the great experimental Gorges, to secure a foothold in New England for royalty and prelacy, free from Puritan control; and our readers have seen that these attempts were a most extraordinary succession of failures.

We shall henceforth find Puritan zeal and energy producing a new life in that district of Massachusetts. Let us hope that the Pilgrims propagated in Maine their love of liberty with as little as possible of their intolerance. The struggle between the prerogatives of the crown and the people went on, until, under the lead of Providence, a strong, vigorous Protestant State rose up to maintain the liberty of her people, and take her position in the Great American Republic.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

From the discovery of this territory by Martin Pring, in 1603, to its formal annexation to Massachusetts on the 14th of April, 1642, there was comparatively little prosperity in New Hampshire.

Mason covered the territory with a patent, which produced abundance of lawsuits. In the mean time, the inhabitants themselves, about Dover and Portsmouth, obtained title to the soil, which was decidedly favorable to progress; and a small number of people, about 1631, settled on the "Strawberry Bank" of the Piscataquà: but the country long remained a wilderness. In 1653, Portsmouth had only “between fifty and sixty families."

After a struggle with proprietaries, and various adverse influences, for a period of forty years, the people reached the conviction that an independent colony was impracticable in that rugged country, and hence deliberately handed themselves over to the strong and prosperous colony of Massachusetts. We must with this fact remember that these settlers were not generally Puritans. They were without the energy and organizing power of that strange people.

A little "worldly wisdom" seems to have already crept in

among the Massachusetts Puritans; for they, with true propriety, conceded that their religious system could not be forced upon the new territory; and an order was adopted in General Court," that neither the freemen nor the deputies of New Hampshire were required to be church-members."

For a long period, the fact was perfectly evident that this was not a Puritan "State;" but with the liberty conceded, and the infusion of Puritan energy, it might be hoped that the future of New Hampshire would be prosperous. At least, our Massachusetts "Jonathan," walking off with Maine in one pocket and New Hampshire in the other, was a little in danger of worldly pride, one would say.

The coming of the "royal commissioners" to assert the prerogatives of the crown in Massachusetts, of course seriously disturbed the future State of New Hampshire; and when the commissioners were, by formal proclamation, refused the right of holding a court, at the bar of which the colony was summoned to appear, New Hampshire was involved in the embryo rebellion; and, some thirteen years later, July 24, 1679,- her territory was arbitrarily detached from Massachusetts, and made a royal province. The people met in "General Assembly" to consider the matter, when the infusion of the Puritan element became very evident; and thus they wrote to Massachusetts: "We acknowledge your care for us, we thankfully acknowledge your kindness, while we dwelt under your shadow; owning ourselves deeply obliged, that, on our earnest request, you took us under your government, and ruled us well. If there be opportunity for us to be anywise serviceable to you, we shall show how ready we are to embrace it. Wishing the presence of God to be with you, we crave the benefit of your prayers on us, who are separated from you."

But how will New Hampshire respond to the act of royal "prerogative," aiming at the utter destruction of her liberties? Let the Let the following spirited words of the Assembly answer: "No act, imposition, law, or ordinance, shall be

valid, unless made by the Assembly, and approved by the people." Brave, noble words! Feeble, indeed, the colony was. What would be its power to cope with the formidable strength of the British realm? Physically Physically nothing, but morally ample for God had moved New Hampshire up by the side of Massachusetts and Virginia in the great struggle for national freedom; nor was she to be intimidated by threats or demonstrations of tyrannical power.

