To return to our sketch of his public acts. He arrived at Boston, a place which he had before visited in October, 1680, to wait upon Lord Culpepper, (N.Y. Col. Doc. iii. 308,) in the "Kingfisher," Sunday, December 19, 1686, and landed the next day attended by about sixty soldiers. He was received with great acclamation of joy, and was escorted by a great number of merchants and others, to the Town House. He at once proceeded to organize his government, which it must be remembered, as constituted by his commission, was composed of the Governor and his Council. The other officers, judges, collectors, &c., were at hand, and the objects of the new rulers were soon disclosed. By losing their Charter and its representative form of government, the colonists had lost the privilege of taxing themselves. The Governor and Council imposed the tax; and when the inhabitants of the town of Ipswich attempted to resist the law, the patriotic leaders of the movement were tried, fined and imprisoned. The judges were Dudley, Stoughton, Usher and Randolph. This trial ended all attempts to dispute this claim of the government, but it was only the natural result of the forfeiture of the Charter, and in no sense the act of the Governor.
The other claim of the Crown was to the ownership of all the land, which involved two questions, viz. as to lands already owned by the settlers, and waste lands. The government held that private titles were invalid, unless confirmed by the Crown on the payment of a quit rent. Preposterous as this doctrine may seem, it had staunch defenders, and Andros was in earnest in enforcing it. Many complied with the requirements of the government, but the work was not completed when the Revolution came. As to Andros's share of the blame, Palmer makes the best defence, when he points out that Writs of Intrusion were brought only against a few persons to test the right, and these persons were those able to contest the question, and not obscure individuals. The moral question as to waste lands is more difficult of decision, since the argument is not without force, that it was better for Andros to grant them to persons who would improve them, than for the towns to hold them, unimproved, as commons.