shall please her Majesty to dispose, I most humbly submit it to her royale Pleasure. I am sensible that the Persons in their Applications to your Lordships and elsewhere will reflect upon Some Methods in the Proceedings, Especially of the house of Representatives, but when it shall be remembered, That they are farr distant from home, of less education and knowledge in the Law, and in a very great displeasure against Traders with the Enimy, aggravated by a hard pressure of the Enimy at the very instant when this was discovered, it will go a great way in their Excuse. It was a very difficult thing for mee to keep the People within bounds in their Displeasure, and I was something fearfule of any outrage upon the Delinquents, but it is well over, And the proceeding of the Generall Assembly, The Members will to be sure [to] use their endavours to make it look well & satisfactory to the People everywhere, And no other Court could have done the Same. I pray leave to Assure your Lordships That I was never more sorry for anything in my Life, Than that so ill and inconvenient thing should happen to outrage the People while they are under so heavy Taxes & hard Service to starve And Destroy the Enimy. That I have used all possible means in my Power in the Proceedings to have them modedate as well as reasonably Satisfactory in so Publick a Case. That I have no animosity to any The Persons delinquents who had suffered to the Last Degree If I had not with all the Skill I have, laboured to quiet The People. That I shall be very glad of her Majestys favour to any or all of them as well as to all her good Subjects in the Government, who are at this Time patient of the utmost Charges and heavy Service for Her Majestys honour as well as their own Support.1 1 Board of Trade, Papers, New England (Ms.), 13, Q. 90. CHAPTER VII DUDLEY'S RELATIONS WITH THE COLONIES OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, RHODE ISLAND, AND CONNECTICUT THE Stuart plan for the consolidation of the American colonies was checked by the revolution of 1689. The charters granted by Charles II to Rhode Island and Connecticut were quietly resumed, and the governments established under them were tacitly recognized by William III. Of the Dominion of New England, as it existed in the time of Andros, New Hampshire and New York remained royal provinces, directly dependent upon the crown; while Massachusetts received a charter vesting the appointment of the governor in the king. During the administration of Lord Bellomont, the experiment of joining New York to New England was again tried; but from his death until 1702 this policy was held in abeyance, and was definitely abandoned upon the appointment of Dudley as governor of Massachusetts and of Lord Cornbury as governor of New York. From 1702, throughout the colonial period, New York and Massachusetts, though both exposed to the same dangers and each needing the coöperation of the other, existed not merely independent of one another, but often selfishly neglectful of each other's needs and best inter ests. Yet even without New York, many of the military resources of the old jurisdiction of Andros were at Dudley's command. On the same day on which he received his commission for Massachusetts he was commissioned governor of New Hamp shire; and, pursuant to the resolution of the Privy Council made in 1696, he was directed to take command of the military forces of both Connecticut and Rhode Island in time of war or danger. Although the territory over which Dudley ruled was smaller than that governed by either Andros or Bellomont, yet Dudley interpreted the powers granted to him to the broadest extent, and sought, as far as possible, to establish within the narrower limits a system similar to that which had existed under Andros. He exerted himself to the utmost in his several capacities; and in trying to increase the influence of the crown, and at the same time to extend his own personal power, he became involved in quarrels quite apart from those resulting from his administration in Massachusetts. Massachusetts had boundary disputes with all the other New England colonies; and, although the negotiations over their settlement throw little light upon Dudley's character or administration, they account in some measure for his widespread unpopularity throughout New England. These disputes, however, were minor matters compared with those larger and wider plans which he tried to put into operation and which made him the most hated man in all New England. In New Hampshire alone he was popular. His commission and instructions for the government of that province were almost identical with those which he had received for Massachusetts; but in New Hampshire the quarrels and disputes were of such a nature that, as representative of the queen, he could side with the people against the heirs of the old proprietors, and thus, instead of gaining the ill-will of the Assembly, he won its confidence and support. He resided in Massachusetts during his term of office, and, though he made frequent 1 New Hampshire Provincial Papers, ii. 366 et seq.; Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 2d Series, viii. 93 et seq. journeys to New Hampshire, relied upon his representative, Lieutenant-Governor Usher, to bear the brunt of his admin istration. The character of John Usher was one of Dudley's greatest assets in his career in New Hampshire.1 Usher had all of Dudley's unpleasant qualities greatly exaggerated, but little of his ability and none of his higher aims. His career, however, is strikingly like that of Dudley, though little but selfinterest and desire for gain can be found in it. Like Dudley, he was a native of Massachusetts, a stationer of Boston with a large fortune and a fair reputation in trade. Like Dudley, he had been employed as agent for Massachusetts in England, and had negotiated for the purchase of Maine with the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Like Dudley, again, he had held office under Sir Edmund Andros; while Dudley was chief justice, Usher was treasurer, and together they formed a part of the working force of the Council. Both had suffered loss of popularity from that connection, and both were anxious to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of their countrymen. Here the resemblance ends. Dudley had great personal ambition, and sought for place and office to increase his influence and power; but through it all he was guided by an ideal policy, which, though it might be hated in New England, was considered wise and statesmanlike in the mother country. Usher, on the other hand, though equally ambitious, was merely seeking to increase his fortune. From the time of his negotiations with the Gorges heirs to the end of his career, 1 1 Belknap's History of New Hampshire (i. 288 et seq.), gives a brief sketch of Usher. Usher's frequent and long reports to the Board of Trade are in manuscript at the Public Record Office, London. The replies of the Board of Trade, also in manuscript, are in Colonial Entry Book, New England, 40, E. Usher's speeches are printed in "Journal of the Council and General Assembly," New Hampshire Provincial Papers, vols. ii, iii passim. it is hard to find motives other than those of a selfish land speculator. In his dealings with the Assembly, Usher displayed a conception of the dignity of his office and of his own importance greater than Dudley had ever manifested, and at the same time showed a marked lack of education and political skill. Where Dudley succeeded in gaining his ends by tact and possibly by sharp political manipulation, Usher, scorning Dudley's advice to proceed with care, failed because of his attempts to bluster and browbeat the Assembly. Dudley's success was a mystery to Usher, and he put the worst possible construction upon it. "Angells does great things," he scornfully reported to the Board. His speeches to the Assembly were always incorrectly written, full of complaints and illtimed demands; and his frequent and long reports to the Board of Trade, always badly written and spelled, contained little but the repetition of vague, ill-natured, and petty charges, "Mostly the same matter over and over again, and in such method as renders them very difficult to us to understand; Wherefore We must advise you for the future onely to write plaine matter of fact, and in such a manner as may be less obscure," wrote the Board of Trade in 1704.2 During his term as lieutenant-governor Usher continued to live in Boston, and went often to New Hampshire to summon a Council meeting, where little was done but listen to a speech from the lieutenant-governor. So deeply was he involved in suits concerning land titles that Dudley received a special instruction directing that Usher should "not intermeddle in any manner with the appointing of Judges or Juries." " 1 Board of Trade, Papers, New England (Ms.), 12, N. 67. New Hampshire Provincial Papers, ii. 406. |