Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/158

 118 dominion of the crown; and invested with as ample rights and jurisdictions, as the Bishop of Durham possessed in his palatine diocese. The charter seems to have been copied from that of Maryland, and resembles it in many of its provisions. It authorized the proprietaries to enact laws with the assent of the freemen of the colony, or their delegates; to erect courts of judicature; to appoint civil officers; to grant titles of honour; to erect forts; to make war, and in cases of necessity to exercise martial law; to build harbours; to make ports; to erect manors; and to enjoy customs and subsidies imposed with the consent of the freemen. And it further authorized the proprietaries to grant indulgences and dispensations in religious affairs, so that persons might not be molested for differences in speculative opinion with respect to religion, avowedly for the purpose of tolerating non-conformity to the Church of England. It further required, that all laws should "be consonant to reason, and as near as may be conveniently, agreeable to the laws and customs of this our kingdom of England." And it declared, that the inhabitants and their children, born in the province, should be denizens of England, and entitled to all the privileges and immunities of British born subjects.

§ 130. The proprietaries immediately took measures for the settlement of the province; and at the desire of the New-England settlers within it, (whose disposition to emigration is with Chalmers a constant theme of reproach,) published proposals, forming a basis of