the king, graciously responding to the colony's humble
petition, confirmed the charter granted by his father; but no sooner had
he done so than the hot royalists about him began plotting to overthrow
the same, and their purpose never slumbered till it was accomplished.
Massachusetts was too prosperous and too visibly destined for great
power in America to be suffered longer to go its independent way as
hitherto.

[Illustration: King Charles II.]

[1661]

The province--as yet, of course, excluding Plymouth with its twelve
towns and five thousand inhabitants--contained at this time, 1660, about
twenty-five thousand souls, living in fifty-two towns. These were nearly
all on the coast; Dedham, Concord, Brookfield, Lancaster, Marlborough,
and the Connecticut Valley hamlets of Springfield, Hadley, and
Northampton being the most noteworthy exceptions. Though agriculture was
the principal business, fishing was a staple industry, its product going
to France, Spain, and the Straits. Pipe-staves, fir-boards, much
material for ships, as masts, pitch and tar, also pork and beef, horses
and corn, were shipped from this colony to Virginia, in return for
tobacco and sugar either for home consumption or for export to England.
Some iron was manufactured. The province enjoyed great prosperity.
Boston stood forth as a lively and growing centre, and an English
traveller about this time declared some of its merchants to be "damnable
rich."

As their most precious possession the colonists prized their liberties,
which they claimed in virtue of their original patent. In a paper which
it put forth on June 10, 1661, the General Court asserted for the colony
the right to elect and empower its own officers, both high and low, to
make its laws, to execute the same without appeal so long as they were
not repugnant to those of England, and to defend itself by force and
arms when necessary, against every infringement of its rights, even from
acts of Parliament or of the king, if prejudicial to the country or
contrary to just colonial legislation. In a word Massachusetts, even so
early, regarded itself to all intents and purposes an independent State,
and would have proclaimed accordingly had it felt sufficiently strong.

[1664]

Manifestly the king would not grant so much. On the occasion of his
confirming the charter he demanded that the oath of allegiance be taken
by the people of the colony; that justice be administered there in his
name; a