But before this letter reached England, the cruel Laud and his royal master had more serious business in hand than the subjection of a contumacious colony. The people of England, no doubt considerably influenced by the spirit which pervaded America, had now risen in opposition to the government; civil war raged; the Solemn League and Covenant expressed the universal sentiment in Scotland. Liberty overpowered despotism; public opinion was mightier than ecclesiastical oppression; Laud in his turn was imprisoned, and a new era was at hand. The monarch, whose throne was endangered, had now no thoughts to spare for New England; nor if he had, need he any longer have prohibited emigration. The tide was turned every way, and numbers—among the rest Vane and Peters, the tragic deaths of whom are familiar to the reader of English history, who had fled for refuge to America—now returned to become actors in the great drama of events. A change had taken place in the affairs of New England with the triumph of puritanism in the mother-country. The Long Parliament, in which were many members favourable to the New England settlements, “sought rather to honour than humble them.” Yet so jealous were the colonists of their precious liberties, that they refused any, even friendly interference in their affairs; and when in 1642 the Westminster Assembly of Divines invited over deputies in the persons of Hooker, Davenport, and Cotton, they declined, Hooker in particular, who stated that he saw “no sufficient excuse to leave their flocks in the wilderness.” The states of New England, now freed from any anxiety from the home government, resolved on forming a union or confederacy among themselves, the reasons for which were, “the dispersed state of the colonies; the dangers to be apprehended from the Dutch, the French and the Indians; the commencement of civil discord in England; and the difficulty of obtaining aid thence in any emergency.” This confederacy included Massachusetts, Connecticut, Plymouth, and New Haven, Maine and Rhode Island being rejected, the former because “its people ran a different course both in religion and government, and the latter not only for the same reason, but because it refused to become a portion of the jurisdiction of Plymouth;” and under the name of the United Colonies this league existed for upwards of forty years. The terms of this union assured to each colony its separate existence, but each was bound to contribute its proportion, both of men and money, for the common defence. All matters relating to the common interests were to be decided in an annual assembly, composed of two delegates from each colony; which was to hold its meetings by rotation in each state, Massachusetts merely having a double privilege. This measure of colonial legislation was in fact an assumption of sovereign authority; it was the forerunner of American independence.