mense number of despatches from several Governors were found in the public archives unopened. The pen had been laid aside in despair for the sword, and both were disgraced by imbecility. It is to be feared that the provincial history, every page of which is filled with valuable instruction, has shared the same fate as the official correspondence, and remained unread. A natural

or accidental defect of vision is an infirmity well entitled to commiseration, but a statesman who disdains the labour of research, and remains wilfully blind, is a criminal on whom expulsion or censure impose no adequate punishment.

Unhappily merit is not always the passport to office. Party convenience or family interest, parliamentary influence or successful intrigue, too often elevate men to important stations, who, from vanity, ignorance, or want of principle, are utterly unable to discharge their duties. Sad indeed is the condition of a people when such is the temper of those who govern them. This, however, is an evil that no revolution can ever cure; and it would seem to be a law of our nature, that we must depend on the lottery of life for the selection of our rulers. It has indeed become a parliamentary maxim, that Provincials must be content to have their work "coarsely and roughly done;" inasmuch as a colonial minister, who has never crossed the Atlantic, cannot, in the nature of things, be

supposed to know much about the young and vigorous empire committed to his charge. It is difficult to pronounce our opinion on the state of an invalid without visiting him. But when not only the disease, but its seat and its symptoms are differently represented, he who ventures to prescribe is generally found to be bold in proportion to his ignorance.

Empirics invariably proclaim that they have discovered a medicine applicable to all ages and persons, and all cases and diseases. Political jugglers, who, in integrity and knowledge are not inferior to their medical brethren, possess similar powers of invention and deception, and have ever on hand some nostrum of universal application. Of these, the last and most valuable specific for constitutional infirmities, bears the captivating title of "Responsible Government." When the world is overrun with credulity, ought we not to cease to wonder at the number of knaves who gather the harvest? The sanatory state, however, of the colonial empire, fortunately for those entrusted with its care, furnishes abundant material for exculpation. The people will not follow the regimen ordered for them, or previous practitioners have mistaken their complaints. Their constitutions are naturally feeble, or it is an epidemic under which they suffer, that will soon pass away, or there is a complication of disorders

they are too much reduced for active measuresor their nervous temperament is difficult to manage. But who can doubt that their treatment has been both judicious and successful, when we have been so fortunate as not to have lost one of our numerous dependencies since the great pestilence of 1783, in which no less than thirteen fell victims to the ignorance and neglect of our ancestors. Warned by their failure, we have wisely avoided the route they travelled. Let us be careful that the road we have chosen does not lead to the same termination.

CHAPTER IV.

Effect of toleration on the Ministers-Cotton Mather's attempt to raise a revival of bigotry, by spreading alarm about witches-His books and sermons-Preface by Richard Baxter-Exorcises a child at Boston-Salem delusion-Special Court, its proceedings-ExecutionsCase of the Rev. Mr. Burrows-Sudden change of public opinion-Mather falls into contempt - Decline of Congregationalism-Arrival of Sir William Phipps with the new Charter.

THE summary manner in which the State prisoners were released on their arrival in England, and the favourable reception Sir Edmund Andross met with from the Court, together with the continued delay their agents experienced in obtaining a renewal of the old, or the issue of a new Charter, filled the people with the greatest anxiety and alarm. Having no representation in Parliament, and neither Court nor party influence in England, beyond the sympathy of the sectaries,

they had everything to fear from royalty, to which they had always manifested a determined opposition, and nothing to hope from Episcopalians, whom they had ever oppressed and persecuted, while the service they claimed to have rendered to the public by enlarging the bounds of the empire, merited and received the answer, that their settlement was undertaken for their own advantage, and not the benefit of the State; and if their endeavours had been successful, they had themselves reaped the reward of their enterprise.

This state of uncertainty as to the form of their future government, weakened the hands of their local authorities, while toleration equally dimiInished the influence of the ministers. It is not easy for any person, not thoroughly versed in the history of these people, to comprehend the vast extent of power wielded by the clergy during the existence of the first Charter. They were not only councillors by an unwritten law, but also the authors of State papers, often employed on embassies abroad, and at home speakers at elections and in town meetings. "New England," says Cotton Mather, "being a country where interests are remarkably enwrapped in ecclesiastical circumstances, ministers ought to concern themselves in politics." They were invested with civil and spiritual authority; there was no escape from their grasp, and never could have been, had it not been