[152] "The Superior Gentlemen in the Oppressed Country, thought, that a Well-qualified Person going over with the Addresses of the Churches to the King, might, by the Help of such Protestant Dissenters as the King began upon Political Views to cast a fair Aspect upon, obtain some Relief to the growing Distresses of the Country; and Mr. Mather was the Person that was pitch'd upon.... To his Wonderment, they that at another Time would have almost assoon parted with their Eyes as have parted with him now were willing to it."--_Remarkables of Dr. I. Mather_, 103. [153] Mr. Bradstreet was then about 86 Years of Age. A pretty full Account of the Transactions of this Period may be read in Hutchinson, _Hist. Mass._, i, _sub. An._ 1689: "The Representatives of 54 Towns met at Boston, on the 22d of May. They soon discovered a Desire to reassume the Charter. The major Part of the Council were against it." _Ibid._, i, 386, first Edition. [154] I do not find this animadverted upon in the _Some Few Remarks_. [155] See Neal's _Hist. N. England_, where will be found the "Declaration" in full, in which it is said: "Having fully and deliberately examined the Minds and Instructions of the several Towns, do find it to be the general Consent and Concurrence of our several Towns to reassume the Government according to Charter-Rights," &c. Vol. II, 55. [156] The _underwritten_ Recantation does not appertain to the printed Declaration. Neal says: "'Tis certain the Massachuset-Provinces had hard Measure in the Loss of their Charter, and harder yet, in not having it restored at the Revolution," &c. Vol. II, 59. [157] Elisha Cooke and Thomas Oakes, both of them Assistants. See Hutchinson, _Hist. Mass._, i, 393. [158] Sir Henry Ashurst. [159] Dr. I. Mather's Narrative of this Affair runs thus: "When the King was pleased to give a positive Command that the Charter of New England should be dispatched, it was not for the Agents to say, It shall not be so. True it is, that all the Agents, when they saw what Minutes would be inserted in the Charter, were desirous of a Delay, until the Kings happy Return to England. And I may without Vanity say, no Man laboured to have it so, more than myself. I prayed Arch-Bishop Tillotson to intercede with the Queen for this Favour to us, who at my Request did so. Moreover, I drew up several Reasons against that which in the Minutes of the New Charter is most grievous to us; which were by Sir Henry Ashurst, and my self, delivered to His Majesties Attourney General, on July 24. 1691, and which I did also send to my Lord Sidney, one of His Majesties principal Secretaries of State, then with the King in Flanders."--_Some Few Remarks_, 22-3. Lord Henry _Sydney_ was afterwards Earl of Romney.