fore, have been otherwise than that he should
pass under the control of the Mathers, the one accompanying, the other
meeting him on the shore. They were his religious teachers and guides;
by their efficient patronage and exertions he had been placed in his
high office. They, his Deputy, Stoughton, and the whole class of persons
under their influence, at once gathered about him, gave him his first
impressions, and directed his movements. By their talents and position,
the Mathers controlled the people, and kept open a channel through which
they could reach the ear of Royalty. The Government of the Province was
nominally in Phips and his Council, but the Mathers were a power behind
the throne greater than the throne itself. The following letter, never
before published, for which I am indebted to Abner C. Goodell, Esq.,
Vice-president of the Essex Institute, shows how they bore themselves
before the Legislature, and communicated with the Home Government.

"MY LORD:

"I have only to assure your Lordship, that the generality of their
Majesties subjects (so far as I can understand) do, with all
thankfulness, receive the favors, which, by the new Charter, are
granted to them. The last week, the General Assembly (which, your
Lordship knows, is our New England Parliament) convened at Boston.
I did then exhort them to make an Address of thanks to their
Majesties; which, I am since informed, the Assembly have unanimously
agreed to do, as in duty they are bound. I have also acquainted the
whole Assembly, how much, not myself only, but they, and all this
Province, are obliged to your Lordship in particular, which they
have a grateful sense of, as by letters from themselves your
Lordship will perceive. If I may, in any thing, serve their
Majesties interest here, I shall, on that account, think myself
happy, and shall always study to approve myself, My Lord,

"Your most humble, thankful
and obedient Servant,
INCREASE MATHER.

"BOSTON, N. E.
June 23, 1692.

"To the Rt. Hon^ble the _Earl of Nottingham_, his Maj^ties Principal
Secretary of State at Whitehall."

While they could thus address the General Assembly, and the Ministers of
State, in London, the Government here was, as Hutchinson evidently
regarded it, [_i., 3