CHANGE OF THE EXECUTIVE.—ACTS OF THE ASSEMBLY.—JOHN BERKELY’S RESIDENCE IN NEWPORT.—FRIENDLY FEELING BETWEEN THE COLONISTS AND THE MOTHER COUNTRY.

Nearly a generation had passed since a new governor had been chosen, but the place made vacant by death was now to be filled. The choice fell upon Joseph Jenckes, (May, 1727.) He was a resident of Pawtucket, and in those days of irregular communication Pawtucket was too far from the seat of government for the prompt transaction of public business. It was voted, therefore, that it was “highly necessary for the Governor of this Colony to live at Newport, the metropolis of the government,” and a hundred pounds was appropriated for the expense of his removal. While the Colony was passing into the hands of a new executive a similar change was taking place in the mother country. George I. died suddenly, and George II. succeeded to the throne.

But the change of sovereign brought no change with it in the policy of the mother country. The act of navigation was still the rule by which she measured her relations to the colonies. They were still to supply the raw material and she the profitable manufacture. The first eight years of George II.’s reign were years of peace. Party spirit in England ran high under the names of court and country, the first as supporters of the ministry, the second of parliamentary opposition. But Sir Robert Walpole did not love war, and in the cabinet his voice was supreme.

In the Colony we find the same indications of growth and development. The records of the Assembly are still our principal guide. The criminal code, the surest indication of the moral condition of the community, was revised. Intemperance, in spite of repeated attempts to suppress it by legislation still seems to prevail, and in 1728 a new license law was passed. Unforeseen crimes, also, sometimes call for special action. An Indian lad attempted to kill his master, a crime unforeseen in the code, and was branded on the forehead with the letter R., whipped at the cart tail at every street corner in Newport, and ordered to be sold out of the Colony for his unexpired term. A slanderous pamphlet was publicly burned by the town sergeant in front of the Colony House and the author compelled to make a written confession of his fault.

The unsettled boundary lines though still causes of uneasiness and vexatious delays, are gradually approaching final decision. The controversy concerning the western boundary had lasted sixty-five years. More effectual means are employed to enforce the registry of births, marriages and deaths. Peddlers, the field of whose industry had already been reduced by previous statutes, were forbidden to sell any kind of goods under pain of forfeiture. Early attention is paid to the preservation of deer and the protection of fish. The planting of hemp and flax, and the manufacture of duck are again the subject of legislation, and receive increased bounties. James Franklin sets up a printing press in Newport after having failed to establish a newspaper in Boston. Not discouraged by his failure, he made a similar attempt at Newport with a similar result. He was in advance of his time. Important laws were enacted for the encouragement and regulation of trade. Special officers were appointed for special departments. Lumber of every kind was placed under the protection of surveyors. Packed meats and fish were examined by viewers. Casks were measured by official surveyors. The whale and cod fisheries were encouraged by bounties. And to incite the efforts of honest but unfortunate men, bankrupt laws equally useful to creditor and debtor were established.

Roads and bridges continue to call for legislation. The Pawtuxet bridge had fallen to decay, and Rhode Island and Massachusetts united, first in pulling it down and soon after in building it up again. A new ferry was established between Portsmouth and Bristol. Lands in Westerly were set apart for an Indian house of worship. The fortifications of the Colony were not neglected. “A regular and beautiful fortification of stone” was built at Newport and the new King petitioned to give forty cannon for its armament.

The records of the time tell of an earthquake which in October, 1727, was felt through New England, exciting much alarm but doing little damage—far less indeed than the attempt to build up commerce upon public loans and paper money. To this period also belongs the first appearance of the Palatine Light, a curious electric phenomenon according to some, produced according to others by hydrogeneous gas, but believed by local superstition to be the phantom of a wrecked emigrant ship whose passengers had fallen prey to the avarice of her captain and crew.

The Legislature continues its labor of law-making, and among its provisions is one prohibiting the manumission of slaves without bonds from the owner to prevent them from coming upon the town. Another act sets bounds to the authority of moderators in town meetings, and requires that any motion supported by seven freeholders shall be put to vote. Another requires that all money questions shall be announced in the call for the meeting.

Among public annoyances we find Indian dances especially mentioned and the regulation of them referred to the town councils, and the selling or giving of intoxicating drinks upon the dancing ground strictly forbidden. To meet the growth of the Colony a new division of it into three counties was made, and the judicial system altered to meet the change. “Each county was to have its court house and jail.” The responsibility of public officers increases with the increase of the Colony in wealth. The public treasurer was required to give bonds to the amount of twenty thousand pounds and his salary raised first to one, and two years later to two hundred pounds. A distrust of lawyers found expression in the October session of 1729 in an act forbidding them to serve as deputies. At the next session it was repealed and though never reËnacted was more than once brought up for discussion.

Among the eminent Englishmen of the first half of this century was George Berkeley, Dean of Derry, better known by his later title of Bishop of Cloyne, and still better by Pope’s line:

“To Berkeley every virtue under Heaven.”

