The beginnings of New England

Front matter

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FJobn Fiske’s Writings.

Preface

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TuIs book contains the substance of the lectures originally given at the Washington University, St. Louis, in May, 1887, in the course of my annual visit to that institution as University Professor of American History. The lectures were repeated in the following month of June at Portland, Oregon, and since then either the whole course, or one or more of the lectures, have been given in Boston, Newton, Milton, Chelsea, New Bedford, Lowell, Worcester, Springfield, and Pittsfield, Mass. ; Farmington, Middletown, and Stamford, Conn. ; New York, Brooklyn, and Tarrytown, N. Y.; Philadelphia and Ogontz, Pa.; Wilmington, Del. ; Chicago, Ill. ; San Francisco and Oakland, Cal.

In this sketch of the circumstances which attended the settlement of New England, I have purposely omitted many details which in a formal history of that period would need to be included. It has been my aim to give the outline of such a narrative as to indicate the principles at work in the history of New England down to the Revoluvl PREFACE.

tion of 1689. When I was writing the lectures I had just been reading, with much interest, the work of my former pupil, Mr. Brooks Adams, en- ‘titled “The Emancipation of Massachusetts.” With the specific conclusions set forth in that book I found myself often agreeing, but it seemed to me that the general aspect of the case would be considerably modified and perhaps somewhat more adequately presented by enlarging the field of view. In forming historical judgments a great deal depends upon our perspective. Out of the very imperfect human nature which is so slowly and painfully casting off the original sin of its inheritance from primeval savagery, it is scarcely possible in any age to get a result which will look quite satisfactory to the men of a riper and more enlightened age. Fortunately we can learn something from the stumblings of our forefathers, and a good many things seem quite clear to us to-day which two centuries ago were only beginning to be dimly discerned by a few of the keenest and boldest spirits. The faults of the Puritan theocracy, which found its most complete development in Massachusetts, are so glaring that it is idle to seek to palliate them or to explain them away. But if we would really understand what was going on in the Puritan world of the seventeenth century, and how a better state of things has grown out of it, we must endeavour to distinguish and define the elements of wholesome

PREFACE. vii strength in that theocracy no less than its elements of crudity and weakness.

The first chapter, on “The Roman Idea and the English Idea,” contains a somewhat more developed statement of the points briefly indicated in the thirteenth section (pp. 85-95) of “ The Des- ~ a tiny of Man.” As all of the present book, except the first chapter, was written here under the shadow of the Washington University, I take pleasure in dating it from this charming and hospitable city where I have passed some of the most delightful hours of my life.

Sr. Lovis, April 15, 1889.

Chapter I. The Roman Idea And The English Idea

When did the Roman Empire come to anend? , ; . 1-3 Meaning of Odovakar’s work . : s ; : 8

The Holy Roman Empire . ; ‘ j 4,5 Gradual shifting of primacy from es men who spoke Latin,

and their descendants, to the men who speak English . 6-8 Political history is the history of nation-making . ; . 8, 9 The OrIENTAL method of nation-making ; conquest without

incorporation : : : ‘ : ; : ence Illustrations from eter despotisms . ; ‘ ‘ 10 And from the Moors in Spain : : é : aie The RomAN method of nation-making ; nied with incor-

poration, but without representation. ; ‘ : eas Its slow development . ; ‘ : ‘ : : OE: Vices in the Roman system . ; : ; , : . 14 Its fundamental defect . ‘ 15 It knew nothing of political power rdelspaied by the oes

to representatives ; : ‘ 046 And therefore the expansion of its donna paded: in a cen-

tralized despotism 16 Which entailed the danger fiat hein life ae come to

stagnate in Europe, as it had done in Asia. : : uy

The danger was warded off by the Germanic invasions, ehh. however, threatened to undo the work which the Hinipiw had done in organizing European society . : 17

But such disintegration was prevented by the sway lan the Roman Church had come to exercise over the European mind . : ‘ - ; ks

The EncuisH method of nation-making ; corse nian with representation . ; ‘ ‘ ; ; : ; . 20 x CONTENTS.

Pacific tendencies of federalism

Failure of Greek attempts at federation

Fallacy of the notion that republics must be aad

‘It is not the business of a government to support its people, but of the people to support their government ”’

Teutonic March-meetings and representative assemblies

Peculiarity of the Teutonic conquest of Britain . eee

Survival and development of the Teutonic representative assembly in England .

