FAC-SIMILE OF ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT in the Handwriting of John Winthrop, in the Public Library of the City of Boston Issued with Bulletin, July, 1894] Its odd title was suggested by a remark made by the Reverend John Cotton, in a Thursday-Lecture, preached November 5, 1646, just previous to the departure of the vessel which was carrying back to England some of the dissatisfied signers of a Petition to the General Court, who rumor gave were taking with them this and other incriminating documents against the Government of the Colony. The learned preacher took for his text, Canticles, II: 15. “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, which destroy the vines,” and made pointed allusions to the current rumors, and the punishment which their acts would receive in a stormy voyage, and how it could be averted. But later we shall let Vassall tell the story in his own words. The effect upon his hearers was so great that some who had engaged passage withdrew rather than risk the dangers of a stormy voyage in the winter season. After a brief summary of the reasons for publication the Preface states that the Relation is made up of the following particulars: First, the Petition of the greater part of the Inhabitants of Hingham, and the proceedings therein. Secondly, a Petition of Doctor Child and others delivered to the General Court at Boston with some passages thereon. Thirdly, the Capital Laws of the Massachusetts Bay, with the Freemans Oath, _as they are printed there by themselves_. The italics are mine. Here, then, we have direct proof confirming the statement of John Winthrop that the Freeman’s Oath was printed at Cambridge in 1639, and, in the body of the work, is given the full text of The Oath of a Free man as printed. It is probable that only the number of copies necessary for officials authorized to administer the Oath were printed, and the copy taken to England was surreptitiously obtained from some member of the Government. Its importance lay in the fact that it afforded printed evidence that nowhere in it is any reference made to the King’s Majesty, or of allegiance to any power on earth save that of their own Government as constituted. [Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT in the Handwriting of John Winthrop, in the Public Library of the City of Boston Issued with Bulletin, July, 1894] The Capital Laws were printed at Cambridge in 1642, probably under the same restriction, as to number; and, as printed evidence, open to the same construction as the Oath. Whatever the purpose, however, it had been forestalled some four years earlier when the Capital Laws were re-printed in London in a folio broadside. The copy in the British Museum bears the Colophon: “Printed first in New-England, and re-printed in London for Ben. Allen in Popes-Head Allen [_sic_] 1643.”