ROGER WILLIAMS IN ENGLAND.

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Rhode Island, having been excluded from the union of the colonies, sought the immediate protection of the mother country. For this purpose the local government despatched Roger Williams himself, the founder of the colony, to England. He was warmly received by the republicans, who had then the control of affairs, and found no difficulty in obtaining from parliament, a free and absolute charter of civil govern

ment.

On his return, he took letters of safe conduct from parliament, and landed at Boston, whence, it will be recollected, he had been banished with an ignominy as signal as his return was now triumphant. His return to his own state was marked with every demonstration of joy and welcome. On his arrival at Seekonk, he was met by a fleet of canoes, manned by the people of Providence, and conducted joyously to the opposite shore.

The affairs of Rhode Island were not yet finally settled. The executive council in England had granted to Coddington a separate jurisdiction of the islands. Justly apprehending that this would lead to the speedy dissolution of their little state, and the annexation of its ports to the neighbouring governments, the people sent Williams again to England, accompanied by John Clark; and the danger was removed by the rescinding of Coddington's commission, and the confirmation of the charter. (1652.)

The province of Maine had made but little progress under the auspices of Sir Ferdinand Gorges, as lord proprietary. He had granted a city charter to the town of York, which contained some 300 inhabitants, and sent out his cousin Thomas, to support the dignity of a deputy governor. had expended much time and money on his favourite scheme of colonisation, but died at an advanced age, without realising any benefit from it.

He

After his death a dispute arose between the colonists who were settled under his charter, and those who had settled under Rigby's patent for Lygonia. The magistrates of the neighbouring colony of Massachusetts were appealed to by both parties; and after a hearing, the litigants were informed that neither had a clear right, and were recommended to live in peace. The heirs of Gorges seemed to have forgotten the care of his colony, and his agents withdrew. Under these circumstances, the inhabitants of Piscataqua, York, and Wells accepted the offer of Massachusetts to place themselves under

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1652.

PERSECUTION OF QUAKERS.

her protection. The province was formally annexed to the Bay colony, and the towns, situated farther east, readily sent in their adhesion.

In 1655, Oliver Cromwell offered the people of New England, a settlement in the island of Jamaica, provided they would emigrate thither, and possess its fertile lands and orange groves. But the people were too much attached to the country of their adoption to listen to such a proposal. They would have considered it a species of sacrilege, to abandon to the savages the consecrated asylum of their religion. The protector's offer was respectfully declined.

The religious sentiments of the Puritan colonists gave a peculiar character to all their institutions. Religion was with them an affair of state; and to preserve its purity was considered a paramount duty of the civil magistrate. We have seen the effects of this principle in the history of the Antinomian controversy, which led to the expulsion of Anne Hutchinson, and her disciples. It was now applied to the Anabaptists and Quakers.

Clark, a baptist of Rhode Island, of exemplary character, was fined for preaching at Lynn, and Holmes, for refusing to pay a fine inflicted for his religious opinions, was publicly whipped.

The union of church and state had become so intimate that offences against religion, as it was understood by the governing powers, were treated as civil crimes. Absence from public worship was punished by a fine. The utterance of certain opinions was denounced as blasphemy, and visited with fine, imprisonment, exile, or death. Ministers not ordained in the regular manner were silenced by the public authorities; and the very men who had fled from England to gain an asylum for religious freedom, were refusing the slightest toleration to any religious opinions but their own.

It is not surprising that, in this state of the colony, certain members of the society of Friends, who came into Massachusetts, and made known their sentiments, were dealt with in a summary manner. Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, members of the society, who arrived in Boston in July, 1656, were put in close custody for five weeks and then banished. A special law was passed, prohibiting their admission into the colony; and a fine was imposed on such as should entertain them. The Quakers not being deterred from visiting the forbidden ground by these regulations, a law was finally passed which

FOUNDATION OF HARVARD COLLEGE.

77

banished them on pain of death. Several persons were actually hanged under this enactment.

The people of New England were early impressed with the importance of a provision for general instruction. In 1647, a law was passed for the establishment of public schools, requiring one in every township containing fifty householders; and a grammar school where boys could be fitted for college in every town containing one hundred families. A sum equal to a year's rate of the whole colony of Massachusetts had been voted for the erection of a college, in 1636; and in 1638, John Harvard, who died soon after his arrival in this country, bequeathed half his estate and all his library to the college. The institution has ever since borne his name. It was supported with great zeal not only by the inhabitants of the Bay colony, but by all the other members of the New England confederacy; and the example of Massachusetts was followed by the others in the establishment of publie schools. The benefits of this early and constant attention to education have been felt in every period of their history; and the character which it has impressed on the people of New England has given them a degree of influence and importance in the Union, which could have been acquired by no other means.

