irritated informant; and his letter is but one specimen out of a great number.[430] Lucy Hutchinson tells a touching story, relating to the same summer months, to which the earlier of these informations belong. Mr. Palmer, a Nottingham Nonconformist minister, was apprehended, and some others with him, at his own house, by the Mayor for preaching on the Lord's Day, and was put into the town gaol for two or three months. Through a grated window he and his brethren could be seen by the people in the street. One Sunday, as the prisoners were singing a psalm, the passengers stood still by the grated window to listen, and Mr. Palmer went on to preach to the congregation outside, when the Mayor, a renegade Parliament officer, came with officers, and beat the people, and thrust some into confinement.[431] [Sidenote: 1663.] The ecclesiastical policy pursued at this time towards the English colonists on the other side of the Atlantic was very different from that adopted at home. In the instructions given to the Governors of Jamaica, whilst they were enjoined to encourage orthodox ministers of religion, in order that Christianity and Anglican Protestantism might be reverenced and exercised, it was commanded that those colonists who were of different religious opinions should not be obstructed and hindered on such account; that they should be excused from taking the Oath of Supremacy according to the terms required in this country, and that some other mode should be devised for securing their allegiance.[432] In a Charter granted to the State of Carolina, dated March 24th, 1663, there is a clause of indulgence to be granted to persons who could not conform to the Liturgy, upon condition that they should declare their loyalty, and not scandalize and reproach the Church.[433] In the Royal Commission granted to the Governor of Virginia, he is instructed not to suffer any one to be molested in the exercise of his religion, provided he be content with a quiet and peaceable profession of it, not giving offence or scandal to the Government.[434] [Sidenote: COLONIAL POLICY.] In the Charter granted to Rhode Island, July 8th, 1663, it is distinctly provided, that no person within the colony should be disquieted for differences of theological opinion.