Then Winthrop was so incautious as to make a final effort: he filed a
protest and caution against any illegal interference with his property
pending his appeal, declaring the action already taken to be contrary to
the common and statute law of England, and to the tenor of the charter.
The Assembly being of the opinion that this protest "had in it a great
show of contempt," caused Winthrop to be arrested and brought to the bar;
there he not only defended his representations as reasonable, but avowed
his determination to lay all these proceedings before the king in council.
"This was treated as an insolent contemptuous and disorderly behaviour" in
the prisoner, "as declaring himself _coram non judice_, and putting
himself on a par with them, and impeaching their authoritys and the
charter; and his said protest was declared to be full of reflections, and
to terrifie so far as in him lay all the authorities established by the
charter." So they imprisoned him three days and fined him twenty pounds
for his contemptuous words.
This leading case was afterward elaborately argued in London, and judgment
was entered for Winthrop, upon the ground that the statute of distribution
was in conflict with the charter and therefore void; but as Connecticut
resolutely refused to abandon its own policy, the utmost confusion
prevailed for seventeen years regarding the settlement of estates.
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