Volume I Part 17 (2/2)
[Footnote 158: Neal's History of New England, Vol. II., Chap. viii., pp.
353, 354, 356.]
[Footnote 159: ”They endeavoured not only by humble addresses and professions of loyalty to appease his Majesty, but they purchased a s.h.i.+p-load of masts (the freight whereof cost them sixteen hundred pounds sterling), and presented them to the King, which he graciously accepted; and the fleet in the West Indies being in want of provisions, a subscription and contribution was recommended through the colony for bringing in provisions to be sent to the fleet for his Majesty's service,[160] but I find no word of the whole amount. Upon the news of the great fire in London, a collection was made through the colony for the relief of the sufferers. The amount cannot be ascertained.”
(Hutchinson's History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 256, 257.)]
[Footnote 160: _Note_ by Mr. Hutchinson.--”This was so well received that a letter was sent to the General Court, under the King's sign warrant, dated 21st April, 1669, signifying how well it was taken by his Majesty. So the letter expresses it.”]
[Footnote 161: The following is a copy of the King's very courteous and reasonable letter:
”Copy of a letter from King Charles II. to the Governor, etc., of the Ma.s.sachusetts, dated July 24th, 1679.
”CHARLES R.
”Trusty and well beloved--We greet you well. These our letters are to accompany our trusty and well beloved William Stoughton and Peter Bulkly, Esqres., your agents, who having manifested to us great necessity in their domestic concerns to return back into New England, we have graciously consented thereunto, and the rather because for many months past our Council hath been taken up in the discovery and prosecution of a popish plot, and yet there appears little prospect of any speedy leisure for entering upon such regulation in your affairs as is certainly necessary, not only in respect of our dignity, but of your own perfect settlement. In the meantime, we doubt not but the bearers thereof, who have demeaned themselves, during their attendance, with good care and discretion, will, from their _own observations_, acquaint you with many important things which may be of such use and advertis.e.m.e.nt to you, that we might well hope to be prevented, by your applications, in what is expected or desired by us. So much it is your interest to propose and intercede for the same; for we are graciously inclined to have all past errors and mistakes forgotten, and that your condition might be so amended as that neither your settlement, or the minds of our good subjects there, should be liable to be shaken and disquieted upon every complaint. We have heard with satisfaction of the great readiness wherewith our good subjects there have lately offered themselves to the taking of the oath of allegiance, which is a clear manifestation to us that the unanswerable defect in that particular was but the fault of a very few in power, who for so long a time obstructed what the Charter and our express commands obliged them unto, as will appear in our gracious letter of the 28th of June (1662), in the fourteenth year of our reign; and we shall henceforth expect that there will be a suitable obedience in other particulars of the said letter, as, namely, in respect of freedom and liberty of conscience, so as those that desire to serve G.o.d in the way of the Church of England be not thereby made obnoxious or discountenanced from their sharing in the government, much less that they or any other of our good subjects (not being Papists) who do not agree in the Congregational way, be by law subjected to fines or forfeitures, or other incapacities for the same, which is a severity to be the more wondered at, whereas liberty of conscience was made one princ.i.p.al motive for your first transportation into those parts; nor do we think it fit that any other distinction be observed in the making of freemen than that they be men of competent estates, rateable at ten s.h.i.+llings,[162] according to the rules of the place, and that such in their turns be also capable of the magistracy, and all laws made void that obstruct the same. And because we have not observed any fruits or advantage by the dispensation granted by us in our said letter of June, in the fourteenth year of our reign, whereby the number of a.s.sistants, settled by our Charter to be eighteen, might be reduced unto the number of ten, our will and pleasure is that the ancient number of eighteen be henceforth observed, according to the letter of the Charter. And our further will and pleasure is, that all persons coming to any privilege, trust, or office in that colony be first enjoined to take the oath of allegiance, and that all the military commissions as well as the proceedings of justice may run in our royal name. We are informed that you have lately made some good provision for observing the acts of trade and navigation, which is well pleasing unto us[163]; and as we doubt not and do expect that you will abolish all laws that are repugnant to and inconsistent with the laws of trade with us, we have appointed our trusty and well beloved subject, Edward Randolph, Esq., to be our collector, surveyor and searcher not only for the colony, but for all our other colonies in New England, const.i.tuting him, by the broad seal of this our kingdom, to the said employments, and therefore recommending him to your help and a.s.sistance in all things that may be requisite in the discharge of his trust. Given at our palace of Hampton Court, the 24th day of July, 1679, and in the one and thirtieth year of our reign.
