Kirke cho governor This decision of the English Council was momentous. CH. VIII. The period of royal American corporations had passed 1684. away. It was now settled that, in all colonies where it was convenient, the king's sovereignty was to be resumed, and his direct government established. As no Parliament had met in England for three years, its power to interfere with English Plantations was disregarded. To carry out Charles's arbitrary but simple policy, it was necessary for him carefully to choose his colonial officers. Andros was thought of as the first royal governor of Massachusetts. But, as Sir Edmund was occupied with his private affairs in the Channel Islands, Colonel Piercy Kirke was chosen. 8 Novem. Kirke had just returned from the government of Tangier, sen to be where he had proved himself to be a licentious despot. of New EnBut, being "a gentleman of very good resolution," it was considered that he would not fail "in any part of his duty to his Majesty." A commission and Instructions were accordingly ordered for Kirke, as "his Majesty's Lieutenant 17 Novem. and Governor General" of "New England," including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and New Plymouth; while for the present Rhode Island and Connecticut were excepted from his authority. It was, however, intended to form a royal government over all the New England colonies, of which the king appointed Randolph to be his secretary and register. Charles himself directed 22 Novem. that in Kirke's Commission and Instructions "no mention bly in New England. be made of an Assembly, but that the Governor and Council have power to make laws and to perform all other acts of Government, 'till his Majesty's pleasure be further known."* gland. No Assem between and Massa The annihilation of the Massachusetts charter relieved Boundary New York from her anticipated boundary dispute with that New York colony, and confirmed to the Duke of York all the territo-chusetts rial rights, west of the Connecticut River, which he claim- settled. ed under his patent.† But how could James now complete the Instrument he had executed a few weeks before; which, nevertheless, had * Chalmers's Ann., i., 416; Hutch. Mass., i., 341, 343, 344; Coll., 542, 543; Narcissus Luttrell, i., 52, 160; Anderson's Col. Church, ii., 282; Douglas, i., 413; Whitmore's Andros, 22; Rapin, ii., 732, 733; Kennett, iii., 423; Macaulay, i., 627, 628; Palfrey, iii., 394, 395, 396, 482, 483, 513; ante, 357. † Col. Doc., iii., 256; vi., 508; vii., 564, 598; vii., 440; Smith, i., 297; ante, 413. pends the charter. Că. VIII. not been perfected by delivery? True, the Assembly of New York had voted a Revenue Bill, in consideration of his 1684. anticipated "bountiful confirming" of their charter. Yet James sus- James hesitated. He had thought of obtaining a grant of New York Rhode Island and Connecticut. The transmission of his sealed charter was therefore suspended. In writing to 4 Decem. Dongan, Werden enjoined prudence in dealing with the Indians in New York and Pemaquid; "always avoiding, as much as possible, any proceedings on our part that may run us into disputes with the French, who, in our present circumstances, are not to be made enemies."* 13 Louis, and James. Yet Halifax remained in Charles's council despite James's Decem. entreaties for his dismissal. Louis wrote to Barillon, at London, that "the reasonings of Lord Halifax on the manner of governing New England. little deserve the confidence which the King of England has in him; and I am not surprised to learn that the Duke of York has called the attention of the King, his brother, to their conseHalifax, quences." Halifax, on the other hand, urged the king to call a Parliament, and to dismiss James from his councils. It was thought by many that the royal brothers would soon be estranged. The Princess of Orange would probably be announced as the heiress presumptive of the crown. The illegitimate Duke of Monmouth might even be declared Prince of Wales. All forfeited charters would be restored. But Charles was weary of his brother's excessive zeal: perhaps he foresaw the result of his violent designs. Just after the dissolution of his last Parliament at Oxford, the The king king told the Prince of Orange that, should James come to the crown, he "could not hold it four years to an end.” To the duke himself he said, "Brother, I am resolved never to go on my travels again:-you may, if you will."+ The words of Charles were prophetic. and the duke. * Col. Doc., iii., 341, 348, 351, 353, 677, 678; Hutch. Coll., 543; Chalmers, i., 278, 416, 588; R. I. Rec., iii., 147; ante, 384, 401, 405, 408. † Fox's James II., App. viii., ix.; Dalrymple, i., 63, 64; Macpherson, i., 419; Secret Hist. of Whitehall, Lett. lxxii.; Burnet, i., 575, 604, €05; Echard, 53; Rapin, ii., 725, 724; Kennett, iii., 423; Hume, vii., 175; Lingard, xiii., 316; Macaulay, i., 277, 278; Martin, ii., 27. CHAPTER IX. 1685-1688. 1685. CHARLES the Second had now reigned for nearly a quar- CHAP. IX. ter of a century since his restoration. He was about fiftyfive years old; and his strong constitution, helped by bodily exercise in the open air, promised him a length of days. But, early in the February of 1685, Charles was stricken by a disease which baffled the skill of his physicians. After suffering a short and sharp illness, the head of English Episcopalianism mumbled his reconciliation with the Decease of Church of Rome; wished the Duke of York a long and the Second. prosperous reign; and, after spending the life of an Epicurean Protestant, went to his judgment a pusillanimous, 6 Febr'y. eleventh-hour Roman Catholic. 66 Charles Accession The successor of Charles was a very different man: colder, more honest, more decided—a bigot in place of a shuffler. A quarter of an hour after the decease of his brother, James the Second of England and the Seventh of Scotland, came out of the closet whither he had retired to give "full scope to his tears." The Privy Counselors of the late king were already assembled, and their new mas- 6 Febry. ter hastily told them that, although he had "been reported of James to be a man for arbitrary power," he would endeavor to the Second. preserve the government, both in Church and State, as it is now by law established." Immediately afterward James was proclaimed king in the usual form. No opposition was made to the accession of a sovereign whom the Commons of England had so often attempted to exclude from its throne. The new ministry was arranged. Sunderland and Ministers Middleton were retained as secretaries of state. Rochester, the brother-in-law and old commissioner of James, was made the head of his treasury; Clarendon, also his brotherin-law, privy seal; and Halifax, although disliked, became lord president of his council. The king, who loved busi of James. CHAP. IX. ness, took again the Admiralty into his own hands, and was assisted by the long experience of Samuel Pepys. 