stringent character, and interfering with
emigration and settlement, and even private hospitality and business to
an extent not paralleled in Colonial history. It was enacted "That none
shall entertain a stranger who should arrive with intent to reside, or
shall allow the use of any habitation, without liberty from the Standing
Council."[68]

The Charter having been transferred to Massachusetts, a new Council
appointed to administer it there, and no notice having been taken of the
Royal order for its production, the Commissioners might have advised the
King to cancel the Charter forthwith and take into his own hands the
government of the obstreperous colony; but instead of exercising such
authority towards the colonists, as he was wont to do in less flagrant
cases in England, he consented to come into Court and submit his own
authority, as well as the acts of the resistant colonists, to judicial
investigation and decision. The Grand Council of Plymouth, from which
the Massachusetts Company had first procured their territory, were
called upon to answer by what authority and at whose instigation the
Charter had been conveyed to New England. They disclaimed any
participation in or knowledge of the transaction, and forthwith
surrendered their own patent to the King. In doing so they referred to
the acts of the new patentees at Massachusetts Bay, "whereby they did
rend in pieces the foundation of the building, and so framed unto
themselves both new laws and new conceits of matter of religion, forms
of ecclesiastical and temporal orders of government, and punishing
divers that would not approve them," etc. etc., and expressed their
conviction of the necessity of his Majesty "taking the whole business
into his own hands."[69]

After this surrender of their Charter by the Grand Council of Plymouth
(England), the Attorney-General Bankes brought a _quo warranto_ in the
Court of King's Bench against the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Council
of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Bay, to compel the Company to
answer to the complaints made against them for having violated the
provisions of the patent.[70] The patentees residing in England
disclaiming all responsibility for the acts complained of at
Massachusetts (except Mr. Cradock), and no defence having been made of
those acts, nor the authors of them appearing either personally or by
counsel, they stood outlawed, and judgment was entered against the
Company in the person of