Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/165

 CH. XIV.] by the name of North Carolina and South Carolina, and the laws of each obtained a like appellation. Cape Fear seems to have been commonly deemed, in the commissions of the governor, the boundary between the two colonies.

§ 138. By the surrender of the charter, the whole government of the territory was vested in the crown; (it had been in fact exercised by the crown ever since the overthrow of the proprietary government in 1720;) and henceforward it became a royal province; and was governed by commission under a form of government substantially like that established in the other royal provinces. This change of government was very acceptable to the people, and gave a new impulse to their industry and enterprise. At a little later period [1732], for the convenience of the inhabitants, the province was divided; and the divisions were distinguished by the names of North Carolina and South Carolina.

§ 139. The form of government conferred on Carolina, when it became a royal province, was in substance this. It consisted of a governor and council appointed by the crown, and an assembly chosen by the people, and these three branches constituted the legislature. The governor convened, prorogued, and dissolved the legislature, and had a negative upon the laws, and exercised the executive authority. He possessed also the powers of the court of chancery, of the