y sense, a colony. It was a plantation with a strong
religious idea behind it, on its way to be a colony and a state. In the
_original intent_, the Governor and General Court, and therefore the
Government, _were to be and abide in England_. When, in 1628, Endicot
and his little party had been sent over to Salem, his authority was
expressly declared to be 'in subordination to the Company here' [that
is, in London]. And it was only when Cradock [the first Governor of the
Company] found that so many practical difficulties threatened all
proceedings upon that basis, as to make it unlikely that Winthrop, and
Saltonstall, and Johnson, and Dudley, and other men whose co-operation
was greatly to be desired, would not consent to become partners in the
enterprise unless a radical change were made in that respect, that he
proposed and the Company consented, 'for the advancement of the
Plantation, the inducing and encouraging persons of worth and quality to
transplant themselves and families thither, and for other weighty
reasons therein contained, to transfer the government of the Plantation
to those that shall inhabit there,' &c. It was even a grave question of
law whether, under the terms of the Charter, this transfer were
possible." ... "They took the responsibility--so quietly, however, that
the Home Government seem to have remained in ignorance of the fact for
more than four years thereafter." (pp. 12, 13.)

In a note Dr. Dexter says: "I might illustrate by the Hudson Bay
Company, which existed into our time with its original Charter--strongly
resembling that of the Massachusetts Company--and which has always been
rather a corporation for trade charterers in England than a colony of
England on American soil." (_Ib._, p. 12.)

It is evident from the Charter that the original design of it was to
constitute _a corporation in England_ like that of the East India and
other great Companies, with powers to settle plantations within the
limits of the territory, under such forms of government and magistracy
as should be fit and necessary. The first step in sending out Mr.
Endicot, and appointing him a Council, and giving him commission,
instructions, etc., was agreeable to this constitution of the Charter.
(Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 12, 13.)]

[Footnote 64: History of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 439, 440.]

[Footnote 65: The New England historians represent it as a high act of
tyranny for the King