Primitive Teutonic institutions less rehad in England hast in Germany .

Some effects of the ee ye Oe of Basan:

The Barons’ War and the first House of Commons

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

Confliet between Roman Idea and English Idea poets tc be come clearly visible in the thirteenth century

Decline of medizval Empire and Church with the sheoivth of modern nationalities . : ‘ : é . “ ‘

Overthrow of feudalism, and increasing power of the crown

Formidable strength of the Roman Idea

Had it not been for the Puritans, political liberty said probably have disappeared from the world Beginnings of Protestantism in the thirteenth century . ‘ The Cathari, or Puritans of the Eastern Empire ; The Albigenses. : :

Effects of persecution ; fia bosudonenes in Gin h

Wyclif and the Lellards d Political character of Henry VIIL.’s savalk ata Rome The yeoman Hugh Latimer

The moment of Cromwell’s triumph was he anise critical moment in history . é Contrast with Franee; fate of the ‘Hesusoes 5 a 46, Victory of the English Idea . : ‘ ‘ : ; Significance of the Puritan Exodus ; mkt wie eanreaeite

CHAPTER IL THE PURITAN EXODUS.

Influence of Puritanism upon modern Europe c « 60; Work of the Lollards . ‘ : ‘ They made the Bible the first iiss aoe Misaradaris in England. : F ‘ ; : sine eee

The English version of a Bible : A : “ 2 By

25 27

45. 4] 48 40

51 52

54 55

CONTENTS. Pg!

Secret of Henry VIII.’s swift success in his revolt against

Rome . : é : : 5 . 56 Effects of the parsacation andy Mary : : ; 2 hen! Calvin’s theology in its political bearings . ; Letom, OO Elizabeth’s policy and its effects . : : : : = 61 Puritan sea-rovers . ; 61 Geographical distribution of Bintan in owsnd: : it was

strongest in the eastern counties ‘ : : 2 62 Preponderance of Kast Anglia in the Puritan se Re : Os Familiar features of East Anglia to the visitor from New

England. ; ° . 64 Puritanism was not iiantonally gilied with fikemalar ee Robert Brown and the Separatists ; : . : . 66° Persecution of the Separatists : ; Ola Recantation of Brown ; it was reserved for William Eatvater

to take the lead in the Puritan exodus . : GS James Stuart, and his encounter with Andrew Melville wn OD

What James intended to do when he became King of England 70 His view of the political situation, as declared in the conference at Hampton Court . . Bees gta avi The congregation of Separatists at Seloahe : ° Bas The flight to Holland, and settlement at Leyden i in 1609 cote Systematic legal toleration in Holland : 74 Why the Pilgrims did not stay there; they icidliod to Byer:

up their distinct organization and found a state 2 . TAs And to do this they must cross the ocean, because European

territory was all preoccupied ; ; - : pases (3) The London and Plymouth companies . 75 First explorations of the New England coast ; arch oars

Gosnold (1602), and George Weymouth oe. - Peres (6) The Popham colony (1607) . ; 77

Captain John Smith gives to New England its name (1614) era ts: The Pilgrims at Leyden decide to make a settlement near the Delaware river. ; ‘ : meee) How King James regarded the ecfotisc : 80 Voyage of the Mayflower; she goes astray and tae he Pil.

grims to Cape Cod bay. . ; ; A 81 Founding of the Plymouth colony (1620) : . ; 82, 83 Why the Indians did not molest the settlers. . 84, 85

The chief interest of this beginning of the Puritan exodus lies not so much in what it achieved as in whatit suggested 86,87 —

X11 CONTENTS.

Chapter III. The Planting Of New England

Sir Ferdinando Gorges and the Council for NewEngland 88, 89

Wessagusset and Merrymount ; : j ; »- 790, O1 The Dorchester adventurers , ; . 92 John White wishes to ‘‘ raise a bulwark bet the Rinmasm

of Antichrist . . Ege, And John Endicott tridepalcee the a ae of building it. . 94 Conflicting grants sow seeds of trouble; the Gorges and Ma-

son claims . 5 _ . 94, 95

Endicott’s arrival in New Basan: ond the cones of Salem 95

The Company of Massachusetts Bay; Francis Higginson takes a powerful reinforcement to Salem . : - 96

The development of John White’s enterprise into the ‘Cons: pany of Massachusetts Bay coincided with the first four years of the reign of Charles I. : A <a Od Extraordinary scene in the Hoe of Cones eyane 5,

1628) . : ; » = 98,99 The King turns Patiomont a of tans (March 2, 1629) =, 100 Desperate nature of the crisis : . 100, 101

The meeting at Cambridge (Aug. 26, 1629), and scene to transfer the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and the government established under it, to New England . 102

Leaders of the great migration; John Winthrop . : . 102 And Thomas Dudley. 5 : . 108 Founding of Massachusetts; the bees of Garzes oyverwhelmed . : A ; : . 104.

