gentle and peaceful doctrines of this sect were, by them, construed into a seditious refusal to submit to the government, for which a decree of banishment went forth against its followers. (54) The proprietary's instructions test his principles, and to these we would look in vain for any thing to give a color to religious persecution of any description. Nor can one or two occasional departures of the government, in moments of excitement and danger, from the principles of religious toleration, be fairly put in opposition to an administration of half a century, characterised by nothing but benevolence to all the followers of Christ. Conspicuous above every other colony of that period, for its uniform regard of religious liberty, it had its reward. Harmony, peace and prosperity, were the general results; and this period in the history of Maryland, may be truly styled, "the golden age of its colonial existence."

(54) Council proceedings of 1658, Liber H H, 29.

CHAPTER III.

HISTORY OF THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF MARYLAND.

revolution in Ma

ryland.

THE Protestant revolution in the province of Maryland, was an event in its colonial history, as extensive in its consequences, as The Protestant it was singular and unexpected in its origin. From the session of Assembly, in November, 1688, until the complete assumption and organization of the government of Maryland by the crown, in the beginning of the year 1692, there is an entire chasm in our records. At the commencement of this interval, we find the people of the province dwelling under the proprietary government, in apparent security and contentment. In the recorded transactions of that period, we look in vain for the seeds of a revolution, or the preludes to its explosion; and especially of a revolution avowedly originated and conducted for the defence and security of the Protestant religion. The proceedings of the lower house of Assembly, manifest some discontents in the colony; but these, in their causes and extent, were alike those, which characterise many other periods in its history, of acknowledged happiness and tranquillity. They relate to malpractices by officers, or abuses of a public nature from whatever source proceeding, which it was the practice of this house of Assembly, at every age of the colony, to present for reformation to the consideration of the government. Acting as the grand inquest of the province, its vigilance was continually exercised, in supervising the administration of the laws, and reporting the abuses of power; and its official representations, detailing these to the proprietary or his governor, instead of being charges against the government itself, often manifested the most entire and cheerful confidence in its inclination to redress them. Before the Protestant revolution, these representations were usually embodied in what was

styled, "a paper of grievances;" (1) and after the proprietary restoration in 1715, they took the form of resolves and addresses. The articles of grievances, exhibited by the lower to the upper house at the session of 1688, do not ascribe a single act of deliberate oppression or wanton exercise of power, immediately to the proprietary or his governors. They do not even insinuate the slightest danger to the Protestant religion; or impute to the proprietary administration, a single act or intention militating against the free enjoyment and exercise of it. They were presented under the expectation of redress; and to crown the whole, the reply of the governor and council, in answer to their articles, was so entirely satisfactory, that the lower house, in a body, presented them their thanks for its favorable character. Here the curtain drops, and when it next rises, it presents to our view, the proprietary dominion prostrate, the government of the colony in the hands of the crown, and administered by men hitherto unknown in it; the Assembly pouring forth its congratulations for the royal protection, and its redemption "from the arbitrary will and pleasure of a tyrannical Popish government;" the proprietary himself formally impeached to the crown by that Assembly; his officers and agents degraded and harassed in every manner; and the Catholic inhabitants, the objects of jealousy, reproach and penalties.

our Records, in

For the causes and progress of the revolution which accomplished this transformation, we would search fruitlessly amongst Barrenness of our existing records. That revolution was comall that would il- menced and conducted to complete triumph, by an ses and progress association of individuals; and after its consummation, the province was governed by a Convention

lustrate the cau

of this revolu

tion.

