e
dust. The hopes of the fathers were found to be mere dreams. It seemed
that their brave struggles had brought no result. The honoured ally
(Massachusetts) of the Protector (Cromwell) of England lay under the
feet of Charles the Second. It was on the Charter granted to Roswell and
his associates, Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, that the
structure of the cherished institutions of Massachusetts, religious and
civil, had been reared. The abrogation of that Charter swept the whole
away. Massachusetts, in English law, was again what it had been before
James the First made a grant of it to the Council of New England. It
belonged to the King of England, by virtue of the discovery of the
Cabots. No less than this was the import of the decree in Westminster
Hall. Having secured its great triumph, the Court had no thought of
losing anything by the weakness of compassion. The person selected by
the King to govern the people of his newly-acquired province was Colonel
Piercy Kirk. That campaign in the West of England had not yet taken
place which has made the name of Kirk immortal; but fame enough had gone
abroad of his brutal character, to make his advent an anticipation of
horror to those whom he was appointed to govern. It was settled that he
was to be called 'His Majesty's Lieutenant and Governor-General,' and
that his authority should be unrestricted."[193]

This quotation from Dr. Palfrey suggests one or two remarks, and
requires correction, as it is as disingenuous in statement as it is
eloquent in diction. He admits and assumes the validity of the judicial
act by which the Charter was declared forfeited; though the loyalty of
this decision was denied by the opposing party in Massachusetts, who
denied that any English Court, or that even the King himself, had any
authority in Massachusetts to disallow any of its acts or decisions,
much less to vacate its Charter, and professed to continue its elections
of deputies, etc., and to pass and administer laws as aforetime. Dr.
Palfrey's language presents all such pretensions and proceedings as
baseless and puerile.

Dr. Palfrey states what is true, that the Massachusetts Government had
been the "ally" of Cromwell; but this they had denied in their addresses
to Charles the Second. (See above, pp. 153-9.)

It is hardly ingenuous or correct in Dr. Palfrey speaking of Col. Kirk's
appointment of the "newly-acquired Province." The office extended over
New Hampshire, Maine,