taries appear by deputies; the commons elected four members for every three of the nobility; but large proprietors were alone eligible. An aristocratic majority might, therefore, always be relied upon; but, to prevent danger, three methods, reproduced in part in modern monarchical constitutions, were adopted: the proprietaries reserved to themselves a negative on all the proceedings of parliament; no measure could be initiated, except through the grand council; and, in case of constitutional objection to a law, either of the four estates might interpose a veto. Popular enfranchisement was made an impossibility. Executive, judicial, and legislative power was each beyond the control of the people.

In trials by jury the majority decided-a rule dangerous to the oppressed; for, where moral courage is requisite for an acquittal, more than a small minority cannot always be expected. A clause, which declared it "a base and vile thing to plead for money or reward," could not but compel the less educated classes to establish between themselves and the nobility the relation of clients and patrons.

Such were the constitutions devised for Carolina by Shaftesbury and Locke, by the statesman who was the type of the revolution of 1688, and the sage who was the antagonist of Leibnitz and William Penn. Several American writers have attempted to exonerate Locke from a share in the work which they condemn; but it harmonizes with the principles of his philosophy and with his theories on government. To his late old age he preserved the evidence of his legislative labors; and his admirers esteemed him the superior of the contemporary Quaker king, the rival of "the ancient philosophers" to whom the world had "erected statues."

The constitutions were signed on the twenty-first of July, 1669. In a second draft, against the wishes of Locke, a clause was interpolated, declaring that, while every religion should be tolerated, the church of England, as the only true and orthodox church, was to be the national religion of Carolina, and was alone to receive public maintenance by grants from the colonial parliament. This revised copy of "the model" was not signed till March, 1670. To a colony of which the majority were likely to be dissenters, the change was vital; it

was scarcely noticed in England, where the model became the theme of extravagant applause. "It is without compare,' wrote Blome, in 1672. "Empires," added an admirer of Shaftesbury, "will be ambitious of subjection to the noble government which deep wisdom has projected for Carolina ;" and the proprietaries set their seals to "a sacred and unalterable" instrument, which they decreed should endure "for ever."

As far as depended upon the proprietaries, the government was immediately organized with Monk, duke of Albemarle, as palatine. But was there place for a palatine and landgraves, for barons and lords of manors, for an admiralty court and a court of heraldry, among the scattered cabins between the Chowan and the ocean?

Albemarle had, in 1665, been increased by fresh emigrants from New England, and, two years later, by a colony of shipbuilders from the Bermudas, who lived contentedly with Stevens as chief magistrate, under a very wise and simple form of government. A council of twelve-six named by the proprietaries, and six chosen by the assembly; an assembly composed of the governor, the council, and twelve delegates from the freeholders of the incipient settlements-formed a government which enjoyed popular confidence. No interference from abroad was anticipated; for freedom of religion and security against taxation except by the colonial legislature were conceded. The colonists were satisfied; the more so as, in 1668, their lands were confirmed to them on their own terms.

The authentic record of the legislative history of North Carolina begins with the autumn of 1669, when the representatives of Albemarle, ignorant of the scheme which Locke and Shaftesbury were maturing, gave a five years' security to the emigrant debtor against any cause of action arising out of the country; made marriage a civil contract, requiring only the consent of parties before a magistrate; exempted new settlers from taxation for a year; prohibited strangers from trading with the neighboring Indians, and granted land to every adventurer who joined the colony, but withholding a perfect title till after a residence of two years. The members of this early legislature probably received no compensation; to meet

the expenses of the governor and council, a fee of thirty pounds of tobacco was exacted in every lawsuit. The laws were sufficient, were confirmed by the proprietaries, were reenacted in 1715, and were valid in North Carolina for more than half a century.

Hardly had these laws been established when the new constitution was forwarded to Albemarle. Its promulgation did but favor anarchy by invalidating the existing system, which it could not replace. The proprietaries, contrary to stipulations with the colonists, superseded the existing government, and the colonists resolutely rejected the substitute.

Far different was the welcome with which the inhabitants of North Carolina met the first messengers of religion. From the beginning of the settlement there seems not to have been a minister in the land; there was no public worship but such as burst from the heart when natural feeling took the form of words. But man is prone to religious impressions, and when William Edmundson in 1672 came to visit his Quaker brethren among the groves of Albemarle, "he met with a tender people," delivered his instructions as supported by the authority of self-evident truth, and added converts to the society of Friends. A quarterly meeting of discipline was established, and the society, of which opposition to spiritual authority is the badge, was the first to organize a religious community in Carolina.

