We can now see that while the dispute involved an abstract principle of fundamental importance to mankind, it was at the same time for Americans illustrated by memories sufficiently concrete and real. James Otis in his prime was no further distant from the tyranny of Andros than middle-aged men of to-day are distant from the Missouri Compromise. The sons of men cast into jail along with John Wise may have stood silent in the moonlight on Griffin's Wharf and looked on while the contents of the tea-chests were hurled into Boston harbour. In the events we have here passed in review, it may be seen, so plainly that he who runs may read, how the spirit of 1776 was foreshadowed in 1689.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.
An interesting account of the Barons' War and the meeting of the first House of Commons is given in Prothero's Simon de Montfort, London, 1877. For Wyclif and the Lollards, see Milman's Latin Christianity, vol. viI. — The ecclesiastical history of the Tudor period may best be studied in the works of John Strype, to wit, Historical Memorials, 6 vols.; Annals of the Reformation, 7 vols.; Lives of Cranmer, Parker, Whitgift, etc., Oxford, 1812-28. See also Burnet's History of the Reformation of the Church of England, 3 vols., London, 1679-1715; Neal's History of the Puritans, London, 1793; Tulloch, Leaders of the Reformation, Boston, 1859. A vast mass of interesting information is to be found in The Zurich Letters, comprising the Correspondence of Several English Bishops, and Others, with some of the Helvetian Reformers, published by the Parker Society, 4 vols., Cambridge, Eng., 1845-46. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity was published in London, 1594; a new edition, containing two additional books, the first complete edition, was published in 1622.
For the general history of England in the seventeenth century, there are two modern works which stand far above all others,—Gardiner's History of England, 10 vols., London, 1883-84; and Masson's Life of Milton, narrated in connection with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of his Time, 6 vols., Cambridge, Eng., 1859-80. These are books of truly colossal erudition, and written in a spirit of judicial fairness. Mr. Gardiner's ten volumes cover the forty years from the accession of James I. to the beginning of the Civil War, 1603-1643. Mr. Gardiner has lately published the first two volumes of his history of the Civil War, and it is to be hoped that he will not stop until he reaches the accession of William and Mary. Indeed, such books as his ought never to stop. My friend and colleague, Prof. Hosmer, tells me that Mr. Gardiner is a lineal descendant of Cromwell and Ireton. His little book, The Puritan Revolution, in the "Epochs of History" series, is extremely useful, and along with it one should read Airy's The English Restoration and Louis XIV., in the same series, New York, 1889. The best biography of Cromwell is by Mr. Allanson Picton, London, 1882; see also Frederic Harrison's Cromwell, London, 1888, an excellent little book. Hosmer's Young Sir Henry Vane, Boston, 1888, should be read in the same connection; and one should not forget Carlyle's Cromwell. See also Tulloch, English Puritanism and its Leaders, 1861, and Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy in England in the Seventeenth Century, 1872; Skeats, History of the Free Churches of England, London, 1868; Mountfield, The Church and Puritans, London, 1881. Dexter's Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, New York, 1880, is a work of monumental importance.
On the history of New England the best general works are Palfrey, History of New England, 4 vols., Boston, 1858-75; and Doyle, The English in America—The Puritan Colonies, 2 vols., London, 1887. In point of scholarship Dr. Palfrey's work is of the highest order, and it is written in an interesting style. Its only shortcoming is that it deals somewhat too leniently with the faults of the Puritan theocracy, and looks at things too exclusively from a Massachusetts point of view. It is one of the best histories yet written in America. Mr. Doyle's work is admirably fair and impartial, and is based throughout upon a careful study of original documents. The author is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and has apparently made American history his specialty. His work on the Puritan colonies is one of a series which when completed will cover the whole story of English colonization in America. I have looked in vain in his pages for any remark or allusion indicating that he has ever visited America, and am therefore inclined to think that he has not done so. He now and then makes a slight error such as would not be likely to be made by a native of New England, but this is very seldom. The accuracy and thoroughness of its research, its judicial temper, and its philosophical spirit make Mr. Doyle's book in some respects the best that has been written about New England.
