"10. If any man stealeth a man or mankinde, hee shall bee put to death. Exodus 21. 16.

"11. If any man rise up by false wittness, wittingly and of purpose to take away any man's life, hee shall bee put to death. Deut. 19. 16, 18, 19.

12. If any man shall conspire or attempt any invasion, insurrection or rebellion against the Commonwealth, hee shall bee put to death.

13. If any Childe or Children above sixteene years old and of suffitient understanding, shall Curse or smite their naturall father or mother, hee or they shall bee put to death; unless it can bee sufficiently testified that the parents have beene very unchristianly negligent in the education of such children, or so provoke them by extreme and cruell correction that they have beene forced thereunto to preserve themselves from death, maiming. Exo. 21. 17.-Levit. 20.-Ex. 21. 15.

"14. If any man have a stubborne and rebellious sonne of sufficient yeares and understanding, viz. Sixteene yeares of age, which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened him will not hearken unto them; then may his father and mother, being his naturall parents, lay hold on him and bring him to the Magistrates assembled in Courte, and testifie unto them, that theire sonne is stubborne and rebellious and will not obey theire voice and Chastisement, but lives in sundry notorious Crimes, such a sonne shall bee put to death. Deut. 21. 20, 21."

In 1643, the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, united into a confederacy, for their own mutual safety and welfare, and called themselves the "United Colonies of New England." Each colony was authorized to send two commissioners, to meet annually in September, first at Boston, then at Hartford, New Haven, and Plymouth. The commissioners were vested with plenary powers for making war and peace, and rules of general concern; especially, to regulate the conduct of the inhabitants towards the Indians, for the general defence of the country, and for the support and encouragement of religion. This union was of much importance to the New England colonies. It made them formidable to the Dutch and Indians, and it was one of the principal means of their preservation during the unsettled state, and civil wars of the mother country.

At the General Court in April, 1644, a committee was appointed, consisting of the governor, deputy governor, and several others, to treat with George Fenwick, Esq. relative to the purchase of Saybrook fort, and all the buildings and lands in the colony which he, and the lords and gentlemen interested in the patent of Connecticut, might claim. The negociation was successful, and the colony, upon the whole, paid Mr. Fenwick £1,600 sterling, merely for the jurisdiction right, or for the old patent of Connecticut.

About this period, tobacco was coming into use in the colony; the following curious law was made for its regulation, or suppression.

"ТОВАСКО.

"Fforasmuch as it is observed, that many abuses are crept in, and comitted, by frequent taking of tobacko:

"It is ordered by the authority of this Courte, That no person under the age of twenty one years, nor any other, that hath not already accustomed himselfe to the use thereof, shall take any tobacko, untill hee hath brought a certificate under the hands of some who are approved for knowledge and skill in phisick, that it is usefull for him, and allso, that hee hath received a lycense from the courte, for the same.-And for the regulating of those, who either by theire former taking it, have, to theire owne apprehensions, made it necessary to them, or uppon due advice, are persuaded to the use

thereof:

"It is ordered, That no man within this colonye, after the publication hereof, shall take any tobacko, publiquely, in the streett, highwayes, or any barne yardes, or uppon training dayes, in any open places, under the penalty of six-pence for each offence

against this order, in any the perticulars thereof, to bee paid without gainesaying, uppon conviction, by the testimony of one witness, that is without just exception, before any one magistrate. And the constables in the severall townes, are required to make presentment to each perticular courte, of such as they doe understand, and can evict to bee transgressors of this order."

Until the year 1648, the governors and magistrates appear to have served the people for the honor of it, and the public good. The general court granted the governor £30 annually. The same sum was granted to the deputy governor, who had presided the preceding year. These appear to have been the first salaries given to any civil officers in the colony, and to have been a compensation for the expense of the office, rather than for compensation for the service performed.

Mr. Ludlow had been desired, by the general court, for several years successively, to make a collection of laws which had been enacted, and to revise and prepare a body of laws for the colony. In the year 1649, he finished the work, and a code was established at the session of the Assembly. Until this period, punishments, being left at the discretion of the courts, in many instances had been uncertain and arbitrary. In 1646, one Bartlet, for defamation, was sentenced to stand in the pillory during the public lecture, then to be whipped, pay £5, and suffer six months imprisonment. In the same year, one Turner, for the same crime, was sentenced to be whipped, and then imprisoned a month; at the month's end to go to the post again, and then to be bound for his good behavior. For violation of the sabbath, there is an instance of imprisonment during the pleasure of the court. Unchastity between single persons was sometimes punished by setting the delinquent in the pillory, and by whipping him from one town to another.

