IX. CHAP. bors with their ballast, and waste the forests by improvident use. America is not annexed to the 1621. realm, nor within the jurisdiction of parliament; you have therefore no right to interfere."-"We may make laws for Virginia," rejoined another member, intent on opposing the flagrant benevolence of the king, and wholly unconscious of asserting, in the earliest debate on American affairs, the claim of parliament to that absolute sovereignty, which the colonies never acknowledged, and which led to the war of the revolution; "a bill, passed by the commons and the lords, if it receive the king's assent, will control the patent." The charter, argued Sir Edward Coke, with ample reference to early statutes, was granted without regard to previously existing rights; and is therefore void by the established laws of England. So the friends of the liberty of fishing in the commons triumphed over the advocates of the royal prerogative, though the parliament was dissolved, before a bill could be carried through all the forms of legislation. Yet enough had been done to infuse vigor into 1622. mercantile enterprize; in the second year after the settlement of Plymouth, five and thirty sail of vessels went to fish on the coasts of New-England, and made good voyages. The monopolists appealed to King James; and the monarch, preferring to assert his own extended prerogative, rather than to regard Nov. the spirit of the house of commons, issued a proclamation, which forbad any to approach the northern coast of America, except with the special leave of THE COUNCIL OF PLYMOUTH FOR NEW-ENGLAND. 353 IX. the company of Plymouth, or of the privy council. CHAP. It was monstrous thus to attempt to seal up a large portion of an immense continent; it was impossible to carry the ordinance into effect; and here, as so often, despotism caused its own fall. By desiring strictly to enforce its will, it provoked a conflict in which it was sure of being defeated. June. But the monopolists endeavored to establish their 1623. claims. One Francis West was despatched with a commission as admiral of New-England, for the purpose of excluding from the American seas such fishermen as came without a license. But his feeble authority was derided; the ocean was a wide place over which to keep sentry. The mariners refused to pay the tax, which he imposed; and his ineffectual authority was soon resigned. In England, the attempt occasioned the severest remonstrances, which did not fail to make an impression on the ensuing 1624. parliament. Dec. The patentees, alike prodigal of charters and tenacious of their monopoly, having given to Robert 1622. Gorges, the son of Sir Ferdinand, a patent for a 13. tract, extending ten miles on Massachusetts Bay, and thirty miles into the interior, now appointed him 1623. lieutenant-general of New-England, with power "to restrain interlopers," not less than to regulate the affairs of the corporation. His patent was never permanently used; though the colony at Weymouth was renewed, to meet once more with ill fortune. He was attended by Morrell, an episcopal clergyman, who was provided with a commission for the IX. CHAP. Superintendence of ecclesiastical affairs. Instead of establishing a hierarchy, Morrell, remaining in NewEngland about a year, wrote a description of the country in verse; while the civil dignity of Robert Gorges ended in a short-lived dispute with Weston. They came to plant a hierarchy and a general government, and they produced only a fruitless quarrel and a dull poem. 1624. 17. But when parliament was again convened, the controversy against the charter was once more renewed; and the rights of liberty found an inflexible Mar. champion in the aged Sir Edward Coke, who now expiated the sins of his early ambition by devotion to the interests of the people. It was in vain that the patentees relinquished a part of their pretensions; the commons resolved, that English fishermen shall have fishing with all its incidents. "Your patent," thus Gorges was addressed by Coke from the speaker's chair, "contains many particulars contrary to the laws and privileges of the subject; it is a monopoly, and the ends of private gain are concealed under color of planting a colony." "Shall none," observed the veteran lawyer in debate, "shall none visit the sea-coast for fishing? This is to make a monopoly upon the seas, which wont to be free. If you alone are to pack and dry fish, you attempt a monopoly of the wind and the sun." It was in vain for Sir George Calvert to resist. The bill passed without amendment; though it never received the royal assent.1 1 The original authorities, Debates of the Commons, 1620-1, v. i. p. 258. 260, 261. 318, 319; Jour nal of Commons, in Chalmers, p. 100-102, and 103, 104; Sir F. Gorges' Narration; Morrell, in i. COLONIZATION OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 355 IX. 1624. The determined opposition of the house, though CHAP. it could not move the king to overthrow the corporation, paralyzed its enterprize; many of the patentees abandoned their interest; so that the Plymouth company now did little except issue grants of domains; and the cottages, which, within a few years, were sprinkled along the coast from Cape Cod to the bay of Fundy, were the consequence of private adventure. The territory between the river of Salem and the Kennebec became, in a great measure, the property of two enterprizing individuals. We have seen, that Martin Pring was the discoverer of New-Hampshire; 1603. and that Smith had examined and extolled the deep 1614. waters of the Piscataqua. Sir Ferdinand Gorges, the 1620. most energetic member of the council of Plymouth, always ready to encounter risks in the cause of colonizing America, had not allowed repeated ill success to chill his confidence and decision; and now he found in John Mason, "who had been governor of a plantation in Newfoundland, a man of action," like himself. It was not difficult for Mason, who had 1621. been elected an associate and secretary of the council, to obtain a grant of the lands between Salem river and the farthest head of the Merrimac; but he did no more with his vast estate, than give it a name. The passion for land increased; and Gor- 1622. ges and Mason next took a patent for Laconia, the whole country between the sea, the St. Lawrence, the Merrimac, and the Kennebec; a company of Mass. Hist. Coll. v. i. p. 125–139; Smith, in iii. Mass. Hist. Collections, v. iii. p. 25; Hazard, v. i. p. 151–155. I have also compared Mar. 9. 10. CHAP. English merchants was formed; and under its au IX. spices permanent plantations were established on the 1623. banks of the Piscataqua.' Portsmouth and Dover 1628. Nov. are among the oldest towns in New-England. Splendid as were the anticipations of the proprietaries, and lavish as was their enthusiasm in liberal expenditures, the immediate progress of the plantations was inconsiderable, and, even as fishing stations, they do not seem to have prospered. When the country on Massachusetts Bay was granted to a company, of which the zeal and success were soon to overshadow all the efforts of proprieta1629. ries and merchants, it became expedient for Mason 7. to procure a new patent; and he now received a fresh title to the territory between the Merrimac and Piscataqua in terms, which, in some degree, interfered with the pretensions of his neighbors on the south. This was the patent for New-Hampshire; and was pregnant with nothing so signally as suits at law. The country had been devastated by the mutual wars of the tribes, and the same wasting pestilence which left New-Plymouth a desert; no notice seems to have been taken of the rights of the natives; nor did they now issue any deed of their 1630. lands; but the soil in the immediate vicinity of Do1631. ver, and afterwards of Portsmouth, was conveyed to the planters themselves, or to those, at whose expense 1 Gorges' Narrative, c. xxiv.; Hubbard, p. 614-616; Prince, p. 215; Adams' Annals of Portsmouth, p. 9, 10; Williamson's Maine, v. i. p. 222, and ff.; Belknap's New-Hampshire, c. i. A truly valuable work, highly creditable to American literature. 2 Hazard, v. i. p. 290–293. 3 Savage on Winthrop, v. i. p. 405, and ff. |