pal and Presbyterian worship, and
the worship of other Protestant Churches existing in England; and their
petition was addressed to a Legislature of Congregationalists, elected
by Congregationalists alone; and it was only in the event of their
reasonable requests not being granted by the local Legislature that they
proposed to present their grievances to the Imperial Parliament. The
plea of fear for the safety of Congregational worship in Massachusetts
was a mere pretence to justify the proscription and persecution of all
dissent from the Congregational establishment. The spirit of the local
Government and of the clergy that controlled it was _intolerance_.
Toleration was denounced by them as the doctrine of devils; and the
dying lines of Governor Dudley are reported to have been--

"Let men of God, in Court and Church, watch
O'er such as do a toleration hatch."[94]

There is one other of Mr. Palfrey's statements which is of special
importance; it is the admission that a majority of the population of
Massachusetts were excluded from all share in the Government, and were
actually opposed to it. Referring to the petition to the local
Legislature, he says: "The demand was enforced by considerations which
were not without plausibility, and were presented in a seductive form.
It was itself an appeal to the _discontent of the numerical majority not
invested with a share in the government_."[95]

It is thus admitted, and clear from indubitable facts, that professing
to be republicans, they denied to the great majority of the people any
share in the government. Professing hatred of the persecuting
intolerance of King Charles and Laud in denying liberty of worship to
all who differed from them, they now deny liberty of worship to all who
differ from themselves, and punish those by fine and imprisonment who
even petition for equal religious and civil liberty to all classes of
citizens. They justify even armed resistance against the King, and
actually decapitating as well as dethroning him, in order to obtain,
professedly, a government by the majority of the nation and liberty of
worship; and they now deny the same principle and right of civil and
religious liberty to the great majority of the people over whom they
claimed rule. They claim the right of resisting Parliament itself by
armed force if they had the power, and only desist from asserting it, to
the last, as the _salus populi_ did not require it, and for the sake