Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/105

] on a point where they were very sensitive. The first colonial Assembly, in 1635, had passed a body of laws, which the proprietary rejected on the ground, that the initiative of legislation belonged to him. Soon after, he sent over a collection of statutes which he had drawn up, to be laid before a second Assembly; that body, however, refused to admit the proprietary's claim to the initiative, or to adopt the laws proposed by him. Lord Baltimore, with great good sense, yielded the point, and a third Assembly was held, at which the first statutes of Maryland were enacted.

This Assembly was composed of deputies from the several hundreds into which the colony had been divided; an act was passed, "establishing the House of Assembly;" and a number of bills on. the subject of municipal law were proposed for the approval of the House, but for some unexplained cause were not finally adopted. Trial by jury, conformity to the laws of England, provisions for the probate of wills, obligation not to neglect the cultivation of corn, and the like, were established; and it was declared, in the words of Magna Charta, that "Holy Church within this province shall have all her rights and liberties." Though it is tolerably certain, that by this term the Roman Catholic Church was meant, yet the proprietary does not seem ever to have contemplated the establishment of a colony solely for those cf like faith with himself; on the contrary, he endeavored by proclamation, to repress disputations on the subject of religion, because thereby the public peace and quiet were likely to be disturbed ; and practically, whether necessity or policy, or more honorable reasons, led to this result, toleration was established in Maryland. The Assemblies of the three following years maintained this principle of toleration firmly and steadily, and in 1649, "an act of toleration" was enacted by both the upper and lower House. Liberty of opinion was not indeed, nor could it well have been, as absolute as in our own times. A profession of belief in the doctrine of the Trinity was required, and blasphemy was severely punished; but with this limitation the terms of the statute forbade any interference in, or even reproachful censure of, the private opinions or modes of worship, already sufficiently numerous and eccentric, established among the citizens. "Whereas," it states, "the enforcing of the conscience in matters of religion hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous consequence in those commonwealths where it hath been practised, and for the more quiet and peaceable government of this province, and the better to preserve mutual love and amity among the inhabitants, no person within this province professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall be any ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced, for his or her religion, nor in the free exercise thereof; nor any way compelled to the belief or exercise of any religion against his or her consent, so that they be not unfaithful to the lord proprietary, or molest or conspire against the civil government established."