In 1639 the province of Maine was granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, but this grant proved abortive. In March 1663 eight men received from Charles II a grant to Carolina in the hope that the imperial expansion policy might further the material interests of those concerned. The proprietaries could enact and publish any laws deemed necessary, with the assent, advice and approbation of the freemen of the colony; they were empowered to erect courts of judicature and appoint civil judges, magistrates and offi cers; to make war and in cases of necessity to exercise martial law; to enjoy customs and sub sidies, imposed, with the consent of the free men, on goods loaded and unloaded. In 1665 a new charter was granted and in order that the colony might have a settled form of govern ment Shaftesbury drafted a code of laws in which he was aided by the famous John Locke (q.v.), who in 1669 promulgated his °Grand Model° or Constitutions,' the chief provisions of which were as follows: "The eldest of the eight proprietors was always to be palatine, and at his decease was to be succeeded by the eldest of the seven survivors. This palatine was to sit as president of the palatine's court, of which he and three more of the proprietors made a quorum, and had the management and • execution of all the powers in their charter. This palatine's court was to stand in room of the king and give their assent or dissent to all laws made by the legislature of the colony. The palatine was to have power to nominate and appoint the governor, who, after obtaining the royal approbation, became his representative in Carolina. Each of the seven proprietors was to have the privilege of appointing a deputy, to sit as his representative in parliament, and to act agree ably to his instructions. Besides a governor, two other branches, somewhat similar to the old Saxon constitution, were to be established — an upper and lower House of Assembly,- which three branches were to be called a parlia ment, and to constitute the legislature of the country. The parliament was to be chosen every two years. No act of the legislature was to have any force unless ratified in open parliament during the same session, and even then to con tinue no longer in force than the next biennial parliament, unless in the meantime it be ratified by the hands and seal of the palatine and three proprietors. The upper House was to consist of the seven deputies, seven of the oldest landgraves and caciques and seven chosen by the Assembly. As in the other provinces. the lower House was to be com posed of the re ntatives from the different counties and towns. officers were also to be appointed, such as an admiral, a secretary, a chief justice, a surveyor, a treas urer, a marshal, and register; and besides these each county was to have a sheriff and four justices of the peace. Three classes of nobility were to be established, called barons, caciques, and landgraves; the first to possess 12, the second 24, and the third 48,000 acres of land, and their possessions were to be unalienable. Military officers were also to be nominated, and all inhabitants from 16 to 60 years of ass, as in times of feudal government, when summoned by the governor and grand council, were to appear under arms, and, in time of war, to take the field." This code was only partially put into opera tion; from the first the settlers regarded it with horror as a revival of feudalistic institu tions and a hindrance to the progress of pure democracy and made war upon it with the result that a popular assembly was secured in North Carolina in 1677 and a few years later in South Carolina; while the °Grand Model' was formally abrogated by the proprietaries in 1693. Disputes over legislation and discon tent occasioned by corrupt and oppressive con duct of some of the officials led the colonists to send an agent to London, where, after a hear ing in 1720, legal process was taken for vacat ing the Carolina charter. Pending this process the administration of affairs was assumed by the Crown.
On the other hand, when the later colonies of Pennsylvania and New Jersey were founded an effort was made to merge the democratic institutions into the proprietary system. By his charter Penn (q.v.) was cre ated °true and absolute. lord° of Pennsylvania and given ample power of government, but °the advice and consent of the freemen of the provinces were necessary to the enactment of laws. To the Crown was reserved the right of veto and to Parliament the levying of duties and taxes. Penn formed the delegates of the freemen into a council of three members from each county who were to hold their seats for three years, one being chosen each year, and an assembly of 36 members, six from each county, to be chosen annually. The governor
and council were to possess jointly the right of proposing laws. Every freeman had the right of voting and holding office, the only restrictions being the necessity of a belief in God and abstinence from labor on the Lord's Day. Trial by jury was established and mur der and treason alone were punishable with death. Primogeniture, with a trifling reserva tion, was abrogated. In 1701 a charter of privileges was framed by Penn and accepted by the assembly, the chief provisions of which were as follows: Each county was to elect annually four deputies to the assembly which should choose its officers, prepare bills and make laws; all cases relating to property were to be decided by courts of justice and not by governor and council; no law contrary to the charter could be enacted without the consent of the governor and six-sevenths of the as, sembly; and the proprietors and their heirs were pledged not to destroy the liberties granted by the charter. The qualification of voters was fixed at a f-eehold of 50 acres or in lieu of that about $166 in personal property.
In spite of every attempt to avoid a con flict of interest, it was inevitable that the pro prietor must choose either one of two capaci ties in which he could act conscientiously — as a life tenant of certain material interests, or as a trustee for the interests of the colonists. It is true that Penn in his °holy experiment° endeavored to inject democratic features in his proprietary plan of government, but even in his case the natural conflict of interest re sulted in a serious wrangle between him and his colonists; and the granting of increased governmental rights only served to aggravate the economic grievances. The settlers could not be convinced that the proprietary interests did not conflict with the interests of the col ony; they would prefer to pay their quit-rents as a tax for the support of their own colonial government rather than to pay them to the proprietor in the character of a private debt. The parent government, too, regarded the pro prietorships as objectionable since great diffi culty was experienced in enforcing royal com mands, while in the case of the acts of trade and navigation the interests of the proprietors might seriously conflict with those of the par ent government. Hence the colonies gradu ally became royal provinces with the exception of Pennsylvania and Maryland, which were under proprietary governments at the outbreak of the Revolution; but the friction between the proprietors of the former and the people in the colony had caused almost an open rupture, and it is probable that within a short time the government would have undergone a radical change, even had not the Revolution decided the nature of the government. In both prov inces, when Imperial questions were at issue, English legislation had come into a more ef fective control.
Bibliography.— Bozman, J. L.,