For several months, Andros gave the Northern colonies a taste of ill-tempered despotism.  He wrung quit rents from land owners not accustomed to feudal dues; he abrogated titles to land where, in his opinion, they were unlawful; he forced the Episcopal service upon the Old South Church in Boston; and he denied the writ of habeas corpus to a preacher who denounced taxation without representation.  In the middle of his arbitrary course, however, his hand was stayed.  The news came that King James had been dethroned by his angry subjects, and the people of Boston, kindling a fire on Beacon Hill, summoned the countryside to dispose of Andros.  The response was prompt and hearty.  The hated governor was arrested, imprisoned, and sent back across the sea under guard.

The overthrow of James, followed by the accession of William and Mary and by assured parliamentary supremacy, had an immediate effect in the colonies.  The new order was greeted with thanksgiving.  Massachusetts was given another charter which, though not so liberal as the first, restored the spirit if not the entire letter of self-government.  In the other colonies where Andros had been operating, the old course of affairs was resumed.

=The Indifference of the First Two Georges.=—­On the death in 1714 of Queen Anne, the successor of King William, the throne passed to a Hanoverian prince who, though grateful for English honors and revenues, was more interested in Hanover than in England.  George I and George II, whose combined reigns extended from 1714 to 1760, never even learned to speak the English language, at least without an accent.  The necessity of taking thought about colonial affairs bored both of them so that the stoutest defender of popular privileges in Boston or Charleston had no ground to complain of the exercise of personal prerogatives by the king.  Moreover, during a large part of this period, the direction of affairs was in the hands of an astute leader, Sir Robert Walpole, who betrayed his somewhat cynical view of politics by adopting as his motto:  “Let sleeping dogs lie.”  He revealed his appreciation of popular sentiment by exclaiming:  “I will not be the minister to enforce taxes at the expense of blood.”  Such kings and such ministers were not likely to arouse the slumbering resistance of the thirteen colonies across the sea.

=Control of the Crown over the Colonies.=—­While no English ruler from James II to George III ventured to interfere with colonial matters personally, constant control over the colonies was exercised by royal officers acting under the authority of the crown.  Systematic supervision began in 1660, when there was created by royal order a committee of the king’s council to meet on Mondays and Thursdays of each week to consider petitions, memorials, and addresses respecting the plantations.  In 1696 a regular board was established, known as the “Lords of Trade and Plantations,” which continued, until the American Revolution, to scrutinize closely colonial business.  The chief duties of the board were to examine acts of colonial legislatures, to recommend measures to those assemblies for adoption, and to hear memorials and petitions from the colonies relative to their affairs.