re obliged to a
man than New England to Archbishop Laud, who by his cruel and arbitrary
proceedings drove thousands of families out of the kingdom, and thereby
stocked the Plantations with inhabitants, in the compass of a very few
years, which otherwise could not have been done in an age." This was the
sense of some of the greatest men in Parliament in their speeches in
1641. Mr. Tienns (afterwards Lord Hollis) said that "a certain number of
ceremonies in the judgment of some men unlawful, and to be rejected of
all the churches; in the judgment of all other Churches, and in the
judgment of our own Church, but indifferent; yet what difference, yea,
what distraction have those indifferent ceremonies raised among us? What
has deprived us of so many thousands of Christians who desired, and in
all other respects deserved, to hold communion with us? I say what has
deprived us of them, and scattered them into I know not what places and
corners of the world, but these indifferent ceremonies."--(Several other
speeches to the same effect are quoted by Neal.)--History of New
England, Vol. I., pp. 210-212.]

[Footnote 74: "Veneris, 10 March, 1642:

"Whereas the plantations in New England have, by the blessing of the
Almighty, had good and prosperous success, without any public charge to
the State, and are now likely to prove very happy for the propagation of
the gospel in those parts, and very beneficial and commodious to this
nation. The Commons assembled in Parliament do, for the better
advancement of those plantations and the encouragement of the planters
to proceed in their undertaking, ordain that all merchandising goods,
that by any person or persons whatsoever, merchant or other, shall be
exported out of the kingdom of England into New England to be spent or
employed there, or being of the growth of that kingdom [colony], shall
be from thence imported thither, or shall be laden or put on board any
ship or vessel for necessaries in passing to and fro, and all and every
the owner or owners thereof shall be freed and discharged of and from
paying and yielding any custom, subsidy, taxation, or other duty for the
same, either inward or outward, either in this kingdom or New England,
or in any port, haven, creek or other place whatsoever, until the House
of Commons shall take further order therein to the contrary."--Hutchinson's
History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 114, 115.]

[Footnote 75: Hutchinson's History of Massachu