Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/62

 30 New England and the Revolution. [i689 In April, 1689, the news of William's landing at Torbay was brought to New England by one John Winslow, who had with him copies of the Prince's declaration. Andros, instead of frankly confiding the news to the people and abiding the issue, imprisoned Winslow for attempting to circulate seditious documents. For a fortnight things were in suspense, the air full of vague rumours. Then the people of Boston rose, being supported by two armed parties from the country, one apparently at Charlestown, which was separated from Boston by a narrow strip of water, the other at the neck which joined the town to the main- land. Andros took refuge in the fort at the end of the town. The main part of his troops were in the castle on an island two miles off. If Andros had been the butcher that his enemies professed to think him he might have caused much bloodshed. He was no coward ; and the ease with which he suffered himself to be overpowered and captured showed that he had no wish to fight the hopeless battle of a deposed Papist. As in England, an elected convention was established as a provisional government. In the other New England colonies there was no need for any exercise of force. The adherents of Andros, deprived of their head, made no attempt to carry on the work of administration; and in each colony the pre-existing machinery of government came again, as it were automatically, into force. Yet the Revolution of 1688 did not leave the constitutional life of New England unchanged. The forfeiture of the Massachusetts charter might have been brought about in a corrupt fashion, but it had been effected by legal process. The King and his advisers were no doubt morally pledged to a regard for constitutional rights and representative institutions. But it was also very certain that William would look with more anxiety than his predecessor on the possibility of French invasion, and would be slow to grant any privileges which would interfere with combined resistance. Accordingly when a new charter was granted to Massachusetts, no changes of great importance were introduced. There were to be, as before, a governor, a council and a representative assembly. The governor, lieutenant-governor and secretary were to be appointed by the Crown, and all judicial and military appointments were to be vested in the governor. The franchise was no longer limited to church-members, but granted on a property qualification. At the same time popular rights were secured by the provision that the council, though at the outset nominated by the Crown, was thereafter to be chosen by the General Court, consisting of the governor, council and house of representatives. The old religious oligarchy became a thing of the past. Henceforth Massachusetts was an ordinary Crown colony, enjoying constitutional rights neither greater nor less than those granted to any such community. Territorially Massachusetts both gained and lost. Plymouth was incorporated with the larger colony, apparently without any protest or