George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 3, 15th edition.

[62] general assembly of its own treasurer to take charge

Chap. XIX.}

of extraordinary supplies.

In affairs relating to religion, Lord Cornbury was equally imperious, disputing generally the right of either minister or schoolmaster to exercise his vocation without his license. The question of the freedom of the pulpit no longer included the whole question of intellectual freedom; the victory for toleration had been won; and the spirit of political freedom found its organ in the provincial legislature. The captious reference to the standing instructions in favor of the English Church, sometimes encouraging arbitrary acts of power in its behalf, and always tending to bias every question in its favor, led only to acts of petty tyranny, useless to English interests, and benefiting the people by com pelling their active vigilance. The power of the people redressed the griefs. If Francis Makemie, a Presbyterian, was indicted for preaching without a license from the governor; if the chief justice advised a special verdict,—the jury, composed, it is said, of Episcopalians, constituted themselves the judges of the law, and readily agreed on an acquittal. In like manner, at Jamaica, the church which the whole town had erected, was, by the connivance of Lord Cornbury, reserved exclusively for the Episcopalians—an injustice which was afterwards reversed in the colonial courts.

Twice had Lord Cornbury dissolved the assembly.

1708. Aug. 19.

The third which he convened proved how rapidly the political education of the people had advanced. Dutch, English, and New England men, were all of one spirit The rights of the people, with regard to taxation, to courts of law, to officers of the crown, were asserted with an energy to which the governor could offer no resistance. Without presence of mind, subdued by