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The Court were well disposed to lighten, in any upright way, the difficult task they had assumed; and the last business done at the recent session was to take measures for sending to the King a present of masts

One circumstance favors the opinion that Hathorne was the writer. It is, that where the letter refers to the King's demand for agents to be sent to England, it explains why Bellingham could not go, but says nothing of Hathorne, who equally had been summoned by name. This very interesting document would cover eleven or twelve pages such as mine. A few extracts will afford some indication of its character.

"I clearly see, that the body of the people have a higher esteem of their liberties than of their lives. They well know they are such twins as God and nature have joined together, and are resolved to bury their estates and liberties in the same grave.

"Should the malicious accusations of their adversaries prevail with his Majesty to impose hard measure upon them, as their dwellings are not desirable for luxurious minds, so they would not be long inhabited by them, the country being large and wide. And what great pity is it that a hopeful plantation, so suddenly raised without any expense to his Majesty, should now be made a prey to foreign enemies." The writer goes on to show how much it is coveted by the French, and how easily they might occupy it, if but partially deserted by its present holders. "What extremity," he adds, "may force them to, that God only knows, who is wonderful in counsel and mighty in working, whose thoughts are not as man's, and whose counsel only shall stand.

"There came ..... a writing, being a copy of a signification from his Majesty, requiring the Governor and

some others to appear in England. But the very truth is, the Governor is an ancient gentleman, near eighty years old, and is attended with many infirmities of age, often incapacitating him to the public service of the country, as stone, colic, deafness, &c.; so that to have exposed him to such an undertaking had been extreme cruelty. And, for the further alleviating, please to be informed that the writing which came to their hands was neither original nor duplicate, but only a copy, without any seal, or notification that his Majesty had appointed the exhibition thereof to the Colony. . . . . .

"Had the Governor and all the leading men of the Colony adhered to the Commissioners' mandates, the people were so resolved, that they would for the generality of them (some discontents, Quakers, and others excepted) have utterly protested against their concession.

....

"What your Honor may do for the interest of God's people, God himself will own, and Jesus Christ, his Son, will own you for it, when he shall appear in all his glory with his saints and holy angels to judge the world. If in your wisdom you shall perceive it will do no good to this people, your declaring the contents of these lines, I do humbly, for Christ's sake, beg that favor of your Honor, that it may not be improved to any provocation, this being privately done by my own hand, without the privity of the authority, or advice of any other person whatsoever, against whom, whiles I have been here resident, I see no just ground of complaint." See O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III. 138.

for the use of the royal navy. It cost the Colony nearly two thousand pounds, and was very gratefully received in England, being so seasonable that it was afterwards thought to have materially contributed to the favorable issue of the existing war with France.1

an expedition against

Feb. 22.

July 6.

Sept. 11.

Soon after that power had taken part against England in her war with the Dutch, the King instructed Proposal for Colonel Nicolls to organize an expedition against New France, and to obtain troops from the New France. New-England Colonies, to which he also transmitted orders to that effect.2 Nicolls applied to Massachusetts for "a speedy force of horse and dragoons, not exceeding a hundred and fifty." The Court wrote to Morrice: "As touching the reducing of Canada, &c., the Council have advised with Sir Thomas Temple, Governor of Nova Scotia, and with the Governor of Connecticut, who both concluded with them that it is not feasible, as well in respect of the difficulty, if not impossibility, of a land march over the rocky mountains and howling deserts about four hundred miles, as the strength of the French there, according to report." They added, that vessels with their commission had "lately taken three or four of the French fishing-ships upon the coast of Canada," and that they should take care, "by the assistance of God, to preserve and defend the honor and interest of his Majesty and the English nation in these parts."4

Peace of
Breda.

1667. July 31.

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Peace was made the next year at Breda, and the plan of invasion was not revived. By one article of the treaty, Nova Scotia was lost to England, and Temple was no more its master.

1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 318; comp. 327. How opportune and valuable this gift was, may be seen in Pepys (Diary, III. 100).

Mass. Hist. Coll., XVIII. 102.

Hutch. Coll., 407.

* Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 316; comp. 328; also Mass. Hist. Coll., XVIII.

101.

May 9.

Maverick appeared once more in Boston with a message from Nicolls; its purport is not recorded, and, whatever it was, it was fruitless. At the end of three years from the last meeting of the Federal Meeting of Congress, six Commissioners came together at the Federal Hartford. One star was lost out of its sphere; and with the wholeness of the system, its attractions, its balance, and its forces had departed. the brave Confederacy of the Four Colonies only the shadow of a great name remained.