Beginnings of American apeational betes ae question as to self-government raised at Watertown ‘ : . 105 Representative system established ; 4 : ' . 106 Bicameral assembly; story of the stray pig . ‘ ; . 107 Ecclesiastical polity ; the triumph of Separatism . < . 108 Restriction of the suffrage to members of the Puritan congregational churches . ; . ; ; : ‘ . 109 ' Founding of Harvard College 3 . 110

Threefold danger to the New England eae in 1636 : — 1. From the King, who prepares to attack the charter, but is foiled by dissensions at home . ; ‘ . 111-118 2. From religious dissensions; Roger Williams . 114-116 Henry Vane and Anne Hutchinson . ‘ j . 116-119 Beginnings of New Hampshire and Rhode Island . 119-120

CONTENTS. Xl

3. From the Indians; the Pequot supremacy . , lar First movements into the Connecticut valley, and qapetss with the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam » 122, 123

Restriction of the suffrage leads to disaffection in Massnshas setts; profoundly interesting opinions of Winthrop and

Hooker : ; ‘ ' . 123, 124 Connecticut pioneers sae snes hanishine . ‘ ‘ . 125 Thomas Hooker, and the founding of Connecticut : . 126

The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (Jan. 14, 1639) ; the first written constitution that created a government . 127 Relations of Connecticut to the genesis of the Federal

Union . ‘ ; F : . 128 Origin of the Pequot War; Sasahous tries to nhaee che Tadian

tribes in a crusade against the English _ ; . 129, 1380 The schemes of Sassacus are foiled by Roger Williams . 130 The Pequots take the war path alone. : ‘ ° wis) And are exterminated . . : . ’ . 182-134 John Davenport, and the founding of New Haven ; » 135

New Haven legislation, and legend of the ‘‘ Blue Laws’? . 136

With the meeting of the Long Parliament, in 1640, the Puritan exodus comes to its end 7 : ; A ito

What might have been ; P ‘ : ’ . 188, 391

Chapter IV. The New England Confederacy

The Puritan exodus was purely and exclusively English . 140 And the settlers were all thrifty and prosperous; chiefly country squires and yeomanry of the best and sturdiest type . ; : : . 141, 142 In all history ee has Pci no aches iebbatigs of polewes tan so exclusively effected by picked and chosen men . . 143

What, then, was the principle of selection ? The migration was not intended to promote what we call religious liberty . : . , ; : » 144,145 © Theocratic ideal of the Baran : ‘ : : - 146 The impulse which sought to realize itself in the Puritan

ideal was an ethicalimpulse . . 147 v In interpreting Scripture, the Puritan analed is his

Value of such aeeeial iisologien! cienesron as was carried on in early New England . ; : : . 150, 151 wl

X1V CONTENTS.

Comparison with the history of Scotland . . - 152 Bearing of these considerations upon the history of the New England confederacy . ; . 153

The existence of so many alowed (aise ion setts, Connecticut, New Haven, Rhode Island, the Piscataqua towns, etc.) was due to differences of opinion on questions in which men’s religious ideas were involved . 154 » And this multiplication of colonies led to a notable and significant attempt at confederation ‘ ; ; “ . 155 Turbulence of dissent in Rhode Island ; : : . 156 The Earl of Warwick, and his Board of Commissioners . 157 Constitution of the Confederacy . ; : ; : . 158 It was only a league, not a federal union ‘ : : ° Loe Its formation involved a tacit assumption of sovereignty . 160

The fall of Charles I. brought up, for a moment, the question as to the supremacy of Parliament over the colonies . 161

