s, and next proceeded to destroy the best institutions of the
land itself. Here I shall take but a few examples, selected from the
colonial history of our own New England.

After capturing the great fortress of freedom at home, by taking away
the charter of London, Charles proceeded to destroy the freedom of the
colonies; the Charter of Massachusetts was wrested from us on a _quo
warranto_ in 1683,[99] and the colony lay at the feet of the monarch.
In privy council it had already been determined that our rights should
be swept into the hands of some greedy official from the court.[100]
In 1686 James II. sent Sir Edmund Andros to New England as a
"Commissioner" to destroy the liberty of the people. He came to Boston
in the "Kingfisher, a fifty gun ship," and brought two companies of
British soldiers, the first ever stationed in this town to dragoon the
people into submission to an unrighteous law. Edward Randolph, the
most determined enemy of the colony, greedily caressing the despotic
hands that fed him, was his chief coadjutor and assistant, his
secretary, in that wicked work. Andros was authorized to appoint his
own council, and with their consent enact laws, levy taxes, to
organize and command the militia. He was to enforce the hateful "Acts
of Trade." He appointed a council to suit the purpose of his royal
master, to whom no opposition was allowed. Dudley, the new Chief
Justice, told the people who appealed to Magna Charta, "they must not
think the privileges of Englishmen would follow them to the end of the
world." Episcopacy was introduced; no marriages were to "be allowed
lawful but such as were made by the minister of the Church of
England." Accordingly, all must come to Boston to be married, for
there was no Episcopal minister out of its limits. It was proposed
that the Puritan Churches should pay the Episcopal salary, and the
Congregational worship be prohibited. He threatened to punish any man
"who gave two pence" toward the support of a Non-conformist minister.
All fees to officers of the new government were made exorbitantly
great. Only one Probate office was allowed in the Province, that was
in Boston; and one of the creatures of despotic power was,
prophetically, put in it. Andros altered the old form of oaths, and
made the process of the courts to suit himself.

[Footnote 99: See the steps of the process in 1 Hutchinson, (Salem,
1795,) 297; 8 St. Tr. 1068, note.]

[Footnote 100: Barillon to Louis XIV.