nment
of Massachusetts Bay. The rulers of this colony alone rejected the Royal
Commissioners. For nearly two years the King's letter of the 28th of
June, 1662 (given in note on page 140), pardoning their acts of
disloyalty and assuring them of the continuance of their Charter on
certain conditions, remained unpublished and unnoticed; but on the
appointment of the Royal Commissioners, in 1664, they proceeded to
acknowledge the kindness of the King's letter of 1662, and other Royal
letters; then changing their tone, they protest against the Royal
Commission. They sent a copy of their address to the King, to Lord
Chancellor Clarendon, who, in connection with the Earl of Manchester and
Lord Say, had befriended them. They also wrote to others of their
friends, and among others to the Hon. and celebrated Robert Boyle, than
whom no man had shown himself a warmer or more generous friend to their
colony. I will give, not in successive notes, but in the text, their
address to the King, the King's reply, Lord Clarendon's and the Hon.
Robert Boyle's letters to them on the subject of their address to the
King, and their rejection and treatment of the Royal Commission. I will
then give the sentiments of what is called the "Petition of the
minority" of their own community on the subject, and their own answers
to the chief propositions of the Royal Commissioners. From all this it
will appear that the United Empire Loyalists were the true liberals, the
advocates of universal toleration and of truly liberal government; while
the rulers of Massachusetts Bay were the advocates of religious
intolerance and persecution of a government by a single religious
denomination, and hostile to the supreme authority of England, as well
as to their more tolerant and loyal fellow-colonists.

I will first give their characteristic address, called "Petition" or
"Supplication," to the King. I do so without abridgment, long as it is,
that I may not be chargeable with unfairness. It is as follows:--

Copy of the Address of the Massachusetts Colony to King Charles the
Second, in 1664:

"To the King's Most Excellent Majestie.--The humble Supplication of the
General Court of the Massachusetts Colony, in New England.

"DREAD SOVEREIGN,

"Iff your poor subjects, who have removed themselves into a remote
corner of the earth to enjoy peace with God and man, doe, in this day of
their trouble, prostrate themselves at your Royal feet, and beg your
favour, we hop