to Salem; but "Winthrop had with him William Stephens, a shipwright, who had been preparing to go for Spain, and who would have been as a precious jewel to any state that obtained him." He had built in England many ships of great burden, one even of six hundred tons, and he was " so able a man that there was hardly such another to be found in the kingdom." In New England he lived with great content, where, from the time of his arrival, ship-building was carried on with surpassing skill, so that vessels were soon constructed of four hundred tons. So long as the ports were thronged with new-comers, the older settlers found full employment in supplying their wants. But now "men began to look about them, and fell to a manufacture of cotton, whereof they had store from Barbadoes." In view of the exigency, "the general court made order for the manufacture of woollen and linen cloth."

"Upon the great liberty which the king had left the parliament in England" that first met in 1641, "some of our friends there," says Winthrop, "wrote to us advice to solicit for us in the parliament, giving us hope that we might obtain much. But, consulting about it, we declined the motion for this consideration, that, if we should put ourselves under the protection of the parliament, we must then be subject to all such laws as they should make, or, at least, such as they might impose upon us. It might prove very prejudicial to us." When the letters arrived, inviting the colonial churches to send their deputies to the Westminster assembly of divines, the same sagacity led them to neglect the summons. Especially Hooker, of Hartford, "liked not the business," and deemed it his duty rather to stay in quiet and obscurity with his people in Connecticut than to go three thousand miles to plead for independency with Presbyterians in England. Yet such commercial advantages were desired as might be ob tained without a surrender of chartered rights. In 1641, the general court "sent three chosen men into England to congratulate the happy success there, and to be ready to make use of any opportunity God should offer for the good of the country here, as also to give any advice, as it should be required, for the settling of the right form of church discipline there." Of these agents, Hugh Peter was one.

VOL. I.-20

The security enjoyed by New England presented the long desired opportunity of establishing a "body of liberties" as a written constitution of government. In the absence of a code of laws, the people had for several years continued to be uneasy at the extent of power that rested in the discretion of the magistrates. On the other hand, most of the magistrates and some of the elders, thinking that the fittest laws would arise upon occasions, and gain validity as customs, and, moreover, fearing that their usages, if established as regular statutes, might be censured by their enemies as repugnant to the laws of England, "had not been very forward in this matter." Now that some of the causes of apprehension existed no longer, the great work of constitutional legislation was resumed; and, in December, 1641, a session of three weeks was employed in considering a system which had been prepared chiefly by Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich. He had been formerly a student and practiser in the courts of common law in England, but became a non-conforming minister; so that he was competent to combine the humane principles of the common law with those of natural right and equality, as deduced from the Bible. After mature deliberation, his "model," which for liberality and comprehensiveness may vie with any similar record from the days of Magna Charta, was adopted as "the body of liberties" of the Massachusetts colony.

All the general officers of the jurisdiction, including governor, deputy governor, treasurer, assistants, military commander, and admiral, if there should be a naval force, were to be chosen annually by the freemen of the plantation, and paid from the common treasury. The freemen in the several towns were to choose deputies from among themselves; or, "to the end the ablest gifted men might be made use of in so weighty a work," they might select them elsewhere as they judged fittest; the deputies were to be paid from the treasury of their respective towns, and to serve "at the most but one year; that the country may have an annual liberty to do in that case what is most behooveful for the best welfare thereof." No general assembly could be dissolved or adjourned without the consent of the major part thereof. The freemen of every town

had power to make such by-laws and constitutions as might concern the welfare of the town, provided they be not of a criminal nature, nor repugnant to the public laws of the country; and that their penalties exceed not twenty shillings for one offence. They had power to choose yearly selectmen “to order the prudential occasions of the town according to instructions to be given them in writing."

Life, honor, and personal liberty and estate were placed under the perpetual protection of law. To every person, whether inhabitant or foreigner, was promised equal justice without partiality or delay. Every man, whether inhabitant or foreigner, free or not free-that is, whether admitted as a member of the general court of the freemen under the charter or not had the liberty to come to any court, council, or town-meeting, and there to move any question or present any petition, either by speech or writing. Every officer exercising judicial authority was annually elected; the assistants by the freemen of the whole plantation; the associates to assist the assistants in any inferior court, by the towns belonging to that court; and all jurors, by the freemen of the town where they dwelt. Judicial proceedings were simplified; by mutual consent of plaintiff and defendant, actions might be tried, at their option, by the bench or by a jury; and in criminal trials the like choice was granted to the accused.

