178 HISTORY OF AMERICA 



In the ample scope of the New World the dominant currents of 

 national life found an outlet for a less confined flow, and tendencies 

 restrained or impeded at home from free action were released. The 

 Spanish and French colonial establishments were founded at a time 

 when the Crown was aiming to extend and systematize its powers, 

 and in the New World, unhampered by traditions and usages, it 

 became all powerful. The tendency to absolutism at home was 

 effectively reinforced by the exercise of it in the dependencies. Eng- 

 land, on the other hand, began the continuous occupation of America 

 when the current was in the opposite direction and the tide was 

 slowly rising against the royal authority, and here again the national 

 drift was accelerated. The large measure of local liberties enjoyed 

 by the English colonies, the free migration of sects, were quite as 

 much the result of the actual condition of English politics at the 

 time as of preconceived convictions. Settled under these circumstances 

 and left mainly to themselves, the colonies became the field for 

 working out social experiments which would have been impossible 

 in Europe, and whose successful issue has profoundly influenced all 

 after-life. 



The most signal instance of this is afforded by the history of 

 religious toleration. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it 

 was a widespread and deeply rooted opinion that religious liberty 

 would undermine society. The social dangers of free thought far 

 outweighed what seem to many to-day the economic perils of free 

 trade. That they were real dangers seemed to be unhappily proved 

 by the aberrations of the Reformation in Europe. If abstract reason- 

 ing makes little headway to-day in the matter of securing free trade, 

 we may imagine how impotent arguments in favor of free thought 

 must have been. The risks of failure were too great for the experi- 

 ment to be tried. In America, however, an opportunity was offered 

 through the institution of the proprietary colonies for a thorough 

 trial, which demonstrated on a considerable scale the safety and 

 advantage of a larger measure of religious liberty. For a colonial 

 proprietor or company to derive any profit, his lands must be sold or 

 rented. To get people was the first need, and the strongest induce- 

 ments must be offered. In the seventeenth century the prospect of 

 religious freedom made a powerful appeal both in England and 

 Germany. The experiment was first tried by Lord Baltimore in 

 Maryland, and its demonstrated success was followed by its adoption 

 by the proprietors of the Carolinas and Jerseys for utilitarian reasons. 

 The harmlessness and advantages of religious toleration were 

 effectively demonstrated in Colonial America, principally in the 

 proprietary colonies. It spread from these till it became characteristic 

 of the United States, and from that vantage-ground so imposing 

 an example of its benefits, powerfully contributed to its adoption 



