would be called “pressure,” brought to bear by certain local interests. [39] But in the case of the little colony founded by the Pilgrims of the Mayflower there was no obstacle.  She was now annexed to Massachusetts, which also received not only Maine but even Acadia, just won from the French; so that, save for the short break at Portsmouth, the coast of Massachusetts now reached all the way from Martha’s Vineyard to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. [Sidenote:  Plymouth, Maine, and Acadia, annexed to Massachusetts]

But along with this great territorial extension there went some curtailment of the political privileges of the colony.  By the new charter of 1692 the right of the people to be governed by a legislature of their own choosing was expressly confirmed.  The exclusive right of this legislature to impose taxes was also confirmed.  But henceforth no qualification of church-membership, but only a property qualification, was to be required of voters; the governor was to be appointed by the crown instead of being elected by the people; and all laws passed by the legislature were to be sent to England for royal approval.  These features of the new charter,—­the extension, or if I may so call it, the secularization of the franchise, the appointment of the governor by the crown, and the power of veto which the crown expressly reserved,—­were grave restrictions upon the independence which Massachusetts had hitherto enjoyed.  Henceforth her position was to be like that of the other colonies with royal governors.  But her history did not thereby lose its interest or significance, though it became, like the history of most of the colonies, a dismal record of irrepressible bickerings between the governor appointed by the crown and the legislature elected by the people.  In the period that began in 1692 and ended in 1776, the movements of Massachusetts, while restricted and hampered, were at the same time forced into a wider orbit.  She was brought into political sympathy with Virginia.  While two generations of men were passing across the scene, the political problems of Massachusetts were assimilated to those of Virginia.  In spite of all the other differences, great as they were, there was a likeness in the struggles between the popular legislature and the royal governor which subordinated them all.  It was this similarity of experience, during the eighteenth century, that brought these two foremost colonies into cordial alliance during the struggle against George III., and thus made it possible to cement all the colonies together in the mighty nation whose very name is fraught with so high and earnest a lesson to mankind,—­the UNITED STATES! [Sidenote:  Massachusetts becomes a royal province]