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Nov. 12.

Nov. 29.

of Commons voted to impeach him, and sent up its articles. The Lords found them vague and informal, and declined to proceed. The Commons demanded a conference. It was uncertain what the issue would be, but the excitement and the danger were great. While the dispute was pending, Clarendon thought it prudent to withdraw to the Continent. From Calais he addressed to the Lords a vindication, which, by a joint order of the Houses, was pronounced a scandalous and seditious libel, and condemned to be burnt by the hangman. Another vote sentenced him to banishment for life. At the end of six years, passed in privacy, Dec. 9. he died at Rouen, in France.

Dec. 9.

Dec. 19.

1673.

Council of

Plantations.

Some measures of Lord Clarendon's administration concerned the Colonies of New England. The reader remembers that, at an early period of the Civil War, a Parliamentary Commission had been intrusted with the superintendence of colonial affairs. In the first Foreign year of the restored monarchy, this commission was succeeded by a Council of Foreign Plantations, which was invested with similar powers.3 A few months later, twelve Privy Counsellors were appointed to be a "Committee touching the settlement of the government of New England."3 But for the present this movement was fruitless. The Navigation Act of the Commonwealth was made

1660.

Dec. 1.

1661. May 17.

the basis of further and stricter legislation. A 1660. law of the Convention Parliament forbade the importation of merchandise into any English Colony, except in English vessels, with English crews; and, specifying various colonial staples, it prohibited their exportation from the place of production to any other

1 See Vol. I. 633, 634.

In the preceding month (November 7) a Council of Trade had been

established. (Journal of the Privy Council.)

3 Ibid.

Navigation

1663.

ports than such as belonged to England.1 The penalty in both cases was forfeiture of vessel and cargo. The oppressive system was further extended by Act. an Act, which confined the import trade of the colonists to a direct commerce with England, forbidding them to bring from any other country, or in any but English ships, the products, not only of England, but of any European soil.2

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Indians had been composed of Presbyterians and Independents. After the Restoration, its friends, alarmed not only for the safety of its property, some of which was now reclaimed by the former owners, but even for the prospect of any further prosecution of their benevolent undertaking, lost no time in approaching the throne in its behalf.3 Men sympathizing with them, and still of influence about the King, promoted their suit. The arrival of copies of John Eliot's Translation of the New Testament into the native language, with a dedication to the King, was opportune.

1 Statutes at Large, II. 658-661. -There were articles of New-England production which the demand in England, whether for consumption or for commerce, could not exhaust; while it concerned the English merchants, that the colonists should somehow get money to pay for English manufactures. Accordingly, by an Order in Council (February 13, 1661), NewEngland vessels were permitted to carry their freights (lumber, fish, &c.) to "Spain and other parts," and to bring to England only the proceeds of the sales.

Ibid., 738. Salt for the NewEngland fishermen, wines from Madeira and the Azores, and provisions from Scotland and Ireland, were however excepted.

The Chan

of "divers of his Majesty's subjects, ministers and others," for a continuance of the charter mentioned in their petition, and for securing "the lands set for maintenance, the Attorney-General was directed to report to the Privy Council a draught for a renewal of the charter. -1661, April 10, his draught was approved. May 17, he received a list of names of the first associates to be inserted in the charter. — 1662, July 2, "A brief" was ordered for "a general collection to be made throughout England and Wales" in aid of the Corporation. (Journal of the Council.)

-

This great work, printed at Cambridge by Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson, was published in Boston in September, 1661. The Federal Commissioners sent twenty copies to

8 1660, November 14. On petition Richard Hutchinson and William Ash

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Charter of

the Society for Propa

gating the Gospel.

cellor saw no harm in the project; and the royal assent was easily obtained. The re-established Society derived respect from the high rank of many of its members. The associates first named in the charter were the Earl of Clarendon, the Earl of Southampton, Lord Roberts, the Duke of Ormond, and the Duke of Albemarle.1 Nine members of the old Society were renominated. Henry Ashurst was continued as Treasurer. In general personal estimation, as well as in eminence among the philosophers of Europe, no man in England stood higher than the Society's new President, Robert Boyle. The place, he says, was given to him "without his seeking, or so much as knowledge." He immediately wrote to the CommisMay 15. sioners of the United Colonies, acquainting them with the steps which had been taken, and with the desire of the new corporation to avail itself of their continued agency. The business of converting the Indians of New England continued in the same hands; and, with little or no interruption from the transfer of the governing power abroad, the missions were prosecuted on the same principles as before.

