provements. It enacted that no sugar, tobacco, ginger,
indigo, cotton, fustin, dyeing woods of the growth of English
territories in America, Asia, or Africa, shall be transported to any
other country than those belonging to the Crown of England, under the
penalty of forfeiture; and all vessels sailing to the Plantations were
to give bonds to bring said commodities to England." (Holmes' American
Annals, Vol. I., pp. 314, 315.)

"The oppressive system," says Palfrey, "was further extended by an Act
which confined the import trade of the colonists to a direct commerce
with England, forbidding them to bring _from_ any other or _in_ any
other than English ships, the products not only of England but of any
European state." (History of New England, Vol. II., B. ii., Chap. xi.,
p. 445.)

Palfrey adds in a note: "Salt for New England fishermen, wines from
Madeira and the Azores, and provisions from Scotland and Ireland, were,
however, exempted."--_Ib._]

[Footnote 167: Hutchinson's Collection, etc., pp. 522-525. Palfrey's
History of New England, Vol. III., B. iii., Chap. viii., p. 341.]

[Footnote 168: To this there were two or three exceptions. They repealed
the penal laws "against keeping Christmas;" also for punishing with
death Quakers returned from banishment; and to amend the laws relating
to heresy and to rebellion against the country.]

[Footnote 169: Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. III., B. iii.,
Chap. viii., p. 352.

They usurped authority over New Hampshire and Maine, at the same time
that they prevented the execution of the Acts of Trade and Navigation
(the 12th and 15th of Charles the Second). Mr. Hutchinson says: "The
Massachusetts Government (1670) governed without opposition the Province
of New Hampshire and the Province of Maine, and were beginning
settlements even further eastward. The French were removed from their
neighbourhood on the one side, and the Dutch and Swedes on the other.
Their trade was as extensive as they could wish. _No custom-house was
established._ The Acts of Parliament of the 12th-15th of King Charles
the Second, for regulating the Plantation trade, _were in force_; but
the _Governor, whose business it was to carry them into execution, was
annually to be elected by the people, whose interest was that they
should not be observed_! Some of the magistrates and principal merchants
grew very rich." (History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol I., p. 269.)]

[Footnote 170: On the very day, O