In June, 1662, perished also on the scaffold the noblest of the advocates of liberty in the New World, Sir Henry Vane, the former governor of Massachusetts, the firm friend of Rhode Island, and the supporter of liberty under all circumstances, whether religious or political. One of the first and fastest friends of republicanism in England, he had resisted the aggressions of Cromwell, and Cromwell for this cause had imprisoned him. The trial of Vane has become a noble passage in history. Though a man of a nervous temperament, he stood before his judges with an undaunted courage which amazed all, and there pleaded “for the liberties of England, for the interest of all posterity in time to come.” Counsel was not allowed him, and he stood, “not afraid,” as he said, “in that great presence, to bear witness to the glorious cause, nor to seal it with his blood.” “Sir Henry Vane is too dangerous a man to let live, if we can honestly put him out of the way,” wrote the king to his counsel; and though they could not _honestly_ put him out of the way, yet they sentenced him to the block, while others were hanged. When, on the day before his execution, his friends were admitted to visit him, they found him so serene and cheerful, that he, not they, administered consolation, “reasoning calmly on death and immortality.” Reviewing his political career from the day when he had defended in New England the unitarianism of Anne Hutchinson, to his last struggle for English liberty, he said, “I feel not the least recoil in my heart for what I have done.” When his children gathered round him weeping, he said, kissing and embracing them, “The Lord will be a better father to you than I have been. Be not troubled, for I am going home to my father;” and his last words to them were, “Suffer anything rather than sin against God.” To his friends he said, “I leave my life as a seal to the justness of that quarrel. Ten thousand deaths rather than defile the chastity of my conscience; nor would I for a thousand worlds resign the peace and satisfaction which I have in my heart!” As he went to execution, prayers and tears accompanied him. So great was the public sympathy, that people cried, “God be with you!” On the scaffold it was his wish to address the vast multitude assembled to witness his death, but trumpets overpowered his voice, and finding it vain to make the attempt, he turned to his friends, reminding them that he had foretold the dark clouds which were coming thicker and thicker for a season, but that a better day would dawn in the clouds; and baring his neck for the axe, he exclaimed: “Blessed be God, I have kept a conscience void of offence; to this day I have not deserted the righteous cause for which I suffer.” Thus perished Sir Henry Vane; his death establishing the great principle of popular liberty, even more than his life had done. The blood of the martyr never flows in vain.