Some interesting questions . ‘ : : - ; . 162 Genesis of the persecuting spirit . : : : ° . 168 ~ Samuel Gorton and his opinions. : : : 163-165 He flees to Aquedneck and is banished thense ; : . 166 Providence protests against hm . . BG F . 167 He flees to Shawomet, where he buys land of the Indians . 168 Miantonomo and Uncas . : ; ‘ ; : . 169, 170 Death of Miantonomo . ; : : mk | Edward Johnson leads an i eadtiaon against Shaierde Bae bie Trial and sentence of the heretics. ; ; ; oe 't| Winthrop declares himself in a prophetic opinion. . . 174 The Presbyterian cabal : : ‘ : 175-177

The Cambridge Platform ; deaths of Winthtop and Cotton . 177 Views of Winthrop and Cotton as to toleration in matters of religion . 218 After their death, the Pedaa hap 5 in UMnaaeauctis was in the

hands of Endicott and Norton . ; : P ; . 19 The Quakers; their opinions and behavior . : : 179-181 v Violent manifestations of dissent . ‘ : : . 182 Anne Austin and Mary Fisher; how ee were received in

Boston ; . 183 The confederated Sinn souk to cau the uneers: Siatile

attitude of Rhode Island . : 2 - . 184 Roger Williams appeals to his friend, Oliver nhnelk . 185 The ‘‘ heavenly speech’’ of Sir Harry Vane . : , . 185 Laws passed against the Quakers . : ‘ ; . 186

How the death penalty was regarded at that time in New England. E : : ; ; ; : . 187

CONTENTS. XV

Executions of Quakers on Boston Common . : . 188,189 — Wenlock Christison’s defiance and victory. ‘ . 189, 190 The ‘‘ King’s Missive” . é : » 191 Why Charles II. interfered ie peatet the Guakor : 19D His hostile feeling toward the New England governments . 192 1 The regicide judges, Goffe and Whalley ‘ ‘ . 193, 194 New Haven annexed to Connecticut. : : . 194, 195 Abraham Pierson, and the founding of Newark . é . 196 Breaking-down of the theocratic policy . é : » 197» Weakening of the Confederacy . 2 ‘ ‘ ‘ . 198 CHAPTER V.

KING PHILIP’S WAR.

Relations between the Puritan settlers and the Indians. . 199

Trade with the Indians . ; 2 : i : ‘ . 200 Missionary work; Thomas Mayhew ‘ ; ; weed John Eliot and his translation of the Bible . ; é . 202 His preaching to the Indians . ; : : , . . 208 His villages of Christian Indians . : : ‘ . 204 The Puritan’s intention was to deal gently a himbarabiy with the red men : : : . 205 Why Pennsylvania was so Tee meanolsted by fis Indians, 205, 206 Difficulty of the situation in New England . : S . 207 It is hard for the savage and the civilized man to meena one another ; ‘ ‘ . 208 How Eliot’s designs must insvtbably ee nae misinterpreted by the Indians. : ; . 209 It is remarkable that peace should have a so lend preserved . ‘ , ‘ : ; . 210 Deaths of Massasoit ana hia son ‘Ales cndise ‘ ‘ «Zid Very little is known about the nature of Philip’s dekioin . 212 The meeting at Taunton ; : : - : ; . 213 Sausamon informs against Philip . : : : we Diss And is murdered . s - ; ‘ : . 214 Massacres at Swanzey and Dae ech 2 : : ‘ . 214 Murder of Captain Hutchinson. . 215

Attack on Brookfield, which is relieved ie Gann ‘Willard 216 Fighting in the Connecticut ae the mysterious stranger

at Hadley . : ‘ : ; : ~ wit, 218 Ambuscade at Bloody Brook 2 ‘ : : : . 219 Popular excitement in Boston , . ° . . . 220

Xvl CONTENTS.

The Narragansetts prepare to take the war-path . ‘ . 221 And Governor Winslow leads an army against them . 222, 223 Storming of the great swamp fortress . 4 f A . 224 Slaughter of the Indians : * ‘ : ; ‘ . 225 Effect of the blow ‘ : : ; . 226

Growth of the humane sentiment in recent San Hee Z, the fact that the horrors of war are seldom brought home to everybody’s door : ; : . 227, 228 Warfare with savages is cee to be enna in character . 229 Attack upon Lancaster . : j : : ; ; . 230 Mrs. Rowlandson’s narrative . : , , ‘ : 231-233 Virtual extermination of the Indians (February to Au-

gust, 1676) : 3 : : : : : . 233, 234 Death of Canonchet ‘ ‘ - , : . 234 Philip pursued by Captain Chureke ‘ : : 4 . 235 Death of Philip . ; : pe ee aeer Slag . 236 Indians sold into slavery : ea eta fi" . 237 Conduct of the Christian Indians . ; : : ; . 238 War with the Tarratines : : ; : ‘ . 239 Frightful destruction of life and prone : . . 240

