[Illustration: THE PROVINCE SEAL. This is the form of the Great Seal of Massachusetts, used in the time of George I. It was recut, and the name of the monarch changed under George II. This last design will be found in the _Massachusetts House Doc._, no. 345 (1885), being a report on the Arms and Great Seal of Massachusetts. Here, as in the _Heraldic Journal_, vols. i. and ii., the private seals of the royal governors are given, which were used in sealing military commissions.] In the sermon to which reference has just been made, Mather showed that, however he had carried many of his own points, he had failed in some that much troubled him. The change in the qualification of electors from church membership to the condition of freeholders was alarming to those of the old theocratic sentiments. It meant a diminution of their influence, and that the 120 churches in New England (of which 80 were in Massachusetts) were to direct much less than formerly the legislation of the people. The possible three years which a law might live before the home-veto came must be made the most of. Using his influence with Phips, Mather dictated the choice of the first corporation of Harvard College, freshly chartered under the new rule, and without waiting for the confirmation of the Privy Council, who might well be thought to be opposed to a charter for the college which did not provide some check in a board of visitors, he caused himself, very likely in a passive way, to be made its first Doctor of Divinity, but his admirers and creatures knew the reward he expected. We think, however, to-day less of the legislation which gave such a title to their great man than we do of the smaller ambitions by which the assembly of the province about the same time were originating our public-school system. The governor, in his communication to the General Court, reminded them of the royal recommendation that they should fix by law a fitting salary for the chief executive. It raised a point that Elisha Cooke was in wait for. Under his instigation, the plan was devised of substituting an annual grant, which might be raised or lowered, as circumstances warranted, and as was necessary to vindicate one of the few rights left to them by the charter. It was the beginning of a conflict that recurred with each successive governor as he attempted to force or cajole the representatives into some recognition of the royal wish.