resolved to take away the charters of all the colonies and make them royal provinces. At the same time, being determined to curtail the liberty of the press, the king appointed Edward Randolph its censor. Dudley was regarded by the people as the betrayer of the liberties of his country, and both he and Randolph were cordially despised by them. The king in appointing Dudley made no

provision for an assembly or general court, as he meant to govern the colonies without reference to the people. He regarded the American provinces as so many possessions of the crown, possessed of no rights, and entitled to no privileges save what he chose to allow them.

In pursuance of this plan, Sir Edmund Andros, whom the king had appointed governor of New York, was made governor-general of all New England. He reached Boston in December, 1686. Dudley was made chief justice, and Randolph colonial secretary. The governor-general was empowered by the king to appoint his own council, impose such taxes as he should think fit, command the militia of the colonies, enforce the navigation acts, prohibit printing, and establish episcopacy in

New England; and in order to enable him to enforce his will, two companies of soldiers were sent over with him and quartered in Boston. Thus were the liberties of New England placed at the mercy of a tyrant, and thus was inaugurated a despotism the most galling that was ever imposed upon men of English descent.

Andros promptly put in force a series of the most arbitrary measures. The public schools, which had been fostered with such care by the colonial governments, were allowed to fall into decay. The support which had been granted to the churches was withdrawn. The people were forbidden to assemble for the discussion of any public matter, though they were allowed the poor privilege of electing their town officers. The form of oath in use in New England was an appeal to Heaven with uplifted hand. The governor now ordered the substitution of a form which required the person to place his hand on the Bible. This was particularly repugnant to the Puritans, who regarded it as a “Popish practice." Probate fees were increased twenty-fold. The holders of lands were told that their titles were invalid because obtained under a charter which had been declared forfeited.

Tyrannical Proceedings.

No person was allowed to leave the colony without a pass signed by the governor. The Puritan magistrates and ministers were refused authority to unite persons in marriage. The clergyman of the Church of England, stationed at Boston, was the only person in New England who could perform a legal marriage. Episcopacy was formally established, and the people were required to build a church for its uses. At the command of the king, a tax of a penny in the pound, and a poll-tax of twenty pence, was imposed upon every person in the colony.

Some of the towns had the boldness to refuse to pay this tax, and John Wise, the minister of Ipswich, advised his fellowtownsmen to resist it. He and a number of others were arrested and fined. When they When they pleaded their privileges under the laws of England, they were told by one of the council: "You have no privilege left you but

not to be sold as slaves." "Do you think," asked one of the judges, "that the laws of England follow you to the ends of the earth?" The iniquitous exactions of Andros and his associates threatened the country with ruin. When the magistrates mentioned this, they were told, "It is not for his majesty's interest you should thrive." "The governor invaded liberty and property after such a manner," wrote Increase Mather, “as no man could say anything was his own."

The Old "Charter Oak.”

The other colonies came in for their share of bad treatment. Soon after he reached Boston, Andros demanded of the authorities of Rhode Island the surrender of their charter. Governor Clarke declined to comply with this demand, and Andros went to Providence, broke the seal of the colony, and declared its government dissolved. He appointed a commission irresponsible to the people for the government of Rhode Island, and then had the effrontery to declare that the people of that colony were satisfied with what he had done.

In October, Andros went to Connecticut with an armed guard to take possession of the government of that colony. He reached Hartford on the thirty-first of the month, and found the legislature in session, and demanded of that body the surrender of the charter. The discussion was prolonged until evening, and then candles were brought, and the charter was placed on the table. Suddenly the lights were extinguished, and when they were relighted the charter could not be found. It had been secured by Joseph Wadsworth of Hartford, and carried to the southern part of the city, where it was concealed in a hollow oak tree, which was afterwards known as the "Charter Oak."

Andros, furious at the disappearance of the charter, was not to be balked of his purpose

of seizing the colonial government, and taking the record book of the assembly, he wrote the word "Finis" at the end of the last day's proceedings. He then declared the colonial government at an end, and proceeded to administer the affairs of the province in the spirit in which he had governed Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The people of New England had borne these outrages with a patience which no one had expected of them. They were a lawabiding people, and wished to exhaust all legal means of redress before proceeding to extreme measures for their protection; but

THE CHARTER OAK.

the party in favor of driving Andros and his fellow-plunderers out of the country was rapidly growing stronger, and it was not certain how much longer the policy of forbearance would be continued. Increase Mather was appointed to go to England and endeavor to procure a redress of the grievances of the colonies. It was a dangerous mission, for the king was in full sympathy with the men whom he had placed over the liberties of New England. It was also difficult to leave America without the knowledge of Andros and his colleagues, but Mather succeeded in escaping their vigilance, and was on his way to the old world when

relief arrived from a most unexpected quarter.

The efforts of James to bring about the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic religion in England roused the whole English nation against him, and in 1689 the nation invited William, Prince of Orange, the husband of James' eldest daughter, Mary, to come over to England and assume the throne. James, left without any adherents, fled to France, and William and Mary were securely seated upon the throne.