1685. Since the year 1675, Charles the Second had intrusted all matters relating to the Trade and Plantations of England to a committee of his Privy Council. Approving of this policy, James appointed a similar committee, which included the great officers of state. As the Duke of York had now become king, his rights as a subject proprietor were merged in his sovereignty; and New York, with her dependencies, having devolved to the crown of England, became a royal government, under the supervision of the Plantation Committee. A few days after the accession of 17 Feb'y. James, the records belonging to the province were ordered Records to be sent to the Plantation Office; and Sir John Werden Plantation delivered all that were thought "material" to Secretary New York sent to the Office. The New York char- . ter kept back. Blathwayt. Among these were thirteen of the acts passed at the first session of the New York Assembly, which had been transmitted for confirmation, and were readily approved. Another, and the most important, was "The Charter of Franchises and Privileges to New York," which, although it had been signed and sealed by the duke, and ordered to be delivered, had been kept back, and was "not yet perfected."+ Thus the political condition of New York was again changed. For twenty years-with a short interruptionthe province had been the conquered dukedom of a royal English subject. At length her subordinate proprietor had become king; and New York-following his for * Clarke's James II., i., 746-750; ii., 1-8; Burnet, i., 606-621; Kennett, iii., 423-428; Rapin, ii., 734-742; Parl. Hist., iv., 1342; Lingard, xiii., 317-321; xiv., 1-8; Macaulay, i., 426-437, 440-446; Proud, i., 290, 291; Martin, ii., 28; Fox's James II., 73-81, App. xi.-xvi.; Dalrymple, i., 152-166; ii., 1-11; ante, 201. † Col. Doc., iii., 229, 230, 354, 355, 357, 359, 363, 370; viii., 443; Chalmers's Ann., i., 584, 585; ante, 297, 416, 420. It is to be regretted that Werden, the Duke of York's secretary, did not transfer all the papers relating to New York during its proprietary period, whether thought "material" or not, to the Plantation Committee; in the archives of which they would have been carefully preserved. To this omission we probably owe much of the darkness which still obscures that period. Many of the documents relating to the governments of Nicolls, Lovelace, Andros, and Dongan-from 1664 to 1685-are now missing from the Records in the State Paper Office in London. The Duke of York, after he became James the Second, appears to have kept as souvenirs, in his own possession, much of the correspondence which his deputies had addressed to him as Proprietor; and it may be that these letters shared the fate of his other private papers, which were sent to Paris in 1688, and were afterward destroyed in the French Revolution: Fox's James II., Introd., xvi.--xix.; Clarke's James II., Preface, xiv.-xviii. In 1670 and 1671, Evelyn appears to have been furnished with some now well-known official documents, which he gave back to the Lord Treasurer Clifford, who took them with him to Devonshire: Evelyn, ii., 51, 55, 56, 59; iii., 221223, 229-231, 238-242, 260-263; Pepys, iv., 221, 222; ante, 18, 187, crown. glish prov tunes became an American province of the English CHAP. IX. Out of a proprietorship came forth a royal gov- 1685. ernment. Her "Charter of Privileges," which her late New York proprietor had sealed, required to be confirmed by her a royal Enpresent king before that instrument could be "complete ince. and irrevocable." But James, King of England, was a very different person from James, Duke of York. He presided in person at a meeting of his Plantation Commit- 3 March. tee, when the New York charter was considered. A series of "observations" upon several of its clauses was read, to which it was objected that they gave more privileges than 3 March. had been "granted to any of his Majesty's Plantations, where the Act of Habeas Corpus, and all such other Bills do not take place;" that the words, "The People, met in a General Assembly," were "not used in any other Constitution in America" in short: that some of its enactments were inconvenient, and tended too much to restrain the governor and "abridge the King's power." Moreover, the New York charter expressly recognized a "Lord Proprietor," who had now become sovereign. This was a fatal objection to that Instrument, as it had been sealed. The king therefore declared that he did "not think fit to con- The New firm" the charter. "And, as to the Government of New ter not conYork, his Majesty is pleased to direct that it be assimilated James the to the Constitution that shall be agreed on for New England, to which it is adjoining: And, in the mean time, his Majesty orders a letter to be prepared for his Royal sig- 3 March. nature, directing Colonel Dongan, Governor of New York, to pursue such powers and instructions as he shall receive under his Majesty's signet and sign manual, or by order in Council, until further order."* York char firmed by Second. By this action James the Second did not repeal the charter of New York. He merely declined to confirm it, and thus left it in force until his disapproval should be notified to Dongan. As the "Constitution" for New England had not yet been settled, the government of New York, under its late proprietor's Instructions, was not disturbed. So 5 March. James wrote to Dongan: "Whereas, by the decease of the Second's orlate King, our most dearly beloved brother, and our acces- Dongan. * Col. Doc., iii., 357–359; iv., 264; viii., 443; Chalmers's Ann., i., 56, 74, 5SS; ii., 72, 113; Rev. Col., i., 181; N. Y. Council Journ., i., 45; ante, 338, 416. James the ders to |