trary to the power of the charter"; of the pertinacious disregard of the royal command for an appearance of the Colony by agents, which continued to be evaded under

some frivolous and insufficient pretences"; and, finally, of the offensive obstructions which had been placed in the way of the Collectors of the Customs. The peremptory conclusion of the letter was as follows:

"These and many other irregularities, crimes, and misdemeanors having been objected against you (which we hope nevertheless are but the faults of a few persons in the government), we find it altogether necessary for our service, and the peace of our Colonies, that the grievances of our good subjects be speedily redressed, and our authority acknowledged, in pursuance of these our commands, and our pleasure at divers times signified to you. by our royal letters and otherwise; to which we again refer you, and once more charge and require you forthwith to send over your agents fully empowered and instructed to attend the regulation of that our government, and to answer the irregularity of your proceedings therein. In default whereof, we are fully resolved, in Trinity Term next ensuing, to direct our Attorney-General to bring a quo warranto in our Court of King's Bench, whereby our charter granted unto you, with all the powers thereof, may be legally evicted and made void. And so we bid you farewell," &c.1

1682.

Here was matter for serious thought; the more so, as the King's restoration to unrestricted power Proceedings in was now known in Massachusetts.2 The Gen- Massachusetts. eral Court assembled, and listened to the read- February 15 ing of the King's letter; of Randolph's commission as Collector; of the King's "patent to William Blathwayt, Esq., for constituting him to be Auditor and Surveyor General"; and of "Mr. Blathwayt's deputation to Mr. Randolph." They agreed upon an Address to the King, of 2 See above, p. 258.

1 Chalmers's Annals, 443-449.

which the principal import was, to entreat his longer forbearance; to inform him that, in compliance with his "commands in several letters," they had "despatched their worthy friends Joseph Dudley and John Richards"; and to place in a favorable light their proceeding in the purchase of Gorges's property in Maine. They ordered that the Acts of Trade and Navigation should "be forthwith published in the market-place in Boston by beat of drum, and that all clauses in said acts relating to this plantation should be strictly taken notice of and observed." They constituted Naval Officers, one for Boston, the other for "Salem and adjacent ports," to be commissioned by the Governor, and to exercise powers of a nature to control the Collector appointed in England. They repealed their laws under the titles Conspiracy and Rebellion, and directed a substitution of the word jurisdiction for "the word commonwealth, where it imported jurisdiction." They revised their law of treason so as to read as follows: "If any man conspire and attempt any inva sion, insurrection, or public rebellion against the King's Majesty, his government here established, or shall endeavor to surprise any town or towns, fort or forts therein, or shall treacherously and perfidiously attempt the alteration and subversion of our frame or polity of gov ernment fundamentally, he shall be put to death."1

Danforth, who had come from Maine, as was his cus tom, to take his place in the General Court, was now chairman of the committee for preparing instructions for the agents. He took care that Dudley (whom no man knew better), and his easy colleague, should be carefully limited as to the exer

Despatch of agents to England.

1 Mass. Rec., V. 333 – 339.

2 Ibid., 339.-Nearly a year had now passed since the election of Nowell and Richards to be agents. Nowell had declined the trust, as Stoughton had done before. (Mass. Arch., CVI.

232.) When, in May, 1681, a new election was proposed, the Deputies, on their part, again chose Nowell and Richards, but the Magistrates non-concurred as to the former. (Ibid., 236, 253.)

cise of a discretion so liable to abuse.1 As to the coining of money, they were directed to ask the King's pardon for the past, and, for the future, his "gracious allowance therein, it being so exceedingly necessary for civil commerce." They were to represent that there was no colonial law "prohibiting any such as were of the persuasion of the Church of England"; that the "severe laws to prevent the violent and impetuous intrusions of the Quakers" had been suspended; that, "as for the Anabaptists, they were now subject to no other penal statutes than those of the Congregational way";" and that "the law, restraining freemen to church-members only, was repealed." They were to give assurance "that the Acts of Trade, so far as they concerned the Colony, should be strictly observed, and that all due encouragement and assistance should be given to his Majesty's officers and informers that might prosecute the breaches of said Acts of Trade and Navigation." To any project for "appeals to his Majesty and Council in cases concerning his Majes ty's revenue," they were to object, that there was "cause to fear it might prove extremely burdensome, and, as it

