northerly English settlements. The Indians 1724. committed now and then a murder in that June. quarter, but they did not come in force, and they eluded pursuit. The application from Massachusetts was more urgently repeated, but with no better success. Connecticut professed to be dissatisfied as to the justice of the October. war, and as to her not having been con

August.

sulted before it was entered upon. Her historian thinks that this expression on her part expedited the peace which soon followed. This is not probable. It was enough that, without reckoning the wounds, the abductions, and the losses of · property by fire and theft, Massachusetts had had one or two hundred men killed, and that there was no longer anything to fight for, for the Indians appeared to be tired out for the time, and to be willing to be peaceable, if they could have some trading facilities, which it was not difficult to afford. No Connecticut men lost their lives in this war, though it caused the colony an expenditure of some thousands of pounds.

But Connecticut managed its money affairs with a prudence which shamed its neighbors. In consequence of the disastrous attempt upon Canada, under Nicholson, the colony found 1709. itself compelled to issue bills of credit; but July 12. the amount was only eight thousand pounds. Four years later, just after the pacification 1713. of Utrecht, there was an order for a fur- October. ther issue of twenty thousand pounds; but only a

part of that sum was to be put in circulation from year to year, and the provisions for redemption were so judicious and so well enforced, that many years passed before the paper obligations of Connecticut ceased to have the whole value represented by them; and the depreciation never became considerable.

The war in the time of Queen Anne was regarded by many good people of Connecticut as having unfavorably affected the character of the soldiers, and through them of the community at 1714. large. The Assembly "took into their serious May. consideration the many evident tokens that the glory is departed, that the providences of God are plainly telling us that our ways do not please him"; and they recommended "to the reverend elders to inquire and report respecting the state of religion in each parish,” and particularly “how and whether catechizing were duly attended, and whether there were a suitable number of Bibles in the various families in the respective parishes, and also if there were found in any parishes any that neglected attendance on the public worship on the Lord's Day; ..... and likewise, which and what are the sins and evils that provoke the just Majesty of Heaven to walk contrary unto us in the ways 1715. of his providence." The Assembly laid a October. formal injunction upon all judicial officers, constables, and grand jurors, to give their strictest attention to the laws for the education of children, and against profaneness, Sabbath-breaking, lying, swearing, and intemperance.

Even the normal sobriety of Connecticut did not absolutely avert the danger of popular tumults. One which took place in the time of Governor Saltonstall was of such violence as to call for an exercise of all his unfailing promptness and energy for its suppression. The right to a tract of land in and about what is now the town of Coventry was in dispute. A judicial decision dis- 1722. missed the claim of Jeremiah Fitch, a March. deputy in the General Court, and otherwise a man of consequence. For resisting the execution, Fitch was committed to gaol in Hartford. His case was that of a number of his neighbors, who thought that injustice had been done, and that their own turn would be coming next. Their resentment got the better of their discretion. Some fifty of them went in procession to Oct. 22. the gaol, and demanded the discharge of

Fitch, which being refused by the keeper, they battered down the door with a heavy piece of timber and released him and his fellow-prisoners. The sheriff, with such help as he could suddenly collect, pursued the party, but was defied and worsted by them.

The sheriff made his report of these doings to the General Assembly, which at the time Oct. 24.

was in session at New Haven. The Assembly proceeded to its deliberation with closed. doors, and with an injunction of secrecy upon its members. An Act was passed, declaring Oct 28. a riot to consist in the assembling of three

or more persons for an unlawful purpose, and making it punishable by a fine of ten pounds, or imprisonment for not longer than six months, or whipping, or any two or all of these inflictions, at the discretion of the court. A special session of the Superior Court was ordered to be held. forthwith for the trial of the recent offenders, who were indicted for burglary, the gaol being under the same roof with the keeper's dwelling. 1723. Fifteen persons were arraigned and conMay. victed. Fitch escaped unpleasant consequences, it being held to be no evidence of complicity in the crime of beating down the door that he walked out of it when he found the way clear. The sheriffs were invested with new power to call out the posse comitatus and the militia, and it was especially enjoined "that the sheriffs no more return that they cannot do execution."

1683. The agreement made in the time of Nov. 28. King Charles the Second respecting the boundary line of Connecticut on the side of New York still remained unexecuted as to its north

1718 wardly extension. Connecticut appointed

May. commissioners to join with others from the sister colony in marking the line and erecting monuments, " for the quieting the complaints and disorders of the borderers." "Difficulties," which are not described, having "prevented the execution

of the order of the Assembly," its next Dec. 3 step was to ascertain the line by a surveyor

of its own. The consent of a joint commission, however, being still considered as "of great consequence to the peace of his Majesty's 1719. subjects bordering on said line," Connecti- May. cut made the experiment again, but again 1720. was disappointed. Wellnigh disheartened January. in her endeavors after joint action, Connecticut resolved, if one more proposal of it should 1723. prove fruitless, to solicit from the King an May. "order for the running and fixing said line, that the improvement of the lands bordering thereon may no longer remain under such discouragement." The chance of a settlement, except by royal intervention, seemed desperate when a committee of the New York Legislature accused the government of Connecticut of having defaced former monuments, and the latter retorted the charge, pronouncing it, as against themselves, to be 66 very unreasonable and even monstrous.” Nothing can be more tedious than the recital of the long strife about the boundary between Connecticut and Rhode Island. The reader will be relieved to know that it is approaching its end. The circumstances of an agreement which 1703. had been made respecting this line have May 12. been related. But it had never been run, though under instructions from the Assembly the June 22. governor of Rhode Island had twice ap- 1714 pointed commissioners to meet commis- June 15. sioners from Connecticut for that purpose.

October.

The question was reopened by an order 1719.