he was now haunted by the dream of a promotion to the extensive government which had been enjoyed by Andros. The colonial charters stood in his way. If they could be cancelled, the sovereign might appoint a Governor or Governors at pleasure. Though not overlooked in his plan of revolution, the charter of Massachusetts, as the most recent, offered the least encouragement to an assault. Those of Rhode Island and Connecticut belonged to a former reign, which was now in no good credit; and no living English statesman could be supposed to have an interest in them, or any objection to their being overthrown in law. Lord Cornbury, besides his despotic impulses, had plans of his own, which disposed him to be Dudley's ally; and his private influence, which was great, especially from his near relationship to the Queen, was given to the Governor of Massachusetts. Like Rhode Island, Connecticut was charged with a maladministration in various particulars justly punishable by a loss of the charter; — with violations of the Acts of Trade and 1705. Navigation; with encouraging maritime disorders, Nov. 26. liable to be qualified as piracy; with refusing or neglecting, when lawfully summoned, to furnish military levies; with executing capital punishment without authority from the charter; with denying justice in its courts to the Queen's subjects, not inhabitants; with disallowing appeals to the Queen in Council; with refusing to commit its militia to Governors of neighboring Colonies, holding the Queen's commission for that command; and with obstructing members of the Church of England as to their Will and Doom, or History of the Miseries of Connecticut under the Arbitrary Power of the Present Government,' wherein he mightily commends Sir Edmund Andros's government, and says all the malicious things he possibly can invent, with great cunning and art." (Introduction to C. J. Hoadly's edition of Gershom Bulkeley's 1706. freedom of worship: to all which charges was now added that of contumacy in the recent denial of the Jan. 10. authority of the royal commissioners to pass upon the complaint of the Mohegan Indians. 1704. 1705. 2 This last proceeding occurred at a time which made it especially serviceable for the purposes of the plotters against the colonial governments. Their unfriendly representations had already so far prevailed that again a bill was brought into Parliament, declaring the charters of various Colonies in America, and among them all the charters for New England, to "be utterly void and of none effect," and vesting all their powers and privileges in the crown. At a hearing before the Privy Council, Sir Henry Ashurst, appearing with legal counsel for Feb. 12. Connecticut, argued in respect to some of the proceedings complained of, that they had not in fact taken place; in respect to others, that they were justified by the charter. And he obtained leave for copies of the charges to be sent to the Governor of Connecticut, and for time to be allowed him for further reply. At this critical moment the transactions with the commissioners on the claim of the Mohegan Indians intervened. The Privy Council directed the Board of Trade "to lay before the 1706. Queen the misfeasances of the proprieties, and the advantages that may arise by reducing them," which was accordingly done. The Privy Council ordered Feb. 7. that, "in regard the matter contained in said rep Dec. 20. Jan. 2. 1 R. I. Rec., IV. 12-16; comp. Trumbull, I. 411. See above, p. 200; comp. Hutch. II. 130. 3 This was the time too when the English Quakers were bestirring themselves. (See below, 449.) At their instance, the Lords of Trade called the attention of the Privy Council to an old Connecticut law against their sect; and, agreeably to a decree of the Council (Oct. 11; 1705), the General Court of Connecticut repealed the Act (May, 1706). Sir Henry Ashurst wrote that he considered this act of the Queen's Council" to be a very extraordinary order, considering you were in possession of your own charter. But," he continues, "the hand of Joab is in it. I mean D." [Dudley]. (Conn. Col. Rec., IV. 546.) Register of the Privy Council; Journal of the Board of Trade. resentation is proper for the consideration of the legislature of this kingdom, said representation be sent to Secretary Hodges to receive her Majesty's further pleasure therein."1 There is extant a draft, belonging to this period, of an Act of Parliament declaring that " the sole power and authority of governing the said [the American] Plantations and Colonies, and every of them," and "of appointing Governors and all other officers," is "forever united to the imperial crown of Great Britain."2 A bill passed through the House of Commons "for the better regulation February. of the charter governments, and for the encouragement of the trade of the Plantations."3 But it failed of obtaining the concurrence of the Lords. There were legal embarrassments, opinions differed as to the relative expediency of different methods of restraining the Colonies, and the war raging upon the