The Republican journal., 1885-02-12
The Outlook.
BOSTON As II WAS AND AS IT Is.

" hen the purItans in England, who
were groanlng under the weight of
spiritual bondage, cast their longing eyes
to America as d retreat for themselves
and their children, they took care to OBJ
tain charter from the king, which
should not only cover a grant OF territory
but which would give them supreme con
troll over it. The instrument did convey
to them "al that part OF New England
lying three miles $ nth of Charles River
and three miles north of Merrimac River
and extending from the Atlantic TO the
South Sea- and contained the most
ample power OF government, with au-
thority to establish ali manner OF whole
some orders, laws and statutes" Win
thrOp, the DGW governor OF the colony.
and bis associates. left the shores of Eng
land in 1870, and soon planted the gov
eminent OF Massachusetts Bay in the land
OF their adoption, and the fires of civil
cation were kindled in Boston, never
more to be quenched. Lmong these col
Onists were men of high social position
and large fortune, able if marrow, auda-
cious but not unscrupulous, and having
early determined to establish a religious
commonwealth Of the most exclusive
character. one of their first laws pro
yided that no man should be admitted a
freeman who was not a member of the
church. Nov shall Israel dwell alone"
was their cry. The order of the churches
and the Commonwealth, wrote Cotton
to friends in Holland, ''is now 50 settled
in New England by common consent,
that it brings to mind the new heaven
and new earth wherein dwells right
eousneSs." at becometh New England
always to remember was the language
OF the learned and pious John Norton
who spoke by authority of the General
Court, that. originally, they are a plan
tatlon religious, and not a plantation Of
trade. The profession of the purity of
the doctrine, worship and discipline is
written upon her forehead" The Gen
eral Court early ordered that ifany man
should worship any other God but the
Lord God, he should be put to death
If any person should blaspheme the
name of God, Father. Son. or Holy
Ghost, either by denying the true God,
or his creation or government of the
world, they should be put to death. All
persons We're obliged to attend church
on penalty of fine or whipping. \ per
son who declined to have his children
baptized was imprisoned. They carried
out these orders with ruthless severity.
"They have, wrote Lachtord, in 1910,
'put to death, banished, fined men, cut
off mems ears, whipped, imprisoned
men. and all these for ecclesiastic and
civil Offences" They hung quakers on
Boston Common-oDe Of them an aged
woman. AS late as 1873 Quakeress,
clothed with sackcloth, rushed into the
South Church. She and her three female
companions were sentenced to be stripped
from the middle upwards, and tied to
carts tail az the South Westinghouse.
and drawn through the town. receiving
20 laShes on their naked backs The
Baptsts also We're cast out, and the
Antnomians were expelled. As for the
Jesults, the laws OF England were equal
ly severe, but there is no account Of their
execution here, because no priest of
Rome in his senses would have had the
temerity to land on these shores.
Whenever the pendulum swings its ex-
IRENE length in one direction, it will
certainly return Just us far in the other
The attempts III Boston to establish an
exclusive religious commonwealth, and
the severe measures adopted 10 maintain
such government, have reacted in a
manner as remarkable as it is suggestive.
For century this city has been the
headquarters Of IA liberalism which eX-
tends even to the rankest intideitv.
Nowhere in the civilized world has the
divinity OF Christ been denied with more
ability and 10y men Of higher character
than here. The oldest and most import
ant university in the country has long
been ranged on this side Of the contro-
versy. In the last year, statue of the
ablest agnostlc OF our age, who denied
the Immortality OF the soul on her death
bed, was set up in the Old South Meet
inghonse in Boston. To-day, the minis
ter OF the Old South Church, in another
editice, breaches doctrines which would
have caused his banishment if not his
death in earlier periods of the Common
wealth. Every Sunday a majority of the
sermons preached in Boston pulpits
would, in colonial times have consigned
their authors to the whipping post or the
gallows. And now, on the first Monday
of this year of grace, 1885, mayor Of
the city of Boston, elected by large
majority of the citizens, has been inau-
gurated amidst the approving shouts of
a multitude greater than the building
would contain, an Irishman by birth
Democrat in poiitics-a Romanist in
religion and the prayer at bis Inaugural
ton was made by Catholic priest of
high position Reverend Father Bod
fish, chancellor and secretary to the
archbishop of Boston. The obvious les
son from all this is well enough express
ed by the poor clown in "Twellth Night:
"And thus the whirligig of time brings
in its revenges." Every Other Satur-
day
The Boston Advertiser comments on
the above as follows