Reinstitu

Board of

Trade.

1695.

Dec. 16.

that the Navigation Laws were evaded to their private loss and to the damage of the commercial interests of the realm,' awoke a new jealousy on the subject of colonial lawlessness; and steps were taken in Parliament towards the establishment of a Council of Commerce, which it was thought would have been followed up but for a diversion of public attention to a plot for the tion of the assassination of the King. Taking the question into his own hands, he proceeded to revive the ancient Board of Trade and Plantations, with authority to ascertain the condition of the colonies in respect both to internal administration and to 1696. commerce; to examine the instructions which May 15. had been given to colonial governors, and propose amendments; to recommend suitable persons for colonial appointments; and to scrutinize the acts of colonial legislatures. The Board, now constituted of sixteen commissioners, continued to exist till the close of the war of American Independence. John Locke, who had been Secretary to the Council for Trade in the time of King Charles the Second,5 was one of the commissioners now appointed; but he soon withdrew," finding the 1697. studious habits which he cherished inconsistent with the active duties of the place, and with the necessity which it imposed of converse with numbers of men.7

1672.

Jan.

The name of the authority now created for the superintendence of the colonies expressed what was intended to be the spirit of colonial administration. The colonies were to be made auxiliary to English trade. The Englishman in America was to be employed in making the

1 Privy Council Register for January 12, 1690; comp. Chalmers, Revolt, &c., I. 269 et seq.

* Chalmers, Ibid., I. 270. See above, Vol. III. 33.

4 O'Callaghan, Docs. Rel., &c., III., xv.

5 See above, Vol. III. 33, note 2. King, Life of John Locke, II. 7.

Letter to Lord Somers, Ibid. Dr. Watts addressed to him some lines on that occasion. (Hora Lyricæ, Book II.)

Imperfect enforce

ment of the

fortune of the Englishman at home. It was not by its own fault that the Board of Trade proved to be an inefficient agency. It had no authority to act directly on the colonies, but only to make recommendations to the King in Council. It generally had good information, and was always watchful and intelligent. But it was thought by the higher power to be disposed to magnify its office imprudently, and its counsels were often set aside by denial, and oftener by neglect.' The strict enforcement of the Navigation Laws was the theoretical policy of the Board. In a certain sense, also, this was a point of honor with the Parliament and the nation; and Navigation Occasionally, in commercial exigencies, it was pasLaws. sionately urged by English owners of plantations in the sugar islands, and English merchants who dealt with the planters and had a common interest with them. But in practice the object was never pursued with persistency. During all the long periods while the New England Colonies were fighting the French, it would have been imprudent for the parent government to cripple and to offend them by a vigorous interference with the business which furnished so large a part of their livelihood; the uncertainty which existed as to the amount of resistance that might be offered to too harsh measures was always so great as to render them of questionable prudence; the profit of the extra-legal commerce of New England with

1 Chalmers's Revolt, &c., passim. "The Board of Trade and Plantations, in theory, possessed as extensive functions as those which pertain by a subsequent arrangement to its modern substitute, the Colonial Office. At the same time, it will appear that its actual intent was limited to the enforcement of the Navigation Acts, and of those commercial regulations which were then thought essential to the maintenance of the commercial prosperity of Great Britain." (Lucas,

Memoranda, &c., 3.) "The confusion of the rights of the empire and of the colonies increased the difficulties of the Board where it could act, and materially diminished its opportunities of acting." (Ibid., 4.) According to Governor Pownall, Lord Somers's intention, in constituting the Board of Trade, was to create a tribunal of great dignity and effici ency. (Administration of the Colonies, 20, 21.)

foreign countries supplied abundant means for the purchase of English manufactures, which in the absence of that trade could not have been paid for; and, after all, a stern enforcement of the Navigation Laws upon an unwilling people was troublesome and expensive, even when the attempt at enforcement was not defeated by the artifices. of parties concerned or by the contumacy of jurors. So that, through much of the time, the officious stubbornness of Randolph and his coadjutors, agents of the Board of Trade, led to nothing but disappointment to themselves and their masters, and irritation and suspicion in the Colonies.

CHAPTER II.

THE emancipation from the tyranny of Governor Andros and of his infatuated master was an immense relief to New England; but it would have been without a parallel among political revolutions, if it had been followed at once by a satisfactory condition of affairs. In Massachusetts, the government which was set up was on all hands understood to be provisional merely. This admisof Massa- sion was unfortunate for the public repose, both

Provisional government

chusetts. as indicating timidity on the part of the persons

at the head of affairs, and as keeping alive a question which left the obligations of citizens undetermined. The case of Massachusetts differed from that of Rhode Island and Connecticut in the very important particular that her charter had been formally vacated by legal process. But this had been done with circumstances of such injustice, and so resembling those which in England had excited extreme resentment when the municipal corporations were the sufferers, that the new King and his servants would not probably have taken offence, had Massachusetts, like her two sister communities, reconstituted her ancient government as still of right existing; while the local administration would have derived respect and authority from the confidence displayed in that pretension.1

1

May 24, 1689 (see above, Vol. III. 589), the Magistrates resolved to assume the function urged upon them by the Delegates, "until by direction from England there be an orderly settlement of government;" and for greater explicitness they indorsed upon their vote, "It was declared

by the gentlemen subscribing that they do not intend an assumption of charter government, nor would be so understood." This did not satisfy the Delegates; and, encouraged by the arrival, before the week's end, of Sir William Phips and of orders to proclaim the new King, they organized

1689.

July 13.

June 22.

July 5.

The first General Court constituted according to the ancient charter adjourned after a five weeks' session, having first declared the laws to be provisionally revived which were in force at the time of the inauguration of the Council under Dudley's presidency, instructed the judicial courts to resume their functions as exercised at that time, and confirmed subordinate officers, military and civil, in their places. This was all which for the present could be done; and things remained in a state of great uncertainty till, near the end of the year, Bradstreet was able to communicate to the Court a letter from the King giving authority to the persons now in office to" continue the administration of the government" till his further pleasure should be made known. His further pleasure was not announced till after nearly three years more; but meanwhile this order fortified the temporary government, and produced a more satisfactory condition of affairs.

Dec. 3.

Aug. 12.

Instead of retaining their places by virtue of this missive, as it seems they would have been justified in doing, the Magistrates chose to interpret it as authority for maintaining the old charter government; and annual elections

themselves as a House of Deputies, and on the next day, after choosing a Speaker, sent a memorial (June 6) to the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and Assistants, praying them" to accept government according to our charter rules by the names of Governor and Council for the Massachusetts Colony,' . . . . . until further orders from England." The Magistrates dismissed their scruples, and took the oaths of office the same day. (Mass. Col. Rec., sub die.) —“For about seven weeks after the Revolution, here was not so much as a face of any government. . . . . . But at length the Assembly prevailed with those that had been of the govern

ment to promise that they would reassume, and accordingly a proclamation was drawn ; but, before publishing it, it was underwritten, that they would not have it understood that they did reassume charter government. So that between government and no government this country remained." (Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World, 95.) - Oct. 26, 1689, Bradstreet explained to the Earl of Shrewsbury the reasons which had dictated the provisional resumption of the government "according to the rule of the charter, being that," he said, "under which these colonies have happily grown and flourished." (British Colonial Papers.)