The administration, however, was still carried on in the full spirit of arbitrary dominion ; and the Virginians, though their constitution resembled that of England in its form, were so utterly unacquainted with liberty, that they were denied even the privilege of complaining, the last consolation of the oppressed: for they were pro hibited by a law, and under severe penalties, " from speaking disrespectfully of the governor, or defaming, either by words or writing, the administration of the colony." (Robertson's Amer. vol. iii. p. 288.) Yet, not withstanding these circumstances, they doubled their numbers in less than twenty-eight years.
The efforts of the company at Plymouth were neither so vigorous, nor at first so successful, as those of the company in London.
For while, their attempts were limited to voyages made for the purpose of taking fish, or, at most, of t•a dim; with the natives, and procuring furs. In one of these attempts, Captain Smith, of whom. we have spoken in the history of Virginia, explored with accuracy, (A. D. 1614,) that part of the American coast, which stretches from Penobscot to Cape Cod : and having de lineated a map of the country, he presented it to Charles, pi ince of Wales, who gave to the region that Smith had isited, the name of New England, which it still retains.
But what the exertions of the company were unable to accomplish, was effected by a principle, which has, at all times, had a chief share in the revolutions that take place in human affairs. When the light of the Reformation had dawned upon Europe, the extravagant doctrines and absurd practices of the Romish church filled the minds of those who had ventured to think freely on religious topics, with horror and irreconcile able aversion. The spirit which prevailed at that time was by no means satisfied either with the partial changes which took place in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Eli zabeth, or the imperious manner in which these sove reigns dictated a creed to their people: and the less so, as the opinions of the royal theologians themselves, es pecially those of the former, had undergone consider able alterations. Elizabeth, determined that all her subjects should conform to the belief which she had chosen for them, established a High Commission for ecclesiastical affairs; with powers, not inferior, or less hostile to the rights of conscience, than those of the In quisition in Spain. Some attempts were made in the house of commons to check these arbitrary and odious proceedings : but Elizabeth interfered with her preroga tive, and the guardians of the people were silent. They
even consented to an act, by which those who should be absent from church for a month, were subjected to a fine and imprisonment, and, if they persisted in their obstinacy, to death, without benefit of clergy. In con sequence of this iniquitous statute, and the distresses in which the puritans were involved, a body of them called Brownists from the name of their founder, left England, and settled at Leyden, in Holland, under the care of Mr John Robinson, their pastor. But this situation at length proving disagreeable to them, and their children intermarrying with the Dutch, they were apprehensive lest their church, which they regarded as a model of untarnished purity, should gradually decay ; and having obtained a promise from James I. that they should not be molested in the exercise of their religion, they fled to America, and founded the colony of New Plymouth. They continued for some time to adhere to their reli gious opinions, but never became so numerous as to at tract, in any great degree, the attention of the mother country. They were afterwards united to the colony of Massachusetts Bay, the origin and progress of which we shall now relate.
From the tranquillity which the Brownists had enjoy ed at New Plymouth, and the sufferings to which those who held the same opinions were exposed in England, an association was formed by Mr White, a clergyman at Dorchester, in order to lead a new colony to that part of America, where their brethren were settled. They applied to the Grand Council of Plymouth, of which the duke of Lennox and the marquis of Buckingham were . members, (for the original company had been dissolved by the authority of the king,) and purchased from them all that part of New England, which lies three miles to the south of Charles river, and three miles to the nova' of Merrimac river, and extends from the Atlantic ocean to the South sea. They obtained a charter from Charles 1. by which the same ample privileges were conferred upon them, which James had conferred upon the two companies of Virginia: and they obtained it with a which appears to us, altogether unac countable, when we think of the principles and views of those to whom it was granted. They embarked, to the number of 300, in five ships, (A. D. and landed at New England. They found there the remains of a small body of puritans, who had left their country,the year before, under Endicott, a frantic enthusiast ; and uniting with these, they settled at a place to which En dicott had given the name of Salem. This was the first permanent town in Massachusetts.