N, AND OF
CRUEL PERSECUTIONS.

When the Browns arrived in England as banished "criminals" from the
Plantation to which they had gone four months before as members of the
Council of Government, and with the highest commendation of the London
General Court itself, they naturally made their complaints against the
conduct of Endicot in superseding the Church of England by the
establishment of a new confession of faith and a new form of worship. It
is worthy of remark, that in the Records of the Company the specific
subjects of complaint by the Browns are carefully kept out of
sight--only that a "dispute" or "difference" had arisen between them and
"Governor Endicot;" but what that difference was is nowhere mentioned in
the Records of the Company. The letters of Endicot and the Browns were
put into the hands of Goffe, the Deputy Governor of the Company; were
never published; and they are said to have been "missing" unto this day.
Had the real cause and subject of difference been known in England, and
been duly represented to the Privy Council, the Royal Charter would
undoubtedly have been forthwith forfeited and cancelled; but the
Puritan-party feeling of the Browns seems to have been appealed to not
to destroy the Company and their enterprise; that in case of not
prosecuting their complaints before a legal tribunal, the matter would
be referred to a jointly selected Committee of the Council to arbitrate
on the affair; and that in the meantime the conduct of Endicot in making
Church innovations (if he had made them) would be disclaimed by the
Company. To render the Browns powerless to sustain their complaints,
their letters were seized[44] and their statements were denied.

Nevertheless, the rumours and reports from the new Plantation of
Massachusetts produced a strong impression in England, and excited great
alarm among the members and friends of the Company, who adopted three
methods of securing themselves and their Charter, and of saving the
Plantation from the consequences of Endicot's alleged innovations and
violent conduct. Firstly--The Governor of the Company, Mr. Cradock,
wrote to Endicot, Higginson, and Skelton, professing doubts of the truth
of the charges made against them--disclaiming and warning them against
the reported innovations--thus protecting themselves in case of charge
from all participation in or responsibility for such proceedings.
Secondly--They positively denied the statements of the Browns as to