The irrepressible Mason was again in sight, bound to claim all the land by proprietary right; but the "granite" colonial government was an insuperable obstacle to his grasping schemes. He returns to England for a redress of grievances, and finds Edward Canfield a suitable instrument of his sinister designs. The king was easily propitiated by "one-fifth part of all the quit-rents for the support of the government;" and Canfield was sure of his salary, having "a mortgage on the whole province for twenty-one years" as security, and with certain prospects of "an abundant harvest of fines and forfeitures" as perquisites. He was in ecstasies, and was villain enough to boast openly of his purpose "to wrest a fortune from the sawyers and lumber-dealers of New Hampshire." *

But what strange men he met when he came to take possession of his grand estates! They did not know him; they questioned his rights; they would indeed give him "two hundred and fifty pounds" (which, to tell the truth, he was very glad to get); "but they would not yield their liberties: and the governor in anger dissolved the Assembly." This was a new issue. Such an assumption of power had been hitherto unknown in New England. "Liberty and ref ormation" began to ring out from the excited but inconsiderate multitude. This was treason against the king; and poor "Edward Gove, an unlettered enthusiast," must suffer for it three years " in the Tower of London."

Meanwhile Canfield began to look after his perquisites.

* Bancroft, ii. 116, 117.

Taxes and arbitrary fees, violent arrests, imprisonments, and false reports of invasions, only made the "granite" men more obstinate than ever.

The ministers, Canfield thought, having something of the Puritan rebel in them, were exciting the people to resist; and they must be suppressed. Moody, of Portsmouth, "replied to his threats by a sermon, and the Church was inflexible." He would now assert the jurisdiction of the Church of England, and command festivals and feasts, and the Lord's Supper, free to the people indiscriminately, and the use of "the English Liturgy;" but the ministers and the people said "No!" "The governor himself appointed a day on which he claimed to receive the elements at the hands of Moody, after the forms of the Church of England;" but the stern old Puritan saw nothing honorable or right against godly simplicity. He could submit to be "prosecuted, condemned, and imprisoned;" but no living man could compel him to be subject to carnal ordinances. Canfield sent word to England, “that, while the clergy were allowed to preach, no true allegiance could be found :" "there could be no quiet till the factious preachers were turned out of the province." The king must certainly send round" a ship of war;" for, "without some visible force to keep the people of New Hampshire under, it would be a difficult or impossible thing to execute his Majesty's commands or the law of trade."

But the people are not frightened. They are even violent. The men have "clubs," and the wives "hot water," for the sheriff and his officers, when they come to enforce the governor's unlawful exactions.

Canfield at last was in as complete despair as Sancho Panza when he came into possession of "that same island." He was "governor," no doubt; but he could only see the sumptuous viands which his appetite craved, and he was thoroughly sick of his government. In despair, he wrote imploringly to the government in England, "I shall esteem it the greatest happiness in the world to be allowed to re

move from this unreasonable people. They cavil at the royal commission, and not at my presence. No one will be accepted by them who puts the king's commands in execution."

We have traced these developments of liberty, under the promptings of religion, far enough to perceive their perfect identity with the spirit which colonized New England, and would ultimately constitute the Great American Republic.

CONNECTICUT.

We trace the settlement of this country from about the 8th of October, 1635, when people from the neighborhood of Boston came to found Hartford and Windsor and Wethersfield. Sixty Pilgrims, including women and children, started to travel with their stock and effects through the forests to the Valley of the Connecticut. They were bound for "the Far West," in the almost unknown wilds of Connecticut; and through the perils of a hard winter, the people living on the milk of the browsing kine, journeyed to the home of their future independence. Their numbers had diminished, and "the army of the Lord" was very much sifted by the way; but enough were left in the spring, and of the right kind, to organize a good, strong, free, civil government. Other Pilgrims found their way to "the new Hesperia of Puritanism;" but the grand colony of about a hundred travelled on foot, through the pathless forests of Massachusetts, to "the delightful banks" of the Connecticut. They were superior people. John Haynes, formerly Governor of Massachusetts, and the unrivalled Hooker, were the great and true representatives of State and Church; and many were from the wealthy and more intelligent families.

Now the new colony is surrounded with perils. The Pequods are hostile, and are about to succeed in forming most formidable combinations for the extermination of these white intruders. But the heroic exile, Roger Williams, with un