Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/137

 CH. IX.] for Dissenters, however, as was provided for in the act of 1 William and Mary. And (he introduction of the test and abjuration acts, in 1716, excluded all Roman Catholics from office.

§ 109. It appears to have been a policy adopted at no great distance of time after the settlement of the colony to provide for the public registration of conveyances of real estates. In the silence of the statute book until 1715, it is to be presumed, that the system of descents of intestate estates was that of the parent country. In that year an act passed, which made the estate partible among all the children; and the system thus introduced has, in its substance, never since been departed from. Maryland too, like the other colonies, was early alive to the importance of possessing the sole power of internal taxation; and accordingly, in 1650, it was declared, that no taxes should be levied without the consent of the general assembly.

§ 110. Upon the revolution of 1688, the government of Maryland was seized into the hands of the crown, and was not again restored to the proprietary until 1716. From that period no interruption occurred until the American Revolution. VOL. I.