424 INSTITUTIONS, OOVERNMFNT AND LAWS OF SOUTH CAIiOLIXA. 



and power. The eldest of the eight Proprietors was always to be Pala- 

 tine, and at his decease was to be succeeded by the eldest of the seven 

 survivors. The Palatine's court was to sit in place of the King, to review 

 all laws made by the Colonial Legislature, and to appoint a Governor, 

 who was the King's representative in the colony. Three orders of nobil- 

 ity were created, called Barons, Cassiques, and Landgraves, tlie first to 

 possess 12,000, the second 24,000, and the third 48,000 acres of land, and 

 their possessions were to be inalienable. An upper and a lower House 

 of Assembly were to be established, which, Avith the Governor, consti- 

 tuted the Parliament. A sort of feudal military system was provided, 

 and all the inhabitants from sixteen to sixty years of age were subject to 

 the call of the Governor and Council. Three terms of religious com- 

 munion were fixed. 1st. Belief in a God. 2d. That He is to be wor- 

 shipped. 3d. That it is lawful and the duty of every man, when called 

 upon by those in authority, to bear witness to the truth. Without ac- 

 knowledging these tests no man was permitted to be a freeman or to have 

 any estate or habitation in Carolina. But religious toleration within 

 these limits was ensured, and all persecution for religious differences was 

 expressly forbidden. Supreme Courts were established, but it was de- 

 clared to be a base and vile thing to plead the cause of another for money 

 or reward. 



It is not surprising that such a system of government should have 

 been distasteful to the colonists. The introduction of Locke's Constitu- 

 tion was strenuously resisted by the people, and its practical working was 

 soon found to be so unsatisfactory that, in 1693, the Proprietors, upon 

 public petition, abolished the Constitution, and for a considerable time 

 the colony was regulated by certain temporary rules and instructions pre- 

 scribed by the Proprietors. The government was of the form which 

 Englishmen naturally adopt. The executive power was represented by 

 the Proj)rietors, who appointed the Governor and other officers ; the 

 Legislature, by a Council or Upper House, also appointed by the Proprie- 

 tors, and a Commons House of Assembly chosen by the freemen. The 

 first popular election in South Carolina of which there is an}^ record, was 

 held in April, 1G72, under a proclamation of the Grand Council, requir- 

 ing all the freeholders to elect a new Parliament. From this body five . 

 Councillors were chosen, who, with the Governor and the Deputies of the 

 Lords Proprietors, formed the Grand Council. 



Such a condition of things could not last. Ihe rule of the Proprietors, 

 exercised, as it was, from a distance, and with little regard to the local 

 necessities of the colony, soon became -intolerable to the free spirit of the 

 people, and in 1719 the colonists at last made up their minds to get rid 

 of the Lords Proprietors altogether. The history of the Revolution. 



