Note 169 — Chapter V · (continued 2)

Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. III., B. iii., Chap. viii., p. 352.

They usurped authority over New Hampshire and Maine, at the same time that they prevented the execution of the Acts of Trade and Navigation (the 12th and 15th of Charles the Second). Mr. Hutchinson says: "The Massachusetts Government (1670) governed without opposition the Province of New Hampshire and the Province of Maine, and were beginning settlements even further eastward. The French were removed from their neighbourhood on the one side, and the Dutch and Swedes on the other. Their trade was as extensive as they could wish. No custom-house was established. The Acts of Parliament of the 12th-15th of King Charles the Second, for regulating the Plantation trade, were in force; but the Governor, whose business it was to carry them into execution, was annually to be elected by the people, whose interest was that they should not be observed! Some of the magistrates and principal merchants grew very rich." (History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol I., p. 269.)