palians (as they had believed, when they entered into the association, every other member was); that they thought so wide a departure from the charter and their oaths, as exhibited by the covenant which they had so recently executed, would lead to the lowest forms of dissent, and eventually terminate in the loss of their patent. At all events, they said, to belong to the National Church was not a criminal act in any part of the king's dominions; that their charter reserved to them all the rights of British subjects, and above all, expressly forbade them from making any law repugnant to those of England.

They were given to understand in very violent language, that they were not in Europe, but in America, and that though they might be right as to its not being illegal to profess the doctrine of the establishment, yet creating divisions (which separation did) was a serious offense, and very dangerous in its tendency. They were accordingly sentenced to close confinement, and to be transported back to London by the first vessel. While their persons were thus secured, their desks were forced, and their letters to their private friends abstracted, for the purpose "of preventing the reputation of the colony from being injured." Bancroft, their devoted admirer and apologist, thus condenses the reasons of the colonists for this persecution.* "Should the emigrants give up the very purpose for which they had crossed the Atlantic? should hierarchy intrude upon their devotions in the forests of Massachusetts? They deemed the co-existence of prelacy and their liberty impossible. Anticipating an invasion of their rights, they feared the adherents of the establishment, as spies in the camp, and the form of religion from which they had suffered was repelled, not as a sect but as a tyranny. They were banished from Salem because they were Churchmen. Thus was Episcopacy first professed in New England, and thus was it exiled." On their release in their native country, the Browns remonstrated bitterly against the perversion of the charter by so gross an outrage committed on themselves. The company, with a caution and adroitness that never forsook them, and ever after formed their most striking characteristic, stifled the complaint by having it referred to arbitration, and escaped animadversion by withdrawing it from public discussion.† The Browns found in

* History of the United States, vol. ii. p. 349.

† Hutchinson says the result of this reference is not known.

the course of these proceedings the whole aspect of affairs changed. Many of the original shareholders had sold out or lost their interest in the speculation. Every thing was managed with such secrecy by a few influential members, that it was manifest some very serious and dangerous plot was in agitation, and they quitted the company in disgust. Their suspicions were soon justified, by one of the most singular events in the history of England, and by far the most important one in that of America, the fraudulent and clandestine removal of the charter to Massachusetts.

We have seen how the king and the Church were duped as to the real objects of the association. The merchant adventurers were equally deluded. Their contributions were spent in founding a colony; no trade was ever carried on for their joint account, or ever intended to be, and at the end of seven years the partnership was closed and no dividend whatever declared, or any compensation made to the unfortunate absentees by those who had possessed themselves of the whole property. The repeated instances of duplicity in which they had succeeded, paved the way for the seizure of the patent, an act that surpassed them all in boldness of design and dexterity of execution. Several persons of station and means attached to the party who, as it has been well observed, "feared more than they suffered," privately tampered with the governor, Mr. Craddock, and offered to emigrate with their families provided the charter could be removed with them. With this important instrument in their hands, three thousand miles away from the Star Chamber and visitorial power of the king, they said they would feel secure from intrusion. Craddock, knowing how much better their affairs would be managed by a local administration, fell into their views, and at a meeting at the general court in London, in 1629, proposed to the board "for the advancing the plantations, for the inducing of persons of wealth and quality to remove thither, and for other weighty reasons, to transfer the government to those who shall inhabit them, and to continue no longer the same subordination to the company here."

Such an extraordinary proposition naturally led to a warm debate. Those who were not in the plot were taken by surprise, and argued the point as if it had not been predetermined upon.

* Hutchinson (vol. i. p. 18) says, "It is evident from the Charter, that the original design of it was, to constitute a corporation in England like to that of

They said their charter, like those of all other trading associa tions, and especially like that of the East India Company, was intended to be kept, and its officers to meet in England; that to remove it would be utterly useless, for it was not a constitution, but a corporation, and wholly inapplicable to the purposes of a civil government, which it never contemplated; that it contained no provision for a judicature, or executive body, or a legislature; that a whole people, though freemen, could not assemble four times a year, and there was no power of delegation given to them; but above all that it was a flagrant act of usurpation, and a daring attempt to infringe upon the king's rights. The conspirators affected to be strongly impressed with these powerful reasons, and said there was so much weight in them that they would consult counsel, and for that purpose adjourned the meeting, having first agreed, however, "To carry the matter secret, that it be not divulged."

