This follows a red-chalk drawing once owned by the Rev. Wm. Bentley, of Salem, and now in the gallery of the American Antiquarian Society. Cooke was born in Boston in 1678, and died in 1737. His only publication appears to be the following: _Mr. Cook’s just and seasonable vindication, respecting some affairs transacted in the late general assembly at Boston_. [Boston, 1720.] The second impression, corrected. [Boston, 1720.] Sabin, iv. 16,305; Brinley, no. 1,474.] Its appearance, nevertheless, in the _News-Letter_ established the freedom of the press in Massachusetts.[223] The governor informed the Board of Trade that the province was bound to wrest from him as much of his representative prerogative as it could, and its action certainly seemed sometimes to have no other purpose than to establish precedents which might in some turn of fortune become useful. The House chose the younger Cooke speaker in palpable defiance, and when he was disapproved the members refused to go into another ballot, and the governor prorogued them. When the new House assembled they contented themselves with publishing a protest, and chose another speaker; and then they diminished the “present” which they voted to the governor. It seems clear that the House, in a rather undignified way, revelled in their power, and often went beyond the limits of propriety. The charter required that all acts should be reviewed by the Crown for approval. The House dodged the necessity by passing resolves. Dummer in England knew that such conduct only helped the Board of Trade to push the plan of confederating all the provinces under a governor-general, and intimated as much. The House was in no temper to be criticised by its own agent, and voted to dismiss Dummer. The council in non-concurring saved him; but the House retaliated by dropping his allowance. The council was not without its troubles. Shute refused to attend its meetings on Christmas. Sewall, ever alert at any chance of spurning the day, “because,” as he chose to think, “the dissenters had come a great way for their liberties,” broadly intimated that the council still could pass its bills on that day, and the governor might take whatever day he chose to sign them. It was certainly not a happy era in Massachusetts. The legislature was not altogether wise or benign, and Shute did nothing to make them so.[224]