In 1653, such were the injuries which had been sustained from the Dutch at New Netherlands, and their plotting and inciting the Indians against the English, that it was a year of great distress and alarm. The colonies of Connecticut and New Haven provided a frigate of ten or twelve guns, with forty men, to defend the coast against the Dutch, and to prevent Ninigrate and his Indians from crossing the sound, in prosecution of his hostile designs against the Indians in alliance with the colonies. In the following year, 1654, the colony having received an order from parliament to treat the Dutch as declared enemies, the Dutch house and lands at Hartford, were seized for the benefit of the commonwealth.

In 1655, Governor Eaton finished the compilation of a code of laws for the New Haven colony. For his assistance, he was requested, by the General Court, to consult the Rev. Mr. Cotton's discourse on civil government in a new plantation, and the laws of Massachusetts. The laws having been examined and approved by the elders of the jurisdiction, they were presented to the General Court. They ordered that five hundred copies should be printed. The copy was sent to England to be printed, under the inspection of Gov. Hopkins. "He procured the printing of the laws at his own expense, and sent the number proposed, with some other valuable books, as a present. The laws were distributed to the several towns in the jurisdiction."

In 1661, Governor Winthrop of Connecticut was appointed agent of the colony, to go to England and present a petition to King Charles II. for the purpose of obtaining a patent. The governor was a man of address, and he arrived in England at a happy time for Connecticut. Lord Say and Seal, the great friend of the colony, had been particularly instrumental in restoring Charles to the throne of his father, and was now in high favor at court. The earl of Manchester, another friend of the Puritans, was chamberlain of his majesty's household. Mr. Winthrop had an extraordinary ring, which had been given his grandfather by King Charles I. which he presented to the king. This, it is said, exceedingly pleased his majesty, as it had been once the property of a father most dear to him. Under all these favorable circumstances, the petition of Connecticut was presented, and was received with uncommon grace and favor. Upon the 20th of April, 1662, his majesty granted the colony his letters patent, conveying the most ample privileges, under the great seal of England.

The colony of New Haven was by the charter included within the limits of Connecticut. This gave great dissatisfaction to most of the inhabitants of New Haven colony. Their ministers and churches were universally against being united with Connecticut. Mr. Davenport and others of the colony were strong in the opinion, that all government should be in the church. No person in this colony could be a freeman unless he was a member of the church in full communion. But in Connecticut, all orderly persons, possessing a freehold to a certain amount, might be free of the corporation. The New Haven people were undoubtedly fearful that an union with Connecticut would mar the purity and order of their churches, and have a bad effect on the civil administrations. It was also a painful reflection, that after they had been at so much pains and expense to form a distinct commonwealth, that their existence as a separate people should cease, and their name be obliterated. After considerable trouble and difficulty, the two colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, at the general election, May 11th, 1665, united in one, and John Winthrop, Esq. was chosen governor.

On March 12th, 1664, King Charles II. gave a patent to his brother, the Duke of York and Albany, of several extensive tracts of land in North America, in which the lands on the west side of Connecticut River were included. After granting the patent, an armament was sent from England, under Colonel Richard Nichols, for the reduction of the Dutch possessions in America. Col. Nichols had a commission, not only for this purpose, but also for hearing and determining all matters of complaint and controversy between the New England colonies. After Col. Nichols had subdued New Netherlands, and given it its present name, New York, he, with his associates, appointed by the Crown, met with the agents appointed by Connecticut, and on the 30th of November, 1664, determined that the western boundary of Connecticut should be a line beginning on the east side of Momoronock creek or river, at the place where the salt water meets the fresh, at high water, and thence north northwest to the line of Massachusetts. The commissioners also determined the southern bounds of the colony of Con

necticut to be the sea. By this decision, Connecticut lost all her possessions on Long Island. The granting of such extraordinary powers to Col. Nichols and his associates, awakened in the colonies a serious apprehension for their liberties.

Upon the pacification of the Dutch, the Duke of York took out a new patent from the king, dated June 29th, 1674, granting the same territory described in a former patent. Immediately after, he commissioned Major, afterwards Sir Edmund Andross, to be governor of New York and all his territories in these parts. Andross was a mere tool of the Duke, and a tyrant of the people. By virtue of the patent to the Duke of York, he laid claim to the lands on the west side of Connecticut River, notwithstanding the priority of the patent of Connecticut, and in violation of the agreement of 1664. To enforce his claims, he attempted in 1675 to take the fort at Saybrook; he was however defeated in this attempt, by the firmness and resolution of Capt. Bull.

