XI. ing tobacco in England and Ireland, was a useless CHAP. mockery. As a mode of taxing the colonies, the monopoly was a failure; the contribution was made to the pocket of the merchant, not to the treasury of the metropolis. The usual excuse for colonial restrictions is founded on the principle that colonies were established at the cost of the mother country for that very purpose.1 In the case of the American colonies, the apology cannot be urged. The state founded none of them. The colonists escaped from the mother country, and had, at their own cost, and by their own toil, made for themselves dwellings in the New World. Virginia was founded by a private company; New England was the home of exiles. England first thrust them out; and she owned them as her children only to oppress them! Again, it was said that the commercial losses of the colonists were compensated by protection. But the connection with Europe was fraught only with danger; for the rivalry of European nations did but transfer the scenes of their bloody feuds to the wilds of America. The monopoly, it must be allowed, was of the least injurious kind. It was conceded, not to an individual, nor to a company, nor to a single city; but was open to the competition of all Englishmen.2 The history of the navigation act would be incomplete, were it not added, that, whatever party obtained a majority, it never, till the colonies gained great strength, occurred to the British parliament that the legislation was a wrong. Bigotry is not exclusively a passion of religious superstition. Its root is in the 1 Montesquieu, 1. xxi., c. xxi. 26 Anne, c. xxxvii. 48 XI. CHARLES II. CHAP. human heart, and it is reproduced in every age. Blinding the intellectual eye, and comprehending no passion but its own, it is the passionate and partial defence of an existing interest. The Antonines of Rome, or, not to go beyond English history, Elizabeth and Charles I., did not question the divine right of absolute power. "Were Nero in power," said Cromwell himself, when protector, "it would be a duty to submit." When Laud was arraigned, "Can any one believe me a traitor?" exclaimed the astonished prelate, with real surprise. The Cavaliers, in the civil war, did not doubt the sanctity of the privileges of birth: and now the English parliament, as the instrument of mercantile avarice, had no scruple in commencing the legislation, which, when the colonists grew powerful, was, by the greatest British economist, declared to be" a manifest violation of the rights of mankind.”1 Such was the disposition of the English parliament towards the colonies: the changes in their internal constitutions were to depend on the personal character of the monarch whom England had taken into favor. The tall and swarthy grandson of Henry IV. of France, was naturally possessed of a disposition which, had he preserved purity of morals, had made him one of the most amiable of men. It was his misfortune, in very early life, to have become thoroughly debauched in mind and heart; and adversity, usually the rugged nurse of virtue, made the selfish libertine but the more reckless in his profligacy. He did not merely indulge his passions; his neck bowed to the yoke of lewdness. He was attached to women, not from love, for he had no jealousy, and was regardless of infidelities; nor 1 Smith's Wealth of Nations. XI. entirely from debauch, but from the pleasure of living CHAP. near them, and sauntering in their company. His delight-such is the record of the royalist Evelyn-was in "concubines, and cattle of that sort;" and up to the last week of his life, he spent his time in dissoluteness, toying with his mistresses, and listening to lovesongs. If decision ever broke through his abject vices, it was but a momentary flash; a life of pleasure sapped his moral courage, and left him imbecile, fit only to be the tool of courtiers, and the dupe of mistresses. Did the English commons impeach Clarendon? Charles II. could think of nothing but how to get the duchess of Richmond to court again. Was the Dutch war signalized by disasters? "the king did still follow his women as much as ever; " and took more pains to reconcile the chambermaids of Lady Castlemaine, or make friends of the rival beauties of his court, than to save his kingdom. He was "governed by his lust, and the women, and the rogues about him." The natural abilities of Charles II. were probably overrated. He was incapable of a strong purpose or steady application. He read imperfectly and ill. When drunk, he was a silly, good-natured, subservient fool. In the council of state, he played with his dog, never minding the business, or making a speech, memorable only for its silliness; and if he visited the naval magazines, "his talk was equally idle and frothy." 5 4 The best trait in his character was his natural kindliness. Yet his benevolence was in part a weakness his bounty was that of facility; and his placable temper, incapable of strong revenge, was equally incapable 1 Evelyn. 3 Pepys, ii. 130. 7 5 Pepys, i. 243. 50 XI. CHARLES II. CHAP. of affection. He so loved his present tranquillity, that he signed the death-warrants of innocent men, rather than risk disquiet; but of himself he was merciful, and was reluctant to hang any but republicans. His love of placid enjoyments and of ease continued to the end. On the last morning of his life, he bade his attendants open the curtains of his bed, and the windows of his bed-chamber, that he might once more see the sun.1 He desired absolution; "For God's sake, send for a Catholic priest;" but checked himself, adding, "it may expose the duke of York to danger." doned all his enemies, no doubt sincerely. sent to beg forgiveness for any offences. woman, she beg my pardon!" he replied; "I beg hers with all my heart; take back to her that answer.” 3 He expressed some regard for his brother, his children, his mistresses. "Do not leave poor Nelly Gwyn to starve," was almost his last commission.1 1660. 66 He parThe queen Alas, poor Such was the lewd king of England, on whose favor depended the liberties of the New England colonies, where lewdness was held a crime, and adultery inexorably punished by death on the gallows. Massachusetts, strong in its charter, made no haste to present itself in England as a suppliant. "The colony of Boston," wrote Stuyvesant,5" remains constant to its old maxims of a free state, dependent on none but God." Had the king resolved on sending them a governor, the several towns and churches throughout the whole country were resolved to oppose him." 1 Barillon, in Dalrymple, App. to 4 Burnet, ii. 284. So, too, Evelyn, iii. 132. 5 Albany Records, xviii. 124. Oct. 6. 1660. 6 Hutch. Coll. 339; Belknap, 437. XI. Mar. 14. The colonies of Plymouth, of Hartford and New CHAP Haven, not less than of Rhode Island, proclaimed the new king, and acted in his name; and the rising 1660 republic on the Connecticut appeared in London by its representative, the younger Winthrop, who went, as it were, between the mangled limbs of his father-in-law, to ensure the welfare of his fellow-exiles in the west. They had purchased their lands of the assigns of the earl of Warwick, and from Uncas they had bought the 1661 territory of the Mohegans; and the news of the restoration awakened a desire for a patent. But the little colony proceeded warily; they draughted among themselves the instrument which they desired the king to ratify; and they could plead for their possessions their rights by purchase, by conquest from the Pequods, and by their own labor, which had redeemed the wilderness. A letter was also addressed from Connecticut 1661 to the aged Lord Say and Seal, the early friend of the emigrants, and now, on the restoration, while it was yet the royal policy to conciliate the Presbyterians, a favored officer of the crown. By the memory of past benefits, and the promise of grateful regard, they request his influence to obtain for them a guaranty for their liberties. The venerable man, too aged for active exertion, secured for his clients the kind offices of the lord chamberlain, the earl of Manchester, a man "of an obliging temper, universally beloved, being of a virtuous and generous mind." 3 "Indeed he was a noble and a worthy lord, and one that loved the godly." 1 Quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore, adds Stuyvesant, who was very fond of a Latin quotation. There was, however, no change in the political principles of New England, "He |