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themselves to a fraud on individual rights, and regal authority, they had lost the benefit of a local government, while they were too poor and too few in number to have either weight or influence in the one they had struggled to establish. Instead of vanquishing the king, they had injured their own cause; and while they were congratulating themselves on the success of their efforts, they made the unwelcome discovery that victory is sometimes more ruinous than defeat.

As

The administration of Dudley was of short duration. It was not probable, it was ever in the contemplation of James to continue him for any length of time in his office. He was a colonist, and would have been both unfit and unwilling to have become the instrument of his arbitrary measures. It was manifest that he considered it but a temporary arrangement himself. far as possible, he suffered the old order of things to continue. Although in obedience to his commission the House of Representatives was laid aside, the magistrates and select-men discharged their several duties as heretofore; and as little was done by him as was compatible with the exigencies of the country. He was long enough in office, however, thoroughly to dissatisfy both the king and the people. He had not exerted himself in a manner that was agreeable to his royal master in giving effect to the laws of trade, nor had he enforced prompt obedience to his orders, which was expected of him. On the other hand, he had done too much to render himself popular with the people. He was not elected by them, and they regarded him as an usurper. He was a native, and his acceptance of office under a tyrant was viewed as the act of a traitor. He had subverted their constitution which, by the law of the land, was a capital offense; and if they had had the power, the inclination was not wanting to have made him undergo the extreme penalty. Such is ever the fate of undecided measures, and of attempts to conciliate the regard of two irreconcilable parties.

Each thinks that too much has been sacrificed to the other, and both complain that too little deference has been paid to their respective claims or wishes, while the unsuccessful politician has seldom the approbation of his own conscience to sustain him in his miscarriage.

"I warned thee," said one of the preachers to Dudley, with that mixture of cant and insolence that always rendered them so

intolerable. "I warned thee to be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die, but thou wouldst not; and now because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth."

During his short administration, he discovered that temporary popularity may be acquired by an affability of manner, or the arts of intrigue; but that character has no sure and solid foundation, but in honesty of purpose and vigor of conduct. It was a valuable lesson; and in after days, he had a conspicuous opportunity, as we shall see, to practice successfully what he had so dearly acquired.

*The character of the people is not to be sought for in the history of the colony only, for their public affairs were managed by men of education and experience, but recourse must be had to their correspondence among themselves, and to documents that have merely a local bearing. The primitive manners of the inhabitants of the rural districts may be judged of by the following letter of Captain Chudworth to the Governor of New Plymouth, declining a military command:

"MUCH HONORED-My service and due respect being presented, yours of the 19th December, 1673, came to my hands the last day of that month, wherein your honor acquainted me that the General Court, by a clear vote, have pitched upon myself to command an hundred men, in joining with the rest, in prosecuting the expedition against the Dutch. The estate and condition of my family is such as will not admit of such a thing, being such as can be hardly paralleled, which was well known unto some; but it was not well nor friendly done as to me, nor faithful as to the country, if they did not lay my condition before the Court. My wife, as is well known to the whole town, is not only a weak woman, and has been so all along; but now, by reason of age, being sixty-seven years and upward, and nature decaying, so her illness grows more strongly upon her; never a day passes but she is forced to rise at break of day or before. She can not lay for want of breath: and when she is up, she can not light a pipe of tobacco, but it must be lighted for her; and until she has taken two or three pipes, for want of breath, she is not able to stir, and she has never a maid. That day your letter came to my hands, my maid's year being out, she went away, and I can not get nor hear of another. And then in regard for my occasion abroad, for the tending and looking after all my creatures, the fetching home my hay that is yet at the place where it grew, getting of wood, going to mill, and for the performing all other family occasions, I have none but a small Indian boy about thirteen years of age to help me."

"To the much honored Joseph Winslow,

"Governor of New Plymouth,

"Scituate, the 16th of January, 1673."

66 Your humble servant,

"JAMES CHUDWORTH.

CHAPTER II.

Arrival of Sir Edmund Andross-Fears entertained of the King-His Conduct toward New York-His Opinions of popular Assemblies-Commission to Andross-Two Companies of Soldiers sent to Boston-Law relative to Marriages-Manner of imposing Taxes-Punishment of those who refuse to pay Rates-Episcopal Clergymen prevented by the Mob from reading the Burial Service-Preachers attack the Governor for his Toleration, and justify compulsory Conformity-Arbitrary Conduct of Andross relative to Titles of Land -Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey united to Massachusetts-News of the Arrival of the Prince of Orange in England-False Rumors spread of a general Massacre-Insurrection-Capture and Imprisonment of the Governor and his Councilors-Conduct of the Magistrates who reassume the old Government-Sir Edmund escapes, is retaken and sent to England, when he is released-Example of Massachusetts followed by the other Colonies-Bad Effects of so many political Changes in England-Remarks on the Appointment of Andross to be Governor of Virginia.

