網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

L'État, C'etait Lui

CHAPTER XVI

SOME APPRECIATION OF ROGER WILLIAMS

BEGINNING with 1676 -- the year of the

death of John Clarke—the founders of the

commonwealth of Rhode Island passed rapidly one after another to their long abode. Samuel Gorton died late in November or early in December, 1677. On June 20, 1678, Benedict Arnold died. William Coddington died the same year on November 1st. Then, on March 12, 1680, came the death of John Cranston, and three years later that of Roger Williams. Aside from the death of the founders, most of the noteworthy incidents of Rhode Island history between 1676 and 1683 have been mentioned in previous chapters, but there remain still a few that demand attention, and these we shall briefly take up before addressing ourselves to the theme of the chapter in hand.

During the decade under review, prices of foodcommodities adjusted themselves on a lower plane than in days gone by. Good merchantable pork now sold for twopence a pound, or at fifty shillings a barrel, as against seventy shillings a barrel in

VOL. II.-18.

1664, and threepence a pound in 1670; while good beef sold at twelve shillings a hundred. Peas

always a staple article-sold for two shillings and sixpence a bushel, as against three shillings and sixpence in 1664 and 1670. Indian corn, which in 1670 could be obtained only at three shillings a bushel, now sold for two shillings; and wool had dropped from twelvepence a pound to sixpence, and butter from sixpence to fivepence.

But it is of more particular interest to remark that on May 7, 1679, a law was passed forbidding the "employing of servants to labor on the first day of the week,” and interdicting on that day all sporting, gaming, or shooting, and all tippling and drinking in taverns "more than necessity requireth"; that in the same year (July) Sir Edmund Andros (Governor of New York) paid a visit to the colony and was entertained at the public charge; that on May 8, 1680, Governor Peleg Sanford gave wary answer to twenty-seven queries from the Lords of Trade regarding the colony's population and material condition; that in the same year the laws of the commonwealth were ordered to be got ready to be "putt in print”; that likewise in the same year (May) a bill was passed reasserting (against a contrary declaration made in August, 1678) the ancient right and power of the General Assembly to act as a final court of appeal in all cases in which either plaintiff or defendant should deem himself aggrieved; that on January 15, 1681, Roger Williams addressed a letter to the town of Providence; and, lastly, that in

« 上一頁繼續 »