”By his Majesty's Command,
”A. COVENTRY.”]
[Footnote 162: _Note_ by the historian, Mr. Hutchinson.--They seem to have held out till the last in refusing to admit any to be freemen who were not either Church members, or who did not at least obtain a certificate from the minister of the town that they were orthodox.]
[Footnote 163: _Note_ by the historian, Mr. Hutchinson.--This is very extraordinary, for this provision was an act of the colony, declaring that the acts of trade should be in force there. (Ma.s.sachusetts History, Vol. I., p. 322.)]
[Footnote 164: History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 325, 326.]
[Footnote 165: ”The people of Ma.s.sachusetts had always the good-will of Cromwell. In relation to them he allowed the Navigation Law, which pressed hard on the Southern colonies, to become a dead letter, and they received the commodities of all nations free of duty, and sent their s.h.i.+ps at will to the ports of continental Europe.” (Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. II., Book ii., Chap. x., p. 393.)]
[Footnote 166: ”1660.--The Parliament pa.s.sed an Act for the general encouragement and increase of s.h.i.+pping and navigation, by which the provisions made in the celebrated Navigation Act of 1651 were continued, with additional improvements. It enacted that no sugar, tobacco, ginger, indigo, cotton, fustin, dyeing woods of the growth of English territories in America, Asia, or Africa, shall be transported to any other country than those belonging to the Crown of England, under the penalty of forfeiture; and all vessels sailing to the Plantations were to give bonds to bring said commodities to England.” (Holmes' American Annals, Vol. I., pp. 314, 315.)
”The oppressive system,” says Palfrey, ”was further extended by an Act which confined the import trade of the colonists to a direct commerce with England, forbidding them to bring _from_ any other or _in_ any other than English s.h.i.+ps, the products not only of England but of any European state.” (History of New England, Vol. II., B. ii., Chap. xi., p. 445.)
Palfrey adds in a note: ”Salt for New England fishermen, wines from Madeira and the Azores, and provisions from Scotland and Ireland, were, however, exempted.”--_Ib._]
[Footnote 167: Hutchinson's Collection, etc., pp. 522-525. Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. III., B. iii., Chap. viii., p. 341.]
[Footnote 168: To this there were two or three exceptions. They repealed the penal laws ”against keeping Christmas;” also for punis.h.i.+ng with death Quakers returned from banishment; and to amend the laws relating to heresy and to rebellion against the country.]
[Footnote 169: Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. III., B. iii., Chap. viii., p. 352.
They usurped authority over New Hamps.h.i.+re and Maine, at the same time that they prevented the execution of the Acts of Trade and Navigation (the 12th and 15th of Charles the Second). Mr. Hutchinson says: ”The Ma.s.sachusetts Government (1670) governed without opposition the Province of New Hamps.h.i.+re and the Province of Maine, and were beginning settlements even further eastward. The French were removed from their neighbourhood on the one side, and the Dutch and Swedes on the other.
Their trade was as extensive as they could wish. _No custom-house was established._ The Acts of Parliament of the 12th-15th of King Charles the Second, for regulating the Plantation trade, _were in force_; but the _Governor, whose business it was to carry them into execution, was annually to be elected by the people, whose interest was that they should not be observed_! Some of the magistrates and princ.i.p.al merchants grew very rich.” (History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol I., p. 269.)]
[Footnote 170: On the very day, October, 1677, that they proposed, in obedience to his Majesty's command, to pa.s.s an order that ”the Governor and all inferior magistrates should see to the strict observation of the Acts of Navigation and Trade,” they made an order ”that the law requiring all persons, as well inhabitants as strangers, that have not taken it, to take the oath of fidelity to the country, be revived and put in practice throughout the jurisdiction” (Palfrey, Vol. III., pp.
311-315)--an order intended to counteract the execution of the Acts of Navigation and Trade by the King's Collector, and of which he complained to England.
”The agents of the colony endeavoured to explain this law to the Board (of Colonial Plantations in England), and to soften their indignation against it, but without effect.” (_Ib._, p. 315.) ”All persons who refused to take the oath of fidelity to the country were not to have the privilege of recovering their debts in Courts of law, nor to have the protection of the Government.” (Truth and Innocency Defended, etc.)]
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