hers to fill the royal
ear of our Sovereign Lord the King with complaints against us, and have,
by their unwearied solicitations, in our absence, so far prevailed as to
obtain a letter from his Majesty to forbear their corporal punishment or
death; although we hope and doubt not but that if his Majesty were
rightly informed, he would be far from giving them such favour, or
weakening his authority here, so long and orderly settled: Yet that we
may not in the least offend his Majesty, this Court doth hereby order
and declare that the execution of the laws in force against Quakers as
such, so far as they respect corporal punishment or death, be suspended
until this Court take further order." Upon this order of the Court
twenty-eight Quakers were released from prison and conducted out of the
jurisdiction of Massachusetts. (Holmes' Annals, Vol. I., pp. 318, 319.)]

[Footnote 122: "Upon the Restoration, not only Episcopalians, but
Baptists, Quakers, etc., preferred complaints against the colony; and
although, by the interest of the Earl of Manchester and Lord Say, their
old friends, and Secretary Morrice, all Puritans, King Charles continued
their Charter, yet he required a toleration in religion, and an
alteration in some civil matters, neither of which were fully complied
with." (Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. II., p. 3.)]

[Footnote 123: "In the Earl of Manchester and Lord Say; in Annesley,
created Earl of Anglesea; in Denzil Hollis, now Lord Hollis; and in
Ashley Cooper, now Lord Ashley, the expectant cavaliers saw their old
enemies raised to the place of honour. Manchester had not taken any part
in public affairs since the passing of the self-denying ordinances. He
was still a Presbyterian, but had favoured the return of the King. Lord
Say, also, had long since withdrawn from public life, and though of a
less pliant temper than Manchester, his new friends had no reason to
doubt his steady adherence to the new order of things. Annesley was an
expert lawyer. Hollis had been the leader of the Presbyterians in the
Long Parliament, until the crisis which turned the scale in favour of
the Independents.

"Lord Ashley, better known as the Earl of Shaftesbury, had been devoted
successively to the King, the Parliament, and the Protector. Nichols and
Morrice were the two Secretaries of State."--Dr. R. Vaughan's
Revolutions in English History, Vol. III., B. 14, Chap. i., pp. 430,
431.

"Totally devoid of resentm