NEW ENGLAND DURING THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND THE PROTECTORATE. URING the domination of the Long Parliament and the Protector, New England, notwithstanding the puritan opinions of the inhabitants, maintained a neutral position with respect to the contending parties in the mother country, and even declined offering any hostile demonstration towards the Dutch colonies in New York, (then called New Netherlands), while war was raging between Great Britain and Holland. Massachusetts declared itself a "perfect republic," determined to resist any aggression which might be attempted on behalf either of the king or his opponents. Their agent in England denied the right of parliament to legislate for the 216 NEW ENGLAND COIN. colony unless it was represented in the legislature, and was supported in that opinion by Vane and his distinguished friends.* "A practice strongly fraught with the character of sovereign authority was adopted, a few years after, (1652), when the increasing trade of the colonists with the West Indies, and the quantity of Spanish bullion that was brought through this channel into New England, induced the provincial authorities to erect a mint for the coinage of silver money at Boston. The coin was stamped with the name of New England on one side; of Massachusetts, as the principal settlement, on the other; and with a tree as the symbol of national vigour and increase. Maryland was the only other colony that ever presumed to coin money; and indeed this prerogative has been always regarded as the peculiar attribute of sovereignty. "But it must be considered," says one of the New England historians, "that at this time there was no king in Israel." In the distracted state of England, it might well be judged unsafe to send bullion there to be coined; and from the uncertainty respecting the form of government which would finally arise out of the civil wars, it might reasonably be apprehended that an impress received during their continuance would not long retain its currency. The practice gave no umbrage whatever to the English government. It received the tacit allowance of the parliament of Cromwell, and even of Charles II. during twenty years of his reign. In 1646 the dissenters from Congregationalism, the established religion of Massachusetts, petitioned the general court for leave to impeach Governor Winthrop before the whole body of his fellow-citizens, on a charge of having punished some of their number for interfering at an election. He was tried, and acquitted; and this proceeding was so far from impairing his popularity, that he was chosen governor every year after so long as he lived. The petitioners being reprimanded for their alleged attempt to subvert the fundamental laws of the colony, appealed to the government of England, but without success. * Grahame. POLICY OF CROMWELL. 217 After the abolishment of royalty in England, the Long Parliament sent a mandate to the governor and general court of Massachusetts, requiring the surrender of their charter, and the acceptance of a new charter from the existing government. This demand was evaded. The general court, instead of surrendering the patent, transmitted a petition to parliament against the obnoxious mandate, setting forth, that "these things not being done in the late king's time, or since, it was not able to discern the need of such an injunction." The intercession of Cromwell in their behalf was also solicited, and his favour, which was uniformly extended to New England, was not found wanting on this occasion. Cromwell had been desirous to present the colonists of Massachusetts with a district in Ireland, which was to be evacuated for their reception; and he also offered them a new home in the fertile island of Jamaica; but both these propositions were respectfully declined. His favour, however, was by no means forfeited by this refusal. His ascendency in England was highly beneficial to the northern colonies. Rhode Island, immediately after his elevation, resumed the form of government which the parliament had recently suspended; Connecticut and New Haven were afforded the means of defence against the Dutch colonists of New York; all the New England states were exempted from the operation of the parliamentary ordinance against trade with foreign nations; and both their commerce and their security were promoted by the conquest which the Protector's arms achieved of the province of Acadia from the French.* The religious dissensions of Massachusetts had not entirely terminated with the expulsion of Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends. The desire of the government to preserve a certain degree of uniformity of opinion was constantly exposing them to new troubles. In 1651, seven or eight persons, under the direction of Obadiah Holmes, professed the Baptist tenets, and seceded from the congregation to which they had been attached. The excesses of Boccold and his followers at * Grahame. 218 ARRIVAL OF QUAKERS. Munster, in the previous century, were not yet forgotten; and the sudden appearance of a body of persons professing similar opinions, in the very midst of the puritans, excited horror and alarm. Admonition and whipping were resorted to as a corrective, and a new law was passed, having direct reference to the teachers of Anabaptist doctrines. This severity appears to have occasioned the retirement of many of the Baptists from the colony for a season. Some of them repaired to England, and complained to Cromwell of the persecution they had undergone; but he rejected their complaint, and applauded the conduct of the provincial authorities.* The treatment which the Quakers experienced was much more severe. The peculiar doctrines of the Quakers, which are regarded with respect and even admiration by some of the greatest divines of the present day, appear to have been particularly offensive to the puritans; and the extravagances into which an imperfect understanding of them led some weakminded persons of the sect, may have rendered them proper subjects of confinement or restraint; but certainly did not make them amenable to capital punishment. In July, 1656, two male and six female Quakers arrived in Boston, where the reproach which their sect had incurred by the extravagances of some of its members in England had preceded them, and they were regarded with terror and dislike by the great bulk of the people. They were instantly arrested by the magistrates and examined for what were considered bodily marks of witchcraft. No such indications being found, they were sent out of the jurisdiction and forbidden to return. A law was passed at the same time, imposing penalties on every shipmaster who should bring Quakers or their writings into the colony; forbidding Quakers to come, under penalty of stripes and labour in the house of correction, and adjudging all defenders of their tenets to fine, imprisonment or exile. The four associated states of New England adopted this law and urged the authorities of Rhode Island to co-operate with them in stemming the progress of Quaker opinions; but the * Grahame. PERSECUTION OF THE QUAKERS. 219 assembly of that colony replied that "they could not punish any man for declaring his opinion."* The penal enactments of the other colonies only inflamed the zeal of those against whom they were directed. The banished persons all returned, except Mary Fisher, who travelled to Adrianople and delivered her testimony to the Grand Vizier, without molestation, being probably regarded by the Turks as entitled to that reverence which they always accord to insane people. Again the authorities of Massachusetts resorted to imprisonment, flogging, and banishment; and a new law, inflicting mutilation of the ears, was enacted and executed on three individuals. These severities, far from effecting the object of the authorities, brought multitudes of Quakers into the country, whose violent language and extravagant acts were certainly calculated to exasperate any quiet and well-ordered community. One of them, named Faubord, conceiving that he experienced a celestial encouragement to rival the faith and imitate the sacrifice of Abraham, was proceeding with his own hands to shed the blood of his son, when his neighbours, alarmed by the cries of the lad, broke into the house and prevented the consummation of this atrocity. Others interrupted religious services in the churches by loudly protesting that these were not the services that God would accept; and one of them illustrated this assurance by breaking two bottles in the face of the congregation, exclaiming, "Thus will the Lord break you in pieces." They declared that the scriptures were replete with allegory, that the inward light was the only infallible guide to religious truth, and that all were blind beasts and liars who denied it. Some of the female preachers even proceeded to acts which were gross violations of public decency.† * Grahame. †These facts are given on the authority of Grahame, who also says that the modern apologists of the Quakers assert that these acts were committed not by genuine Quakers, but by the ranters, or wild separatists from the Quaker body. This he appears to admit; but says that they assumed the name of Quakers and professed their leading doctrines. The provincial authorities, by punishing specific immoral acts and paying no attention to |