"The very CHAP. agony and mutilation, as an ordinary punishment; and X. the friends of Laud jested on the sufferings which were to cure the obduracy of fanatics. genius of that nation of people," said Wentworth, "leads them always to oppose, both civilly and ecclesiastically, all that ever authority ordains for them." They were provoked to the indiscretion of a complaint, and then involved in a persecution. They were imprisoned and scourged; their noses were slit; their ears were cut off; their cheeks were marked with a red-hot brand. But the lash, and the shears, and the glowing iron, could not destroy principles which were rooted in the soul, and which danger made it glorious to profess. The injured party even learned to despise 1637. the mercy of their oppressors. Four years after Prynne had been punished for a publication, he was a second time arraigned for a like offence. "I thought," said Lord Finch, "that Prynne had lost his ears already; but," added he, looking at the prisoner, "there is something left yet;" and an officer of the court, removing the hair, displayed the mutilated organs. "I pray to God," replied Prynne, "you may have ears to June hear me." A crowd gathered round the scaffold, 30. where he, and Bastwick, and Burton, were to suffer mutilation. "Christians," said Prynne, as he presented the stumps of his ears to be grubbed out by the hangman's knife, "stand fast; be faithful to God and your country; or you bring on yourselves and your children perpetual slavery." The dungeon, the pillory, and the scaffold, were but stages in the progress of civil liberty towards its triumph. Yet there was a period when the ministry of Charles hoped for success. No considerable resistance was threatened within the limits of England; and not even ERROR RESPECTING HAMPDEN AND CROMWELL. 411 X. America could long be safe against the designs of des- CHAP potism. A proclamation was issued to prevent the emigration of Puritans; the king refused his dissent- 1637. April ing subjects the security of the wilderness. 30. It was probably a foreboding of these dangers, which induced the legislation of Massachusetts to exaggerate the necessity of domestic union. In England the proclamation was but little regarded. The Puritans, hemmed in by dangers on every side, and at that time having no prospect of ultimate success, desired at any rate to escape from their native country. The privy council interfered to stay a squadron of eight ships, which were in the Thames, preparing to embark for 1638 May New England. It has been said that Hampden and 1. Cromwell were on board this fleet.4 The English ministry of that day might willingly have exiled Hampden; no original authors, except royalists writing on hearsay, allude to the design imputed to him; in America there exists no evidence of his expected arrival; the remark of Hutchinson refers to the wellknown schemes of Lord Say and Seal and Lord Brooke; there are no circumstances in the lives of Hampden and Cromwell corroborating the story, but many to establish its improbability; there came over, during this summer, twenty ships, and at least three thousand persons; and had Hampden designed to 73. 1 Hazard, i. 421. 6 2 Colony Laws, edition of 1660, iii. Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 398. 3 Rushworth, ii. 409. Hazard, i. 422. 4 Bates and Dugdale, in Neal's Puritans, ii. 349. C. Mather, b. i. c. v. s. 7. Neal's N. E. i. 168. Chalmers, 160, 161. Robertson, b. x. Hume, c. liii. Belknap, ii. 229. Grahame's U. S. i. 299. Lord Nu gent, in his Hampden, i. 254, should 5 Hutchinson, i. 44. X. 1638. 6 CHAP. emigrate, he whose maxim1 in life forbade retreat, and whose resolution was as fixed as it was calm, possessed energy enough to have accomplished his purpose. He undoubtedly had watched with deep interest the progress of Massachusetts; "the Conclusions" had early attracted his attention; and in 1631 he had taken part in a purchase of territory on the Narragansett.3 It has been conjectured, asserted, and even circumstantially related, that he passed a winter with the colony of New Plymouth. A person who bore the same or nearly the same name,' was undoubtedly there; but the greatest patriot-statesman of his times, the man whom Charles I. would gladly have seen drawn and quartered, whom Clarendon paints as possessing beyond all his contemporaries "a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute,' and whom the fervent Baxter revered as able, by his presence and conversation, to give a new charm to the rest of the Saints in heaven, was never in America. Nor did he ever embark for America; the fleet in which he is said to have taken his passage, was delayed but a few days; on petition of the owners and passengers, King Charles removed the restraint; the ships proceeded on their intended voyage; and the whole company, as it seems without diminution, arrived safely in the Bay of Massachusetts. Had Hampden and Cromwell been of the party, they too would have reached New England. 