Commission

ers.

Of

The defunct jurisdiction of New Haven was complimented by the election of Leete, who now came as one of the Commissioners for Connecticut, to be President of the Congress. The Commissioners for Massachusetts and Plymouth brought authority only to "act about the Indian affairs of the Corporation, and to agitate and treat of any propositions that should be made for the renewing or entering into a new confederation." A letter was produced, which had been addressed by Plymouth to Massachusetts two years before, containing a protest of that Colony against the extinction of New Haven, and a declaration that its "reason" was not "seated in sufficient light to continue confederation with three Colonies." Statements of the "terms of agreement" between Connecticut and New Haven, and of a concurrence of Connecticut, as now constituted, with the plan for a "tripartie" Confederacy, were called for; but none appeared." The Commissioners from Connecticut made some conciliatory explanations; and the Congress separated, after disposing of a little business relative to the preaching to the Indians, and preparing a proposal to the several Colonies for a new confederation, with some alteration of the articles of the original compact.2

"

1 Hutch. Coll., 411.

Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 501 -511.-The Federal Commissioners

expressed disapprobation of some proceedings of Connecticut. (Ibid., 504.)

If the Confederacy was crippled, Massachusetts was neither won to the court, nor overcome, nor disabled, nor intimidated. And now Lord Clarendon had fallen from power, and the ministers, afterwards called the Cabal, were at the helm. To Massachusetts, as yet, the name of Clifford was scarcely significant. In a hot contest with Arlington, she had lately come off victorious.1 In the Duke of Buckingham, if she had read him rightly, there was little to give her cause for alarm. From the versatile Ashley, the friend of Monk and of Southampton, she might even hope for some favor, if any of his professions during the Civil Wars had been sincere. Lauderdale she knew as, of old, a busy Covenanter, who would now have sufficient business on his hands in taking care of Scotland. Now was the time for Massachusetts to re-establish her position, and reclaim what remained withholden of her rights.

Restoration

of the authority of Massachu

setts in Maine.

The French war had frightened the settlers in Maine, living as they did in scattered families, in the face of Indian tribes, who were under the influence of the missionaries from Quebec. The King of England took no thought for them; Gorges could not defend them; the only power in a posture to afford them protection was Massachusetts; and, when again she turned her attention towards them, it was to find the ancient loyalty to her increased, and little opposition to her claims requiring to be overcome, except what was offered by interested officials.

1668.

The General Court took up the case of its county of York, and considered that, "about three years now past, some interruption had been made to the peace May 27. of that place and order there established, by the imposition of some who, pretending to serve his Majesty's interest, with unjust aspersions and reflections upon this

1 The Secretary Bennett was created Earl of Arlington, March 14, 1665.

government here established by his royal charter, had unwarrantably drawn the inhabitants of that county to subjection unto officers that had no royal warranty, thereby infringing the liberties of the charter, and depriving the people there settled of their just privileges; the effect whereof now appeared to be not only a disservice to his Majesty, but also the reducing of a people that were found under an orderly establishment to a confused anarchy." They accordingly issued a proclamation requiring the inhabitants of the county "to yield obedience" to the colonial laws and officers, and commissioned the Magistrates Leverett and Tyng, and the Deputies Waldron (of Dover) and Pike (of Salisbury), to repair to York, hold a court, and reconstruct the lawful government.1

July 7.

At York, "Mr. Josselyn and several others, styled justices of the peace," presented themselves to the commissioners, and, pleading their authority from Colonel Nicolls, were told that the General Court had already considered and overruled it. The commissioners "repaired to the meeting-house, and there opened the court by reading their commission publicly, and declaring to the people wherefore they came; whereto there was great silence and attention." The Yorkshire towns had already been directed to choose

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1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 370–373. Nicolls remonstrated against this proceeding in a letter (June 12th) from New York. (Hutch. Coll., 427.)

* In the State-Paper Office is Major Nathaniel Phillips's "True Account of the Usurpation of Massachusetts" in Maine. Phillips says: "Major-General Leverett sat in court with his sword by his side, a thing not usual in courts of peace and justice."

The commissioners' Report of their proceedings is in Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 400-404. "We told them that,

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through the good hand of God, and the King's favor, the Massachusetts were an authority to assert their right of government there by virtue of the royal charter; and that we did not doubt but that the Massachusetts Colony's actings for the forwarding his Majesty's service would outspeak others' words." John Josselyn, who was a brother of the would-be magistrate, has given his account of this transaction. (Account of Two Voyages, &c., 198.)

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