England as the agent of these colonies, in order to procure a patent of government. His mission was successful, and in the following summer he returned with an instrument that invited them, under the title of "The Incorporation of Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay, in New England." He was compelled, by the severe policy which Massachusetts would not relax, to embark at New York, and on his return, he was allowed to land in Boston only in virtue of an official letter which he brought from the Parliamentary authorities that then ruled in England. The utmost exertion was made to thwart his endeavors with the English government by the emissaries of Massachusetts, and his triumphant success, amidst so many hindrances, well merited the popular ovation with which he was spontaneously received on his return to Providence.

The charter which Mr. Williams brought with him did not go into operation till May 1647, and it was soon found to be inadequate to the exigencies of the colony. These facts, it must be conceded, furnish a most unfavorable commentary on the intelligence of the people who then formed the communities of Rhode Island. They were undoubtedly the most democratic communities, in their organization, then to be found in the world; and they were also unfortunately pervaded by a wild spirit of individualism, which in too many instances made their members foolishly impatient of social bonds, and childishly jealous of all delegated authority. A few master spirits alone comprehended the principles and position of the new civil society they had formed. The mass of the people thought so much of mere liberty, that they were in danger of overlooking the necessity of law; and it was only after a long and painful experience that the colony at length learned how these two social elements may be united in perpetual harmony and order. This is always one of the hardest lessons for an infant democracy to learn, and in Rhode Island it was taught only amid trials and dangers that came near defeating the noble experiment of "soul liberty," which its founders were making in the wilderness.

In this distracted condition of the colony, in August, 1651, William Coddington, the wealthiest and most influential of the proprietors of Aquidneck, returned from England, where

he had been residing for two years, bringing with him a commission vesting in himself the authority of governor for life, with a council of six assistants, to be annually chosen, over all the inhabited islands of Narragansett Bay. It was, of course, a revocation of the charter of 1644, and the erection over a portion of the colony of a government appointed in England, and only in a slight degree responsible to the people whom it was to govern. The institution of such a government among a people already jealous to excess of everything like delegated authority, naturally awakened the utmost alarm. It proved, however, in the end a most fortunate occurrence, for it taught the several settlements the necessity of a greater union with each other, and of a government whose powers should be adequate to the protection of the common interests.

The alarm immediately gave rise to the most active measures of protection. The colony was already dismembered by the fiat of the government at home, and the island towns had no alternative but quietly to submit to the rule of their new governor. The settlements at Providence and at Warwick, however, still remained united, and they immediately appointed Roger Williams to go a second time to England and obtain, if possible, a revocation of the commission of Coddington, and a renewal of the charter which had been set aside. In like manner the inhabitants of the islands, but few of whom really favored the new authority, appointed Dr. John Clarke to hasten to England on precisely the same errand. They were the two most gifted and liberal minds in the colony. men of education, and both, as is probable, scholars from one or the other of the ancient universities of England. They also held in common the same great ideas of the liberty of the soul, of its right to interpret the Scriptures for itself, and of the duty of the government to leave it unshackled in its faith and worship. In minuter points they were less alike than they had formerly been. Clarke, who, in London, and afterwards in Boston, had been a physician, was now a Baptist minister at Newport; while Williams, who had been a clergyman of the Established Church in England, a Separatist in Salem, and a Baptist at Providence, was now unconnected with any ecclesi

Both of them were

astical body; and though still a Christian preacher, was waiting in pious faith for a new revelation of a more apostolic ministry and a holier church than he had thus far found on earth.

The envoys soon completed their preparations; and having obtained the reluctant permission of Massachusetts, they embarked at Boston in November, 1651. They reached England and entered upon their mission in the declining days of that famous Parliament which had overthrown the king and abolished the monarchy, the House of Lords, and the Anglican church, and now, as a feeble remnant of what it had once been, was sitting merely to sanction the decrees that were dictated by Cromwell and his officers. Nearly a year elapsed before their business could be fully brought to the notice of the Council of State. The Council soon, however, revoked the commission of Coddington, and directed the towns of the colony again to unite under their charter. This act passed the Council of State in October, 1652, but the decree in which it was embodied did not reach Rhode Island till the following February. It was soon afterwards carried into execution, though not without some show of resistance on the part of Coddington. At nearly the same time Sir Henry Vane, the friend of Milton and of Roger Williams, who had always manifested a hearty sympathy in the affairs of the colony, wrote to the people "a most kind and imploring letter, urging them to reconcile their feuds, for the honor of God and the good of their fellow-men."

