nts in England had disclosed the importance of the issues
depending upon it, and the obstinate determination with which it was to
be carried on, Vassal "practised with" a few persons in Massachusetts
"to take some course, first by petitioning the Courts of Massachusetts
and of Plymouth, _and if that succeeded not_, then to the Parliament of
England, that the distinctions which were maintained here, both in civil
and church state, might be done away, and that we might be wholly
governed by the laws of England." In [93] a "Remonstrance and Humble
Petition," addressed by them to the General Court [of Massachusetts],
they represented--1. That they could not discern in that colony "a
settled form of government according to the laws of England;" 2. That
"many thousands in the plantation of the English nation were debarred
from civil employments," and not permitted "so much as to have any vote
in choosing magistrates, captains, or other civil and military
officers;" and, 3. "That numerous members of the Church of England,...
not dissenting from the latest reformation in England, Scotland, etc.,
were detained from the seals of the covenant of free grace, as it was
supposed they will not take these Churches' covenants." They prayed for
relief from each of these grievances; and they gave notice that, if it
were denied, they should "be necessitated to apply their humble desires
to the honourable Houses of Parliament, who, they hoped, would take
their sad condition into their serious consideration."

After describing the social position of the representative petitioners,
Mr. Palfrey proceeds: "But however little importance the movement
derived from the character or position of the agitators, it was
essentially of a nature to create alarm. It proposed nothing less than
an abandonment of institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, which the
settlers and owners of Massachusetts had set up, for reasons impressing
their own minds as of the greatest significance and cogency. 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._ And it frankly threatened an appeal to the English
Parliament--an authority always to be dreaded, for encroachment on
colonial rights, and especially to be dreaded at a moment when the more
numerous party among its members were bent on setti