Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/170

 130 to be imported and exported without touching at any port in South Carolina. At the end of the twenty-one years the crown was to establish such form of government in the province, and such method of making laws therefor, as in its pleasure should be deemed meet; and all officers should be then appointed by the crown.

§ 144. Such is the substance of the charter, which was obviously intended for a temporary duration only; and the first measures adopted by the trustees, granting lands in tail male, to be held by a sort of military service, and introducing other restrictions, were not adapted to aid the original design, or foster the growth of the colony. It continued to languish, until at length the trustees, wearied with their own labours, and the complaints of the people, in June, 1751, surrendered the charter to the crown. Henceforward it was governed as a royal province, enjoying the same liberties and immunities as other royal provinces; and in process of time it began to flourish, and at the period of the American Revolution, it had attained considerable importance among the colonies.

§ 145. In respect to its ante-revolutionary jurisprudence, a few remarks may suffice. The British common and statute law lay at the foundation. The same general system prevailed as in the Carolinas, from which it sprung. Intestate estates descended according to the course of the English law. The registration