65; ii., 69._] "a MATHER ADMINISTRATION." It was
"short, sharp, and decisive." It opened in great power; its course was
marked with terror and havoc; it ended with mysterious suddenness; and
its only monument is Salem Witchcraft--the "_judicial murder_," as the
Reviewer calls it, of twenty men and women, as innocent in their lives
as they were heroic in their deaths.

The _Nonsuch_ arrived in Boston harbor, towards the evening of the
fourteenth of May, 1692. Judge Sewall's Diary, now in the possession of
the Massachusetts Historical Society, has this entry, at the above date.
"Candles are lighted before he gets into Town House, 8 companies wait on
him to his house, and then on Mr. Mather to his, made no vollies,
because 'twas Saturday night."

The next day, the Governor attended, we may be sure, public worship with
the congregation to which he belonged; and the occasion was undoubtedly
duly noticed. After so long an absence, Increase Mather could not have
failed to address his people, the son also taking part in the
interesting service. The presence, in his pew, of the man who, a short
time before, had been regenerated by their preaching, and now
re-appeared among them with the title and commission of Governor of New
England, added to the previous honors of Knighthood, at once suggested
to all, and particularly impressed upon him, an appreciating conviction
of the political triumph, as well as clerical achievement, of the
associate Ministers of the North Boston Church. From what we know of the
state of the public mind at that time, as emphatically described in a
document I am presently to produce, there can be no question as to one
class of topics and exhortations, wherewithal his Excellency and the
crowded congregation were, that day, entertained.

Monday, the sixteenth, was devoted to the ceremonies of the public
induction of the new Government. There was a procession to the
Town-house, where the Commissions of the Governor and Deputy-governor,
with the Charter under which they were appointed, were severally read
aloud to the people. A public dinner followed; and, at its close, Sir
William was escorted to his residence. At the meeting of the Council,
the next day, the seventeenth, the oaths of office having been
administered, all round, it was voted "that there be a general meeting
of the Council upon Tuesday next, the twenty-fourth of May current, in
Boston, at two o'clock, post-meridian, to nominate and appoint Ju