r and spirit of those
who framed it, and doth not impute the same to his colony of
Massachusetts, amongst whom he knows the major part consists of men well
affected to his service and obedient to his government, but he hath
commanded me to let you know that he is not pleased with this petition,
and looks upon it as the contrivance of a few persons who have had too
long authority there, and who use all the artifices they can to infuse
jealousies into his good subjects there, and apprehensions as if their
Charter were in danger, when it is not possible for his Majesty to do
more for the securing it, or to give his subjects there more assurance
that it shall not in any degree be infringed, than he hath already done,
even by his late Commission and Commissioners sent thither, who are so
far from having the least authority to infringe any clause in the said
Charter, that it is the principal end of their journey, so chargeable to
his Majesty, to see that the Charter be fully and punctually observed.
His Majesty did expect thanks and acknowledgments from that his colony,
of his fatherly care in sending his Commissioners thither, and which he
doubts not he shall receive from the rest of the colonies in those
parts, and not such unreasonable and groundless complaint as is
contained in your petition, as if he had thereby intended to take away
your privileges and to drive you from your habitations, without the
least mention of any misdemeanour or miscarriage in any one of the said
Commissioners or in any one particular. Nor can his Majesty comprehend
(except you believe that by granting your Charter he hath parted with
his sovereign power over his subjects there) how he could proceed more
graciously, or indeed any other way, upon so many complaints presented
to him by particular persons of injustice done contrary to the
constitution of that government: from the other colonies, for the
oppression they pretend to undergo by the conduct of Massachusetts, by
extending their bounds and their jurisdiction further than they ought to
do, as they pretend; from the natives, for the breach of faith and
intolerable pressures laid upon them, as they allege, contrary to all
kind of justice, and even to the dishonour of the English nation and
Christian faith, if all they allege be true. I say, his Majesty cannot
comprehend how he could apply proper remedies to these evils, if they
are real, or how he could satisfy himself whether they are real or