Henceforth the red man figures no more in the hieeoes of New England, except in frontier raids under French guidance. ; : : 4 : ° - ‘ : . 241

Chapter VI. The Tyranny Of Andros

Romantic features in the early history of New England . 242

Captain Edward Johnson, of Woburn, and his book on ‘‘ The Wonder-working Providence of Zion’s Saviour in New England’”’ . ; : . 243, 244

Acts of the Puritans obien Faded og an aed and impossible standard . : Z . . 245 wv Spirit of the Wanderers Prion te . 246 Merits and faults of the Puritan theocracy . : : . 247 Restriction of the suffrage to church members. . . 248 It was a source of political discontent . , : : . 249

_ Inquisitorial administration of justice . P ‘ : . 250

The “ Halfway Covenant”’ . : : : : . 251 Founding of the Old South sede : » 252 Unfriendly relations between Charles II. oe Miasanahi:

Complaints against Mastedneets ; : : ‘ : . 254

CONTENTS. xvil

The Lords of Trade : , : . 255 Arrival of Edward amistad in Becton! : . 256 Joseph Dudley and the beginnings of Toryism in Noe Bice land . : ; f . 257, 258 Charles II. erects the eu Beaieces Fae into the eal province of New Hampshire. F . 259 And quarrels with Massachusetts over the settlement of the Gorges claim to the Maine district . , : : . 260 Simon Bradstreet and his verse-making wife. : : . 261 Massachusetts answers the king’s peremptory message . . 262 Secret treaty between Charles II. and Louis XIV. ‘ . 263 Shameful proceedings in England . : . 264

Massachusetts refuses to surrender her nies ae eee f ingly it is annulled by decree of frase June 21, 1684. 265

Effect of annulling the charter. - 266

Death of Charles II., accession of James I,, ata Stas AE ment of Sir Ramada Andros as viceroy over Neos England, with despotic powers . : Po ier . ; ; . 267 The charter oak. : : : : : . , . 268 Episcopal services in Boston . : 5 ’ : . 268, 269 Founding of the King’s Nasty . : : ; : . 269 The tyranny . : ‘ ’ ; : : . 270 John Wise of Tastick : : : : ; . ; anak Fall of James II. . ; é : ‘ . 271 Insurrection in Boston, and pe Ete of ee : ; . 272 Effects of the Revolution of 1689 . ; : : ; . 273 Need for union among all the northern colonies. A » 274 Plymouth, Maine, and Acadia annexed to Massachusetts . 275 Which becomes a royal province . . 276

And is thus brought into political Empaene with Virginia . 276 The seeds of the American Revolution were already sown, and the spirit of 1776 was foreshadowed in 1689 . 277, 278

THE

BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND.

Chapter I. The Roman Idea And The English Idea

Ir used to be the fashion of historians, looking superficially at the facts presented in chronicles and tables of dates, without analyzing and comparing vast groups of facts distributed through centuries, or even suspecting the need for such analysis and comparison, to assign the date 476 A. D. as the moment at which the Roman Empire came to anend. It was in that year that the soldier of fortune, Odovakar, commander of the Herulian mercenaries in Italy, sent the handsome boy Romulus, son of Orestes, better known as “ little Augustus,” from his imperial throne to the splendid villa of Lucullus near Naples, and gave him a yearly pension of $35,000 [6,000 solidi] to console him for the loss of a world. As 324 years elapsed before another emperor was crowned at Rome, when dia the and as the political headship of Europe fire come to after that happy restoration remained “ on upon the German soil to which the events of the eighth century had shifted it, nothing could seem more natural than the habit which historians once had, of saying that the mighty career of Rome had ended, as it had begun, with a Romulus. Sometimes the date 476 was even set up as a great landmark dividing modern from ancient history. For those, however, who took such a view, it was impossible to see the events of the Middle Ages in their true relations to what went before and what came after. It was impossible to understand what went on in Italy in the sixth century, or to explain the position of that great Roman power which had its centre on the Bosphorus, which in the code of Justinian left us our grandest monument of Roman law, and which for a thousand years was the staunch bulwark of Europe against the successive ageressions of Persian, Saracen,and Turk. It was equally impossible to understand the rise of the Papal power, the all-important polities of the great Saxon and Swabian emperors, the relations of medizval England to the Continental powers, or the marvellously interesting growth of the modern European system of nationalities.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century the study of history has undergone changes no less sweeping than those which have in the same time affected the study of the physical sciences. Vast groups of facts distributed through various ages and countries have been’ subjected to comparison ~ and analysis, with the result that they have not only thrown fresh light upon one another, but have in many cases enabled us to recover historic points of view that had long been buried in oblivion. Such an instance was furnished about twenty-five years ago by Dr. Bryce’s epoch-making work on _ the Holy Roman Empire. Since then historians still recognize the importance of the date jy. in of 476 as that which left the Bishop of Odovakar’s Rome the dominant personage in Italy,

