ed; yet the last in your consideration. I hope you are all sensible of the great necessity and duty that lies upon you to do this, as you expect his blessing upon your labours." The house could no longer resist the pressing zeal of the governor, but met his wishes by appointing a committee of eight, to settle a plan of making provision for a regular ministry throughout the colony, September 12th ; they made a report the next day, in the morning; but it was discussed and recommitted from time to time, until the 15th, when it was accepted under a limitation to the several parishes of four counties only; and a bill brought in accordingly: this bill after much debate, was passed on the 19th, and sent up to the governor and council for concurrence; but the governor returned it with an amendment, which vested him with Episcopal powers of inducting every incumbent under these terms, " and presented to the governor to be approved and collated." The house resisted this infringement upon their rights, and returned the bill, praying " that it may pass without the amendment, having, in the drawing of the bill, a due regard to the pious intent of settling a ministry for the benefit of the people." The governor in his wrath summoned the house before him, and prorogued the assembly by the following address. "GENTLEMEN, "There is also a bill in this city for settling a ministry, and in some other countries of the government. In that very thing you have shewn a great deal of stiffness. You take upon you as if you were dictators; I sent down to you an amendment of three or four words in that bill, which, though immaterial, yet was positively denied. I must tell you, it seems very unmannerly. There never was an amendment desired yet by the council board, but what was rejected. It is the sign of a stubborn ill temper, and this you have also rejected. " But, gentlemen, I must take leave to tell you, that if you seem to understand by these words, that none can serve without your collation or establishment, you are far mistaken. For I have the power of collating or suspending any minister, in my government, by their majesties' letters patent; and whilst I stay in the government, I will take care that neither heresy, sedition, schism, or rebellion, be preached among you, nor vice and profanity encouraged. It is my endeavour, to lead a virtuous and pious life amongst you, and to give a good example: I wish you all to do the same. You ought to consider, that you have but a third share in the legislative power of the government; and ought not to take all upon you, nor be so peremptory. You ought to let the council have a share. They are in the nature of the House of Lords, or Upper House; but you seem to take the whole power in your hands, and set up for every thing. You have set a long time to little purpose, and have been a great charge to the country. Ten shillings a day is a large allowance, and you punctually exact it. You have been always forward enough to pull down the fees of other ministers in the government. Why did you not think it expedient to correct your own, to a more moderate allowance ? "Gentlemen, I shall say no more at present, but that you do withdraw to your private affairs in the country. I do prorogue you to the 10th day of January next, and you are hereby prorogued to the 10th day of January next ensuing." This speech needs no comment; the imperious temper of this man overthrew the temple of religion the assembly had erected, because it was not permitted for him to con vert it into an engine of power; but if we take a retrospective view of the proceedings of former assemblies, it will appear that they had been liberal to the governor both as to money and power, and that these religious rights were the first supposed encroachment upon his high prerogative. The treasury itself had been placed under the controul of his check, and every servant of the government was thus placed at the mercy of his will, and sometimes of his caprice. Before the time arrived for the session of this assembly in January, the governor dissolved them, and in March 1694, he convened a new assembly. Mr. Graham was not chosen from the city as usual, and Col. Pierson was chosen speaker. Here opens the second volume of Massachusetts; the governor set up his prerogative, and the house their privilege, and the governor prorogued them to September, when they were again convened; but they were the same men, feeling the same rights, and determined to exercise them. The house resumed the subject of the state of the public accounts, and entered their formal dissatisfaction of the accounts of the receiver-general. At this time a body of regulars arrived from England, and the governor demanded additional pay, not only for these troops, but for the new levies for the defence of the frontiers; this fanned the fire, the house voted supplies for 100 men upon the frontiers, and the governor prorogued them to the spring of 1695. Distance of time wrought no change in the feelings of the parties, both had taken their ground, and both were firm. At this spring session of 1695, the house asked leave of the governor to print their minutes, or journal. The house also declared, "that the vestry men and church wardens have a right to call a dissentinig Protestant minister, and that he is to be paid and maintained as the act directs." Thus the parties stood, and the governor dissolved the assembly. The complaints of the volunteers who had served on the frontier, on account of the arrearages of their pay, led the house to call the receiver-general's accounts in question, as well as to vote money with the more caution, notwithstanding the repeated calls of the governor. Whilst the parties were thus contending, a new scene opened upon the frontier. Count Frontenac, indignant at the refusal of the Five Nations to ratify the peace, determined to take vengeance on the Mohowks, as being the princpal aggressors; but changing his plan he sent a party of three hundred men into the forest of the west, to surprise the hunters of the Five Nations, at, and about the Isthmus of Niagara. The enterprise succeeded so far as to surprise and capture several hunters, who were carried down to Montreal, and there burnt. Enraged at this perfidy, the Five Nations took revenge by burning sundry prisoners of the Dewagunga tribe. The new Indian war spread a general alarm throughout the colony, and roused up the assembly to a sense of their danger; this led them to augment the number of their detachments, and the amount of their supplies. The governor called another assembly in June; James Graham was chosen speaker; and all their former animosities were now. lost in a sense of the public danger. Count Frontenac at this time commenced the repairs of the old fort at Cadaracqui, and the governor announced the fact, together with the king's orders, that the several colonies should furnish their several quotas of men for the general defence, and in the following ratio-viz. Pennsylvania, 80-Rhode-Island, &c. 48-Massachusetts, 350--Connecticut, 120--Maryland, 160-NewYork, 200-Virginia, 240. The assembly voted to raise the sum of 1000l. the one half to be presented to the governor, and the other to be by him applied to the payment of the English officers and soldiers, expressing their wish at the same time, that the colony might be exempted from raising any additional troops at this time. The governor thanked the house for their favourable disposition; but alleged that it was not consistent with his honor to comply with it. The governor, to continue the harmony of the session, recommended that they should appoint a committee to examine the public accounts, in the recess of the assembly, and report at the next session. Things being thus amicably arranged, the governor went up to Albany in September, where he met a deputation of the chiefs of the Five Nations, and destributed liberally the presents sent out by the king, blaming them at the same time, for tamely suffering the French to rebuild their fort at Cordaraqui. At this critical moment the Dionandides, a fierce and warlike tribe, who dwelt near to Misilimakinak, made overtures of peace to the Five Nations. This peace, the French governor used all his efforts to prevent, because his alliance with this tribe had hitherto prevented the Five Nations, from bringing all their force against Canada. When the governor of Canada found that he could not prevent the treaty, he commenced hostilities against the Dionandides, and to revenge upon them, as well as to cut off all further intercourse with their tribe, he ordered one of their prisoners at Montreal, to be executed in the following manner. "The prisoner being made fast to a stake, so as to have room to move round it, a Frenchman began the horrid tragedy, by broiling the prisoners legs, from his toes to his knees, with the red-hot barrel of a gun. His example was |