Thomas since 1671; and St. John since 1717. Sweden had lost everything; and although thousands of Scandinavians have emigrated to America, and although they have been among the most useful settlers in the West, it has been their fate to lose their nationality among that sister race of English to whom the political power of the continent has fallen.

BOOK IV

THE AMERICAN COLONIES: 1658-1740

CHAPTER I

NEW ENGLAND AND NEW YORK: 1658-17401

THE fall of puritanism brought with it the fall of the imperial ideas that animated Cromwell. In the royalist reaction which followed, the desire to wrest the new world from Spain, and to make England mistress of the seas, was again lost. Charles II. had other schemes on hand. A bribe from Louis XIV. was more important to the merry monarch than the greatness of his country. With an inimitable lightness of heart, he could forget the honour of his people at the kiss of a courtesan; he would leave affairs of State to dally with a prostitute. He followed the primrose path: it was doubtless pleasant enough. . . .

Nevertheless, the vagaries of a king can neither make the earth stand still nor a free people turn from its onward course. The thirty years that the Stuarts were at the court of Whitehall after the Restoration, years of shame as they were for England at home, were full of progress in the colonies. They

1 Authorities.-There is a vast collection of historical literature on the subject. Bancroft, Doyle, and Justin Winsor are the chief authorities, as before, with the original writers mentioned by them. The collected works of the elder Winthrop are still useful, as throwing light on the early years of New England: the Life and Letters of his son, who also became governor of Massachusetts in due course, are a less complete guide to the next generation. The works of Increase and Cotton Mather are full of interest for the period of the native war and the witch-burning Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography outlines, rather coldly, the life of the early eighteenth century.

saw an extension of British power in Asia, as Bombay was acquired and the East India Company placed on a firm footing; they saw an increase in the African slave trade which, however disgraceful, still accorded with the moral notions of the age: and more important, they saw an enormous advance in America. A charter was granted to Carolina, a vast tract of land which included not only the present northern and southern states of that name, but also Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, Louisiana, Arkansas, and part of Florida, Texas, and Mexico. And while almost the whole of what is now the solid south' of the United States was thus marked out for English influence, Pennsylvania was added in the east and its capital Philadelphia founded. Further north, the great corporation of the Hudson's Bay began operations: New York, the future commercial capital of the North American continent, passed finally into English hands; and the settlements in the New England district continued to flourish.

The social life of the latter colonies had already assumed a distinctive form. The people were no longer exiles when Life in New the Commonwealth was established in England. England. At last, they said, the justice of the Lord had overtaken the false prophets; the wolves in sheep's clothing were driven forth from the flock of the faithful; the seducers of the righteous were hiding under the robes of the scarlet woman; the promised land, the goodly land flowing with milk and honey, the land specially prepared for the favoured of the Almighty, was now open for the sojourn of His chosen people. Every minister offered up thanksgivings of unctuous praise; every stern old settler who had battled his way through the hardships of the early years of Massachusetts felt his heart beat quicker when he knew that the tyrants had fallen who had forced him to emigrate from the dear England' of his childhood. The saints of God had conquered.

But when the Restoration came, New England anticipated with sorrow a return of the evil days. The puritans had

reason to dread the royalist revenge; they feared lest they might be disciplined into the surrender of some of their rights. Charles II. soon showed his interest in colonial affairs; and it was some time before the colonists could be reassured, especially since the king was lavish in granting to courtiers territories already incorporated by charter.

But meanwhile the settlements advanced and as the first generation of native-born Americans grew to manhood there were naturally some changes in their outlook on political life. It seems probable that a good deal of the original resentment against the English Government vanished when there was no longer a personal grievance with each individual; but equally so a good deal of the affection for England herself must also have vanished. The feeling of independence which had been shown in the federation of the colonies was generally maintained; and there were many disputes as to the extent of British authority. Alater English writer of 1731 remarked that 'New England has shown an uncommon stiffness in affairs'; and he had already begun to speculate about the possibilities of rebellion, in the fatal spirit which believes that ‘a small squadron of light frigates would entirely cut off their trade,' and the matter be ended thereby.1

In spite of almost republican institutions, the governments of New England were in reality theocracies; the ministers of religion were the most powerful men in the com- Its Religious munity. There were occasional signs, indeed, of a Condition. reaction against them in 1646, for instance, a law was drawn up to relax the condition which required every freeman to be a churchgoer. But it seems not to have passed; and some time after, a few who petitioned for the right of unconditional citizenship were tried and punished.

Religion pervaded every action; there was still the feeling

1 See The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain Considered, showing that the surest way for a nation to increase in riches is to prevent the importation of such foreign commodities as may be raised at home. The pamphlet is anonymous.

that New England was 'a refuge for the people of Israel '; and while no tolerance was granted to Catholic or episcopalian, the puritans were equally strong against unorthodox forms of dissent. The Quakers met with a bitter reception when first they came to America. This, however, cannot in fairness be alleged solely against the puritans, since the Anglicans even in the little colony of Bermuda were also enemies of the disciples of Fox.

But the puritan, having won freedom for himself, was in no mood to grant it to others: he was at least as dogmatic in defence of the tenets for which he believed he had divine authority as the Anglican or Catholic. The sentiments of the community may be judged from a book published in the year 1645. It was written indeed by a minister of religion, but it was popular for very long among all classes. It is said,' wrote the author, that men ought to have liberty of their conscience, that it is persecution to deter them from it. I can rather stand amazed than reply to this: it is an astonishment to think that the brains of men should be parboiled in such impious ignorance. He that is willing to tolerate any religion, or discrepant way of religion besides his own, unless it be in matters merely indifferent, either doubts of his own, or is not sincere in it.'

to Moderate

Views.

Such sentiments might have won praise from a Torquemada or a Dominic; they were incongruous among those who had The Increas- rebelled in order to obtain liberty of conscience. ing Tendency But the intolerance so openly expressed and so unequivocally accepted was, however, not only a sign of the narrow views of the people. It was also a proof that the new latitudinarian school of thought had already made itself felt. Henceforth the struggle in New England was between strict puritanism and those who wished either to compromise, or to allow fuller religious liberty, or by recognising other sects to destroy the absolute ascendency which the clergy of the dominant belief then exercised.