provisions of the Charter under which they held their land and had
settled the colony, but acted in entire disregard and defiance of the
authority, which had granted their Charter. Mr. Neal very candidly says:
"The old Charter was, in the opinion of persons learned in the law,
defective as to several powers which are absolutely necessary to the
subsistence of the Plantation: for example, it gave the Government no
more power than every corporation in England has; power in capital cases
was not expressed in it; it mentioned no House of Deputies, or Assembly
of Representatives; the Government had thereby no legal power to impose
taxes on the inhabitants that were not freemen (that is, on
_four-fifths_ of the male population), nor to erect Courts of Admiralty,
so that if the judgment against this Charter should be reversed, yet if
the Government of New England should exercise the same powers as they
had done before the _quo warranto_, a new writ of _scire facias_ might
undoubtedly be issued out against them. Besides, if the old Charter
should have been restored without a grant of some other advantages, the
country would have been very much incommoded, because the provinces of
_Maine_ and _New Hampshire_ would have been taken from Massachusetts,
and _Plymouth_ would have been annexed to New York, whereby the
Massachusetts Colony would have been very much straitened and have made
a mean figure both as to its trade and influence.

"The new Charter grants a great many privileges to New England which it
had not before. The colony is now made a province, and the General Court
has, with the King's approbation, as much power in New England as the
King and Parliament have in England. They have all English liberties,
and can be touched by no law, by no tax, but of their own making. All
the liberties of their religion are for ever secured, and their titles
to their lands, once, for want of some form of conveyance, contested,
are now confirmed for ever." (History of New England, Vol. II., pp. 478,
479.)]

[Footnote 216: Although a party was formed which opposed submission to
the Charter, yet the majority of the Court wisely and thankfully
accepted it, and appointed a day of solemn thanksgiving to Almighty God
for "granting a safe arrival to His Excellency the Governor and the Rev.
Mr. Increase Mather, who have industriously endeavoured the service of
the people, and have brought over with them 'a settlement of government,
in which the