Among original authorities we may begin by citing John Smith's Description of New England, 1616, and New England's Trial, 1622, contained in Arber's new edition of Smith's works, London, 1884. Bradford's narrative of the founding of Plymouth was for a long time supposed to be lost. Nathaniel Morton's New England's Memorial, published in 1669, was little more than an abridgment of it. After two centuries Bradford's manuscript was discovered, and an excellent edition by Mr. Charles Deane was published in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, 4th series, vol. iii., 1856. Edward Winslow's Journal of the Proceedings of the English Plantation settled at Plymouth, 1622, and Good News from New England, 1624, are contained, with other valuable materials, in Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, Boston, 1844. See also Shurtleff and Pulsifer, Records of Plymouth, 12 vols., ending with the annexation of the colony to Massachusetts in 1692; Prince's Chronological History of New England, ed. Drake, 1852; and in this connection Hunter's Founders of New Plymouth, London, 1854; Steele's Life of Brewster, Philadelphia, 1857; Goodwin's Pilgrim Republic, Boston, 1887; Bacon's Genesis of the New England Churches, New York, 1874; Baylies's Historical Memoir, 1830; Thacher's History of the Town of Plymouth, 1832.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges wrote a Briefe Narration of the Originall Undertakings of the advancement of plantations into the parts of America, especially showing the beginning, progress, and continuance of that of New England, London, 1658, contained in his grandson's collection entitled America Painted to the Life. Thomas Morton, of Merrymount, gave his own view of the situation in his New English Canaan, which has been edited for the Prince Society, with great learning, by C.F. Adams. Samuel Maverick also had his say in a valuable pamphlet entitled A Description of New England, which has only come to light since 1875 and has been edited by Mr. Deane. Maverick is, of course, hostile to the Puritans. See also Lechford's Plain Dealing in New England, ed. J.H. Trumbull, 1867.
The earliest history of Massachusetts is by Winthrop himself, a work of priceless value. In 1790, nearly a century and a half after the author's death, it was published at Hartford. The best edition is that of 1853. In 1869 a valuable life of Winthrop was published by his descendant Robert Winthrop. Hubbard's History of New England (Mass. Hist. Coll., 2d series, vols. v., vi.) is drawn largely from Winthrop and from Nathaniel Morton. There is much that is suggestive in William Wood's New England's Prospect, 1634, and Edward Johnson's Wonder-working Providence of Zion's Saviour in New England, 1654; the latter has been ably edited by W.F. Poole, Andover, 1867. The records of the Massachusetts government, from its founding in 1629 down to the overthrow of the charter in 1684, were edited by Dr. Shurtleff in 6 vols. quarto, 1853-54; and among the documents in the British Record Office, published since 1855, three volumes—Calendar of State Papers, Colonial America, vol. i., 1574-1660; vol. v., 1661-1668; vol. vii., 1669—are especially useful. Of the later authorities the best is Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, the first volume of which, coming down to 1689, was published in Boston in 1764. The second volume, continuing the narrative to 1749, was published in 1767. The third volume, coming down to 1774, was found among the illustrious author's MSS. after his death, and was published in London in 1828. Hutchinson had access to many valuable documents since lost, and his sound judgment and critical acumen deserve the highest praise. In 1769 he published a volume of Original Papers, illustrating the period covered by the first volume of his history. Many priceless documents perished in the shameful sacking of his house by the Boston rioters, Aug. 26, 1765. The second volume of Hutchinson's History was continued to 1764 by G.R. Minot, 2 vols., 1798, and to 1820 by Alden Bradford, 3 vols., 1822-29. Of recent works, the best is Barry's History of Massachusetts, 3 vols., 1855-57. Many original authorities are collected in Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts, Boston, 1846. Cotton Mather's Magnolia Christi Americana, London, 1702 (reprinted in 1820 and 1853), though crude and uncritical, is full of interest.