George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 2, 17th edition.

[244] The approach of the revolution effected no im-

Chap. XIV.} 1688.

mediate benefit to Lord Baltimore. What though mutinous speeches and practices against the proprietary government were punishable by whipping, boring the tongue, imprisonment, exile, death itself? The spirit of popular liberty, allied to Protestant bigotry and the clamor of a pretended popish plot, was too powerful an adversary for his colonial government. William Joseph, the president to whom he had intrusted the administration, convened an assembly. The address on opening it, explains the character of the proprietary, and of the insurrection which followed. ‘Divine Providence,’ said the representative of Lord Baltimore, ‘hath ordered us to meet. The power by which we are assembled here, is undoubtedly derived from God to the king, and from the king to his excellency, the lord proprietary, and from his said lordship to us. The power, therefore, whereof I speak, being, as said, firstly, in God and from God; secondly, in the king and from the king; thirdly, in his lordship; fourthly, in us;—the end and duty of, and for which this assembly is now called and met, is that from these four heads, to wit: from God, the king, our lord, and selves.’ Having thus established the divine right

Nov.

of the proprietary, he endeavored to confirm it by invading the privileges of the assembly, and exacting a special oath of fidelity to his dominion. The assembly resisted the attempt, and was prorogued.¹ Is it strange that excitements increased; that they were heightened by tidings of the invasion of England; that they were kindled into a flame by a delay in proclaiming the new sovereign? An organized insurrection