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IX.

cial license; and no person of any rank, without a certif- CHAPTER icate from his parish minister of conformity to the church. As this prohibition was little regarded, an order was is- 1638. sued the next year for stopping all ships bound to New England. The entreaties of the ship-owners procured› the recall of this order; but the Lords Commissioners for Plantations dispatched directions to Massachusetts to send home the charter by the next ship. The General Court, by letter from the governor, respectfully declined, lest it might be construed by their friends in England as a surrender of that instrument, and lest "many bad minds, yea, and some weak ones" among themselves, should take occasion therefrom to think it lawful and necessary to accept a governor general. A fresh demand for the charter came out the next year, with assurances that a 1639. new one would be granted, and that the commissioners had no intention to deprive the colonists of their liberties. This order came inclosed in a letter from Cradock; and since the commissioners could have no proof of its delivery, the General Court resolved not to notice it at all. But by this time the English government was so deeply involved in the quarrel with Scotland, upon which country a vain attempt was made to force Episcopacy and the Liturgy, that the Puritan colonies of New England ceased to attract attention.

To the provinces confirmed to the indefatigable Gorges at the surrender of the great New England patent, 1635. he had given the name of NEW SOMERSET. Though disappointed, as already mentioned, in visiting his province as governor general of New England, he presently sent out his nephew, William Gorges, commissioned as his deputy for New Somerset, to establish a government over the fishing hamlets already planted at Agamenticus, Saco, and elsewhere on the coast. Gorges, who resided

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CHAPTER for some time in New Somerset, held a General Court at Saco. After his return to England, George Cleves 1637. brought out a commission, by which a number of the Massachusetts magistrates were authorized to act as dep uties for New Somerset. But, since the attack on their charter, Gorges was suspected and distrusted. Some of the persons named in the commission had left Massachusetts on account of the Hutchinsonian controversy. No action, therefore, was had under it. This same Cleves was also engaged in a project for procuring settlers for Long Island, having entered into an agreement to that effect with the Earl of Sterling, to whom, in the late division of New England, that island had been assigned.

Not yet discouraged, though he had sunk upward of £20,000, $98,000, during the thirty years for which he had been engaged in colonization projects, Gorges ob1639. tained a royal charter for his American provinces, of which the name was now changed to MAINE, perhaps in honor of the queen, who had some feudal relation with that French province-though "the main," as distinguished from the numerous islands along that coast, had long been a current appellation with the planters and fishermen. Gorges drew up a scheme intrusting the government to a lieutenant, chancellor, marshal, admiral, and other high officers, who, together with eight deputies elected by the people, were to constitute the legislative council or General Court. The little village of Agamenticus, chartered first as a borough and then as a city, was named Georgiana, in honor of the proprietor, whose kinsman and deputy, Thomas Gorges, presently held at 1640. Saco the first General Court for the province of Maine. Burdett, superseded at Dover by Knolles, had removed to Agamenticus, and, being fined by this court for adultery, he proceeded to England to prosecute his appeal.

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Meanwhile, in England, affairs, once set in motion, CHAPTER were making very rapid progress. The attempted pacification with the Scotch Covenanters proved a failure. 1640. The Scottish army entered England, and Charles soon found himself obliged to call that famous Long Parliament, the most remarkable body in English history. A large number of its members were Puritans; almost all were opposed to Charles's tyrannical policy. They entered at once on the redress of grievances, and, in the course of eighteen months, assumed the entire political authority of the realm. On a petition against the restraints on emigration, presented to the House of Lords. soon after the meeting of this Parliament, it was resolved. that the colonists should enjoy all their liberties, according to their patents. But the recent political change at home had removed the chief inducement to emigrate.

The accessions which New England henceforward received from abroad were more than counterbalanced by perpetual emigrations, which, in the course of two centuries, have scattered her sons over every part of North America, and, indeed, of the globe. The immigrants of the preceding period had not exceeded twenty-five thousand-a primitive stock, from which has been derived not less, perhaps, than a fourth part of the present population of the United States.

The cost of New England colonization thus far has been reckoned at a million of dollars-a great sum for those times, but probably short of the truth. Already there existed east of the Hudson twelve independent communities, comprising not less than fifty towns or distinct settlements. But a consolidation presently took place, by which the separate jurisdictions were reduced to six.

CHAPTER

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CHAPTER X.

NEW ENGLAND DURING THE LONG PARLIAMENT.

SUCH coin as the emigrants to New England brought with them quickly went back again in payment for im ported goods; but, so long as the emigration was kept up, this inconvenience was little felt. Every new set of emigrants brought a fresh supply of money with them; and the lively demand for corn and cattle, on the part of the new comers, raised prices to a high pitch. The sudden stop put to immigration, occasioned by the political changes in England, caused a great fall of prices, and a corresponding difficulty in paying debts. Taxes had all along been paid in grain and cattle, at rates fixed by the General Court; and grain, at different prices for the different. sorts, was now made a legal tender for the payment of 1640. all new debts. To prevent sacrifices of property in cases of inability to pay, corn, cattle, and other personal goods, or, in defect of such goods, the house and lands of the debtor, when taken in execution, were to be delivered to the creditor, in full satisfaction, at such value as they might be appraised at by "three understanding and indifferent men," one chosen by the creditor, another by the debtor, and a third by the marshal. So far as relates to lands and houses, the method of levy thus introduced prevails to this day—a marked peculiarity in the law of New England.

Beaver skins were also paid and received as money, and, from their value as a remittance, they held the next

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place to coin. Musket balls, at a farthing each, were CHAPTER at one time a legal tender to the amount of a shilling. A more available currency was found in the wampum 1640. or peage, already mentioned-cylindrical beads half an inch long, of two colors, white and bluish black, made by the Indians from parts of certain sea-shells. The coasts of Long Island Sound abounded with these shells, 'and, according to Bradford, the Pequods and Narragansets had grown "rich and potent" by their abundance of wampum, much in demand for purposes of ornament among the interior tribes. The people of Plymouth first learned the use and value of this article from the Dutch of Manhattan, and they soon found it very profitable in trade with the Eastern Indians, the shells of which it was made not being common north of Cape Cod. Presently it came to be employed as a circulating medium, first in the Indian traffic, and then among the colonists generally. Three of the black beads, or six of the white, passed for a penny. For convenience of reckoning, they were strung in known parcels, a penny, threepence, a shilling, and five shillings in white; twopence, sixpence, two and sixpence, and ten shillings in black. A fathom of white was worth ten shillings, or two dollars and a half; a fathom of black, twice as much; but as the quantity in circulation increased, the value presently depreciated, and the number of beads to the penny was augmented.

The diffulty of paying for imported goods, and the depreciation in the value of corn and cattle, stimulated the colonists to new kinds of industry. Hugh Peters, who had succeeded Williams as minister of Salem, and whose zeal in worldly affairs led him to suppress the weekly lecture there, was very busy in getting up a company for the fisheries, which hitherto had been carried on exclusively from England. Already the General Court had

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