George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

[133] and patient of toil, trolled along the brooks that

chap. VI.} 1754.

abounded in fish, and took their pleasant sleep under the forest-tree; or trapped the beaver; or, with gun and pouch, lay in wait for the deer, as it slaked its thirst at the running stream; or, in small parties, roved the spurs of the Alleghanies, in quest of marketable skins. How could royal authority force its way into such a region? If Arthur Dobbs, the royal governor, an author of some repute, insisted on introducing the king's prerogative, the legislature did not scruple to leave the whole expense of government unprovided for. Did he attempt to establish the Anglican Church? The children of nature, free from bigotry and from sectarian prejudices, were ready to welcome the institution of public worship, if their own vestries might choose their ministers. Did he seek to collect quitrents from a people who were nearly all tenants of the king? They deferred indefinitely the adjustment of the rent-roll.

For the Carolinas and for Virginia, as well as other royal governments, the king, under his sign manual, appointed the governor and the council; these constituted, also, a court of chancery; the provincial judges, selected by the king or the royal governor, held office at the royal pleasure;¹ for the courts of vice-admiralty the Lords of the Admiralty named a judge, register, and marshal; the commissioners of the customs appointed the comptrollers and the collectors, of whom one was stationed at each considerable harbor; the justices and the militia officers were named by the governor in council. The