CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION .-- TWO CLASSES OF EMIGRANTS--TWO GOVERNMENTS FOR SEVENTY YEARS--THE "PILGRIM FATHERS"-- THEIR PILGRIMAGES AND SETTLEMENT.
In proceeding to trace the development and characteristics of Puritanism in an English colony, I beg to remark that I write, not as an Englishman, but as a Canadian colonist by birth and life-long residence, and as an early and constant advocate of those equal rights, civil and religious, and that system of government in the enjoyment of which Canada is conspicuous.
In tracing the origin and development of those views and feelings which culminated in the American Revolution, in the separation of thirteen colonies from Great Britain, it is necessary to notice the early settlement and progress of those New England colonies in which the seeds of that revolution were first sown and grew to maturity.
The colonies of New England resulted from two distinct emigrations of English Puritans; two classes of Puritans; two distinct governments for more than sixty years.

The one class of these emigrants were called "Pilgrim Fathers," having first fled from England to Holland, and thence emigrated to New England in 1620, in the _Mayflower_, and called their place of settlement "New Plymouth," where they elected seven Governors in succession, and existed under a self-constituted government for seventy years.

The other class were called "Puritan Fathers;" the first instalment of their emigration took place in 1629, under Endicot; they were known as the Massachusetts Bay Company, and their final capital was Boston, which afterwards became the capital of the Province and of the State.
The characteristics of the separate and independent government of these two classes of Puritans were widely different.

The one was tolerant and non-persecuting, and loyal to the King during the whole period of its seventy years' existence; the other was an intolerant persecutor of all religionists who did not adopt its worship, and disloyal from the beginning to the Government from which it held its Charter.
It is essential to my purpose to compare and contrast the proceedings of these two governments in relation to religious liberty and loyalty.

I will first give a short account of the origin and government of the "_Pilgrim_ Fathers" of New Plymouth, and then the government of the "_Puritan_ Fathers" of Massachusetts Bay.[1] In the later years of Queen Elizabeth, a "fiery young clergyman," named Robert Brown, declared against the lawfulness of both Episcopal and Presbyterian Church government, or of fellowship with either Episcopalians or Presbyterians, and in favour of the absolute independence of each congregation, and the ordination as well as selection of the minister by it.