Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/144

 also in the breast of the Virginians, once so loyal, but whose loyalty had been too cruelly abused by an infatuated race of kings, and the next Assembly. in 1688, was imbued with such a determination to maintain its privileges, that the governor, counting upon the royal support, determined, after a brief experience of its temper, to dissolve it upon his own authority; upon which they deputed Ludwell, formerly conspicuous among the most influential loyalists, to proceed to England and complain of his conduct.

Philip Calvert, as before stated, (p. 83), had become firmly established in the government of Maryland in 1660. For some years subsequent to this everything went on prosperously and harmoniously. The settlements gradually extended, and the prospect of increase in wealth and population was bright and cheering. Lord Baltimore endeavored to establish his claim to jurisdiction even to the banks of the Delaware; but he found the officers of the Duke of York quite as unwilling to yield to him in this, as the Dutch had been when they were in possession of New Netherland. As in Virginia, the cultivation of tobacco was the principal staple; a great impulse was given to its increase by the introduction of slave labor, and a proportionable discouragement was the result of the navigation act, which cut off a valuable revenue to the colony from the impost on tobacco exported in Dutch vessels. Following the example of Virginia, a tax of two shillings per hogshead was laid upon all tobacco exported, one half of which went to defray colonial expenses, the other half was a personal revenue to the proprietary.

Lord Baltimore's wise and prudent measures had rendered Maryland more successful to the proprietary, than any other of the American colonies. In his old age he obtained a handsome return for his heavy outlays. At his death the province had ten counties, with about 16,000 inhabitants, the largest part of whom were Protestants. This fact led to the addressing of a letter, by the Rev. Mr. Yeo of Patuxent, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, complaining as well of the low state of morals in the colony, as of the fact that the clergy of the Church of England had no settled incomes like their Virginia brethren; consequently their position was neither so respectable, nor so well calculated to effect good, as it ought to be. When, after Lord Baltimore's death, his successor repaired to England, earnest attempts were made by the Bishop of London—under whose jurisdiction the colonies were placed—to induce Lord Baltimore to provide maintenance for the Church of England clergy, a claim which he was enabled with some difficulty to resist. The popular feeling of the time was, however, so unfavorable to Roman Catholics, both in England and in the colony itself, that an order was sent out by Charles II. to confine the possession of office to Protestants alone, a stretch of authority evidently unauthorized by the terms of the charter granted to his father, which exempted the proprietary.