and marked the shifting of the political centre of gravity from the Palatine to the Lateran. This was one of those subtle changes which escape notice until after some of their effects have attracted attention. The most important effect, in this instance, realized after three centuries, was not the overthrow of Roman power in the West, but its indefinite extension and expansion. The men of 476 not only had no idea that they were entering upon a new era, but least of all did they dream that the Roman Empire had come to an end, or was ever likely to. Its cities might be pillaged, its provinces overrun, but the supreme imperial power itself was something without which the men of those days could not imagine the world as existing. It must have its divinely ordained representative in one place if not in another. If the throne in Italy was vacant, it was no more than had happened before; there was still a throne at Constantinople, and to its occupant Zeno the Roman Senate sent a message, saying that one emperor was enough for both ends of the earth, and begging him to confer upon the gallant Odovakar the title of patrician, and entrust the affairs of Italy to his care. So when Sicambrian Chlodwig set up his Merovingian kingdom in northern Gaul, he was glad to array himself in the robe of a Roman consul, and obtain from the eastern emperor a formal ratification of his rule.

Countless examples show that the event of 476 was understood as the virtual reunion of West and East under a single head; whereas, on the other hand, the impressive scene in the basilica of St. Peter’s on the Christmas of 800, when Pope Leo III. placed the diadem of the Czsars upon the Frankish brow of Charles the Great, was regarded, not as the restoration of an empire once extinguished, but as a new separation between East and West, a re-transfer of the world’s political centre from the Bosphorus to the Tiber. When after two The Holy Ro. Centuries more the sceptre had passed man Empire. from the line of Frankish Charles to the line of Saxon Otto, this Holy Roman Empire, shaped by the alliance of German king with Italian pontiff, acquired such consistency as to outlast the whole group of political conditions in which it originated. These conditions endured for five centuries after the coronation in 800; the empire preserved a continuous existence for yet five centuries more. Until after the downfall of the great Hohenstauffen emperors, late in the thirteenth century, soon followed by the Babylonish exile of the popes at Avignon, the men of western Kurope felt themselves in a certain sense members of a political whole of which Rome was the centre. By the beginning of the sixteenth century this feeling had almost disappeared. Men’s world had enlarged till Rome no longer seemed so great to them as it had seemed to their forefathers who had lived under its mighty spell, or as it seems to us who view it through the lenses of history. Within its own imperial domains powerful nations had slowly grown up, whose speech would have sounded strange to Cicero; while beyond ocean were found new lands where the name of Cesar had never been heard. By the side of Louis XII. or Ferdinand of Aragon, it was not easy to recognize a grander dignity in the Hapsburg successor of Augustus ; and the mutterings of revolt against papal supremacy already heralded the storm which was soon to rend all Christendom in twain. After the Reformation, the conception of a universal Christian monarchy, as held whether by St. Augustine or by Dante, had ceased to have a meaning and ~ faded from men’s memories. Yet in its forms and titles the Holy Roman Empire continued to survive, until, as Voltaire said, it had come to be neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. So long did it remain upon the scene that in 1790 an illustrious American philosopher, Benjamin Thompson, a native of Woburn in Massachusetts and sometime dweller in Rumford, New Hampshire, was admitted to-a share in its dignities as Count Rumford. When at length in 1806, among the sweeping changes wrought by the battle of Austerlitz, the Emperor Francis II. resigned his position as head of the Germanic body, there were perhaps few who could have told why that head should have been called emperor rather than king; fewer still, no doubt, who realized that the long succession of Cesars had now first come to an end.