This opposition and delay having been foreseen, was provided against. They had taken the precaution to retain a puritan lawyer, of the name of White, whose knowledge seems to have been on a level with his honesty, who had an opinion on the subject already prepared; and at the next court it was resolved "That the government of the colony be transferred to New England." This decision, however, was far from being satisfactory to all the members. There were many present who had adventured their money, that had no idea of emigrating, and who did not like to have both their property and patent transferred to another hemisphere. An attempt to compromise was made by resolving that "the government of persons" should be established in Massachusetts, and "the government of trade and merchandise" be retained in London. Professions and promises were so familiar with the conspirators, that they obtained their purpose by resorting to them now. The "planters" undertook and enthe East India and other great companies, with power to settle plantations within the limits of the territory, under such forms of government, and magistracy, as should be fit and necessary." Bancroft (Hist. vol. i. p. 384), speaking of Sir Harry Vane, says, His clear mind, unbiassed by previous discussions, and fresh from the public business of England, saw distinctly what the colonists did not wish to see, the really wide difference between the practice under their Charter, and the meaning of the instrument on the principles of English jurisprudence." Kent and Story are of the same opinion, and so is Robertson. See his "History of America," vol. iv. p. 282. Indeed the only wonder is, that any person could be found to think it even admitted of a doubt.

gaged with the "adventurers," for so the respective resident and non-resident parties were designated, to divide the whole joint stock, with all its vast accumulations, at the end of seven years, and pay over or assign to each proprietor his respective share. A fortune at the end of seven years they considered better than a present quarrel, and they yielded. It was the last they ever saw of the emigrants, and all that they ever heard of their transatlantic stock.

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Such has ever been the fate of a union between hypocrisy and avarice. The regular habits, devout conduct, and high professions of the former, seldom fail in obtaining the control of the funds, and the temptation to appropriate them is too strong for simulated honesty. However humiliating to sectarians the fact may be, it must be admitted that dissent thus set the first example of absconding to America with partnership effects. Having equally deprived the king, the Church, the savages, and the adventurers" of their rights, it was necessary now to delude themselves, and silence, if possible, their own scruples, if their doubts deserve such a respectable name. A new, important, and very difficult question arose for their consideration, in what relation were they to stand to the mother country? Most of the proprietors held that they had a perfect right without any charter from the crown, to establish such sort of government as they thought proper, and to form a new commonwealth, as fully as if they were in a state of nature, and were making their first entrance into civil society.

Men who can justify a separation from their Church, and see no sin in schism, can soon satisfy themselves that fealty is a local, and not a general duty. With respect to implied allegiance, the only true and sensible view of the matter, it was argued, was that subjection was of two kinds, necessary and voluntary. From actual residence within any government, there naturally arose an obligation to submit to the laws and authority thereof. But birth was no necessary cause of allegiance. The subjects of any prince or nation had a perfect right to remove to any other state or part of the world, unless their own country were weakened or exposed by such removal, and even in that case if they were deprived of liberty of conscience it would justify a separation, and upon their departure their co-relative obedience determined and ceased altogether. The country to which they were about to

remove was claimed and possessed by absolute princes, whose title to the lordship and sovereignty thereof had been acknowledged by kings of England, by purchasing some portion of their territory; this they also proposed to do, and then they would stand in their place, as original and independent proprietors of the soil. It was obvious, therefore, they said, that as their migration from England would terminate their necessary civil subjection, their patent would be a great protection, not merely from foreign aggression but from the king himself; for at most it would only create a voluntary sort of dependence, and if any question should arise as to its nature and extent, it must be decided by the document itself. Their situation, and that of the people of London, it was argued, was widely different. The compact between the sovereign and the inhabitants of that city, as contained in its charter, was not the origin of their allegiance, but their actual residence, and so soon as any of them removed out of the kingdom, that necessary subjection immediately changed its nature, and became optional.

Now what would be the character of the new relation in which they would stand to the king? for that was an important question. It was, they said, simply an understanding, not to subject themselves to, or seek protection from any other princes, and this they were willing to promise. Having silenced or satisfied their apprehensions by this mode of reasoning, and assured themselves that accepting their patent involved no compromise of this liberty, they set themselves to work in earnest to prepare for embarkation. A fleet of fourteen sail was assembled for the transportation of fifteen hundred passengers, and on the sixth day of July twelve of the ships arrived at Massachusetts Bay, conveying the governor, the officers of the Commonwealth, and the charter. The expense of this equipment amounted to twentyone thousand two hundred pounds sterling.*

On the 19th of October, 1630, the first General Court was held at Boston, where the charter was produced, and publicly read to the assembled people, amid the most profound silence, and listened to with the deepest emotions of veneration and delight by those whose independence its removal had effectually secured. This was the commencement of the republic of Massachusetts.

The expense of settling this colony amounted, during the first twelve years, to two hundred thousand pounds. See 1st Douglas, 428.