334 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



regulation that considerable pieces of the best land be 

 set apart for the behoof of the church and its ministers, 

 the revenues so accruing being applied to their support. 



' Glebes ' of this sort were in part occupied and 

 tended by the ministers themselves or they might let 

 them. In the tobacco colonies they often yielded grati- 

 fying returns. But where this is not the regulation, 

 the ministers of the established church depend chiefly 

 on the caprice and generosity of their parishioners ; a 

 circumstance which is the cause of no little vexation 

 to them, they seeing themselves now placed upon a 

 footing with the clergy of the other religions, of whom 

 formerly they had so greatly the advantage. 



So it has happened that the clergy of the established 

 church in several of the provinces, but especially in 

 Maryland and just now when the Assembly is about 

 meeting, are zealously engaged in bringing matters 

 around again so that they shall not only receive their 

 allowances from the civil power immediately, but, 

 drawing a sufficient support from the public revenues, 

 that they may be independent of the caprice of their 

 congregations and have no further care in the matter 

 of the love and good dispositions of their parishioners. 

 These expressed wishes and proposals have been the 

 occasion of much debate in public and private assem- 

 blies. Similar proposals, it is said, were recently laid 

 before the Virginia Assembly, but by it were rejected 

 with indignation. 



The following were perhaps the opinions most gen- 

 erally expressed in this business. When a state has 

 granted those of all beliefs whatsoever full, equal, and 

 impartial rights, they cannot then ask for more, and 

 have no ground of complaint. But was one or another 



