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 The greater part of the colonists now in Mortonia and those to come spoke some uncouth dialect of English, and few of them could read, so they were not likely to make objection to the innovation. The only objections came from the teachers and the few educated persons; but these were so much under Ralph Morton's influence and so dependent on him that they yielded, and when they became accustomed to the innovation were its most zealous supporters.

As before said, the first colonists were all employés of Ralph Morton. He had paid them from the day of their embarking such wages as they were accustomed to receive in England, considering the food and lodgings furnished them. On the arrival of the second company, however, Ralph called them all together and proposed to them to form a new commonwealth, better than the world had ever seen before. The opportunity, in a virgin world, was before them; the means, he solemnly assured them, he held in his hands; he would devote all those means and his life to establishing such a commonwealth—a commonwealth not a mockery of the name, as England was, where the rich idlers revelled in luxury on the proceeds of the toil of the wretched and