In the autumn of the same year, George Fox-the father of the sect, the upright man who could say of himself, "What I am in words, I am the same in life"-travelled across "the great bogs" of the Dismal Swamp, commonly "lying abroad a-nights in the woods by a fire," till at last he reached a house in Carolina, and obtained the luxury of a mat by the fireside. He was made welcome to the refuge of Quakers and fugitives from ecclesiastical oppression. The people "lived lonely in the woods," with no other guardian to their solitary houses than a watch-dog. There have been religious communities which, binding themselves by a vow to a life of study and reflection, have planted their monasteries in the recesses of the desert, where they might best lift up their hearts to contemplative enjoyments. Here were men from civilized

life, scattered among the forests, hermits with wives and children, resting on the bosom of nature, in harmony with the wilderness of their gentle clime. With absolute freedom of conscience, reason and good-will to man were the simple rule of their conduct. Such was the people to whom George Fox opened many things concerning the light and spirit of God that is in every one." He became the guest of the governor of the province, who, with his wife, "received him lovingly." The plantations of that day were upon the bay, and along the streams that flow into it; the rivers and the inlets were the highways of Carolina; the boat and the lighter birchen skiff the only equipage; every man knew how to handle the oar; and there was hardly a woman but could paddle a canoe. When Fox continued his journey, the governor, having been admonished to listen to the voice of truth in the oracles of nature, accompanied him to the water's edge, and, as the chief magistrate of North Carolina and the envoy of humanity travelled together on foot through the ancient woods, it might indeed have seemed, rather than in the companionship of Shaftesbury and Locke, that the days of the legislation of philosophy were revived. For in the character of his wisdom, in the method of its acquisition by deep feeling, reflection, and travel, and in its fruits, George Fox far more nearly resembled the ancient sages, the peers of Thales and Solon, whom common fame has immortalized. From the house of the governor, the traveller continued his journey to the residence of "Joseph Scot, one of the representatives of the country,' where he had "a sound and precious meeting" with the people. His eloquence reached their hearts; for he did but assert the paramount value of the impulses and feelings which had guided them in the wilderness. He "had a sense of all conditions;" for, "how else could he have spoken to all conditions?" At another meeting, "the chief secretary of the province," who "had been formerly convinced," was present; and Fox became his guest, yet not without "much ado;” for, as the boat approached his plantation, it grounded in the shallow channel, and could not be brought to shore. But the wife of the secretary of state shot promptly to the traveller's relief in a canoe, and brought him to her hospitable home. As he

turned again toward Virginia, he could say that he had found the people of North Carolina "generally tender and open; and that he had made among them "a little entrance for truth."

While it was uncertain what was the government of North Carolina, the country, in 1674, was left without a governor by the death of Stevens. The assembly, conforming to a prudent instruction of the proprietaries, elected a successor; and Cartwright, their speaker, acted for two years at the head of the administration. Persons into whose hands the proprietaries had committed the government interfered with violence and injustice to prevent the progress of discovery and colonization to the southward; and those who had planted on the south side of the Chowan and the Roanoke were commanded back, to their great prejudice and inconvenience. Moreover, fears prevailed that "Sir William Berkeley was become the sole proprietary" of that part of Carolina. Moved "by these apprehensions and the conjunction of the times," the North Carolinians themselves "ordered and settled the council and government," until an appeal could be taken to the proprietaries. To them, Thomas Miller carried letters from the selfconstituted government of Albemarle; and Eastchurch, the new speaker of the assembly, followed as its agent to explain the public grievances. The proprietaries, after some of them had "discoursed with " Eastchurch and Miller, wrote to the assembly: "They have fully satisfied us that the fault was not in you, but in those persons into whose hands we committed. the government." They gave their promise "not to part with the county of Albemarle to any person, but to maintain the province of Carolina entire as it was, that they might preserve the inhabitants in English rights and liberties." Instead of insisting on the introduction of the grand model, they restored the simple government which had existed in the beginning of the settlement.

For governor of Albemarle, they selected Eastchurch himself, "because," they said, "he seems to us a very discreet and worthy man, and very much concerned for your prosperity and welfare, and, by the opportunity of his being here, is well instructed in our desires." For the grand council they named