trievable loss of his popularity* and influence, and by the sleepless watchfulness of his offended countrymen, who lost no opportunity during the remainder of his life, either of damaging his reputation, or thwarting his advancement.† The commission of the President included the Narraganset or King's Province, New Hampshire and Maine, the two last of which had been the subject of much litigation and difficulty for many years. We have already seen how desirous Massachusetts ever was of enlarging her boundaries. and of assuming jurisdiction over vacant possessions or feeble neighbours. The territory com * An abstract of the Commission may be found in vol. v, Hutch. Col. of Mass., and in Bilknap's History of New Hampshire. † At a subsequent period, when imprisoned, during the rebellion that preceded the proclamation of William and Mary, there was a strong party for trying and executing him. Fear of consequences alone prevented the people from resorting to these desperate measures. Danforth thus writes to Mather: "Mr. Dudley is in a peculiar manner the object of the people's displeasure, even throughout all the colonies where he sat as judge; they deeply resent his correspondence with that wicked man, Randolph, for overturning the Government. The Governor and Council, though they have done their utmost to procure his enlargement, yet can't prevail: but the people will have him in gaol, and when he hath been by order turned out, by force and tumult they fetch him in again," &c.-Hutchinson, vol. 1. prised within what now forms the States of New Hampshire and Maine, offered too great a temptation to her cupidity to be resisted; and I have reserved to this place an account of her aggression at different times to avoid repeated references, and to preserve the continuity of the narrative. The first was granted as early as 1635 to Captain Mason, and the latter to Sir Ferdinando Georges, who severally formed small settlements in them, that derived subsistence from the soil, and some little profit from the fisheries and free-trade. Ten years afterwards, some persons who had adopted heretical opinions, and rendered themselves obnoxious to the Government of Massachusetts, removed, either under the pretence, or in open contempt of grants of the proprietors, to the banks of the river that divided the two provinces, and associated themselves, as it was then called, by entering into a mutual compact for self-govern ment. Although differing in many points of doctrine from their friends at Boston, they were united by the common ties of descent and interest. Their more powerful neighbour and parent state, by claims of jurisdiction which they were unable to resist, or promises of protection from the Indians, of which they stood greatly in need, prevailed upon them to place themselves under her control, and by degrees they became both merged in the ambitious and growing little republic. Charles II. strove in vain to reinvest the heirs of the grantees with the possession. The rule of the "old colony" was more congenial to the feelings of the people than that of a monarch three thousand miles off, who had as little interest in their affairs as power to enforce his authority. The Commissioners to whom I have referred, re-established in 1665 the government of Mason and Georges, but they had no sooner departed for Europe than the General Court invaded the territory, and by force of arms resumed their former jurisdiction. Irritated at this open defiance, Charles II. threatened to restrain their commerce, and they finally yielded to menace, which they knew he could execute, what they denied to demands unsupported by a military force on the spot. After a vexatious and expensive litigation, the claim of the plaintiffs was sanctioned by the decision of an English court, and their opponents were compelled to confine themselves within their original limits. This investigation brought to light a fact not then generally known, that the proprietors of New Hampshire were entitled to the soil alone under the patent to their ancestor, while the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Georges had a right both to the country and the Government. In consequence of this discovery the King was desirous of purchasing Maine for his son, the Duke of Monmouth; but while he was in treaty for it, Massachusetts, informed of his intention by the clerks in the public offices, whom they kept in their pay, and having the requisite means at their command, bought it from the owners, whose title had been established by a legal decision. The remonstrance of the Sovereign was as unavailing as all his other expostulations and threats. They entered into immediate possession, and governed it by officers of their own as a "Colony from the Mother Province." Disappointed in obtaining Maine, the King attempted in 1679 to found "a Royal Province in New Hampshire," and appointed a Governor, whom he invested with the requisite powers, but he found it easier to grant a commission than to enforce obedience to it. This was the first constitution of the kind in New England. It contained more essential freedom, though less independence, than the republic of Massachusetts. It consisted of a President and Council, and a House of Assembly, and secured a reservation of the King's negative. The upper house was made a court of record for the trial of all causes whether civil or military, subject to an appeal in all matters above fifty pounds, and was empowered to appoint officers, and take efficient measures for the defence of the country. Liberty of conscience was allowed to all Protestants, but the Church of England was especially to be encouraged. Upon this Belknass, in his "History of New Hampshire" (a work written in an able and impartial manner, and in a very agreeable style) remarks, “had such a simple form of government been more generally adopted, and perseveringly adhered to, and administered only by the most delicate hands, it might have served better than any other to perpetuate the dependence of the colonies on the British Crown." The first act of the Legislature plainly disclosed the overpowering influence of Massachusetts, derived from a congeniality of religious and political opinions. They commenced their labours by an assertion of right "that no act, imposition, law, or ordinance, shall be valid, unless made by the Assembly, and approved by the people." The experiment, as might have been expected, proved abortive. The fanatical preachers, goaded on by their brethren in New England, urged the people first to passive resistance, and then to armed rebellion; and although the President was able to withstand the first outbreak, he found it necessary to fly for his life from the second. When surrendering his commission, he observed that "while the clergy are allowed to preach to a mutinous people, no true allegiance would be found there. On my retirement, the world will see that it is the royal commission they cavil at, and not my person; and |
