The new Colony entered upon its career with two great problems before it. The first was almost solved. An experience of eleven years had demonstrated the possibility of soul liberty, which had taken a hold upon the hearts of the colonists too strong to be shaken. But did it leave the needed strength in the civil organization to bear "a government held by the free and voluntary consent of all, or the greater part, of the free inhabitants?" Thus the reconciliation of liberty and law formed from the beginning the fundamental problem of Rhode Island history. At first there were great and frequent dissensions. There were dissensions between Newport and Portsmouth. There were still greater dissensions in Providence. Enemies exulted, foretelling an early dissolution of the feeble bands which held the dangerous Colony together. Friends trembled lest their last hope of the reconciliation of liberty and law should fail them. But still the great work of solution went on, each new dissension revealing some new error, or aiding in the demonstration of some new truth. It would take us far beyond our limits were we to attempt to follow up the history of these dissensions in detail, even if the materials for a full narrative of them had been preserved. There were other difficulties, also, which demand more than a passing allusion. Massachusetts had not yet renounced her designs upon the territories of the heretical Colony. A party in Pawtuxet which had put itself under the protection of the Bay Colony had opened the way for action, and the dispute with Shawomet had enlarged it. Gorton was in England in 1647, exerting himself to answer the assertions of the Massachusetts agent, Winslow. Three years later the question became so complicated and the danger so imminent that Roger Williams was asked to go again to England on behalf of the Colony. Meanwhile there were menacing indications of an Indian war, and a serious effort was made on the part of the Island towns to obtain admission to the New England confederation. The application was refused unless on terms equivalent to the surrender of all right to independent existence. The time for justice and a clear comprehension of the common interest was not yet come. Especially strong was Massachusetts' dread of the Baptists, who were becoming a powerful body in Rhode Island, and three of the prominent members of that communion, among whom was John Clarke, one of the most illustrious of the colonists, were seized at Lynn--whither they had been summoned to give comfort and counsel to an aged brother--cast into prison, fined, and one of their number, Obadiah Holmes, cruelly scourged with a three-corded whip.