1 In the contest between the parties that divided the General Court, the adoption of the ballot in the election of agents indicates that members of what proved to be the more numerous party were disinclined to expose themselves to popular criticism. "The whole Court met [March 20] and voted to gether by papers for agents to go and wait on his Majesty, &c.; and, on the scrutiny, William Stoughton, Esq. was chosen for one with 21 votes, and Joseph Dudley, Esq. was chosen for the other by 18." (Mass. Rec., V. 346.) When this General Court assembled in the previous May, 51 members were present. (Ibid., 308.) And if, at the session when the agents were elected, the bad weather of February and March

reduced this number by one third, the 18 votes which chose Dudley were a bare majority. Stoughton persisted in declining the service, and John Richards was chosen in his place; by what vote is not recorded. (Ibid., 346.)

2 Literally, this was true. But, as late as the spring of 1680, the General Court forbade the Baptists to assemble for their worship in a meeting-house which they had built in Boston. (Mass. Rec., V. 271; see above, p. 92.)

The fact, however, that the building of it had not been interrupted, suggests that this order was rather a matter of form, adopted perhaps in deference to the zeal of the country Deputies.

might be improved, intolerable, should it be admitted." They were to expose the vexatious injustice of Robert Mason's present exorbitant claim, and to "give his Majesty a true relation of the proceedings with reference to the settlement of the government of the Province of Maine, according to the charter granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges." "We do not understand,"-so the General Court informed their messengers, -"that any alteration of the patent is intended. You shall therefore neither do nor consent to anything that may violate or infringe the liberties and privileges granted to us by his Majesty's royal charter, or the government established thereby; but, if anything be propounded that may tend thereunto, you shall say you have received no instruction in that matter, and shall humbly crave his Majesty's favor that you may not be constrained to make answer thereto." 1

Randolph's ac

It was not to be supposed that such proceedings of the General Court would assuage the hostility of Randolph. His sense of them was expressed in a paper tive hostility to which he entitled "Articles of High Misdethe Colony. meanor exhibited against a Faction in the General Court." He accused that faction, headed by the Deputy-Governor, and consisting of several Magistrates and Deputies whom he named, of refusing "to declare

2

1 Mass. Rec., V. 346-349. The "new pretended claims" of Mason, which the agents were to resist, extended along the coast to Naumkeag River; that is, to within fifteen miles of Boston. (See above, Vol. I. p. 204.) The Court sent to England a remonstrance of "the inhabitants of Gloucester, alias Cape Ann, and other parts djacent," against these claims. (Mass. Rec., V. 334.)

2 See Hutch. Coll., 526-528. The full title is," Articles of High Misdemeanor exhibited against a Faction in

and admit of his Majesty's letters patent. . . . . creating an office of Collector, &c. of his Majesty's Customs in New England"; of withholding the payment to him of "several sums of money which he was forced to deposit in court before he could proceed to trial of causes relating to his Majesty's concerns"; of obstructing him by the revival of a law which constituted a colonial Naval Officer; of usurping, in the General Court, judicial powers confined by the charter to the Governor and Assistants; of neglecting to repeal their laws "contrary to the laws of England"; and of disregarding the King's letters patent "creating an office of Surveyor and Auditor General of his Majesty's revenues arising in America."

April 11.

Several letters written at this time by Randolph to important persons in England have been preserved, and are instructive in the highest degree as to the state of affairs in Massachusetts, and the foreign dangers which beset that Colony. "They are resolved"—so he informed Sir Lionel Jenkins" to prosecute me as a subverter of their government. If they can by any means, they will take my life. . . . . . Friday next I am to be examined; imprisonment is the least I expect. ..... The Governor, who is an honest gentleman, but very much in years, and some of the Magistrates, oppose those heady practices, what they can. . . . . . Bringing a quo warranto against their charter may save my life, and reform this government. I humbly beseech your Honors by a speedy despatch to have these two laws in the enclosed printed papers declared null by Order in Council, and sent over hither by several ways of shipping, lest they miscarry and I am lost. The distance of place, and hopes of troubles at home, with the many scandalous papers sent hither for the benefit and comfort of the illaffected, make this party thus daringly presume."1

1 Colonial Papers, &c. In this let- ment levy fines amounting to more ter Randolph says, that the govern- than £400 a year; that the customs