(1) These papers, as well as many others of that period, amuse us as well by their manner of expression as their matter. One of the messages of the lower house to the upper, relative to the paper of grievances exhibited at the session of 1669, exhibits one of the finest specimens of the genuine Bathos, which we have yet seen. "We are very sorry, exceeding sorry, (says the message,) that we are driven to say, that your answer and objections to the paper entitled "The Public Grievances," are not satisfactory, or that from the refulgent lustre of the eradiations of reason, that shine and dart forth from them, the weak and dim eye of our understandings is dazzled and struck into obscurity." Even Hargrave's eulogy upon Chancellor Yorke could not match this. In another

until April, 1692; when at the instance of the colony, its government was assumed by the crown, and placed under the administration of a governor, directly appointed by it. The proceedings of that association and convention, are wanting to illustrate this revolution. The researches of Chalmers, the full and in general the faithful annalist, terminate at this period. Although his work was written, for the purpose of demonstrating that the colonies were subject to the legislation of parliament, it presents an example of a party production as rare as it is worthy of imitation. Whatever obliquity or feebleness there may be in his reasoning, it does not appear to be sustained by the concealment or misstatement of facts. So far as our researches have extended, and have enabled us to test the accuracy of his work, as a repository of facts, it may be relied on with confidence. (2) In preparing it, he had free access to the records of the plantation office in England; and was there enabled to collect many facts relative to the history of the colonies, which are not elsewhere to be found. The proprietary government of Maryland was more insulated from that of the mother country, than the other colonial governments; and is less dependant upon those records, for the elucidation of its history. Its internal administration resting with the proprietary and the people, the controversies which sprang out of that administration, rarely, if ever, rose to such a height, as to require or call in the intervention of the crown. The control of the English government, limited to its eminent dominion, was exercised only, for the regulation of the commerce of the colony, or in calling forth and directing its energies, in time. of war, against the common enemy. The period of which we

part of this message they say, "wise and good men's actions being commonly of one dye are, like the links of a chain, coupled together by the necessary consequence of right reason."

(2) Mr. Chalmers, as I have been informed, was a Scotchman, residing in this city, as a practitioner of the law, at the commencement of the American revolution. Espousing the cause of the crown, he sought refuge in England, and took up his residence in London; where he acquired notoriety as a political writer, and more especially by his researches into the colonial history; and ultimately obtained a place in the trade office. Writing under such circumstances, and for the express purpose of demonstrating the supremacy of parliament, his general impartiality in the statement of facts is truly remarkable.

are now treating, commencing with the revolution of 1689, and terminating with the restoration of the proprietary government in 1715, is an exception to this general remark. During this interval, the government of the colony was a royal government; and although its introduction affected no material change in the provincial institutions, it brought with it the practice of transmitting to the plantation office, from time to time, accounts of the government and condition of the colony, from which much assistance might be derived, even in the accomplishment of the limited designs of this work. Destitute of these aids, our general view of the government of Maryland, from this period, is collected only from the provincial records now existing in our state offices.

bitants be fore

In looking back to the events which immediately preceded the Protestant revolution, it is difficult to discover, in the public Condition of the transactions, any indications of misrule or oppresProtestant inha- sion on the part of the proprietary, calculated to that Revolution. excite it. So far as the Protestant religion was concerned, the course of the laws, and the administration up to the period of the proprietary's departure for England, was one of entire neutrality. The great object of both seems to have been, to preserve that religious freedom, which had ever been identified with the colony. The proprietary is no where charged by the Assembly, with any act or intention, aiming either at the establishment of his own church, or the injury of the Protestant. No such intentions are imputed by them; and as far as we are able to collect and estimate his conduct, it exhibits none such. Judging from this and the representations of the colonists themselves, his principles and feelings were averse to every thing like persecution. Had they been otherwise, his sagacity would have taught him the folly and danger, of attempting any thing, to the prejudice of the Protestant religion, or the injury of his Protestant subjects. An Englishman of that day, in describing to the committee of plantations, the condition of Maryland in 1681, remarks, "there are there thirty Protestants to one Papist, between whom there is no quarrel: but two persons have been apprehended for saying, that were the parliament dissolved Baltimore should not be quiet in Maryland. (3) This reptesenta

(3) Chalmers, Note 24, page 376.