarded the progress of New England, yet at the close of the war everything gave evidence of prosperity.