[87] obtain the stating of a line that for the generalty is (by exact measure) tried and proved to be very little above three miles from Cambridge meeting-house. Yet did not Cambridge (thus pilled and bereaved of more than half the lands accommodable to their town at once) resist, or so much as complain, but rested therein,—the Court having declared their pleasure and given them their sanction, that this, as abovesaid, should be a final issue of all things between the town and the petitioners.All this notwithstanding, these long-breathed petitioners, finding that they had such good success that they could never cast their lines into the sea but something was catched, they resolve to bait their hook again; and as they had been wont some of them for twenty years together to attend constantly the meetings of the town and selectmen, whilst there was any lands, wood, or timber, that they could get by begging, so now they pursue the Court for obtaining what they would from them, not sparing time or cost to insinuate their matters, with reproaches and clamors against poor Cambridge, and have the confidence in the year 1672 again to petition the Court for the same thing, and in the same words that they now do, viz. ‘that they may be a township of themselves, distinct from Cambridge’ ; and then the Court grants them further liberty than before they had, viz. to choose their own Constable and three selectmen amongst themselves, to order the prudential affairs of the inhabitants there, only continuing a part of Cambridge in paying Country and County rates, as also Town Rates so far as refers to the Grammar School, Bridge, and Deputy's charges, they to pay still their proportion with the town; and this the Court declares, once more, to be a final issue of the controversy between Cambridge and them.
Cambridge no sooner understands the pleasure of this honored Court, but they quietly submitted thereunto; and we hope our brethren neither can nor dare in the least to accuse us (first or last) of refusing to acquiesce in the Court's issue, although we may and must truly say we have been not a little grieved when by the more private intimations and reproachful backbitings of our neighbors, we have, in the minds and lips of those whom we honor and love, been rendered either too straitlaced to our own interest, or unequally-minded towards our brethren. And did not this honored Court, as well as we, conclude that the petitioners, having exercised the patience of the Court by their so often petitioning, as well as giving trouble to the town by causing them to dance after their pipes, from time