The news of the landing of William in England and the flight of King James reached Boston on the fourth of April, 1689. The messenger was at once imprisoned by Andros, but his tidings soon became known to the citizens. On the morning of the eighteenth the people of Boston took up arms, and having secured the person of the commander of the royal frigate in the harbor, seized the royalist sheriff.

Sent to England for Trial.

The militia were assembled, and Andros and his companions were obliged to take refuge in the fort. Simon Bradstreet, the governor who had held office at the time of the abrogation of the charter, was called upon by the people to resume his post, and the old magistrates were reinstated and organized as a council of safety. Andros and his creatures attempted to escape to the frigate, but were prevented and were compelled to surrender. The next day reinforcements came pouring into Boston from the other settlements, and the fort was taken and the frigate mastered. Town meetings were now held throughout the colony, and it was voted to resume the former charter. The people were almost unanimous in favor of this course, but the counsels of a more timid minority prevailed, and the council, which had appointed itself to the control of

affairs, decided to solicit a new charter from | William and Mary. A general court was convened on the twenty-second of May. The people of the colony were anxious that Andros, Dudley and Randolph should receive prompt punishment for their offences, but the authorities wisely determined to send them to England for trial.

Plymouth, upon receipt of the news from Boston, seized the agent of Andros, imprisoned him, and re-established the government which Andros had overthrown, under the constitution signed on board the "Mayflower." There were none of the old Pilgrim fathers living to witness this event, but their children were none the less determined to maintain unimpaired the liberties they had inherited from them.

The Charter Safe. Rhode Island promptly resumed her charter and reinstated the officers whom Andros had displaced. Connecticut, upon hearing of the downfall of the governorgeneral, brought out her charter from its hiding place, and restored the old officers to their positions.

Thus the work of James II. was overthrown, and the destinies of New England were once more in the hands of her own people. The generation that had settled New England had nearly all been gathered to their rest, and their children were in some respects different from the fathers. They had learned lessons of toleration, and had acquired many of the refining graces that the elder Puritans regarded as mere vanity. They retained, however, the earnest and lofty virtues which had made the first generation superior to hardships and trials of all

kinds, and which had enabled them in the face of every discouragement to lay the foundations of the great commonwealths which to-day cherish their memories as their most precious legacies. The fathers of New England richly merited the honor which succeeding generations have delighted to bestow upon their memories. However they may have erred, they were men who earnestly sought to do right in all things, and who did their duty fearlessly according to the light before them.

In the first generation we have noticed an extraordinary degree of influence exerted by the ministers. This was due to no desire of the Puritans to connect church and state, but was owing to the fact that the ministers represented the best educated and most intellectual class of that day, and the people regarded them as the best qualified guides in the community. As New England advanced in prosperity her schools and colleges were able to turn out numbers of educated men, who embraced the other learned professions, and divided the influence with the ministers. New England always chose its leaders from among its most intelligent men, and its people always yielded a willing homage to the claims of intellect.

At the downfall of Andros there were about two hundred thousand white inhabitants in the English colonies of North America. Of these, Massachusetts, including Plymouth and Maine, had about fortyfour thousand; New Hampshire and Rhode Island about six thousand each; Connecticut about twenty thousand; making the total population of New England about seventysix thousand.

T

HE decision of the magistrates of Massachusetts to disregard the wishes of a majority of the people of the colony, who desired an immediate restoration of the government under the old charter, and to wait for a new charter from William and Mary, gave great offence to the popular party. Had the wish of this party been complied with, Massachusetts might have recovered every liberty and privilege of which she had been deprived by King James. Increase Mather distinctly declares that "had they at that time entered upon the full exercise of their charter government, as their undoubted right, wise men in England were of opinion that they might have gone on without disturbance." The self-constituted government hesitated, however, and the opportunity was lost.

When the convention of the people met, in May, 1689, they refused to acknowledge the council that had taken charge of affairs upon the downfall of Andros, and demanded that the governor, deputy governor and assistants elected in 1686 should be restored to office. The council refused to comply with this demand, and the matter was referred to the people, who sustained their representatives. A compromise was effected, and the council agreed to permit the officers of 1686 to resume their places until instructions could be received from England. Agents were

sent to England to solicit a restoration of the charter, and their appeal was supported by the English Presbyterians with great unanimity. Even the Archbishop of Canterbury urged the king "not to take away from the people of New England any of the privileges which Charles I. had granted them."

In spite of the pressure exerted upon him in behalf of the colony, King William granted to Massachusetts a charter which placed the liberties of the province so entirely at the mercy of the crown that the colonial agent refused to accept it. There was no help for it, however, and the charter became the fundamental law of Massachusetts. Under the old charter the governor of Massachusetts had been elected annually by the votes of the freemen; he was now to be appointed by the king and to serve during the royal pleasure. He was given power to summon the general court, and to adjourn or dissolve that body.

The election of magistrates of all kinds, which had been confided to the people by the old charter, was taken from them, and henceforth these officials were to be appointed by the governor with the consent of the council. The old charter had made the decision of the colonial courts final; the new permitted appeals from these tribunals to the privy council in England. The old charter had given to the general court full