country with ruin; and the oppressors, quoting an opinion current among the mercantile monopolists of England, answered without disguise, "It is not for his majesty's interest you should thrive." Before the close of 1688, the whole seaboard, from Maryland to the St. Croix, was united into one despotism, of which Boston was the capital.

The clergy openly condemned the tyranny of their rulers, and, while preaching rebellion, enkindled as with a flame the minds of the people. Before the bursting of the storm, Mr. Increase Mather, who had so valiantly fought for the charter, was sent to England "to excite the clemency of the king." Upon arriving he found that the heart of the monarch was itself steeped in despotism, and not at all inclined to favor liberty in the colonies. But relief came at length, from a revolution whose influence was to pervade the Euro

pean world.

The reign of the Stuarts had suddenly come to an end, and a new race of sovereigns sat upon the English throne. All who were in favor of toleration saw in William of Orange "one in whom they confided for the redress of their spiritual grievances; and the liberal nobility saw in him one to redress their civil wrongs." On that eventful day, “humanity rejoiced at the redemption of English liberties; she reproved the unnatural conduct of daughters who drove their father into poverty and exile; she sighed for the Roman Catholics who were oppressed, for the dissenters who were but tolerated; and as on the evening of the long struggle which had been bequeathed by Rogers and Hooper, and had lasted more than a century and a half, she selected a restingplace, it was but to gather strength, with the fixed purpose of renewing her journey on the dawn of morning."

1

On the 4th day of April, 1689, the news of the invasion of England reached Boston. The messenger, Mr. John Winslow, was immediately imprisoned; but his message could not be suppressed. The fire which had been smouldering, burst into a blaze. On the morning of the 18th an alarm was sounded. George, commander of the Rose frigate, was made prisoner by Green and the Boston ship-carpenters. There was a patriotic mob in the streets, which all the king's hirelings could not quell. The companies of militia rallied at the town-house; and before noon many of the leaders of oppression were in chains. On a sudden old Simon Bradstreet, the last governor of the colony under the charter, drew near the town-house. Peal upon peal burst upon the surrounding air. The old magistrates were reinstated as a council of safety; and a declaration was read defending the insurrection as a duty to God and the country.

And then the cry arose against Andros and Randolph ; and while the colonial colors floated on Beacon Hill, a squad was sent to the fort to demand its surrender. Sir Edmund refused. About four o'clock the governor was seen attempting to escape to the frigate; but the movements of the companies were too quick for him. Before another hour was up, Andros, through the very streets where he had first displayed his scarlet coat and his arbitrary commission, was marched to the town-house, and thence to prison. On the 19th the fort itself was taken, and the frigate was mastered.

The colonists paused for a while before taking the next important step. On the 22d of May, the proclamation of William and Mary not having yet reached the country, forty out of fifty-four towns in Massachusetts voted to re-assume the old charter. Meanwhile the tidings of the late proceedings at Boston had reached Plymouth, and Nathaniel Clark,

the agent of Andros, was in jail, while Hinckley, the former governor, resumed his place. Soon afterwards Joseph Dudley was taken prisoner and conducted to Boston. Connecticut, following the example of Massachusetts, brought forth the charter from its hiding-place, and began new chapters in the records of freedom. The southern colonies imitated New England; and thus did a popular insurrection, beginning at Boston, extend to the Chesapeake and to the wilderness. When the tidings of the proclamation of William and Mary reached Boston, the people were so rejoiced as to make "a great noise in the world."

On the 6th of June the representatives met in Boston, and voted the unconditional resumption of the charter, and resolved that all the laws in force May 12, 1686, should be continued until further orders. At the same time Increase Mather was holding converse with the king, and urging the restoration of the charter. He succeeded only in thisin obtaining an order that the government of the colony should be continued under the old charter until a new one was settled. Then remarked the king, "I will forthwith give order that Sir Edmund Andros shall be removed from the government of New England, and be called unto an account for his maladministration. And I will direct that the present king and queen shall be proclaimed by the former magistrates." "Sir," replied the agent, "they will do. it with the joyfulest hearts in the world."

Andros, having reached England, was summoned to appear before the council, on the 17th of April, 1690; but owing to some irregularity in the drawing up of the charges, further proceedings were quashed, and the villain was discharged from custody. His associates were likewise released. We have only to trace the history of these men one step farther.

Andros afterwards became governor of Virginia, Randolph received an appointment in the West Indies, and Dudley became chief justice of New York.

For some time it had been evident that the king had resolved to erect a new government in Massachusetts, which was to be known as the Province of Massachusetts Bay. At length the Province charter of 1692 was obtained. By its terms the territories of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Maine were consolidated into one jurisdiction; the king was to appoint the governor, deputy governor, and secretary, while the people could choose twenty-eight councillors. Each town was allowed two deputies to represent them in the General Court; rights of citizenship were to be respected, and liberty of conscience granted to all but Papists. By this charter, the dependence of the colonies upon the crown was secured. On the 14th of May, Sir William Phips, the first governor of the new province, arrived in Boston, "welcomed by a majority of the people."

CHAPTER VII.

THE PROVINCE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY.

THE erection of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay was the "second act of the great drama, whose third brought freedom to a wide-spread republic." It also introduced a new era into the history of New England. Shortly after the arrival of Sir William Phips, a government was organized under the new charter. At the first session of the General Court, held in June, 1692, the laws which had been enacted under the colonial charter were confirmed until the following November. During the recess the laws were revised, and certain portions of them were submitted for the king's approval. One of these acts set forth that "no aid, tax, talliage, assessment, custom, loan, benevolence, or imposition, should be laid, assessed, or levied on any of their majesties' subjects, or their estates, on any pretence whatsoever, but by the

senta

le act and consent of the governor, council, and repretives of the people, assembled in General Court." This,

of urse, was equivalent to a denial of the right of Parliament to tax the colonies for any purpose whatsoever; and as such it was speedily rejected by the king. Among other rejected acts were the one claiming the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus, and the one relative to the punishment of capital offenders, the former on the ground that "the privilege had not yet been granted to the plantations," and the latter because it was founded upon the Mosaic rather than upon