the seed had been sown which after became so strong and vigorous as to overthrow the English monarchy. Thomas Dudley listened to the ardent preaching of wellknown Puritan and non-conformist teachers, and soon became an earnest opposer of the ancient and established forms of church worship and creeds. Dudley, with eleven others, in August, 1629, signed an agreement, whereby they pledged themselves to emigrate to New England by the next March. Their object was not so much to flee from oppression, but to form a government according to their own ideas and "the order of the gospell." In pursuance of this plan they sailed the twenty-ninth of March, 1630, and landed at Salem on June 12, and on going ashore "supped with a good venison, pasty and good beer." Winthrop and Dudley soon became the master and ruling spirits of the Colony. When one was not governor the other was likely to be, or their influence decided who should be. And in one way or another the Dudleys have been important factors in controlling New England affairs in its government, its religion and its literature. Bancroft says that, "Dudley had hardly reached this country before he repented that he had come; the country had been described in too favorable light." It would appear that Governor Dudley must have been a book-worm and a "diner out," as also a "table talker" full of wit, from the following epitaph that Mather translates: "In books a prodigal, they say A living Cyclopedia: Of histories of church and priest, A full compendium at least: A table talker, rich in sense, And witty without wits pretence." John G. PalFREY'S OPINIOn of Governor Dudley. "In the year 1653, July 31, the days of Thomas Dudley were numbered and finished. Dudley was fifty-four when he came to New England in 1630, which made him seventy-seven years old at his death. He had been twice governor, deputy-governor thirteen times, and major-general of the militia in other years. His wellknown capacity, experience, and scrupulous fidelity to every trust, made him an object of implicit confidence and respect. His integrity was unimpeachable; his superiority to influences of human blame or favor was above question; the fear of God was an everpresent and deciding motive to him; no man, in public action, had a more single eye to the public welfare. But Dudley's was one of those characters in which virtue does not put on her gracious aspect. He belonged to the class who are commended, confided in and revered, but not loved. If hasty, he was not revengeful; he never meant to be unjust, and he did sincerely mean to be magnanimous, but he wanted the qualities to conciliate and win. He was positive, prejudicial, undemonstrative, austere. When he was gentle and generous, it seemed to be more from conscience than from sympathy; so that even benefits from him won approval rather than affection. It might be expected of such a man, that he would find it hard to tolerate a difference of religious opinion, and it is recorded of Dudley, that after his decease, some lines expressive of that form of narrowness were found in a pocket of his dress. The lines, twenty in number, were preserved by Mather. Magnalia, Book II, Chap. V, §1.” THOMAS DUDLEY'S LInes. Dim Eyes, deaf Ears, cold Stomach, shew My dissolution is in view, Eleven times seven near liv'd have I. And now God calls I willing Die, My Shuttle's shot, my Race is run, Hate Heresie, make Blessed Ends, Bear Poverty, live with good Men; So shall we live with Joy agen. Let men of God in Courts and Churches watch, O're such as do a Toleration hatch, Lest that ill Egg bring forth a Cockatrice To poison all with Heresie and Vice. If Men be left and otherwise Combine, 27 Thomas Dudley was a staunch defender of the Puritan faith, and so received the hatred of all its dissenters in the Massachusetts Colony, including the Roger Williams Baptists, the Quakers and Ann Hutchinson's followers, some of whom openly rejoiced over his death and looked upon it as an act of Providence. It was his boast that he condemned toleration, that toleration itself was an heresie. He was of a nervous, excitable disposition, and as occasion seemed to him to require, outspoken and plain in expressing his opinions and denouncing his opponents. For some reason, not clearly apparent, he at first was not in favor of closing Mrs. Hutchinson's mouth and forbidding her Boston meetings. His friend, Rev. John Cotton, advocated the weekly meetings for examining and criticising the Sunday sermons of their different ministers. Mrs. Hutchinson's meetings seem to have been of a natural outgrowth from the men's meetings. The men of the Boston churches came together every Thursday morning to go over the text and sermon of the preceding Sunday, of which the members had taken notes, and made criticism either favorable or |