CHAPTER II.

THE NAVIGATION ACTS.

THE republican revolution in England set in motion the ideas of popular liberty which the experience of happier ages was to devise ways of introducing into the political life of the nation. The swift and immoderate loyalty of the moment doomed the country to the necessity of a new revolution.

All the regicides that were caught would have perished but for Charles II., whom good nature led at last to exclaim: "I am tired of hanging, except for new offences." Hastę was, however, made to despatch at least half a score, as if to appease the shade of Charles I.; and among the selected victims was Hugh Peter, once the minister of Salem, the father-in-law of the younger Winthrop; one whom Roger Williams honored and loved, and whom Milton is supposed to include among

Men whose life, learning, faith, and pure intent

Would have been held in high esteem with Paul. As a preacher, his homely energy resembled the directness of the earlier divines; in Salem he won general affection; he perseveringly strove to advance the interests and the industry of New England, and assisted in founding its earliest college. Monarchy and episcopacy he had repelled with fanatical passion, but was not a regicide. He could thank God for the massacres of Cromwell in Ireland; yet was benevolent, and would plead for the rights of the feeble and the poor. "Many godly in New England dared not condemn what he had done." In October, 1660, on his trial, he was allowed no counsel; and even false witnesses did not substantiate the specific charges urged against him. "Go home to New England, and trust God

there," were his last words to his daughter. To his friends he said: "Weep not for me; my heart is full of comfort;" and he smiled as he made himself ready to leave the world. But it was not enough to punish the living; vengeance invaded the tombs. The corpses of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton were, by the order of both houses of parliament, and with the approbation of the king, disinterred, dragged on hurdles to Tyburn, and hanged at the three corners of the gallows. In the evening, they were cut down and beheaded, amidst the merriment of the cavaliers.

Of the judges of King Charles I., three escaped to America. Edward Whalley, who won laurels in the field of Naseby, always enjoyed the confidence of Cromwell and remained a friend to the Independents, and William Goff, a firm friend to the family of Cromwell, a good soldier, but ignorant of the true principles of freedom, escaped to Boston. For nearly a year they resided unmolested within the limits of Massachusetts, publicly preached and prayed, and gained universal applause. When, in 1661, warrants arrived from England for their apprehension, they fled to New Haven, where it was esteemed a crime against God to bewray the wanderer or give up the outcast. They removed in secrecy from house to house; sometimes concealed themselves in a mill, sometimes in clefts of the rocks by the sea-side; and for weeks together they dwelt in a cave in the forest. Great rewards were offered for their apprehension; Indians as well as English were urged to scour the woods in quest of their hiding-place, as men hunt for the holes of foxes: When the search was nearly over, they retired to a village on the sound; till at last they took refuge in Hadley, and the most beautiful valley of New England gave shelter to their wearisome age.

John Dixwell, changing his name, was absorbed among the inhabitants of New Haven, married, and lived peacefully and happily. The history of the world, which Raleigh had written in imprisonment, with the sentence of death hanging over his head, was his favorite study; and he ever retained the belief that the spirit of English liberty would demand the new revolution, which was achieved in England a few months before his death.

Three of the regicides, who had escaped to the Netherlands, found themselves, in the territory of a free republic, less secure than their colleagues in a dependent colony. In 1662, they were surrendered, and executed in England.

Sir Henry Vane, the former governor of Massachusetts, the benefactor of Rhode Island, the ever faithful friend of New England, adhered with undaunted firmness to "the glorious cause" of popular liberty; and, shunned by every man who courted the returning monarch, he became noted for the most "catholic" unpopularity. He fell from the affections of the English people, when the English people fell from the jealous care of their liberties. He had always been incorrupt and disinterested, merciful and liberal. When Unitarianism was persecuted, not as a sect, but as a blasphemy, Vane interceded for its advocate; he pleaded for the release of Quakers imprisoned for their opinions; as a legislator, he demanded justice in behalf of the Roman Catholics; he resisted the sale of Penruddoc's men into slavery, as an aggression on the rights of man. The immense emoluments of his office as treasurer of the navy he voluntarily resigned. When the Presbyterians, though his adversaries, were forcibly excluded from the house of commons, he absented himself. After the monarchy was overthrown and a commonwealth attempted, Vane reluctantly filled a seat in the council; and, amid the floating wrecks of the English constitution, he clung to the existing parliament as to the only fragment on which it was possible to rescue English liberty. His energy gave to the English navy an efficient organization, so that England could cope with Holland on the sea; and he desired such a reform of parliament as would make it a true representative of the people. He steadily resisted the usurpation of Cromwell, and for this was confined to Carisbrook Castle. Cromwell and Vane were equally unsuccessful; the first failed to secure the government of England to his family; the other, to vindicate it for the people.

