thus bring on a persecution, it will then be known whether the toleration I enjoy be due to the favor of government or not. That you have talents admirably well adapted to stoop to the basest, is too true. A particular detail of all your mean and dirty tricks would swell this paper (already too long) to the size of a volume. I may on some future occasion entertain the public with Antillon's cheats.

From this time on, Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a leading spirit in the Province of Maryland. He attended meetings, made addresses, wrote letters, advanced money wherever he could to promote the cause of the Colonies and the Province of Maryland in particular.

CHAPTER IX

RUMBLINGS OF COLONIAL DISCONTENT — THE CASE

OF THE PEGGY STEWART

At this time the Province of Maryland was in a position entirely different from that of any of the other colonies. Frederick, Lord Baltimore, had died without legitimate issue. Henry Harford, an illegitimate son, had set up a claim to the proprietorship under a will. This claim was contested by Mrs. Browning, the sister of Charles, the father of Frederick. This contested case was in the Chancery Court of London and its outcome would not be important if the colonies became independent of Great Britain. Governor Eden who caused all the trouble by settling the fee bill by a proclamation was a brother-in-law of the deceased Lord Baltimore and an executor under Frederick's will. This general mix up in Maryland complicated things far beyond the ordinary condition in other colonies. Under the charter of Maryland the Crown had relinquished the right to tax the Province and this raised, in this colony, some entirely new and different problems.

Mr. Carroll understood these questions in all their ramifications and understood them as few men in the colonies did understand them. He had resided in London so long that he knew the temper of the authorities, and knew well all the desperate straits to which they would go. He saw that the resistance of the people in the end must be by force. Associations had been formed in most of the colonies to oppose the import of goods from the mother country. All fine clothes were dispensed with and men like Mr. Carroll and his father appeared dressed in homespun. Tea upon which the

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duty had been retained was to be refused and was denied the right of being landed at any port in the Province. In fact so determined were the colonists not to buy from the mother country that trade almost ceased.

The excitement of the Stamp Act had passed all the more quietly in Maryland by reason of the overshadowing issues of her own local affairs; but in 1773 the duty on tea caused a new irritation and came at a time when the people were in a temper to resist. Indignation meetings were held, communications were sent to, and came from the other colonies and men like Mr. Carroll plainly saw what the end was sure to be.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton had been educated on lines to fit him especially for the consideration of the questions now before the people. His father had inoculated him with a love of liberty in the sense described by the most advanced thinkers of that day. Among the books which Perkins of London was directed to send him at La Grande, were the works of Hooker, Locke, Burlaymaque and Becaria; the two latter Italian writers. Hooker who lived during that period of physical and mental activity from 1553 to 1600 was the father of the idea that the power of government rests alone on the consent of the governed. The others all followed up and elaborated this idea and Locke clothed it with that brilliancy and attractiveness that set Europe ablaze with thoughts of liberty and political equality.

The colonists had been so successful in subduing the forces of the new world, and the yoke of Great Britain sat so lightly on them, that they were ready and eager for the exploitation of a philosophy that guaranteed to them entire freedom. They had been growing stronger, growing more independent and becoming more united in action and purpose during the years that Great