455, 456.)] [Footnote 128: Collection of Massachusetts, etc., Civil Society, Vol.
VIII., Second Series, p.

53.] [Footnote 129: Collections of Massachusetts, etc., Civil Society, _Vol_.
VIII., Second Series, pp.

59, 60.] [Footnote 130: From the representations made respecting the state of affairs in the New England colonies, the appointment of this Commission was decided upon after the restoration of the King, and the agents of those colonies were informed of it.Col.Nichols, the head of the Commission, stated in his introductory address to the Massachusetts Bay Court, May 2, 1665, that "The King himself and the Lord Chancellor (Clarendon) told Mr.Norton and Mr.Bradstreet of this colony, and Mr.
Winthrop of Connecticut, Mr.Clarke of Rhode Island, and several others now in these countries, that he intended shortly to send over Commissioners." (_Ib._, p.

56.)] [Footnote 131: It was in refutation of such reports that Col.

Nichols made the statements quoted on a previous page; in the course of which, referring to the slanders circulated by persons high in office under the Court, he said: "Some of them are these: That the King hath sent us over here to raise _L5,000 a year out of the colony_ for his Majesty's use, and 12d.