ry; and, as Roger
North says, "made all the charters, like the walls of Jericho, fall down
before him, and returned laden with surrenders, the spoils of towns."
At the same time a terrible blow was dealt at two of the greatest Whig
families in England. Lord William Russell, son of the Earl of Bedford,
and Algernon Sidney, younger son of the Earl of Leicester, two of the
purest patriots and ablest liberal leaders of the day, were tried on a
false charge of treason and beheaded. [Sidenote: Secret treaty between
Charles II. and Louis XIV] [Sidenote: Shameful proceedings in England]

By this quick succession of high-handed measures, the friends of law and
liberty were for a moment disconcerted and paralyzed. In the frightful
abasement of the courts of justice which these events so clearly showed,
the freedom of Englishmen seemed threatened in its last stronghold. The
doctrine of passive obedience to monarchs was preached in the pulpits
and inculcated by the university of Oxford, which ordered the works of
John Milton to be publicly burned. Sir Robert Filmer wrote that "not
only in human laws, but even in divine, a thing may by the king be
commanded contrary to law, and yet obedience to such a command is
necessary." Charles felt so strong that in 1684 he flatly refused to
summon a parliament.

It was not long before the effects of all this were felt in New England.
The mission of Dudley and his colleague was fruitless. They returned to
Boston, and Randolph, who had followed them to London, now followed them
back, armed with a writ of _quo warranto_ which he was instructed not to
serve until he should have given Massachusetts one more chance to humble
herself in the dust. Should she modify her constitution to please a
tyrant or see it trampled under foot? Recent events in England served
for a solemn warning; for the moment the Tories were silenced; perhaps
after all, the absolute rule of a king was hardly to be preferred to the
sway of the Puritan clergy; the day when the House of Commons sat still
and wept seemed to have returned. A great town-meeting was held in the
Old South Meeting-House, and the moderator requested all who were for
surrendering the charter to hold up their hands. Not a hand was lifted,
and out from the throng a solitary voice exclaimed, with deep-drawn
breath, "The Lord be praised!" Then arose Increase Mather, president
of Harvard College, and reminded them how their fathers did win this
charter, and sh