of ten, our will and pleasure is that the
ancient number of eighteen be henceforth observed, according to the
letter of the Charter. And our further will and pleasure is, that all
persons coming to any privilege, trust, or office in that colony be
first enjoined to take the oath of allegiance, and that all the military
commissions as well as the proceedings of justice may run in our royal
name. We are informed that you have lately made some good provision for
observing the acts of trade and navigation, which is well pleasing unto
us[163]; and as we doubt not and do expect that you will abolish all
laws that are repugnant to and inconsistent with the laws of trade with
us, we have appointed our trusty and well beloved subject, Edward
Randolph, Esq., to be our collector, surveyor and searcher not only for
the colony, but for all our other colonies in New England, constituting
him, by the broad seal of this our kingdom, to the said employments, and
therefore recommending him to your help and assistance in all things
that may be requisite in the discharge of his trust. Given at our palace
of Hampton Court, the 24th day of July, 1679, and in the one and
thirtieth year of our reign.

"By his Majesty's Command,

"A. COVENTRY."]

[Footnote 162: _Note_ by the historian, Mr. Hutchinson.--They seem to
have held out till the last in refusing to admit any to be freemen who
were not either Church members, or who did not at least obtain a
certificate from the minister of the town that they were orthodox.]

[Footnote 163: _Note_ by the historian, Mr. Hutchinson.--This is very
extraordinary, for this provision was an act of the colony, declaring
that the acts of trade should be in force there. (Massachusetts History,
Vol. I., p. 322.)]

[Footnote 164: History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 325, 326.]

[Footnote 165: "The people of Massachusetts had always the good-will of
Cromwell. In relation to them he allowed the Navigation Law, which
pressed hard on the Southern colonies, to become a dead letter, and they
received the commodities of all nations free of duty, and sent their
ships at will to the ports of continental Europe." (Palfrey's History of
New England, Vol. II., Book ii., Chap. x., p. 393.)]

[Footnote 166: "1660.--The Parliament passed an Act for the general
encouragement and increase of shipping and navigation, by which the
provisions made in the celebrated Navigation Act of 1651 were continued,
with additional im