The convention parliament had excepted Vane from the indemnity, on the king's promise that he should not suffer death. It was now resolved to bring him to trial; and, in June, 1662, he turned his trial into a triumph. Though

"supposed to be a timorous man," he appeared before his judges with animated fearlessness; he denied the imputation of treason with scorn, defended the right of Englishmen to be governed by successive representatives, and took glory to himself for actions which promoted the good of his country, and were sanctioned by parliament as the virtual sovereign of the realm. He spoke not for his life and estate, but for the honor of the martyrs to liberty that were in their graves, for the liberties of England, for the interests "of all posterity." He asked for counsel. "Who," cried the solicitor, "will dare to speak for you, unless you can call down from the gibbet the heads of your fellow-traitors?" "Alone, I am not afraid," answered Vane, "to seal my witness to the glorious cause with my blood." "Certainly," wrote the king, "Sir Henry Vane is too dangerous a man to let live, if we can honestly put him out of the way." He could not honestly be put out of the way; but still, the solicitor urged, "he must be made a sacrifice."

The day before his execution, his friends were admitted to his prison; and he reasoned with them calmly on death and immortality. Of his political career he could say: "I have not the least recoil in my heart as to matter or manner of what I have done."

A friend prayed that the cup of death might be averted. "Why should we fear death?" answered Vane; "I find it rather shrinks from me than I from it." He stooped to embrace his children, mingling consolation with kisses; and his farewell counsel to them was: "Suffer anything from men rather than sin against God." As to his resistance to arbitrary rule, "I leave my life," he said, "as a seal to the justness of that quarrel. Ten thousand deaths, rather than defile the chastity of my conscience; nor would I, for ten thousand worlds, resign the peace and satisfaction I have in my heart."

From the scaffold Vane surveyed the surrounding multitude with composure, and sought to speak to them of English liberty, wishing to confirm the wavering and convince the ignorant by his martyrdom. His voice was overpowered with trumpets; not disconcerted by the rudeness, he foretold to those around him that a better day would dawn in the

clouds, though “they were coming thicker and thicker for a season." "Blessed be God," exclaimed he, as he bared his neck for the axe, "I have kept a conscience void of offence to this day, and have not deserted the righteous cause for which I suffer." In the history of the world, he was the first martyr to the principle of the paramount power of the people; and, as he predicted, "his blood gained a voice to speak his innocence." Milton, ever parsimonious of praise, devoted a majestic poem to encomiums on him when "young in years but in sage counsel old," the best of senators, the eldest son of religion; and Clarendon, writing for posterity, records of him: "If he were not superior to Hampden, he was inferior to no other man;" "his whole life made good the imagination that there was in him something extraordinary."

Puritanism, with the sects to which it gave birth, ceased to sway the destinies of England. The army of Cromwell displayed its might in the field; Milton still lived to create works that are among the noblest productions of the human mind; Vane proved how fearlessly it could bear witness for truth in the face of death; New England is the monument of its ability to establish free states.

The new parliament was chosen in 1660, just before the coronation, while the country still glowed with unreflecting loyalty. Few Presbyterians were returned: the irresistible majority, many of whom had fought for the king, was all for monarchy and prelacy. Severe enactments restrained the press; the ancient right of petition was narrowed and placed under supervision. The restored king was a papist; but whoever should affirm him to be a papist was incapacitated from holding office in church or state. He was ready "to conspire with the king of France and wicked advisers at home, to subvert the religion and liberty of the English people;" and the parliament, in its eagerness to condemn rebellion, renounced for itself every right of withstanding him even in defensive war.

The Presbyterians formed the governing body in many municipalities; the sincere ones were dislodged by an act removing all incumbents who should not by oath declare it unlawful to take up arms against the king on any pretence