Every incident of feudal tenure that would have been a restraint on the possession and transmission of real estate was utterly forbidden; and all lands and heritages were declared free and alienable; so that the land of a child under age, or an idiot, might, with the consent of a general court, be conveyed away. The charter had indeed reserved to the king, by way of rent, one fifth of the gold and silver that might be mined; but this was a mere theoretical feud, resolving itself into fealty alone. In Massachusetts, all the land was allodial. All persons of the age of twenty-one years, even the excommunicate or condemned, had full power to alienate their lands and estates, and to make their wills and testaments. Children inherited equally as co-partners the property of intestate parents, whether real or personal, except that to the first-born son, where there was a son, a double portion was assigned, unless

the general court should judge otherwise. No man could be compelled to go out of the limits of the plantation upon any offensive war. To every man within the jurisdiction, free liberty was assured to remove himself and his family at their pleasure. The grant of monopolies was prohibited, except of new inventions profitable to the country, and that for a short time. Every married woman was protected against bodily correction or stripes by her husband, and had redress if at his death he should not leave her a competent portion of his estate. As to foreign nations professing the true Christian religion, all fugitives from the tyranny or oppression of their persecutors, or from famine or wars, were ordered to be entertained according to that power and prudence that God should give; so that the welcome of the commonwealth was as wide as sorrow. On slavery this was the rule: "There shall never be any bond slaverie, villinage, or captivitie amongst us, unles it be lawfull captives taken in just warres, and such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us. And these shall have all the liberties and Christian usages which the law of God established in Israel concerning such persons doeth morally require. This exempts none from servitude who shall be judged thereto by authoritie." "If any man stealeth a man or mankinde, he shall surely be put to death."

The severity of the Levitical law against witchcraft, blasphemy, and sins against nature, was retained; otherwise, death was the punishment only for murder, adultery, man-stealing, and false witness wittingly to take away any man's life. In the following year, rape was made a capital crime.

With regard to the concerns of religion, all the people of God who were orthodox in judgment and not scandalous in life had full liberty to gather themselves into a church estate; to exercise all the ordinances of God; and from time to time to elect and ordain all their officers, provided. they be able, pious, and orthodox. For the preventing and removing of error, ministers and elders of near adjoining churches might hold public Christian conference, provided that nothing be imposed by way of authority by one or more churches upon another, but only by way of brotherly consultations.

Such were the most important of the liberties and laws,

established at the end of 1641, for the government of Massachusetts. Embracing the freedom of the commonwealth, of municipalities, of persons, and of churches according to the principles of Congregationalism, "the body of liberties" exhibits the truest picture of the principles, character, and intentions of the people of Massachusetts, and the best evidence of its vigor and self-dependence.

In its main features it only gave authority to the customs of the colony. The public teaching of all children, the trainbands and the training-field, the town-meeting and the meet-. ing of all the inhabitants for public worship-these essential elements of early New England public life grew out of the character and condition of the people, and, as it were, created the laws for their perpetuation.

Do we seek to trace the New England town to its origin? The vital principle of Teutonic liberty lies in the immemorial usage of the meeting of all the people with the equal right of each qualified inhabitant to give counsel and to vote on public affairs. The usage still exists, nearly in its pristine purity, in some of the cantons of Switzerland; it has left in the Teutonic race a profound sense of the need of local self-govern. ment; in England it is the formative idea of its parliament and of its hundred, and in some narrow measure still survives in the parish. It was saved in many English towns by special agreement with their rulers, though these agreements were warred upon and essentially changed by later and more arbitrary kings. This seminal principle of English liberty took root wherever Englishmen trod the soil of America. The first ordinance for the constitution of Virginia enumerated the divisions of towns, hundreds, and plantations; but there the system was imperfectly developed from the scattered mode of life of the planters and the introduction of the English system of parishes. In New England the precious seed fell on the best ground for its quickening. Each company of settlers as it arrived, or as it divided from earlier companies, formed a town, which at once began as by right with taking care of its own concerns. All the electors met annually, and more often if required. They might at any time be called together to treat of any subject that was of interest to them, even if it