weight in them that they would consult counsel, and for that purpose adjourned the meeting, having first agreed, however, "To carry the matter secret, that it be not divulged."

This opposition and delay having been foreseen, was provided against. They had taken the precaution to retain a Puritan lawyer, of the name of White, whose knowledge seems to have been on a level with his honesty, who had an opinion on the subject already prepared; and at the next court it was resolved "That the government of the colony be transferred to New England." This decision, however, was far from being satisfactory to all the members. There were many present who had adventured their money that had no idea of emigrating, and who did not like to have both their property and patent transferred to another hemisphere. An attempt at compromise was made by resolving that "the government of persons should be established in Massachusetts, and "the government of trade and merchandize" be retained in London. Professions and promises were so familiar with the conspirators, that they obtained their purpose by resorting to them now. The

planters" undertook and engaged with the "adventurers," for so the respective resident and nonresident parties were designated, to divide the whole joint stock, with all its vast accumulations, at the end of seven years, and pay over or assign to each

proprietor his respective share. A fortune at the end of seven years they considered better than a present quarrel, and they yielded. It was the last they ever saw of the emigrants, and all that they ever heard of their transatlantic stock.

Such has ever been the fate of an union between hypocrisy and avarice. The regular habits, devout conduct, and high professions of the former, seldom fail in obtaining the control of the funds, and the temptation to appropriate them is too strong for stimulated honesty. However humiliating to sectarians the fact may be, it must be admitted that dissent thus set the first example of absconding to America with partnership effects. Having equally deprived the King, the Church, the savages, and the "adventurers" of their rights, it was necessary now to delude themselves, and silence, if possible, their own scruples, if their doubts deserve such a respectable name. A new, important, and very difficult question arose for their consideration, in what relation were they to stand to the mother country? Most of the proprietors held that they had a perfect right without any Charter from the Crown, to establish such sort of government as they thought proper, and to form a new commonwealth, as fully as if they were in a state of nature and were making their first entrance into civil society.

Men who can justify a separation from their

Church, and see no sin in schism, can soon satisfy themselves that fealty is a local, and not a general duty. With respect to implied allegiance, the only true and sensible view of the matter, it was argued, was that subjection was of two kinds, necessary and voluntary. From actual residence within any government, there naturally arose an obligation to submit to the laws and authority thereof. But birth was no necessary cause of allegiance. The subjects of any prince, or nation had a perfect right to remove to any other state or part of the world, unless their own country were weakened or exposed by such removal, and even in that case if they were deprived of liberty of conscience it would justify a separation, and upon their departure their co-relative obedience determined and ceased altogether. The country to which they were about to remove was claimed and possessed by absolute princes, whose title to the lordship and sovereignty thereof had been acknowledged by kings of England, by purchasing some portion of their territory; this they also proposed to do, and then they would stand in their place, as original and independent proprietors of the soil. It was obvious, therefore, they said, that as their migration from England would terminate their necessary civil subjection, their patent would be a great protection, not merely from foreign ag

gression but from the King himself; for at most it would only create a voluntary sort of dependence, and if any question should arise as to its nature and extent, it must be decided by the document itself. Their situation, and that of the people of London, it was argued, was widely different. The compact between the sovereign and the inhabitants of that city, as contained in its charter, was not the origin of their allegiance, but their actual residence, and so soon as any of them removed out of the kingdom, that necessary subjection immediately changed its nature, and became optional.

Now what would be the character of the new relation in which they would stand to the King? for that was an important question. It was, they said, simply an understanding, not to subject themselves to, or seek protection from any other princes, and this they were willing to promise. Having silenced or satisfied their apprehensions by this mode of reasoning, and assured themselves that accepting their patent involved no compromise of this liberty, they set themselves to work in earnest to prepare for embarkation. A fleet of fourteen sail was assembled for the transportation of fifteen hundred passengers, and on the 6th day of July. twelve of the ships arrived at Massachusetts Bay, conveying the Governor, the officers of the Com

monwealth, and the Charter.

The expense of

this equipment amounted to twenty one thousand two hundred pounds sterling.*

On the 19th of October, 1630, the first General Court was held at Boston, where the Charter was produced, and publicly read to the assembled people, amidst the most profound silence, and listened to with the deepest emotions of veneration and delight by those whose independence its removal had effectually secured. This was the commencement of the republic of Massachusetts. It was founded on democratic principles, guarded with the most zealous vigilance, and supported and extended with cautious, but determined resolution; when they surveyed their situation they felt assured they had nothing to fear from within. They were all democrats, and alike hostile to the Church and State they had so cheerfully abandoned at home. But when

they reflected on their isolated situation, the inadequacy of their means to such a vast undertaking as settling a community of strangers in a wilderness, the distrust with which they knew they would be regarded by the Church, and the indignation which the removal of their Charter would naturally excite in the Court, they were

* The expense of settling this colony amounted, during the first twelve years, to two hundred thousand pounds. See 1st Douglas, 428.