om propagating their system in Virginia, was but a _retaliation_
upon the Government of Massachusetts Bay, which had not only forbidden
Episcopal worship, but denied citizenship to Episcopalians. The Virginia
Legislature, while it established the Episcopal Church, had never, like
the Legislature of Massachusetts Bay, disqualified all except the
members of one Church from either holding office or exercising the
elective franchise. The Massachusetts Bay Government, like that of the
Papacy, would tolerate only their own form of worship; would allow no
Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Baptist worship within their
jurisdiction; yet complain of and resent it as unjust and persecuting
when they are not permitted to propagate their system in other colonies
or countries.]

[Footnote 112: Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I.,
Appendix ix., p. 522.

To these extraordinary addresses may be added a letter from the Rev.
John Cotton, a chief Congregational minister in Boston, to "Lord General
Cromwell," dated Boston, N.E., May 5th, 1651.

There are three things in this letter to be specially noticed.

The _first_ is, the terms in which Cromwell is addressed and
complimented.

The _second_ is, the indication here given of the manner in which the
Scotch prisoners taken at the battle of Dunbar (while fighting in their
own country and for their King) were disposed of by Cromwell, and with
what complacency Mr. Cotton speaks of the slavery into which they were
sold not being "perpetual servitude," but limited to "6 or 7, or 8
years."

The _third_ thing noteworthy in this letter, in which Mr. Cotton
compliments Cromwell for having cashiered from the army every one but
his own partizans, thus placing the army beneath his feet, to support
his absolutism in the State, having extinguished the Parliament itself,
and with it every form of liberty dear to the hearts of all true
Englishmen.

The chief passages of Mr. Cotton's letter are as follows:

"Right Honourable,--For so I must acknowledge you, not only for the
eminency of place and command to which the God of power and honour hath
called you; but also for that the Lord hath set you forth as a vessell
of honour to his name, in working many and great deliverances for his
people, and for his truth, by you; and yet helping you to reserve all
the honour to him, who is the God of salvation and the Lord of hosts,
mighty in battell."

"The Scots, whom God delivered into your ha