ngs as in his
last letter is held forth, that nothing of that nature be further
proceeded in, but contrariwise that application be made to his Majesty,
immediately to be sent for the end to clear the transactions of them
that govern this colony from any such construction, lest otherwise that
which, if duly improved, might have been a cloud of the latter rain, be
turned into that which, in the conclusion, may be found more terrible
than the roaring of a lion.

"Thus craving a favourable interpretation of what is here humbly
presented, your petitioners shall ever be obliged to, etc."[145]

The following is the King's letter, referred to by Lord Clarendon,
evidently written on the advice of the Puritan Councillors, whom the
King retained in his government, and to whom the management of New
England affairs seems to have been chiefly committed, with the oversight
of the Lord Chancellor Clarendon. This letter, in addition to a previous
letter from the King of the same kind, together with the letters of Lord
Clarendon and the Hon. Robert Boyle, left them not a shadow of pretext
for the inflammatory statements they were putting forth, and the
complaints they were making, that their Charter privileges and rights of
conscience were invaded, and was a reply to the petition of the
Massachusetts Bay Governor and Council (inserted above at length, pages
153-159), and shows the utter groundlessness of their statements; that
what they contended for under the pretext of conscience was the right of
persecuting and proscribing all who did not conform to the
Congregational worship; and that what they claimed under the pretence of
Charter rights was absolute independence, refusing to submit even to
inquiry as to whether they had not encroached upon the rights and
territories of their white and Indian neighbours, or made laws and
regulations and performed acts contrary to the laws of England and to
the rights of other of the King's subjects. This letter breathes the
spirit of kindness and forbearance, and contends for _toleration_, as
did all the loyal colonists of the time, appealing to the King for
protection against the intolerance, persecution and proscription of the
Massachusetts Bay Congregational Government. The letter is as follows:

Copy of a Letter from Secretary Morrice to the Massachusetts Colony:

"SIRS,

"His Majesty hath heard this petition[146] read to him, and hath well
weighed all the expressions therein, and the tempe