AT length, Sir Edmund Andross arrived at Boston on the 20th of December, 1686, with a commission for the Government of New England. This was the first direct administration by a stranger of the internal affairs of the colony, and the first specimen the people had of the reckless manner in which royal patronage was bestowed, and the arrogance, insolence, and oppressions of irresponsible officials. His conduct increased and

justified the universal discontent. It did not alienate the affections of the inhabitants, for they were already irretrievably estranged, but it strengthened their conviction that England's domination was incompatible with their happiness, as it was with their freedom.

He had been Governor of New York, and had also directed the affairs of Rhode Island; and therefore was supposed to be well acquainted with the character of the people over whom he was placed. He was a military man of some reputation, and having been accustomed to obey, as well as to command, was well suited to carry out the orders of James, who was prompt even to precipitation in action.

The new monarch had been more conversant with colonization and commercial affairs than his predecessor;* and commenced * Hume says that his application to naval affairs was successful, his encouragement of trade judicious, and his jealousy of national honor laudable. Henault, in his History of France (vol. 11. p. 200) says, the public are indebted to

with vigor and ardor the difficult task of reducing the plantations to order, and to a more immediate dependence on the crown. As to the means, as had been predicted by those who best knew his temper and principles, he was not at all scrupulous. As Duke of York, and proprietor of the immense colony that bore his name, he had three years before conceded to it a free and liberal constitution, and guaranteed to the people universal toleration, trial by jury, and exemption from all imposts, but such as their representatives should approve, and relinquished the right to quarter troops on the inhabitants, or to declare martial law. He no sooner ascended the throne than he annulled his own acts; taxes were levied by ordinance, titles to land were questioned, to augment fees and emoluments; and of those persons who remonstrated, not a few were arraigned, and tried before his council.

From a monarch who had so early distinguished himself for inconsistencies, there was little to be hoped. Although warned by his legal advisers, that the colonists, notwithstanding their charters were vacated, were British subjects, and as such entitled to all their rights and privileges, like all the Stuarts, he thought his prerogative was sufficient for his purpose, without the aid of Parliament to make laws or impose duties. His instructions to Andross were as contradictory as his own character-at once mild and severe, considerate and tyrannical.. "I can not but suspect," he says in a communication to him relative to a representative body, "that asemblies would be of dangerous consequence, nothing being more known than their aptness to assume to themselves many privileges which prove destructive to, or very often disturbed the peace of government when they are allowed. Neither do I see any use of them. Things that need redress be sure of finding it at the quarter sessions, or by the legal and ordinary ways, or lastly by appeals to myself. However, I shall be ready to consider of any proposal you shall send.”

may

We have seen that Mr. New Hampshire and Maine. wise.

Dudley's commission extended over That of Andross included them likeThe king invested him and his council with supreme jurisdiction, and empowered them to make laws, and execute them; to impose taxes, and enforce their collection: and to sup

this prince, when Duke of York, for the contrivance of signals, by means of flags and streamers.

port the vigor of the administration, two companies of soldiers were sent to Boston, and placed at his disposal. As soon as he had surveyed the field before him, he set himself industriously to work to subvert every democratic institution in the country, and to devise means to raise a revenue by pursuing the same course that had been adopted in New York, and by inventing subtle excuses for forfeiting real estate. It was not long before the case of some, who apprehended themselves to be oppressed, came under consideration, when they were told that they had no more privileges left them than not to be sold as slaves; and that the benefit of the law of England did not follow them to the end of the earth, which they soon found to be true, although their distance did not exempt them from its penalties. The alarm caused by this speech was deeply felt and resented by the whole country. It was never forgotten. It was handed down from father to son in Massachusetts, and the vows of vengeance then recorded, though long deferred, were remembered and fulfilled at last in the defeat and slaughter of the royalists at the revolution.

One of his first acts was to alter the law relative to the solem

nization of marriages. Among the numerous innovations of the Puritans on the usages of their ancestors, was one to render marriage a mere civil contract, and to require only the admission and consent of the parties to be made before and registered by a magistrate. As there was but one Episcopal clergyman in the colony at the time, a transfer of this duty to the Church could not well be effected, but it was ordered for the present that none should marry unless they entered into bonds, with surety to the governor, subject to forfeiture if it should afterward appear that there existed any lawful impediment. For this license a liberal fee was exacted, as a matter of course. The governor, being also ordinary, assumed as such the whole business of the local courts, and compelled the people of the rural districts to attend at Boston, at great inconvenience, for the probate of wills, or letters of administration; and exacted whatever charges he thought the estate able to bear. He imposed what rates he thought proper, with no other sanction than that of a few complaisant councilors, although his enemies admit that the sum thus raised was small in amount, and required and spent for the public service. The principal one was a charge of one penny in the pound, and a poll

* Minot.

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