Its signers call themselves "loyal subjects of the King of England," and state one object of their emigration to be the "honour of our King and country." The Pilgrim Fathers did, in the course of time, establish a simple system of popular government; but from the written compact signed in the cabin of the _Mayflower_ any form of government might be developed.

The good sense of the following remarks by Dr.Young, in his _Chronicles of the Pilgrims of Plymouth_, contrast favourably with the fanciful hyperboles of Bancroft: "It seems to me that a great deal more has been discovered in this document than the signers contemplated.

It is evident that when they left Holland they expected to become a body politic, using among themselves civil government, and to choose their own rulers from among themselves.

Their purpose in drawing up and signing this compact was simply, as they state, to restrain certain of their number who had manifested an unruly and factious disposition.

This was the whole philosophy of the instrument, whatever may have since been discovered and deduced from it." (p.