sions extended "North and Eastward as far as the. North end of Charahake River, or Gulet, upon a strait Westerly line to Wyonoake Creek, which lies within or about the Degrees of Thirty-six and Thirty Minutes Northern Latitude, and so West in a direct line as far as the South-Seas; and South and Westward as far as to the Degrees of Twenty-nine, inclusive, Northern Latitude, and so West in a direct line as far as the South-Seas," &c.

The Lords Proprietors, being about to take possession of these extensive territories, agreed upon a code of Laws for the government of the future colony.The plan, suggested by the Earl of Shaftsbury, was moulded into form by the celebrated John Locke,* under the title of The Fundamental Constitutions of South-Carolina. Among the articles of this fanciful system, are the following relating to Religion:

"XCV. No man shall be permitted to be a freeman of Carolina, or to have any estate or habitation within it, that doth not acknowledge a GOD; and that God is publicly and solemnly to be worshipped.

XCVI. As the country comes to be sufficiently planted and distributed into fit divisions, it shall belong to the parliament to take care for the building of churches, and the public maintenance of divines, to be employed in the exercise of religion, according to the Church of England; which being the only true and orthodox, and the national religion of all the King's -dominions, is so also of Carolina; and therefore it alone shall be allowed to receive public maintenance, by grant of parliament.+

"XCVII. But since the natives of that place, who will be concerned in our plantation, are utterly strangers to Christianity, whose idolatry, ignorance, or mistake, gives us no right to expel, or use them ill;

* Oldmixon's Anon. Hist. of British Empire in America, i. 462, 2d Ed. This article is said to have been inserted contrary to Mr. Locke's judgement, by one of the Proprietors. Hewatt's So. Ca. i. 342.

and those who remove from other parts to plant there, will unavoidably be of different opinions concerning matters of religion, the liberty whereof they will expect to have allowed them, and it will not be reasonable for us on this account to keep them out; that civil peace may be maintained amidst the diversity of opinions, and our agreement and compact with all men may be duly and faithfully observed; the violation whereof, upon what pretence soever, cannot be without great offence to Almighty God, and great scandal to the true religion, which we profess; and also that Jews, Heathens and other Dissenters from the purity of Christian religion, may not be scared and kept at a distance from it, but, by having an opportunity of acquainting themselves with the truth and reasonableness of its doctrines, and the peaceableness and inoffensiveness of its professors, may by good usage and persuasion, and all those convincing methods of gentleness and meekness suitable to the rules and design of the gospel, be won over to embrace and unfeignedly receive the truth; therefore any seven or more persons agreeing in any religion, shall constitute a church or profession, to which they shall give some name, to distinguish it from others.

"XCVIII. The terms of admittance and communion with any church or profession, shall be written in a book, and therein be subscribed by all the members of the said church or profession; which book shall be kept by the public register of the precinct where they reside.

"XCIX. The time of every one's subscription and admittance, shall be dated in the said book of religious record.

"C. In the terms of communion of every church or profession, these following shall be three; without which no agreement or assembly of men, upon pretence of religion, shall be accounted a church or profession within these rules:

1. "That there is a GoD.

2. "That GoD is publicly to be worshipped.

3. "That it is lawful and the duty of every man, being thereunto called by those that govern, to bear witness to truth; and that every church or profession shall, in their terms of communion, set down the external way whereby they witness a truth as in the presence of GoD, whether it be by laying hands on, or kissing the Bible, as in the Church of England, or by holding up the hand, or any other sensible way."

"CI. No person above seventeen years of age shall have any benefit or protection of the law, or be capable of any place of profit or honor, who is not a member of some church or profession, having his name recorded in some one, and but one religious record at

once.

"CII. No person of any other church or profession shall disturb or molest any religious assembly.

"CHII. No person whatsoever shall speak any thing in their religious assembly irreverently or seditiously of the government, or governors, or state matters.

"CIV. Any person subscribing the terms of communion in the record of the said church or profession, before the precinct register, and any five members of the said church or profession, shall be thereby made a member of the said church or profession.

"CV. Any person striking out his own name out of any religious record, or his name being struck out by any officer thereunto authorized by each church or profession respectively, shall cease to be a member of that church or profession.

"CVI. No man shall use any reproachful, reviling, or abusive language, against the religion of any church or profession; that being the certain way of disturbing the peace, and of hindering the conversion of any to the truth, by engaging them in quarrels and animosities, to the hatred of the professors and that profession, which otherwise they might be brought to assent to.

"CVII. Since charity obliges us to wish well to the souls of all men, and religion ought to alter nothing in any man's civil estate or right, it shall be lawful for slaves, as well as others, to enter themselves, and be of what church or profession any of them shall think best, and therefore be as fully members as any freeman.But yet no slave shall hereby be exempted from that eivil dominion his master hath over him, but be in all other things in the same state and condition he was in before.

"CVIII. Assemblies, upon what pretence soever of religion, not observing and performing the above said rules, shall not be esteemed as churches, but unlawful meetings, and be punished as other riots.

"CIX. No person whatsoever shall disturb, molest, or persecute another for his speculative opinions in religion, or his way of worship."

Four different modifications of these Constitutions were subsequently sent to the Province. The original Constitutions, consisting of 81 Articles, were signed by the Lords Proprietors, July 21, 1669, before the settlement of the colony. The second, of 120, were signed March 1, 1669-70. The third, of 120, were dated January 12, 1681-2.The fourth, of 121, were signed August 17, 1682. The fifth and last, consisting of 41, were dated April 11, 1698. They were intended to be the Fundamental and Unalterable Laws of the Province. The colonists were frequently urged to accept them; but the representatives of the people would neither receive nor sanction them, and they were finally laid aside. At length, the people became dissatisfied with the Proprietary Government, and, in 1719, placed themselves under the immediate protection of the King. The Assembly offered the government of the Province to Robert Johnson, the Proprietary Governor, which he refused, and they elected Colonel George Moor. When the account of this revolution reached England, Geo. I. appointed Francis

Nicholson, Provisional Governor, until arrangements should be made with the Lords Proprietors. He arrived in Charles-Town, May 21st, 1721, and published the Royal Commission. Seven of the Proprietors surrendered, September 29th, 1729, all their title to, and interest in, Carolina, to Edward Bertie, Samuel Horsey, Henry Smith, and Alexius Clayton, in trust for the Crown. Seven-eighths of the Province were then vested in the following Proprietors, or Trustees : The Earl of Clarendon's Share, of one-eighth, was vested in the Hon. James Bertie;

The Duke of Albermarle's Share, in Hon. James Bertie, and Hon. Dodington Greville, in Trust for Henry, Duke of Beaufort;

The Earl of Craven's Share, in William, Lord Craven ;

Lord Berkley's Share, in Joseph Blake, of SouthCarolina;

Lord Ashley's Share, in Archibald Hutcheson, in Trust for John Cotton;

Sir John Colleton's Share, in his son, Sir John Colleton';

Sir William Berkley's Share, in the Hon. Henry Bertie, Mary Danson, and Elizabeth Moor, or some of them.

The Proprietors sold their shares for £17,500, which was £2500, for a full share to each of the Seven Proprietors. The Colonists owed them about £9000, for Quit-rents, which the King likewise purchased, for £5000. One-eighth of the Propriety and Quit-rents were reserved to John, Lord Carteret, his heirs, &c. Carolina having thus become a royal government, Geo. II. appointed Robert Johnson, as his Governor. He arrived in December, 1730.

The first settlement of this Province was attempted in 1660, by some colonists from Virginia. They landed at Port-Royal, but soon abandoned the enterprize. The second was likewise made at that place in 1670,