This is the fact in

they are not found at all. various places, but West River presents a very marked instance. Here the old burying ground is found, and here are the families whose names adorn the old records, but there is not a Friend anywhere in the whole region. Farther up the country there is an old meeting house standing, but only as a deserted relic of the past; and farther down the country the site is pointed out of another house. The cause of the disappearance of the membership is to be found, of course, in some social change that has affected the body in times gone by; for in other regions the disciples of Fox have shown sufficient tenacity of life. The great Hicksite-schism may have unhinged the views of some; but the great probable cause that undermined this ecclesiastical fabric was the antagonism to slavery, which became in the last half of the eighteenth century so strong a sentiment with the Friends, that to hold slaves debarred persons from continuing members of the society. This final resolution we are told, encountered serious opposition from many members, most probably those who lived in that section of the country where slavery continued to be the chief dependence for labor; and consequently the question being presented of abandoning their farms or abandoning their meeting, many were found who could not see the heinousness of the ancient institution which even the Quaker principles had always allowed to this time. And so it was as the years passed on they lost their former reverence for the peculiarities of their persuasion, and by degrees conformed to the doctrines and practices of the

people among whom they lived. This is the most probable conjecture, and is fortified by still existing tradition.

Another sect that settled in Maryland about the year 1680, was a company of Labadists, a body that lived on communal principles. They were few in number, and were in various ways attractive, but though ambitious of proselytes, they gained but few. Their existence, however, was short-lived in Maryland. They came from Friesland, founded by Labadie, formerly a priest of the Roman Communion, a Frenchman who settled in Holland. Their views and practices were in many ways peculiar.

Of course there were in addition to these all the various forms of dissent from the Established church. For toleration, though for a short while in a measure denied, soon was allowed most fully, the Roman Catholics, also, having all religious privileges, though denied equal political rights. These other sects, however, did not come in with demonstration, but were content to enjoy and rejoice in the liberty which in some cases they were denied at home. The Scotch brought over their Presbyterian affiliations, the Germans their Lutheran organization, while from incidental remarks we know that in the earlier period, and probably all the way along, there were Jews as well as other unbelievers in the province. The composite character of the religious proclivities of the people was brought out in the year 1760, when Boston having suffered very greatly by fire, the Governor of Maryland called on the citizens of the province to contribute for the relief of the sufferers. The response was

It

liberal, one thousand, eight hundred and thirtynine pounds, given approximately as follows: by the Established Church, fifteen hundred and three pounds, by the Quakers one hundred and thirty-four pounds, by the Presbyterians one hundred and seven, by the Roman Catholics seventy-six, by the Baptists seven, by the Dunkers six, by the Lutherans five. These items are interesting as showing not only the religious denominations within the province, but also in some degree they may be supposed to indicate their relative numbers. Doing so, they show, also, why the establishment continued to be, notwithstanding a large amount of wrangling and dispute from time to time, an accepted institution to the close of the colonial days. contained within it the great body of the people, and it embraced the great influential class that by its intelligence swayed the legislature and by its wealth supported the government. It takes but a few men to begin an agitation and those few may be controlled by unworthy reasons, which they may be loth to make known to the world. An institution is fixed in a community because it rests upon the fixed sentiment of the great mass of the people and presents to their heart and mind strong reasons for its existence. Nothing else than this can account for the solidity of the establishment amidst all kinds of agitation that raged around it and in it through the whole period of its existence and the gracious farewell that was extended to it at last, and the quasi recognition of its principle that was contained in the Bible of Rights. The establishment was always supported by the best

sentiment and willingly sustained by the prepondering wealth of the people.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CARRYING OUT OF THE ACT OF

ESTABLISHMENT.

The Act of Establishment though passed in May 1692 was not carried out till January 1694 or rather 1695, according to our present division of the year, and that for the reason, apparently, that Gov. Copley, who was the first governor of the now Royal Province, did not feel any strong interest in the matter, with enough of other things during his brief administration, to engross his attention. He was succeeded by Gov. Nicholson, who reached the colony in 1694, and at once by his vigor the law was carried into effect, and the territory laid out into parishes. Gov. Nicholson was to the province of Maryland in the highest degree a blessing during the period of about four years which he continued in it. No man of that time, may be, has been more severely criticised by our historians than he, though often it would seem with a kind of mock liberality of political sentiment. In fact, frequently in reading their denunciations of the men and measures of those times there appears a want of true appreciation of the times in which the