continent of Europe demanded the attention of English statesmen; so that again, for the present, the question went by. Saybrook A material change was made in the ecclesiastical constitutions of Connecticut. Throughout the settlements and the history of New England there had been a succession of departures from the original theory of the mutual independence of the churches. In Connecticut the opinion now prevailed that a more energetic system of church government had become necessary than at present existed, or was consistent with the theoretical independence of the several congregations. The Legislature synod and convoked a Synod of ministers and lay delegates to deliberate upon the subject. Twelve ministers May 13. and four delegates, deputed by ministers and messengers of the churches in the several counties, came together at the town of Saybrook, from which circumstance the result of their deliberations derived the name of the Saybrook Platform. Having adopted for 1 Register of the Privy Council. 2 British Colonial Papers. VOL. IV. 24 3 Chalmers, I. 342. platform. 1708. Sept. 9. 4 Conn. Col. Rec., V. 51. 1 1692. their constitution the Confession of Faith of the Reforming Synod held at Boston twenty-eight years before,1 and the "Heads of Agreement assented to by the United Ministers [in England], formerly called Presbyterian and Congregational," they proceeded to arrange a system which made some partial approximation of Congregational to Presbyterian usages. It provided that "the particular pastors and churches, within the respective counties in this government," should "be one consociation, or more, if they should judge meet, for mutual affording to each other such assistance as may be requisite, upon all occasions ecclesiastical;" and the authority hitherto exercised by councils formed by voluntary selection by individuals or churches was vested in permanent councils appointed by these bodies. Disobedience to the decree of a council so constituted was to be punished by excommunication of the contumacious pastor or church. A council might invite a council from a neighboring consociation to aid in its deliberations, and a church might designate permanent representatives to appear for it in councils convened from time to time. And it was recommended that a General Association of representatives of all the churches in the Colony should be held every year at the time of the civil election.3 The plan became law by the action of the General Court, who attached to it, however, a prudent Oct. 14. provision, "that nothing herein shall be intended or construed to hinder or prevent any society or church that is or shall be allowed by the laws of this government, who soberly differ or dissent from the united churches hereby established, from exercising worship and discipline, in their own way, according to their consciences." 4 One consociation was organized in each of the four counties, note. 1708. See above, Vol. III. 330, 331, 2 The "Heads of Agreement" are in Mather's Magnalia, V. 59. 3 The Proceedings and Result are in Trumbull's History of Connecticut, I. 482-488. 4 Conn. Col. Rec., V. 87. 1709. except in the county of Hartford, which had two; and the same organization has been continued to the present day. The General Court ordered the printing of an edition of "The Confession of Faith, the Articles May 12. of Agreement between the United Brethren in England, formerly called Presbyterian and Congregational, together with the Discipline agreed upon by the General Council of the reverend elders and churches assembled at Saybrook." It was thought that the ratification of the Articles of Agreement, which allowed greater latitude in faith and administration, helped to disarm opposition to the new. Discipline.2 1 1700. Another important movement of this period was the establishment of the venerable institution now so yale widely and honorably known by the name of Yale College. College. For sixty years the only school for higher education in New England had been Harvard College, at Cambridge. The people, and especially the clergy, of Connecticut naturally desired the benefit of a similar establishment nearer home. The three ministers of New Haven, Milford, and Branford first moved in the enterprise. Ten ministers, nine of them being graduates of Harvard College, met at Branford, and made a contribution from their libraries of about forty volumes in folio "for the founding of a college." Other donations presently came in. An Act of Incorporation was granted by the General Court. It created a body of trustees, not to be more than eleven in number nor fewer than seven, all to be clergymen and at least forty years of age. The Court endowed the College with an annual grant, subject to be discontinued at pleasure, of one hundred and twenty pounds in "country pay,"equivalent to sixty pounds sterling. The College might 'Conn. Col. Rec., V. 97. Trumbull, I. 487. 1701. Oct. 9. torical Discourses, 188; Kingsley, in American Quarterly Register, VIII. 3 Ibid., 473; Bacon, Thirteen His- 14, 16. |