He had taken high rank among the philosophers of his age by his new theory of vision and other writings in which he denied the existence of matter. Advancement in the church made him master of a large income, which he resolved to employ in the service of religion by founding a college in the Bermudas for the training of pastors for the colonial churches and missionaries to the Indians. The benevolent object failed through the failure of Lord Carteret to give him the aid of government. Instead, therefore, of establishing himself in Bermuda, he purchased a farm near Newport and built a house on it, which is still known by the name of Whitehall. He brought with him a choice library, a collection of pictures and a corps of literary men and artists, among them the painter Smibert, who thus became the teacher of Copley and West.

The influence of such a man is quickly felt in a young community, and Berkeley soon gathered around him a body of cultivated men, who joined with him in the discussion of questions of philosophy and the collection of books. These books became the basis of the Redwood Library. Not far from his house among what the modern tourist knows as the hanging rocks is a natural alcove, which opening to the south and roofed with stone commands an extensive view of the ocean. Here, tradition says, Berkeley wrote his Alciphron or Minute Philosopher, which was printed in Newport by James Franklin. But Berkeley had lived too long among men of letters and in large cities to be contented with the limited resources of a colonial town, and after a residence in Newport of two years and a half, he returned to Europe and a broader field of usefulness and honor. His library of eight hundred and eighty volumes he left to Yale. Brown University was not yet established.

Legislation begins to take notice of charitable institutions. Attention had already been called to the condition of the insane, and now a fund was formed for the relief of disabled sailors and their families by deducting sixpence a month from the wages of every seaman in active service. This money was paid over to the town in which he lived and which was bound to support him.

The respect for the rights of conscience which forms the fundamental principle of the colonial polity, still meets us from time to time in some new application. In 1730 the militia law was modified for the protection of the Quakers. Provision was also made for the protection of the Indians by an act requiring the assent of two justices of the peace to give validity to any bond of apprenticeship in which they were concerned.

In 1730 the Board of Trade called for a census. The population was found to have increased six thousand in ten years—numbering fifteen thousand three hundred whites, sixteen hundred and fifty blacks, and nine hundred and eighty Indians—nearly eighteen thousand in all, almost equally divided between the three counties. Of these eighteen thousand nearly nine hundred were enrolled in the militia. Providence was divided into four towns.

The question of paper money still excited the Colony. Governor Jenckes was against it, but it was upheld by a majority of the Assembly. By September, 1731, one hundred and ninety-five thousand three hundred pounds had been issued in bills of credit, of which one hundred and twenty thousand pounds were still outstanding. Silver had risen from eight to twenty shillings an ounce. Yet such was the general infatuation that in this very year a new bank was voted of sixty thousand pounds.

Yet trade increased and the Colony prospered. The shipping had risen in ten years from thirty-five hundred tons to five thousand, manned by four hundred men. Boston was the principal mart for supplies, but two ships came annually from England, two from Holland and the Mediterranean, and ten or twelve from the West Indies. The exports which comprised live stock, logwood, lumber, fish and the products of the field and dairy, amounted to ten thousand pounds a year. The ordinary expenses of the government amounted to two thousand, the extraordinary to twenty-five hundred pounds a year, colonial currency.

The paper money controversy had raised a question as to the governor’s power of veto. The law officers of the crown were consulted by the Board of Trade and declared that he had none. They decided also that the King himself had none.

The publication of the laws had met a public want. The first edition was soon exhausted and a new one called for. For many years small pains were taken to secure accuracy in the text, the preparation of it being left to the clerk. A wide door was thus left open for interpolation, and it was through this door that the clause against Roman Catholics, so contrary to the spirit and policy of the Colony crept into the statute—to be silently dropped as soon as attention was called to it.

We have already seen that provision had been made for the defence of the Colony by building a fort in Newport harbor. Additional provisions were made at the October session of 1732, by imposing a duty of sixpence a ton upon all vessels that entered the harbor except fishermen. We have already seen that several attempts had been made for the suppression of intemperance, and apparently with little success. In 1732 another moral principle was made the subject of legislation, and “these unlawful games called lotteries” suppressed by statute. We shall soon find them legalized and in some instances doing the office of insurance companies. A more legitimate source of gain was found in the whale fishery, which was successfully encouraged by a premium. Whales were often taken in Narragansett Bay. But the first regular whaler that entered Newport harbor was owned by Benjamin Thurston, and brought a hundred and fourteen barrels of oil and two hundred pounds of bone.

It was not till many trials had been made that a satisfactory regulation of the tenure of office was reached. On revising the statutes good behavior was made the term of tenure for the judges and clerks of common pleas. But the democratic element was too strong to allow this prolongation to gain a footing of authority, and a semi-annual election was soon substituted to the more conservative system. The deputies had been chosen semi-annually. In 1733 this also was changed to the whole year, but after a short trial changed back again to the half year. The first printed schedules were distributed in the summer of 1733. The October sessions were to be held alternately at Providence and South Kingstown. The certificates of election were carefully scrutinized and irregular proxies rejected. In 1734 the House consisted of thirty-six deputies, ten assistants and three general officers, a secretary, attorney and treasurer.

