ture, they pined in the close but necessary confinement of mechanical occupations. With the natural longings of the human heart, - and who shall censure the impulse out of which the advance of mankind has grown?-they sighed for family establishment, for lineage, for a government adapted to their wants, and for a position which might enable them to become free members of society, and important workers in the business of the world. The accounts which they had recently received respecting the territories of the western continent excited and allured them, superadding to their other desires a noble missionary feeling, an impulse to spread the gospel in the regions of Virginia, the name which the queen had affixed to the greater portion of these transatlantic domains. Long and anxious were their debates respecting this project. The timid shrunk back; the aged recommended caution; the ardent overleaped the apparent difficulties, and bounded with hope. After much prayer, the exiled church at Leyden came to the conclusion that they would bend their course to the Western World. They began negotiations with one of the Virginia companies, at that time there were two, and endeavored, though fruitlessly, to gain the sanction of King James. They resolved to sail for New England. It was with them no mercantile adventure; it was strictly an ecclesiastical movement, in which the whole church under Robinson's pastoral care, now amounting to three hundred members, were interested. It had been originally designed that the pastor himself, and the greater part of his flock, should remove to Virginia, and set up a new church there; but unexpected difficulties intervened, and, in the issue, Robinson, with the majority of his members, was reluctantly compelled to remain. Yet did he not the less encourage his followers in the enterprise which he might not join; whilst his holy character, his judicious discrimination, and his weighty counsel, were of unspeakable service to them in their proceedings. Two vessels were hired to convey the emigrants, under the direction of Brewster, an elder of the church: the Speedwell of sixty and

the Mayflower of one hundred and eighty tons. Larger means of transport they could not obtain.

And now the Speedwell is anchored in Delft Haven, whilst the Mayflower waits in London to convey the greater part of the passengers across the Atlantic. It is a time of activity and solicitude, but yet of hope, moistened eyes and brightening ones alternate. In preparation for their voyage, the pastor had proclaimed a fast, and called a solemn assembly; had set before them noble motives, and warned them against probable dangers. "Brethren," said the holy man of God, "we are now quickly to part from one another, and whether I may ever live to see your face on earth any more, the God of heaven only knows". such, at this moment, was, however, his earnest hope; "but whether the Lord has appointed that or no, I charge you before God and the blessed angels, that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ." He knew their unbounded regard for him, and feared lest truth might be sacrificed to that affection. "If God reveal anything to you by any other instrument of his, be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth by my ministry; for I am verily persuaded the Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy Word."* The times of primitive Christianity were almost come again, when these emigrants, attended by the mass of Robinson's congregation, by hoary men, tender women and weeping children, were accompanied from Leyden to Delft Haven, seventy-four miles. All were strangers, in a strange land; all were now especially dear to each other, because they could interpret each other's beating hearts and bleeding sympathies. In the affecting language of Bradford, “they knew that they were pilgrims, and lifted up their eyes to heaven,

*The text from which Robinson preached was Ezra 8: 21. And it is evident from its context what were the sentiments then present to his mind : "For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers, and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way; because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power, his wrath, is against all them that forsake him."

their dearest country, and quieted their spirits. That night was spent with little sleep by the most." The next day they went on board. The parting was unspeakably sad, especially for those who were left behind; and uncertainty spread its impenetrable shadow over those about to embark. Who could tell what perils they might encounter on their passage, or what dangers might meet them on the distant strand to which the eye of their hope was looking? But faith in God, for which they had sacrificed so much, imparted a solemn grandeur to the affecting scene. Tears, sobs and mutual prayers, impressive even to the Dutch strangers, mark their final leave-taking. The pastor falls on his knees, his departing children all around him, and, with "watery cheeks," commends them, in a last most fervent supplication, to the God of the winds and the waves, and the Lord of the ends of the earth. It was a chapter in the history of time! They are gone, and Robinson's best hopes on this side the grave are gone with them. This was the 20th of July, 1620. *

*

*

*

It was the middle of November in the same year, the commencement of a stern season, though somewhat less inclement than usual. The Mayflower, with its passengers, is now on the other side of the Atlantic. Perplexities and disasters have accompanied the pilgrim fathers on their way, and they are now a diminished band. Many were the delays before they could set sail from England. They had not proceeded far before the Speedwell was declared, truly or falsely, unfit for her passage. They returned to Dartmouth, repaired her, and again set sail. A hundred leagues of their passage were traversed, when Reynolds, master of the Speedwell, declared his ship in imminent danger of foundering. Again they returned, depositing "the feeble and faint-hearted" on their native shores, and the Mayflower pursued her voyage alone. For a time the winds were favorable; then a succession of storms invaded them. Their vessel is shattered, cracked, and during many days incapable of bearing a sail. Treachery, too, had brought them to a part of the coast very different from the banks of the Hudson, which had been intended for their future home.

To land upon the shore they had now reached, was to forfeit the conditions of their charter; yet, worn by perils and exhausted by privation, they regarded any land as welcome. As with prayer they had left the Old World, so with devotion and thanksgiving they planted themselves upon the New. Providence had opened for them an unexpected home. The season was bitter the land unknown. They were feeble in body, sickly in health, unhoused, unwelcomed, unblessed, except by Him whose eye was upon them for good. They found cleared land, springs of water, and a good harbor. They formed themselves into a body politic, as loyal subjects of King James; chose John Carver for their governor, and began to take measures for their future security. They had left Europe in search of liberty, and they found it in a desert. On the 9th of December they kept their first Sabbath on shore. On the 10th they removed their goods and chattels to the spot now occupied by the flourishing wharves and mercantile riches of the modern town of Plymouth. In commemoration of this event, sacred services still mark the return of "Forefathers' Day," and the rock on which the pilgrim fathers set foot is enclosed and enshrined as an enduring monument of the ancestors of the now great North American community.

Such were some of the hardships of the days of King James, such the firmness of noble-minded Christians, and such the manner in which Providence transformed many of their evils into blessings! Whilst we may not suppose that all, or even many of the puritans, held clear views respecting that domination of the civil power in religious matters from which their sufferings had sprung, they were rapidly advancing towards the attainment of more correct principles. We admire their fortitude, and love their memory; we must estimate their opinions by a clearer light than 'their own.

CHAPTER III.

CONTESTS WITH DESPOTISM.

"I know how to add Sovereign to the King's person, but not to his power. ' PYM.

FEW ancient cities have undergone such changes as London. The continental traveller delights to observe how quaint and abnormal structures of the olden times solicit the eye at every turn, and their recurrence gives to foreign cities no inconsiderable amount of their strangeness. In Rome, in Paris, in Brussels, in Antwerp, in Cologne, in Mayence, in Frankfort, he who penetrates into the crowded mass of houses which usually bears the name of the old town becomes surrounded by the vestiges of other days, and delights to hang historical associations on each projecting frieze, or overhanging balcony, or grotesque ornament. But London is, with few exceptions, a city of very modern growth. Much of this is doubtless attributable to the great fire, which nearly destroyed the old metropolis, in 1666; but even had this desolation never occurred, the busy enterprise, the increasing commerce, the readiness to adopt recent improvements, the love of cleanliness and care of health, which distinguished the English people, would probably have led to nearly the same results.

How few of the countless multitudes who daily press along that crowded thoroughfare, the Strand, which runs between Temple-bar and Charing-cross, think, or care to think, of the successive changes which have passed over the spots around them! Yet there was a time when that causeway had no crowd! St. Clement Danes, Somerset House, and their environs, were not always what they now are. Time was when no public carriages rattled along those