148 DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON

freeholders of the province. This Assembly met
in October, 1683, and passed some fifteen laws, the
first and most memorable of which was the so-
called Charter of Liberties and Privileges. The most
notable provisions of the charter were those estab-
lishing the principles of popular representation and
religious liberty, and those reciting the guarantees
of civil rights familiar to all Englishmen.

Before this charter could be finally ratified by
the Duke of York, Charles II died from a stroke
of apoplexy, and James became King. After
fifteen minutes in his closet, where he had retired
to give "full scope to his tears," he emerged to
work for three years his bigoted will on the affairs
of the realm. James the King took a different
view of many things from James the Duke. The
status of New York was similarly changed from a
ducal proprietorship to a royal province. The new
charter recognized a Lord Proprietor. But that
Lord Proprietor had now become King of England,
and this King found some of the enactments of
the charter so objectionable to His Majesty that
he disallowed the charter. Moreover, James did
away with the Assembly which he had previously
allowed to be summoned. But the seed of popular
government had been planted in the Western