harm and that of the Colony, by a strict order against the admission of Indians made prisoners in the war then waging in South Carolina.1 Prosperity Colony. A condition of society so happy as that enjoyed by Connecticut at this period, especially during the long administration of Governor Saltonstall, has been rare in the experience of mankind. If from time to time the charter of her liberties was threatened, the danger of a repetition of such misgovernment as that of of the Andros was too remote to excite serious solicitude. A prevailing mutual respect and confidence softened the intercourse among citizens, and between citizens and rulers. The friendly sentiments inspired by religious faith were promoted by a general harmony of religious opinion. To the youth of every family was offered at the public cost, near its own door, an education sufficient for the advantageous transaction of business, for the enjoyment of leisure, and for a measure of refinement of mind. Frugality and industry, friends to rectitude and content, secured a comfortable living, and a comfortable living was not to be had without them. A steady but unoppressive force of public opinion rendered a life of blameless morals easy and attractive, and assured to a public-spirited and religious life a career of dignity and honor. A remarkable approach to an equal distribution of property prevented the assumptions and resentments of caste, and the jealousy of disproportioned privileges. The people of Connecticut enjoyed to a singular degree a fulfilment of their prayer "that peace and unity might be continued among them, and that they might have the blessings of the God of peace upon them." 2 1 Conn. Col. Rec., V. 516. 2 Ibid., 491. A Journal of a "Madam Knight, who in 1704 went to New York from Boston on a matter of business, was printed in 1825 from the original manuscript. Mrs. Knight was a woman of good connections, who taught a school in Boston. She tells her story with rude vivacity. She made her journey through Connecticut on horseback, with guides. She found the roads 1714. Aug. 1. Oct. 13. Intelligence of the death of the Queen, and of the accession of the Elector of Hanover to the throne of Great Britain, having been received in a letter from Jeremiah Dummer, orders were given for noticing both events with due solemnity; and an Address of congratulation was despatched to the new sovereign.1 A vessel in which a more formal communication had been sent out by the Ministry was wrecked; but the document was picked up and brought to its destination; and, out of scrupulous regard for form, or of exuberant joy at the renewed security of the Protestant succession, a second proclamation of the new reign was made with more pompous ceremony.2 Aug. 5. Dec. 3. rough. She mentions no bridges; she crossed the Connecticut at Saybrook by a ferry, but her horse had to wade or swim over several streams and inlets. She fared but ill at the country hostelries, but enjoyed sumptuous hospitality at New London, at the houses of Governor Winthrop and the Reverend Mr. (afterwards Governor) Saltonstall. Connecticut, she says (p. 65), "is a plentiful country for provisions of all sorts, and is generally healthy. No one that can and will be diligent in this place need fear poverty, nor the want of food and raiment." New York she found "a pleasant, well-compacted place, the buildings brick generally, very stately and high, though not altogether like ours in Boston.” 1 Conn. Col. Rec., V. 450. Ibid., 478, 480. BOOK V. PROGRESS UNDER THE HANOVERIAN KINGS. CHAPTER I. Security of freedom. THE difference made by the course of events through two generations in the relations between the Colonies of New England and the parent country had become distinctly manifest. The Great Rebellion, though defeated by its own excesses, had made a permanent change in the system of English politics. The principles that excited that movement had reappeared in suffi- Colonial cient force to drive into banishment the odious dynasty which had provoked it. The spell of hereditary succession had been effectually broken, when two elected monarchs had occupied the throne with reigns of no short duration and now a third was holding it in a peaceable tenure the security of which was only illustrated by the issue of a feeble insurrection. The last serious danger of usurpation on the part of the Church of Rome might well be considered to have passed away, when the plots of Queen Anne and her last Ministry in her brother's favor had been foiled, and the people of England had bravely preferred the unwelcome expedient of taking for their King the head of a moderate German principality, a man advanced in years, ignorant of their institutions and even of their language, of unattractive presence and coarse manners, of private habits no better than those of the last Stuart monarch, and even avowedly 1715. |