Thus affluent, and favoured by Providence from the commencement of the settlement, towns sprung up around them and along the shore, “each being, like the parent New Haven, a House of Wisdom resting on its seven pillars, and aspiring to be illuminated by the Eternal Light.” CHAPTER XI. THE NEW ENGLAND UNION. The establishment and progress of the New England states were watched with deep interest in the mother-country, where the colonists themselves had so many remaining ties, and where persecution still continuing unabated, prepared thousands to fellow, and to become heroes and adventurers for Christ’s sake. A letter from New England in those days, we are told, was regarded “as a sacred script, or as the writing of some holy prophet, and was carried many miles, when divers came to hear it, and to such it became the prophecy of hope.” At the time that to thousands of the nation at large these colonies were subjects of intense interest, the government disregarded them as too feeble and insignificant for notice, and by this disregard the salvation of the liberties of the infant states was confirmed. By degrees, however, the importance of the emigration which they occasioned, and the report of dissatisfied persons, or those who for various causes “had been thrust out” by the too exclusive and intolerant government of Massachusetts, forced themselves upon the attention of the ruling party at home. In vain did the friends of Massachusetts in England—and she had able and powerful friends—obtain from the monarch an assurance that the people should not be interfered with; the complainants ceased not to clamour, and the high-church party was glad enough to listen. “Proofs were produced of marriages celebrated by civil magistrates, of the prohibition of the English liturgy, of a form of church discipline quite at variance with the established law in England; nay, even that the colony was about to disavow its allegiance to the English crown, and assume itself the sovereign power.” Alarm and dissatisfaction were excited, and it was determined to bring the colony to obedience. In February, 1634, therefore, Archbishop Laud was made the head of a commission vested with both civil and ecclesiastical power over the American colonies, by which punishment might be inflicted, and even any charter revoked which he might deem derogatory to the royal prerogative. Sir Ferdinando Gorges was appointed governor-general. We have already stated the spirit in which these measures of the home government were viewed by Massachusetts. Poor as the colony yet was, it resolved to maintain, at any cost, those liberties which were dear to each individual as life; and £600 were immediately raised for fortifications.