CHAP. II. year, landed in Maryland near the confluence 1633. of the Potowmac. Their immediate effort was

to conciliate the good will of the Aborigines, from whom they purchased their town, which Calvert settled and called St. Mary's. This measure was as wise as it was just. By obtain. ing the peaceful possession of a considerable piece of ground already prepared for cultivation, the Marylanders were enabled, immediately, to raise their food; and from this cause, as well as from their neighbourhood to Virginia, which now afforded in abundance the necessaries of life, they were never afflicted with famine and its concomitant diseases, and thus escaped those calamities which had nearly suffocated in the cradle the infant colonies of Virginia and New England.

Against the grant to lord Baltimore the planters of Virginia presented a petition, which was heard before the privy council in July 1633, when it was decided, that that nobleman should retain his patent and the petitioners their remedy at law. To this remedy they never thought proper to resort. To prevent further differences, however, free and mutual commerce was permitted to exist between the colonies; and they were each enjoined to receive no fugitives from the other; to do no act which might bring on a war with the natives; and, on all occasions, to assist each other as became fellow subjects of the same state.

composed of all the

In February 1634-5, was convened the first CHAP. II. assembly of Maryland. Like those of other 1635. colonies, it appears to have been composed of Assembly the whole body of the freemen. Their acts were, freemen. most probably, not approved by the proprietary, who transmitted in turn, for their consideration, a code of laws prepared by himself. This code was laid before an assembly summoned to meet in January 1637-8, which rejected it without hesitation, and immediately prepared a body of regulations adapted to their own situation. Among these was a bill, providing a revenue for the proprietary, who had already expended forty thousand pounds sterling in settling the colony; and an act of attainder against William Clayborne. Clayborne, who was charged with felony and sedition, with having exercised government within the province without authority, and with having excited the Indians to make war on the colony.

As early as 1631, Charles had granted a license under the sign manual to William Clayborne, one of the council and secretary of state of Virginia, "to traffic in those parts of America, for which there is already no patent granted for sole trade." To enforce this license, Harvey, the then governor of Virginia, had in March 1632, granted also his commission containing the same powers. Under this license and commission, he made a small settlement on the isle of Kent, near Annapolis, which he

CHAP. II. Continued to claim, and refused to submit to 1638. the jurisdiction of Maryland. He infused his

own spirit into the inhabitants of Kent island, and scattered jealousies among the natives, persuading them, that "the new comers" were Spaniards and enemies to the Virginians. Having been indicted and found guilty of murder, piracy and sedition, he fled from justice, and his estate was seized and confiscated.. Of these proceedings, which he deemed so oppressive, Clayborne complained to his sovereign, and prayed for a confirmation of his former license, and a grant of other lands adjoining the isle of Kent, with power to govern them. In 1639, the lords commissioners of the colonies, to whom this subject had been referred, determined that the lands in question belonged absolutely to lord Baltimore; and that no plantation, or trade with the Indians, within the limits of his patent, ought to be allowed without his permission. The other complaints made by Clayborne were not deemed proper for the interference of government.

Heretofore, as in the other colonies at their commencement, the whole body of freemen constituted the legislature. But several causes had contributed greatly to increase their numbers. The roman catholics, who fled from the persecutions then experienced in England, sought an asylum in Maryland, and they also received into their bosoms those who were

1639.

banished by the policy of their sister colonies. CHAP. II. While the puritans of New England were employed in coercing conformity to their particular tenets, Virginia retaliated on them by passing severe laws affecting puritans, which induced persons of that persuasion to take refuge in Maryland, where all were permitted to pursue unmolested, the form of worship dictated by conscience.

composed

sentatives.

An increase of population and extended set- Assembly tlements produced their certain consequence. of repre The exercise of the sovereign power by the people themselves became intolerably burdensome, and the third assembly, which was convened in 1639, passed an act "for establishing the house of assembly." This act declared that those who should be elected in pursuance of writs issued should be called burgesses, and should supply the place of freemen who chose them, in the same manner as the representatives in the parliament of England; and with those called by special writ, together with the governor and secretary, should constitute the general assembly; but the two branches of the legislature were to sit in the same chamber. In 1650 this regulation was changed. An act Divided was then passed declaring, that those who were branches. called by special writ should form the upper house, that those who were chosen by the hundreds should compose the lower house, and that bills which should be assented to by both

into two

CHAP. II. branches of the legislature and by the governor 1650. should be deemed the laws of the province.

The most perfect harmony subsisted between the proprietary and the people; and Maryland, attentive to its own affairs, remained, without any other interruption than one Indian war, which terminated in the submission of the natives, in a state of increasing prosperity until the civil war broke out in England. This government, like that of Virginia, was attached to the royal cause; but Clayborne, who took part with the parliament, found means to intrigue among the people, and, in the beginning of the year 1645, to raise an insurrection in the province. Calvert the governor was obliged to fly to Virginia for protection, and the insurgents seized the reins of government. It was not until August in the subsequent year that the revolt was suppressed and tranquillity restored. An act of general pardon and oblivion was passed, from the benefits of which only a few leading characters were excepted; but this, like most other insurrections, produced additional burdens on the people which did not so soon pass away. A duty for seven years, of ten shillings on every hundred weight of tobacco exported in Dutch bottoms, was granted to the proprietary, the one half of which was expressly appropriated to satisfy claims produced by the recovery and defence of the province.