everywhere, a great check was given to the early progress of the
country by the turn of the tide which carried such men back to
England, and prevented others from coming over. If the Parliament had
not attempted to arrest the usurpations of the crown at that time, and
the Stuarts been suffered to establish an absolute monarchy, the eyes
and hearts of all free spirits would have remained fixed on America,
and a perpetual stream of emigration brought over, for generations and
for ever, thousands upon thousands of such men as came at the
beginning. The effects that would have been thus produced in America
and in England, in accelerating the progress of society here, and
sinking it into debasement there; and thereby upon the fortunes of
mankind the world over, is a subject on which a meditative and
philosophical mind may well be exercised.

But, although these men were lost, others are worthy of being
enumerated, in forming an estimate of the elements that went to make
the character of the people, a chapter in whose history, of awful
import, we are preparing ourselves to explore.

Francis Weston was a leading man at the very beginning. In 1634, with
Roger Conant and John Holgrave, he represented Salem in the first
House of Deputies ever assembled. His land grant was some little
distance to the west of the meeting-house of the village. He must have
been a person of more than ordinary liberality of spirit; for he
discountenanced the intolerance of his age, and kept his mind open to
receive truth and light. He did not conceal his sympathy with those
who suffered for entertaining Antinomian sentiments. He was ordered to
quit the colony in 1638. For the same offence, his wife, who probably
had refused to go, was placed in the stocks "two hours at Boston and
two at Salem, on a lecture day." Weston, having ventured back, five