During their absence, the towns of Newport and Portsmouth submitted quietly to Mr. Coddington’s rule. Providence and Warwick resolved to maintain the government, as before established. They accordingly met by their deputies, in General Assembly, at Providence, elected a Governor, and enacted several laws, one of which prohibited any person from purchasing land of the Indians, without the approbation of the Assembly, on penalty of forfeiting the same to the colony. Mr. Williams and Mr. Clarke, on their arrival in England, presented a petition to the Council of State, who, on April 8, 1652, referred it to the committee for foreign affairs. The application met with opposition, from various sources; but the Council of State granted an order to vacate Mr. Coddington’s commission, and to confirm the former charter. While in England, in 1652, Mr. Clarke published a book, entitled “III News from New-England, or a Narrative of New-England’s Persecutions; wherein it is declared, that while Old England is becoming New, New-England is becoming Old; also, Four Proposals to Parliament, and Four Conclusions, touching the Faith and Order of the Gospel of Christ, out of his Last Will and Testament.” Mr. Williams also published, in 1652, his rejoinder to Mr. Cotton, entitled “The Bloody Tenet yet More Bloody, by Mr. Cotton’s Endeavor to Wash it White;” and two essays, the one entitled “The Hireling Ministry None of Christ’s, or a Discourse on the Propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ;” and the other, “Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, and their Preservatives.” The following letter was written to Mr. Gregory Dexter, who had printed Mr. Williams’ “Key,” during his first visit to England, but who had subsequently removed to Providence. “At Mr. Davis his house, at the Checker, in St. Martin’s, or at Sir Henry Vane’s, at Whitehall. “_8th, 7, 52, (so called.)_ “My dear and faithful friend, to whom, with the dearest, I humbly wish more and more of the light and love of him who is invisible, God blessed for evermore in the face of Jesus Christ. It hath pleased God so to engage me in divers skirmishes against the priests, both of Old and New-England, so that I have occasioned using the help of printer men, unknown to me, to long for my old friend. So it hath pleased God to hold open an open desire of preaching and printing wonderfully against Romish and English will-worship. At this present, the devil rageth and clamors in petitions and remonstrances from the stationers and others to the Parliament, and all cry, ‘shut up the press.’ The stationers and others have put forth ‘The Beacon Fired,’ and ‘The Second Beacon Fired;’ and some friends of yours have put forth ‘The Beacon Quenched,’ not yet extant.