CHAPTER IV.
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DUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. HARVARD COLLEGE. — RE-STORATION OP CHARLES II. — OPPRESSIVE ENACTMENTS CON-CERNING COMMERCE. — ATTITUDE OF THE COLONIES. —WINTHROP, THE YOUNGER. — CONNECTICUT OBTAINSA CHARTER: HER FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY WITH our forefathers, in nearly all the New England states, edu-cation, from the first, was a subject of solicitous care. Provisionwas made that all children in Massachusetts should at least learn toread and write, and schools of a higher character were not long insucceeding. Only a few years after the arrival of the Puritans inMassachusetts, John Harvard, dying there, by the bequest of hislibrary and of half his estate, founded that admirable universitywhich still commemorates his name, and which has exercised suchextraordinary influence, from the first, in promoting the intelligenceand refining the manners of New England. Fostered by the careof the state, and at times assisted by the neighbouring provinces, itenjoyed a continually increasing prosperity and usefulness. The restoration of Charles II. to the throne of England was thesignal for a renewal of those more obnoxious claims of sovereigntyover the American colonies, which had either been relinquished orsuffered to fall into disuse by the government of the commonwealth.The Navigation Act (the child of that government indeed, but, inits original, not designed rigidly to fetter their commerce) was re'en-acted, with new and oppressive provisions; a monopoly beingsecured to English merchants, English ships, and English navigators,in the entire foreign intercourse of those provinces. The exporta-tion of a long list of articles, including tobacco, sugar, cotton, andother produce, was prohibited excepting to England; and ere longthe importation of any European goods, except those supplied byEnglish merchants, was in like manner made illegal. Commercialintercourse between the northern and southern colonies was bur-dened with oppressive duties; and, by degrees, the very manufactureof articles which might compete with that of the home country inforeign trade, or even in furnishing their own supplies, was also forbidden. Such was the oppressive system, the commencement of
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