Both the commissioners from Rhode Island remained in England after their immediate mission had been crowned with success,—both probably having personal objects which engaged their attention. Mr. Williams appears to have been intimately associated not only in the relations of public business, but also in frequent private intercourse with Sir Henry Vane, with Milton, and Cromwell, and others of the leading spirits of the age, In a letter which he addressed to his friend, Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut, he refers to his teaching the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French and Dutch languages as a means of support; also to the common studies which he pursued with John

Milton in the languages and literatures of the continental nations. He returned to Providence in the summer of 1654, bearing with him an order from the Lord Protector requiring the Government of Massachusetts to permit him in future to pass through that territory without molestation. Mr. Clarke still remained in England as agent of the colony during the entire Protectorate of Cromwell. He maintained the most amicable relations with that government. He also witnessed the fall of the Protectorate, the restoration of the monarchy, and the accession of Charles II. to the throne he was so soon to dishonor. He was unquestionably a man of superior knowledge of human nature and address in the conduct of affairs. While he steadily adhered to truth and rectitude in performing the duties assigned him, he yet knew how to take advantage of opportunities for the promotion of his ends. Immediately on the accession of the new king, and in the midst of "the era of good feeling" which this event had produced, he presented the petitions he had received from the people of the colony for a confirmation of the privileges they had obtained under the patent of 1644. The petitions were favorably received by the monarch and the council; and after some delay, during which the opposition of Massachusetts was brought strongly to bear on the question, a royal charter passed the seals, confirming and guaranteeing these privileges almost in the very words of the petition in which they had been asked. The charter appears to have been signed in the summer of 1663. In the following October it was received in Rhode Island with universal demonstrations of joy, and on the 24th of November the government was organized in accordance with its provisions.

Thus began in Rhode Island that famous charter under which the colony, saving only the interruption occasioned by Sir Edmund Andros in 1687, pursued her career to the revolution and to independence; under it she was admitted into the Union, and under it, as her only instrument of government, she continued till 1843, when she abandoned it for her present constitution. It lasted for a hundred and eighty years, and at the time of its extinction, says Mr. Bancroft, it was "the oldest constitutional charter in the world." It was distinguished for

its liberality and its democratic spirit, and for the ample grants of power which it contained, the colony was indebted almost exclusively to the agency of Dr. Clarke. Mr. Williams, while he remained in England, had done much in explaining the true position and principles of the colony, and had awakened the interest of several of the most distinguished statesmen of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate. But the Restoration sent all these into retirement or exile, if not to the prison and the block, and raised to power the hitherto scattered adherents of Charles II. The new ministers were to be conciliated, and a new monarch was to be petitioned; and the complete success with which this was accomplished and the charter at length obtained, reflects the highest credit on the ability and the address of the humble envoy from Rhode Island. So completely surprised were those who had opposed him, that they did not fail to charge him with deception and fraud. The charge has been sometimes reiterated by subsequent historians, but it has been amply refuted by Mr. Bancroft and other American writers, and is completely annihilated by Mr. Arnold by means of documentary evidence, much of which is here published for the first time.

In the year 1656 commenced the persecution of the Quakers in Massachusetts. In October of this year, the General Court passed its famous order against them, with a preamble beginning, "Whereas, there is a cursed sect of hereticks lately risen up in the world which are comonly called Quakers." Several of these people immediately fled to Rhode Island, and the colony, especially at Newport, became a place of refuge for the hated sect. An attempt was immediately made by the United colonies to induce the government of Rhode Island to drive them from its jurisdiction, but the authorities replied that they could not punish for religious opinions, but that if the Quakers refused to conform to the laws, complaint against them would be made in England. This persecution continued in Massachusetts for five years, when, on the restoration of the monarchy in England, it was stopped by the order of Charles. II. Many of the inhabitants of Rhode Island adopted the new opinions from the Quakers who fled to the colony; members