In 1675, Philip, sachem of the Wampanogas, began the most destructive war ever waged by the Indians upon the infant colonies. Lest he should increase his power by an alliance with the Narragansetts, the English made a friendly treaty with them in July, 1675. But notwithstanding this, in December of the same year, it was discovered that they were secretly aiding Philip's party. This determined the English to undertake a winter expedition against them. For this object the colony of Massachusetts furnished five hundred and twenty seven men, Plymouth one hundred and fifty nine, and Connecticut three hundred; to all these were attached one hundred and fifty Mohegan Indians. After electing Josiah Winslow, governor of Plymouth colony, to be their commander, the whole party met at Pettyquamsquot. About sixteen miles from this place, it was found that the Narragansetts had built a strong fort in the midst of a large swamp, upon a piece of dry land of about five or six acres. The fort was a circle of pallisadoes, surrounded by a fence of trees, which was about one rod thick.

On the 19th of December, 1675, at dawn of day, the English took up their march through a deep snow, and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon attacked the Indians in their fortress. The only entrance which appeared practicable, was over a log or tree, which lay up five or six feet from the ground, and this opening was commanded by a sort of blockhouse in front. The Massachusetts men, led on by their captains, first rushed into the fort, but the enemy, from the block-house and other places, opened so furious a fire upon them, that they were obliged to retreat. Many men were killed in this assault, and among them Captains Johnson and Davenport. The whole army then made a united onset. The conflict was terrible, some of the bravest captains fell, and victory seemed very doubtful. At this crisis, some of the Connecticut men ran to the opposite side of the fort, where there were no pallisadoes; they sprang in, and opened a brisk and well directed fire upon the backs of the enemy. This decided the contest. The Indians were driven from the block-house, and from one covert to another, until they were wholly destroyed or dispersed in the wilderness. As they retreated, the soldiers set fire to their wigwams, (about six hundred in num

ber,) which were consumed by the flames. In this action it was computed that about seven hundred fighting Indians perished, and among them twenty of their chiefs. Three hundred more died from their wounds to these numbers may be added many old men, women and children, who had retired to this fort as a place of undoubted security. "Of the three hundred Englishmen from Connecticut, eighty were killed and wounded, twenty in Captain Seely's, twenty in Captain Gallop's, seventeen in Captain Watt's, nine in Captain Mason's, and fourteen in Captain Marshall's company. Of these about forty were killed or died of their wounds. About half the loss, in this bloody action, fell upon Connecticut. The legislature of the colony, in a representation of the services they had performed in the war, say, 'In that signal service, the fort fight, in Narragansett, as we had our full number, in proportion with the other confederates, so all say they did their full proportion of service. Three noble soldiers, Seely, courageous Marshall, and bold Gallop, died in the bed of honor; and valiant Mason, a fourth captain, had his death's wound. There died many brave officers and sentinels, whose memory is blessed, and whose death redeemed our lives. The bitter cold, the tarled swamp, the tedious march, the strong fort, the numerous and stubborn enemy they contended with, for their God, king, and country, be their trophies over death. He that commanded our forces then, and now us, made no less than seventeen fair shots at the enemy, and was thereby as oft a fair mark for them. Our mourners, over all the colony, witness for our men, that they were not unfaithful in that day.' It is the tradition, that Major, afterwards Governor Treat, received a ball through the brim of his hat, that he was the last man who left the fort, in the dusk of the evening, commanding the rear of the army. The burning of the wigwams, the shrieks and cries of the women and children, and the yelling of the warriors exhibited a most horrible and affecting scene, so that it greatly moved some of the soldiers. They were in much doubt then, and afterwards often seriously enquired, whether burning their enemies alive could be consistent with humanity, and the benevolent principles of the gospel."*

In 1685, Charles II. died, and was succeeded by the Duke of York, who took the title of James II. The latter part of the reign of Charles had been distinguished by an oppression of his subjects. He lightly regarded the charters which he had at different times granted and trifled with the rights, property, and liberty of his subjects. The oppression of Charles was increased rather than diminished by James, who was a tyrant and a bigoted Catholic. It was the object of those in power at that time, to procure a surrender of all the patents of the colonies, and form the whole northern part of America into twelve provinces, with a governor general over the whole.

In July, 1685, a quo warranto was issued against the governor and company of Connecticut, requiring their appearance before him, within eight days of St. Martin's, to show by what warrant they exercised certain powers and privileges. In July, 1686, the Assembly of the colony

* Trumbull's History of Connecticut.