1 Nulla vestigia retrorsum. 2 Nugent, i. 173, 174. 3 Potter's Narragansett, 14. Comp. Trumbull. 4 Belknap's Biog. ii. 229. 5 N. Amer. Review, vi. 28. 6 Fr. Baylies, Memoir, i. 110, takes fire at the thought. 8 7 ii. Massachusetts Hist. Coll. viii. 258. More probably John Hamblin; a common name in the Old Colony. 8 Rushworth, ii. 409. Aikin's Charles I. i. 471–473. 9 Winthrop, i. 266, is decisive MASSACHUSETTS REFUSES TO SURRENDER ITS CHARTER. 413 X. 1638. April 4. A few weeks before this attempt to stay emigration, CHAP. the lords of the council had written to Winthrop, recalling to mind the former proceedings by a quo warranto, and demanding the return of the patent. In case of refusal, it was added, the king would assume into his own hands the entire management of the plantation.' 6 But" David in exile could more safely expostulate with Saul for the vast space between them." The colonists, without desponding, demanded a trial before condemnation. They urged that the recall of the Sept. patent would be a manifest breach of faith, pregnant with evils to themselves and their neighbors; that it would strengthen the plantations of the French and the Dutch; that it would discourage all future attempts at colonial enterprise; and, finally, "if the patent be taken from us,"—such was their cautious but energetic remonstrance," the common people will conceive that his majesty hath cast them off, and that hereby they are freed from their allegiance and subjection, and therefore will be ready to confederate themselves under a new government, for their necessary safety and subsistence, which will be of dangerous example unto other plantations, and perilous to ourselves, of incurring his majesty's displeasure." They therefore beg of the royal clemency the favor of neglect. But before their supplication could find its way to the throne, the monarch was himself already involved in disasters. Anticipating success in his tyranny in England, he had resolved to practise no forbearance; with headlong indiscretion, he insisted on introducing 1 Hubbard, 268, 269. Hazard, 2 Hubbard, 269-271. Hutch. i. i. 432, 433. Hutchinson's Coll. 105, App. No. v. Hazard, i. 434. 436. 106. X. July 23. CHAP. a liturgy into Scotland, and compelling the uncompromising disciples of Knox to listen to prayers translated from the Roman missal. The first attempt at reading the new service in the cathedral of Edinburgh was the signal for that series of momentous events which promised to restore liberty to England, and give peace to the colonies. The movement began, as great revolutions almost always do, from the ranks of the people. " "What, ye villain!" shouted the old women at the dean, as he read the liturgy, "will ye say mass in my lug?"—"A pape, a pape!" resounded the multitude, incensed against the bishop; "stane him, stane him!" The churchmen narrowly escaped martyrdom. The tumult spreads; the nobles of Scotland take advantage of the excitement of the people to advance 1638. their ambition. The national covenant is published, and is signed by the Scottish nation, almost without distinction of rank or sex; the defences of despotism are broken down; the flood washes away every vestige of ecclesiastical oppression. Scotland rises in arms for a holy war, and enlists religious enthusiasm under its banner in its contest against a despot, who has neither a regular treasury, nor an army, nor the confidence of his people. The wisest of his subjects esteem the 1639. insurgents as their friends and allies. There is now no time to oppress New England; the throne itself totters; there is no need to forbid emigration; England is at once become the theatre of wonderful events, and many fiery spirits, who had fled for a refuge to the colonies, rush back to share in the open struggle for liberty. In the following years, few passengers came 1640 over; the reformation of church and state, the attain1642. der of Strafford, the impeachment of Laud, the great to |
