CHAPTER XIV.

THE FOURTH RECTORSHIP.

The period to which we have come, the fourth rectorship of the parish of St. James, beginning with the year 1749, and reaching to 1763, was in many respects one of great activity, not so much in ecclesiastical matters indeed, as in civil concerns, both in the colonies and in Europe. How closely, however, ecclesiastical and civil concerns were united at this time, how much stronger a hold the church had upon men's minds and filled their thoughts, then than now, is evidenced in the great seven years' war that began in 1755. For during that struggle, which had no more to do with religion than the more recent wars between Prussia and Austria, or Prussia and France, prayers were offered up here in America for Frederick as the great champion of Protestant Christendom; while the Pope celebrated Austrian victories as upholding the great cause of his church. It was indeed a great contest between Protestant and Roman civilizations, an expression of the inherent antagonism which the two systems embodied, a reproduction, after more than a hundred years, of what had been expressed with so much greater

vividness in the thirty year's war. But Freder ick of Prussia was not one to expend the resources of his dominions in defence of Christianity. He was not a second Gustavus Adolphus. Nor was England at all at that time enthusiastic for the faith. Nor on the parties on the other side can a higher eulogium be passed. It was something far nearer to their present interests that moved them, the glory and dominion of this world. Still the great struggle was made to wear that aspect of religion, and for both parties prayers ascended to heaven from those whose minds were deeply impregnated with the thought of the great cause.

Associated with this war in Europe was the French war waged by the colonies in America, a war that was momentous in its influences upon the future of the colonies; for it was by the fruits of it and the destruction of the French power in America, that the colonies, being rid of this threatening neighbor, were enabled to assume such a pronounced position towards the mother country. It will be remembered that this position was assumed very soon after the close of the French war in the discussions that preceded, and the vigorous measures that followed the passage of the stamp act. The whole period, however, was full of jealousy, the colonists always proceeding as far as they dared in antagonizing the will of the home administration. Nor was the jealousy only on the one side, for there was constant fear of the colonies as well, and everything was avoided that could in any way foster the spirit of independence. In this temper we find the mother country acting when Secker,

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Archbishop of Canterbury, who was translated to that see in 1758, attempted to send out bishops to the colonies. It is true a large part of the opposition is attributable to the very low estimate that was made of the clerical office and even of episcopal dignity. For the episcopate had come to be regarded as merely a means of rewarding some minister whose services had pleased or been useful to the state. The grand thought of its true functions before Christ Jesus, was lost sight of. But Archbishop Secker's attempt was reprobated in the strongest terms. The clergy for America must be sent from England, America must be kept in this way, as in all others, dependent. So there was an enormous outcry. One bishop declared "that the authors of this attempt ought to be covered with contrition and confusion"; and an archdeacon described it "as a mere empty chimerical vision, which deserves. not the least regard." The matter, therefore, as so many times before, came to nought. Unfortunately there was nearly as much opposition to the scheme in all parts of America as there was in England. For if England dreaded to have the colonies independent in anything, the colonies equally dreaded to have an institution set up such as they knew the English episcopate then to be, and such as tradition had represented it, without practical force for the church's good, and and yet endowed with extensive prerogatives. America, therefore, continued to be dependent, but the only effect was, that, not having a native clergy, the ministers had no weight with the people in the great measures and ideas that were more and more engrossing the popular mind; and

when the time came for acting they were cast ed off as having no living connection with the body politic. In the meanwhile they were on all sides suspected and subjected often to harsh treatment.

Along with the French war there are various things brought to the surface in Maryland that are at any rate interesting and that throw light upon the life of those times. It was begun in America before it began in Europe, and in 1754, Maryland, by a supply bill, made provision for her share of the expenses. Again, in 1756, she attempted the same, but as it happened she did nothing, not because she was not willing, but because of that inherent jealousy on the part of the people, as represented in the lower house of the Assembly, against the pretensions of the Governor and the upper house. As there was no great urgency, and as neither party could lose by the struggle, there was the greater willingness to keep up the contest.

One of the matters was the question of taxing convicts brought into the colony. For, most unfortunately, for many years there were very many of these brought in, at the rate of four to six hundred annually, a terrible class to turn loose upon a community, as jeopardizing both life and property, and having a most baneful influence upon the morals of the people. Though as the gallows were in such constant demand in England, it was hardly as bad as we should find it now. The proprietary claimed the right to tax this class of immigrants, the tax being laid on those that brought them over; while the lower house claimed the right to tax as their preroga

tive, asserting that such came under the head of servants, and that they had always, from the days when Maryland was a royal province, exercised this right. We have seen this when they taxed Irish servants coming in, "to prevent the growth of Papacy." The revenue to be by this means received, was to provide a sinking fund to meet the supply bill. With such a class precipitated upon the colony in spite of frequent and bitter protest, we cannot be surprised at the severe laws that were sometimes passed. It was estimated that from 1715 to 1763 there were from fifteen to twenty thousand such persons brought into the province. It is to be said that some of these were sent over for very slight offences; and that among them Maryland received some of her most skillful artisans, elegant mansions in and around Annapolis having been built or adorned by their hands.

Another matter connected with the supply bill and the tax levied to provide for it, though this bill was never passed, was the amount to be laid upon non-jurors or Papists. This item shows the animus of the times, and that very much of the old feeling against the members of this church still continued. As we have seen, the the war that was raging in Europe, the fringes of of whose strife touched America, and were the cause of the supply bill being called for, wore in the minds of many, a semi-religious aspect, both Pope and Protestant praying for the respective sides. This may have been in some measure the cause of the proposed legislation against the members of the Roman Communion, though it is also said that ill will for certain favorites of the