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vice." The third produced their authority to communicate the royal pleasure to a General Court, which the Commissioners announced themselves now ready to do, at the same time complaining that their wishes, expressed the last summer, for an immediate publication of the King's letter to the Colony, had not been executed. The fourth related to the preparation of a map of the territory, which three of the Commissioners had applied for, in a joint letter from Rhode Island, six weeks before, and which Nicolls now united with them in requesting the Court to have "made with all exactness possible, and with all speed convenient delivered."

The fifth "writing" was a manifesto of the Commissioners, setting forth the fitness of an appointment such as that which they held, and the unreasonableness of the opposition which appeared to have been raised against it. It was not true, they declared, as had been "maliciously reported by some," that their commission had "been made under an old hedge." It was not true, as had been affirmed, that "the King had sent them over to raise five thousand pounds a year out of this Colony for his Majesty's use, and twelve pence for every acre of improved land beside, and to take from this Colony many of their civil liberties and ecclesiastical privileges." "To wipe these soiling aspersions of his Majesty's honor, and to prevent the spreading of this poisonous infection. among his Majesty's good subjects," was, they alleged, "the only reason" of their having proposed to bring the whole body of the inhabitants together at Boston. Of the purposes of their embassy, they said, "the first mentioned in the King's letter is peculiar to this Colony, and is to discountenance and suppress those unreasonable jealousies and malicious calumnies which wicked. and unquiet spirits labor to infuse, &c., as that our

1 See above, p. 583.

subjects there do not submit to our government, but look upon themselves as independent on us.' A fairer opportunity you can never have to throw this calumny, if it be one, to the depth of hell, to the father of lies, from whom it came." After explaining the principles which, in the King's opinion, ought to control the elections to be held the next day, the Commissioners courteously expressed the wish that the Court might "be prosperous in the choice of a Governor, and that he also might be prosperous in the execution of his office."1

May 3.

May 4.

Bellingham was chosen Governor, and was succeeded in the second office by Francis Willoughby.2 On the next day, the business with the Commissioners was resumed in form. The Court "earnestly desired that they might know all that his Majesty had given them in command to declare, that so they might have their whole work before them; to which the Commissioners replied, that they should not observe that method, but, when they had received an answer to that which they had given in, they would then present them with more work." The Court, in a careful reply, promised that a map should be furnished without delay, and expressed their hope of having cause for "more ample expressions and demonstrations of their duty, loyalty, and good affection to his Majesty, according as by their patent they were bound." The Commissioners answered, with complaints of the long neglect of the King's demands sent by Norton and Bradstreet, and with comments on that unsatisfactory profession of loyalty, which appeared to limit its obligations by the terms of the patent. They added other unpalatable reflections, and concluded with communicating another

1..

May 5.

1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 177–186.

2

Ibid., 141; see above, p. 588, note At this Court the first fruits were reaped of the new rule of citizenship. "The first day of the Court there was

about seventy freemen admitted, sundry whereof were not members of any particular church." (Hull's Diary, in Archæol. Amer., III. 217.)

instalment of their Instructions. The portions now made known related to the royal protection for the natives; to an inquiry into the means of education; to examination into offences committed by persons in authority; and to a compliance with the royal demands, now remaining unaccomplished for nearly three years. To each of these passages, the Commissioners, as before, added, under the hands of them all, their suggestions for a practical issue. By an inquiry whether it would be most convenient to the Colony to have a hearing of a question, in which it was concerned, take place at Providence, or in the King's Province, or within its own territory, they gave a suf ficient hint of the kind of jurisdiction to which they meant to lay claim.

May 8.

This course of proceeding terminated with the communication of three other particular Instructions. One, relating to the apprehension of traitors, was transmitted without comment. The order to collect the local statistics was accompanied by a request that some persons on the spot should be charged with that office. To the instruction relating to breaches of the Navigation Laws, the Commissioners added a notice of a particular case of violation, which, as they were informed, had taken place three years before, and declared their "will and pleasure" to be, that the colonial authorities should institute an inquiry concerning it, and "cause justice to be done." They at the same time desired a copy of the colonial laws for examination.1

1664.

A transaction of a different character now intervened. One John Porter, imprisoned for gross misconduct in Massachusetts, had been released on giv- Oct. 19. ing a bond to depart from the jurisdiction. At Warwick he complained to the three Commissioners, who gave

1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 186–195. Ibid., 137. Porter, besides being "a vile, profane, and common swearer

and drunkard," was a rebellious son. His offences are described, further on (Ibid., 216), with abundant detail.

him a paper, by which they appointed a day for him 1665. to appear before them in Boston, to have his April 8. case heard; and they "required and commanded all officers, both military and civil, and all other persons," to abstain meanwhile from "all molestation and

restraint, he behaving himself civilly."1 This was a startling measure to the Magistrates; for Porter, in their judgment, was one of "the vilest of malefactors," and the revisal of his sentence by an extraneous authority would be a fatal obstruction of the course of their justice. In a short note from their Secretary, the Court informed the Commissioners, that, by the "warrant to John Porter, they apprehended their patent, and his Majesty's authority therein committed unto them, to be greatly infringed."

May 9.

May 10. May 11.

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The Commissioners asked a conference with a committee of the Court. At this interview," the gentlemen sent by the Court humbly pleaded, that his Majesty's charter gave to the Governor and Company here full and absolute power and authority for the government of his subjects of this Colony, for the making of laws suitable to that end, not repugnant to the laws of England," and "for the putting such laws in execution;" and they enlarged on the "insufferable burden" that would be laid upon them by the admission of appeals from their decrees. They asked the Commissioners whether, for any trials which they should conduct, they proposed to impanel a jury; by what law they should proceed; and whether they would admit new evidence. To the first question, a reply was made in the negative; to the last, in the affirmative; and to the other, that the law of England would be the rule. The committee insisted that the King's subjects in Massachusetts had a right to trial by jury, and by the local laws. It was "on the assurance" of this and other like privi

1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 177.

Ibid., 195.

leges, they said, "that they left their dear relations, and parted with their inheritances in their native country, venturing the lives of themselves and families into this wilderness, and here, without any expense to his Majesty, had raised up a colony of people to his Majesty, proceeding out of their own loins; and now this would be a great addition to their former sorrows for their so great bereavements, to be at once reduced to such an exigence, that either they must be charged with denial of his Majesty's authority over them, or else must yield to the prostrating of his Majesty's authority, orderly established here according to the grant of his royal charter, under the broad seal of England, and submit themselves, their lives and estates, and their liberties, far dearer than them both, to another authority, whose rule was their own discretion."1 The Commissioners were immovable, and the conference broke up.

May 11-16.

The Court delivered answers in writing to the further requisitions which, in conformity with their Instructions, the Commissioners had made. As to transactions with the natives, they said that the "Acts of the Commissioners" of the United Colonies might be seen in the record kept by them, and would afford the best information. They furnished the required minutes respecting the frame of their government, the order of their churches, their military organization, the amount of their tonnage, the condition of their College and schools, and their arrangements for instructing the Indians. To the permission to choose a place where complaints against them should be heard, they replied that "the inviolable observation" of their charter "seemed inconsistent with the Commissioners' hearing and determining complaints and appeals;" but that, when the Court should be informed what those complaints were, they "hoped to give such an answer and account as should be consonant to 1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 195 – 197.

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