1662.

3

There were other proceedings of the restored King's first ministry more materially affecting the New-England Colonies. But they must be reserved for a later stage of this narrative.

urst, with a request that "two of the special, being very well bound up," might be presented to the King and the Chancellor, and one each "to Dr. Reynolds, Mr. Carrill, Mr. Baxter, and the Vice-Chancellors of the two Universities." (Records, &c. in Hazard, II. 441; comp. 438.)

the original members of the Corporation, forty-two in number. See, also, Mass. Hist. Coll., XXXII. 281.

2 Boyle, Works, I. 41, 42. For the charter of the Corporation, see the same, 95.

The letter is in Hutchinson's Collections, p. 374, and in Records, &c.,

1 Oldmixon (I. 100) gives a list of in Hazard, II. 453.

CHAPTER XII.

No one of the confederate Colonies of New England proclaimed either of the Protectors. They recognized the sovereignty of Oliver as a fact, and had some communications with him, especially in relation to his expedition for the conquest of New Netherland.1 At his death, the Council of State sent an order to Massachusetts to proclaim his son; but it received no attention, even so far as to be mentioned in the public records. A letter from Richard, recommending to the favor of the Gen

1659.

eral Court a friend of his who had an estate to March 23. administer upon within their jurisdiction, is the only memorial of him that appears in their archives. He subscribed the letter as their "very loying friend," and assured them that their compliance with his request he should "esteem as a particular respect done to him, and should be ready to acknowledge and return the same upon any occasion wherein he might procure or further their good and welfare.”3

1660.

Intelligence of the accession of Charles the Second to the throne of his ancestors was not long in reaching Boston. The Journal of the General July 27. Court which sat three months later contains no

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October.

* Ibid., 455. Leverett wrote, on the 25th of the preceding December, that he had waited on the young Protector, a fortnight after his accession, with an "application on the behalf of the country," and had been favorably received. (Hutch. Coll., 317.)

Nov. 30.

reference to the new state of things. The Court had not been long adjourned, when information arrived from Leverett, its agent, that the affairs of New England had already been brought to the King's notice. Complaining that he was without instructions how to act in the embarrassing circumstances which had occurred, he informed them that the Quakers and some of the Eastern people had been making known their grievances; that a petition had been presented for the subjection of New England to a General Governor; and that, while awaiting express directions, he had engaged the good offices of Lord Say and Sele, and Lord Manchester, to endeavor to ward off that calamity. He added: "Episcopacy, common prayer, bowing at the name of Jesus, sign of the cross in baptism, the altar, and organs are in use, and like to be more. The Lord keep and preserve his churches, that there may not be fainting in the day of trial!" 2

The Magistrates immediately convoked an extraordinary General Court, and, in anticipation of its meeting, addressed letters to Lord Manchester, and to Lord Say and Sele, to fortify their agent's application for the interest of those noblemen.3 The Court, having read Leverett's letter, at once "ordered, that Addresses be made to the King's most excellent Majesty, as also to the High Court of Parliament." The

Address of
Massachu-
setts to the
King.

Dec. 19.

1 Hutchinson says (Hist., I. 194) that, at this session, "a motion was made for an address to the King, but it did not succeed; Mr. Norton, one of the ministers of Boston, was very earnest for it," &c. Hutchinson's statement is circumstantial, and I presume it to be correct; but I know not his authority for it.

2 Hutch. Coll., 322–324. Still another party, mentioned by Leverett, of "complainants to the King's Majesty" consisted of "Mr Reckes [Becks]

and Sefford [Gifford], and company of iron-works." Their complaint related to a long litigation, in which certain parties in England considered themselves to have been wronged by the government of Massachusetts. The curious reader may trace the progress of it in Mass. Rec., IV. (i.) 155, 188, 194, 195, 217-220, 228, 237, 241244, 251, 252, 311. Hutchinson's copyist misread the names.

3 Hutch. Coll., 324; comp. Mass. Rec., IV. (i.) 449.

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