In the _original intent_, the Governor and General Court, and therefore the Government, _were to be and abide in England_.

When, in 1628, Endicot and his little party had been sent over to Salem, his authority was expressly declared to be 'in subordination to the Company here' [that is, in London].

And it was only when Cradock [the first Governor of the Company] found that so many practical difficulties threatened all proceedings upon that basis, as to make it unlikely that Winthrop, and Saltonstall, and Johnson, and Dudley, and other men whose co-operation was greatly to be desired, would not consent to become partners in the enterprise unless a radical change were made in that respect, that he proposed and the Company consented, 'for the advancement of the Plantation, the inducing and encouraging persons of worth and quality to transplant themselves and families thither, and for other weighty reasons therein contained, to transfer the government of the Plantation to those that shall inhabit there,' &c.

It was even a grave question of law whether, under the terms of the Charter, this transfer were possible." ...

"They took the responsibility--so quietly, however, that the Home Government seem to have remained in ignorance of the fact for more than four years thereafter." (pp.