science. At length these continued severities drove some to extremity. The Brownists, or followers of Brown, denied altogether the right of the church of England to be considered as a church, and her ministers as lawfully ordained. They formed the first example of an independent system, in which each congregation made a church by itself, and the whole power was vested in the brethren, or lay members. The archbishop poured all the vials of his wrath on this unhappy sect. Brown could boast that he had been shut up in thirty-two prisons, and several of his followers suffered death. These violences drove a number of the more decided votaries of the party to take refuge in Holland, where they long formed a separate church under their pastor, Mr Robinson, who seems to have been a respectable and intelligent man, and by no means very illiberal. Dissatisfied, however, with their situation and prospects in this foreign land, they cast their eyes upon New England as a place where, amid the present difficulty of finding settlers, they might be allowed an asylum. They sent over agents to the Plymouth Company, and stated themselves to be "weaned from the delicate milk of their native country, knit together in a strict and sacred band, whom small things could not discourage, nor small discontents cause to wish themselves home again." After some negotiation they obtained their object; and though James told them that there could be no formal stipulation as to the free exercise of their religion, yet, if they demeaned themselves quietly, no inquiry would be made. They set sail on the 12th July, 1619, in two vessels, having on board one hundred and twenty persons, with goods and provisions which had cost £2400. After a rough voyage, and being obliged to send back one of the vessels, they arrived, on the 9th November, off Cape Cod. The lateness of the season, and the ignorance or evil design of the pilot, baffled their attempts to reach a more favourable station, and they were obliged to fix their settlement on a spot in Cape Cod Bay, which they called New Plymouth. They suffered most severely during the first four or five months from the inclemency of an American winter, the want of necessaries, and various diseases; so that in spring there was not above fifty remaining. Even after they had seriously begun to improve the settlement, their progress was retarded by the community of goods, which, by an injudicious imitation of the primitive Christians, they made the basis of their system. This rendered labour exceedingly slack, and produced even the necessity for whipping in order to stimulate to its exercise. In religious matters their partiality for "the preaching of the gifted brethren" prevented the formation of any learned or regular ministry. However, these faults were gradually corrected; in the course of ten years they had increased to three hundred, and become a flourishing little colony.*

* Neale's History of New England, i. 81-96. Mather's Ecclesiastical History of New England, book i. ch. 2 and 3. Hutchison's History of Massachussetts, p. 45. Chalmers's Annals, p. 85-99.

The colonization of New England had not yet taken place on any scale commensurate with the wishes of the government, or which could ever make it a flourishing or important colony. James, however, being anxious to promote this object, formed a new society, under the title of the Grand Council of Plymouth, at the head of which he placed the Duke of Lennox, the Marquis of Buckingham, and other persons of distinction. But neither this pompous title, nor the rank of the members, did much for New England till Charles succeeded, and entered into arrangements with Laud, which secured an ample body of recruits. The laws against religious dissent, however rigorous, had yet been executed in their utmost severity only in a few prominent cases, and had not prevented a tolerable freedom of private worship. But Laud introduced a number of new ceremonies, which nearly assimilated the form of worship to the pompous ritual of Rome, and an inquisitorial system of the utmost violence against those who refused to conform. It extended even to those who showed any peculiar degree of that zeal and strictness which was held to savour of the Calvinistic system. To omit reading the book of sports which might be played on the Sabbath, to preach on a week-day or Sunday afternoon, to rebuke any of the congregation for drunkenness or other open sin, made a sufficient ground for the ejection of the most respectable ministers. They were also strictly prohibited from any private ministration; so that the great body of the nation were absolutely excluded from any worship which they could consider as scriptural or edifying. The reluc

tance so deeply felt to quit their native country, and cross the ocean to the shore of the great western wilderness, was thus overcome. An association, composed of several gentlemen of rank and property, with a number of substantial farmers and tradesmen, and accompanied by several eminent ministers, applied for a grant of land in the new world. In their proposals they intimate other motives as at least of secondary influence. " The land," they say, " grows weary of her inhabitants, insomuch that man, which is the most precious of all creatures, is here more vile and base than the earth he treads upon;" that " no mean estate almost will suffice a man to keep sail with his equals, and it is almost impossible for a good upright man to maintain his constant charge."*

The council and the court united in forwarding the design. The adventurers received a grant of land extending from the Charles to the Merrimak river, and across from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea, a dimension of the extent of which the donors were little aware. Robertson is astonished at Neale asserting that freedom of religious worship was granted, when the charter expressly asserts the king's supremacy. But this, in fact, was never the article on which they demurred,† for the spirit of loyalty was then very strong. It seems quite clear, from the confidence with which they went, and the manner in which they acted when there, that, though there was no formal or written stipulation, the most full under

* Mather, book i. 17. † See Neale, p. 56.

standing existed, that very ample latitude was to be allowed in this respect. We have seen on every occasion the vast sacrifices which kings were willing to make, in order to people their distant possessions; and the necessity was increased by the great backwardness hitherto visible. It was probably also calculated, that a few of the most discontented spirits being thus ejected and allowed " illa se jactare in aula," the nation in general might fall into a more contented and submissive state.

The expedition consisted of six vessels, on board of which were 350 passengers and 115 head of cattle. The sailors were surprised and edified by the new scene which their ships presented; prayer and exposition of the word two or three times a-day, the Sabbath spent in preaching and catechizing,-repeated and solemn fasts for the success of the voyage.* They arrived in the end of June, 1629, and selected a settlement, to which they gave the name of Salem.

The colony suffered much during the first winter, and even lost a considerable part of its numbers. Yet the spirit of emigration continued as strong as ever. In the following year a new expedition was planned, led by persons of still higher distinction. Among those were Winthrop and Dudley, the future governors of the colony. They succeeded without difficulty in purchasing and carrying out with them the patent of the grand Plymouth company, who had found it a very unprofitable concern. Mr Chalmers admits,