1660.

CHAPTER XIII.

NEW ENGLAND AFTER THE RESTORATION.

THE restoration of Charles II. could hardly be considered an auspicious event by the people of New England. On the contrary, it afforded them the strongest reason to expect an abridgment of their commercial advantages, and an attack upon their religious and political privileges. They were accordingly in no haste to recognise the royal authority. In July, 1660, Whaley and Goffe, two of the late king's judges, arrived in Boston, and anounced the restoration of Charles II., but represented the mother country as being in a very unsettled state. They were freely permitted to travel through New England, and received many attentions from the inhabi

tants.

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NEW ENGLAND AFTER THE RESTORATION.

When, at length, it was known that the king's authority was firmly established in England, and that complaints against the colony of Massachusetts had been presented to the privy council and both houses of parliament, by Quakers, royalists, and others adverse to its interests, the people became convinced of the necessity of decisive action. A general court was convened, and an address was voted to the king, vindicating the colony from the charges of its enemies, professing the most dutiful attachment to the sovereign, and soliciting protection for their civil and ecclesiastical institutions. similar address was made to parliament, and the agent of the colony was instructed to exert himself to obtain a continuance of the commercial immunities which had been granted by the Long Parliament.

A

Before he had time to obey these instructions a duty of five per cent. on exports and imports had already been imposed; and before the session closed, the famous navigation act was re-enacted. The king returned a gracious answer to the colonial address, accompanied by an order for the apprehension of Goffe and Whaley.

This small measure of royal favour was joyfully received, and a day of thanksgiving was appointed, to acknowledge the favour of Heaven in disposing the king to clemency. A formal requisition for the regicide judges was sent to New Haven, whither they had gone; but matters were so arranged that they escaped from their pursuers, and lived in New England to the end of their days.

Apprehensions of danger to their civil and religious rights were still felt by the colonists, notwithstanding the bland professions of the king. Rumours of a meditated attack on their commercial privileges, and of the coming of a governor-general for all North America, were seriously believed. This led to the famous Declaration of Rights on the part of Massachusetts, in which the powers and duties of the colony were very clearly and ably defined. Having thus declared the terms on which his authority should be recognised, the general court caused the king to be solemnly proclaimed as their undoubted prince and sovereign lord.

Agents were then sent over to England to protect the interests of the colony, who were favourably received, and soon returned to Boston, bringing a letter from the king, confirming the colonial charter, and granting an amnesty to all political offenders who were not already attainted for high treason;

NEW CHARTERS GRANTED.

79

but requiring that the oath of allegiance should be administered; that justice should be distributed in the king's name; that the church of England should be tolerated; and that the qualification of church membership for civil offices should be dispensed with.

Of all these requisitions, the only one which was complied with was that which directed the judicial proceedings to be conducted in the king's name. The others were published, but reserved for deliberation. The agents, Bradstreet and Norton, who had returned with the letter, were so severely reproached for not being able to procure better terms of acceptance from the king, that one of them, Norton, actually died of a broken heart. His unhappy fate seemed to convince the colonists of their injustice, and his death was universally and sincerely mourned.

Rhode Island was not backward in acknowledging the restored king. He was early proclaimed in the colony, and an agent being despatched to England, soon succeeded in obtaining a charter which granted the most ample privileges. It gave to the patentees the title of the Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence. The form of government, prescribed by it, was the usual one of a governor, assistants, and representatives elected by the freemen. It was received with the greatest satisfaction, as it confirmed to the colonists the democratical constitution to which they had always been accustomed.

Connecticut deputed John Winthrop, son of the celebrated governor of Massachusetts, as their agent at court, who had no difficulty in obtaining a charter in almost every respect the same with that which had been granted to Rhode Island. It differed from it, however, in requiring the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to be administered to the inhabitants. By the new charter, New Haven was united with Connecticut; an arrangement which was for some time opposed by the people of the former colony, although they finally concurred in it. Winthrop, on his return, was cordially welcomed; and was annually chosen governor of the colony during the remainder of his life.

The privileges confirmed by these charters were subsequently of immense importance to the cause of liberty.

The English government had always questioned the right of the Dutch to their settlements in what are now called the Middle States; the history and extent of which we shall no