In March 1658, the government was surrendered, by the commissioners, to Josiah Fendall, Esq. who had been appointed governor by the proprietary. During his administration, the Burgesses of the assembly, which met in February 1659, by his connivance, or direction, dissolved the upper house, and assumed every power in the state. For this treacherous surrendry of the trust reposed in him by the proprietary, he received a new commission as governor, from the then ruling party.

In 1660, upon the restoration of King Charles II. in England, the proprietary appointed Philip Calvert, Esq. Governor of Maryland, and in December, he assumed the reins of government.

Maryland bore these political changes without their having much effected her prosperity; her wealth and population progressed so rapidly that she could then boast the number of 12000 souls.

In 1662, Charles Calvert, eldest son of the proprietary, by appointment of his father, assumed the reins of government, and if we may decide from the various "acts of gratitude," which were passed by the assembly, he followed with the greatest success, the salutary maxims of his father.

In the beginning of the year 1676, died Cæcilius, the father of the province, covered with age and reputation, in the 44th year of his government. He lived to see his province divided into ten counties, containing about 16,000 souls, of whom the Catholics were to the Protestants as one hundred to one; but there were no parishes laid out, or churches erected, nor public maintenance granted for the support of the ministry, and there were then only three clergymen of the Church of England in Maryland.

Charles Calvert, who had governed the province, with great ability, prudence, and reputation, from the year

1662, succeeded his father as proprietary, in the year 1676. He immediately convened an assembly, in which he presided in person. This assembly carefully revised the whole code of laws, repealed the unnecessary, explained the obscure, and confirmed the salutary.

Early in the year 1689, a rumour was artfully spread abroad; framed by faction, and credulously believed," that a Popish plot was concealed under the administration, supported by Papists, and in league with the Indians, to cut off all the Protestants in the province." Confusion, terror, and dismay reigned triumphant; an association, in arms was formed, (in defiance to every art of persuasion the Catholics could devise, to maintain their innocence, in defence of a report so absurd in itself,) for the defence of the Protestant religion, and in asserting the title of King William and Queen Mary to that province, and all the English dominions in America.

The association placed at their head John Coode, a seditious, profligate fellow, who in 1681, had been tried and condemned for riotous practices, but had been pardoned. The deputies at first, endeavoured to oppose the association with force; but meeting with few supporters, they were constrained to deliver up the fort, with the powers of government, by capitulation, and a complete revolution of government ensued.

Thus were the prerogatives of the proprietary, which he had exercised with unaxempled attention to the rights of the people, together with the privileges of the Roman Catholics, which they had hitherto enjoyed under the mildest of laws, overwhelmed at once, under the provincial Popish plot, and buried in the same grave. King William approved of the revolution, and transmitted orders to those who had thus acquired the power, to exercise it in his name, for the present, to preserve the peace; and for the succeeding 27 years, the government of the province remained in the Crown of England. In 1692,

the Protestant religion was established by law in this province.

In the year 1716, the government was restored to Charles, Lord Baltimore, the then proprietor, and continued in his hands, and those of his successors, down to the American Revolution; when, though the proprietary was a minor, the property was confiscated, and the government assumed by the freemen of the province; who framed the present constitution.

We will now bring forward the history of Delaware.

CHAPTER XIV.

DELAWARE.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE, FROM ITS

FIRST SETTLEMENT TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REV

OLUTIONARY WAR.

DELAWARE, like Maryland, has remained to this time without a regular historian to record the minutia of those events by which she has risen, and acquired that elevated rank she now holds in the great Federal Republic of America. To supply the place of such a regular history, I shall insert the following sketch of her history, by way of extract, from Dobson's Philadelphia edition of Encyclopædia. Vol. V.

"Delaware is situated between 38 deg. 29 min. 30 sec. and 39 deg. 54 min. of north latitude. It extends from nearly the same longitude with the city of Philadelphia, to about 40 min. of west longitude from Philadelphia. It is about one hundred miles long and forty broad at the southern part, the northern part being so narrow as to give a mean width of about 24 miles. Delaware is bounded east by the bay and river, which bears its name, and the Atlantic Ocean on the south, by a line drawn from Fenwick's Island due west, until it intersects, the tangent line that divides it from Maryland, on the west by the said tangent line, until it touches the western part of the territorial circle, described by a radius of twelve miles about the town of New-Castle. Contents of area 1,200,000

acres.

"About the year 1497, John Cabot and his son Sebastian, who were Venetians in the service of Henry VII. king of England, [See Introduction.] made a general discovery

of the American coast, which lies along the northeast of the continent. This was before the discoveries of Columbus had extended further than to a few of the WestIndia Islands. No settlement appears to have been effected here, until many years after the discovery of the Cabots. About the year 1608, Henry Hudson visited this coast, [See Introduction.] and explored more particularly the bay of Delaware, and the Hudson River, (called after his name,) and the adjacent country. Soon after this, the Dutch are said to have purchased from the said Captain Hudson, whatever right he might have acquired to said territory, by his discovery, and immediately sent out a colony to commence a settlement. [See New-York.] At what time they commenced the settlement of Delaware is not known; but it is well ascertained that they had erected a fortress at Nassau, now Gloucester, on the east side of the bay, as early as 1632.

"In 1627, this country was visited by a colony of Swedes and Fins, under the command of Wm. Useling, a respectable Swedish merchant. They landed, and at first settled Cape Henlopen, which they called Paradise-Point. About the year 1631, they built a fort near Wilmington, which they called Christian, or Christina. There also they laid out a small town, which was afterwards demolished by the Dutch. The state of opposition between the colonies, for some time, required the erection of fortifications, all through the country. [See New-York.] Soon after the arrival of the Swedes, they were governed by Peter Minuet, under a commission from the queen of Sweden. Some time after this, the Swedish colony was committed to the government of John Printz, and on his being obliged to return home, in 1654, his son-in-law John Papgoia, was deputed to the administration.

"In the year 1655, the Dutch in this settlement were considerably recruited by the arrival of seven vessels from