his father, which, it is evident from the tenor of the
answer, had directly proposed the embarking of the interest of the whole
family in the enterprise. A certain mysterious paper of "Conclusions,"
referred to by the son, had been inclosed in the father's letter, which
appears to be irrecoverable. There has been much discussion, with rival
and contested claims and pleas, as to the authorship of that most
valuable and critical document containing the propositions for the
enterprise, with reasons and grounds, objections and answers. Our author
urges, with force of arguments and the evidence of authentic papers,
entirely to our satisfaction, that John Winthrop was essentially and
substantially the digester and exponent of those pregnant
considerations. The correspondence which follows proves how
conscientiously the enterprise was weighed, and the reasons and
objections debated. Godly ministers were consulted for their advice and
cooeperation. No opposition or withholding of any shade or degree would
seem to have been made by any member of Winthrop's family; his gentle,
meek-hearted, but most heroic and high-souled wife, being, from first to
last, his most cordial sympathizer and ally. We next find him entering
into the decisive "Agreement," at Cambridge, with eleven other of the
foremost adventurers to New England, which pledged them "to inhabit and
continue there." It was only after most protracted, and, we may be sure,
most devout deliberation, that the great decision was made, which
involved the transfer of the patent, the setting up of a self-governing
commonwealth on the foreign soil, and the committal of those who were to
be its members to a life-long and exacting undertaking, from which there
were to be no lookings-back. A day was appointed for the company to
meet, on which two committees were chosen, to weigh and present with
full force, respectively, the reasons for a removal, and the reasons
against it. The "show of hands," when these committees reported, fixed
the purpose of the company on what they did not hesitate to believe was
the leading of Providence.

From that moment we find Winthrop busy with cares and efforts of the
most exacting character, drawing upon all his great energies, and
engaging the fondest devotion of his manly and Christian heart. He gave
himself, without stint or regret, with an unselfish and supreme
consecration, to the work, cherishing its great aim as the matter of his
most earnest pi