1685. return to a better order of things. But now, having lately completed his fifty-fourth year, King Charles had a sudden attack of violent disease. As he rose from bed, the attendants observed that his speech was impeded, and that he could not command the February 2 movements of his limbs. He was relieved by bleeding, and at first it was hoped that his powerful constitution would conquer. But it proved unequal to the struggle, and on the fourth day he expired. February 6. The catastrophe was so sudden as to excite suspicions. that he had been poisoned;-by the Queen, as was thought by some; by the Duchess of Portsmouth, or the Duke of York, as was surmised by others. But there is no evidence to sustain these conjectures; and they have been dismissed by history as mere expressions of the restlessness of the public mind. Before his death, he was received within the pale of Rome. As he lay half conscious, he declined to receive the communion at the hands of the Anglican prelates who were in attendance in his chamber. His favorite French mistress sent to entreat the Duke of York to take care that his brother should not die unreconciled to the Church and to Heaven. The Duke, in a whisper, obtained the King's consent to bring a priest. The watchers in the apartment were nearly all dismissed, and by a private way, which had long served Chiffinch for his master's errands of a different kind, that useful servant introduced Father Huddleston, who had helped the King in his escape after the battle of Worcester.1 When the priest had received the dying man's confession, and had administered extreme unction, he was conveyed away, and the crowd of courtiers was again admitted. This transaction took place by night, and the King died at noon of the next day. That in his 1 Clarendon, History, &c., III. 559 561. 2 Clarke, Life of James the Second, I. 746-749. last moments he had been adopted into the Church of Rome, was scarcely a secret of the time; but the circumstances of his profession are now known through documents which did not see the light till a much later period.1 1 Barillon's Despatches in Fox's History of James the Second, Appendix, xi.-xv.; comp. Somers Tracts, VIII. 428, 429; Harris, Historical and Critical Account of the Life of Charles the Second, II. 55-65. CHAPTER VII. IT has been mentioned that the calamities of New England in the conflict with the Indian tribes obtained little compassion in the mother country. This was not the worst. The time of the miserable distress of Massachusetts was seized upon by the counsellors of King Charles to deal her a destructive blow. For nearly ten years after the frustrate attempt of Lord Clarendon to reduce that colony to subjection, there had been almost a suspension of political rela tions between New England and the parent country. More pressing political concerns prevented a vigorous renewal of the enterprise. But the home government had never wholly abandoned it, and an embarrassment in the way of prosecuting it was removed when peace was made with the Dutch. 1674. Renewal in against New At an early time of the rule of the Cabal ministry, the Council of Foreign Plantations, which had so far prolonged a feeble existence, was twice England of reconstructed.2 At the first meeting of this designs board under its last organization, "the first England. thing done was to settle the form of a circular letter,. . . . . to know the condition of New England, which appearing to be very independent as to their regard to Old England or his Majesty, rich and strong as they now were, there were great debates 1 See above, Vol. II. p. 444. 2 See above, pp. 32, 33. In the British Museum (Harleian MSS. 6394) are the commissions issued on these two occasions, with two full sets of In 1671. May 26. structions. I have a copy of theso papers, procured by Mr. Sparks. The Instructions lay stress on a strict execution of the Acts of Navigation in New England. June 6. June 21. July 6. " in what style to write to them; for the condition of that Colony was such that they were able to contest with all other plantations about them, and there was fear of their breaking from all dependence on the nation. ..... Some of the Council were for sending them a menacing letter, which those who better understood the peevish and tetchy humor of that Colony were utterly against." They determined to send a conciliating paper at first, or civil letter." Cartwright, who had served on Lord Clarendon's commission, appeared before them, and "gave considerable relation ";" and the result of the impression made by him was, that "a letter of amnesty should be despatched." At a subsequent meeting, the Council "made some proposal to Mr. Gorges for his interest in a plantation there." A debate upon "sending a Deputy to New England" issued in a decision to take that course, and to furnish the Deputy "with secret instructions to inform of the condition of those Colonies, and whether they were of such power as to be able to resist his Majesty, and declare for themselves as independent of the crown. Once more the Council "deliberated on some fit person to go as commissioner to inspect their January 12. actions in New England." But, presently after, far more interesting matters demanded the attention of the government, and this scheme fell into neglect. Be August 3. 1672. 1 Evelyn, Memoirs, II. 343. 2 See above, p. 36, note. 3 Evelyn (Memoirs, 344-346). Evelyn was one of these Commissioners. A meeting of the Council, not mentioned by him in his Diary, took place August 12, as appears from a record among the Colonial Papers in the English StatePaper Office. Lauderdale, Arlington, Clifford, and six other Commissioners were present. They recommended to the King to send Commissioners, whose public instructions might be only to 5 See above, pp. 14, 15. Lords of the . of Trade and Plantations. fore it was vigorously revived, the functions of both the Council of Trade and the Council for Foreign Plantations were restored to the Privy Council, Committee by which body they had always been exercised previously to the Great Rebellion. For the management of these departments of its business, the Privy Council had a standing Committee called "The Lords of the Committee of Trade and Plantations." 1675. March 12. Mason. When the Privy Council turned its attention to New England, its first action was professedly prompted by a desire to do justice to the pretensions of Fer- Claims of dinando Gorges and Robert Mason. These per- Gorges and sons had not suffered their claims to sleep, though, after the peaceable settlement of the towns in New Hampshire and Maine under the government of Massachusetts, their complaints obtained little attention. at court.1 Their prospect brightened when, associating with themselves Lord Stirling, heir of the patentee of Nova Scotia, they presented to the King a memorial, in which they proposed to surrender 1 See above, Vol. II. pp. 620, 634. A memorial from Ferdinando Gorges, read to the Privy Council, January 28, 1670, set forth that his grandfather was dispossessed of "the Province of Maine" by the Governors of the Bay of Boston 66 for his loyalty to his Ma jesty," and that "the said Governors of the Bay of Boston had by force of arms taken possession of the said Province, and rejected the petitioner's officers." The memorial was referred to the Committee of Trade and Plantations." (Journals of the Privy Council.) April 27, Gorges, with his witnesses (Colonel Nicolls being one of them), was ordered to be ready for a hearing on the 3d of May. (Ibid.) May 11, the Lords of the Committee having been satisfied of the truth March 20. of Gorges's representations, but “it appearing to be a matter of importance," it was further "referred to the consideration of the Right Honorable the Committee for Foreign Affairs." (Ibid.) Mason's movements about this time are not equally matter of record. But he was understood to be not inactive. There is preserved a proposal to him (June 9, 1672) from Robert Pike, Deputy for Salisbury in the General Court of Massachusetts, called, in the indorsement of the paper," an eminent lawyer of Boston," for an arrangement to "add their authority to his right." Pike begs him "not to proceed" in a "treaty with his Majesty about the surrender of the estate." (Colonial Papers in the English StatePaper Office.) |