We have seen that vessels engaged in fishing were exempted from the harbor duty. As a further encouragement the first year’s interest on the new loan was set apart for building a pier or harbor on Block Island. Westerly harbor was repaired. The river fisheries also came in for their share of protection, and dams or weirs were prohibited and no fishing except by hook and line permitted during three days in the week. The first session of the Assembly at East Greenwich was distinguished by an act for the preservation of oysters, which the thoughtless inhabitants were burning in large quantities for lime. Important acts were passed for the regulation of mills. An attempt to cut through the beach on Block Island failed, and the old pier was enlarged. The close of Governor Jenckes’s term of office was embarrassed by disputes arising from the paper money controversy. He declined a reËlection, and William Wanton, brother of the Deputy, was chosen in his stead. This was the only instance of brothers holding the two principal offices of the Colony at the same time. The dispute between Massachusetts and Rhode Island was referred to Commissioners from New York and Connecticut. No decision was reached, but the Assembly in acknowledgment of their services voted them three silver tankards of the value of fifty pounds each, with “the arms of Rhode Island handsomely engraved on them.”

We have seen that Massachusetts like Rhode Island had sought a temporary relief in the issue of paper money. The King interfered and the Massachusetts bills were withdrawn. This was a severe blow to Rhode Island, and hardly a less one to the tradesmen of Boston, whose relations with Rhode Island were very intimate. Various devices were recurred to for their protection, among them a combination to refuse to take Rhode Island bills in payment for goods. But the necessities of trade were too great. The combination gave way. Silver rose to twenty-seven shillings an ounce. Debts were paid at a loss to the creditor of thirty-three per cent. The future looked very dark.

Attention was called to the security of marriage. Till 1733 none but Quakers or clergymen of the Church of England could perform the ceremony. In 1733 authority to perform it was extended by the Assembly to clergymen of every denomination.

The death of Governor William Wanton, which occurred in 1733, produced a deep sensation throughout the Colony, where he was greatly respected for his civil and military services. Few colonists stood higher with the King. On a visit to England with his brother John, he was presented by the Queen with a silver punch-bowl and salver and permitted to add a game-cock lighting on a hawk to his arms. On his death his brother, John Wanton, the Deputy-Governor, was chosen to fill his place.

Education still forced its claims, and we find George Taylor successfully petitioning for leave to open a school in a chamber of the county house of Providence. Fifty years before the first school in Providence had been taught by William Turpin—of whom, unfortunately, we know only the name.

From time to time come questions from the Board of Trade showing how carefully England watched over her revenues. In one the Colony was asked what revenue duties were laid upon British commerce. The impost on slaves brought from the West Indies had been removed by the King’s orders, and Governor Wanton could answer that there were no duties affecting the direct commerce with England. Yet a consciousness of rights appears in more than one act of the Assembly. The Court of Vice-Admiralty sometimes exceeded its legitimate authority and tried causes over which it had no jurisdiction. This was a delicate matter for the colonial legislature to interfere in, for the court was appointed by the King. But without heeding this the Assembly conferred upon the Supreme Court the power of injunction.

The small-pox was a frequent cause of alarm. In 1735–6 another fearful disease desolated New England. It was called the throat distemper, and is described as “a swelled throat, with white or ash-colored specks, an efflorescence on the skin, great debility of the whole system and a strong tendency to putrefaction.” No age was exempt from it, but it was most fatal among children.

Roads and bridges as we have already seen had received early attention. Communication between the different parts of the Colony increased with the increase of population. In 1736 a line of stages with special privileges for seven years was established between Newport and Boston. The natural development of trade was preparing the way for a closer union among the colonies. Increased attention was given to the duties and privileges of citizenship. It is sad to find that laws against bribery at elections were called for at an early day. By those of 1736 both briber and bribed were fined double the sum offered or received and deprived for three years of the right to vote. Illegal voting was forbidden under the penalty of a fine of two pounds and disfranchisement for three years.

The kindly feeling which the colonists cherished for the mother country sometimes received a practical illustration. In the spring of 1737 His Majesty’s ship Tartar lay in Newport harbor, and that she was a welcome visitor the Assembly proved by ordering that “a score of the best sheep that may be got be presented to her commander, Mathew Norris, for the use of the crew.” None foresaw that the day would come when a British press gang would seize free citizens in this same harbor.

The expenses of local government increased. To provide for this increase authority was given the towns to assess traders from abroad for a fair proportion of the outlays of the town. Changes were also made in the mode of paying jurors. Hitherto they had been paid out of the treasury—a mode liable to abuses and attended with great inconvenience. It was voted that they should receive a fixed pay of six shillings a day and pay their own expenses. Public attention had been called early to protection from fires. As the population of the larger towns grew, better protection was required. In Newport two companies of firemen were organized, and to compensate them for their services they were exempted from serving on juries or in the militia.