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government; and the people were forbidden by law to
take care of themselves.
To this were added the evils of an uncertain boundary on the south, and of disordered finances.
All the acts of the democratic legislature were
rejected by the proprietaries; while, as a remedy for
anarchy,
Philip Ludwell, a moderate adherent of
Berkeley, once collector of customs in
Virginia, a man
of a candid mind, a complainant in
England against
Effingham, and since 1689 governor of
North Carolina, was sent to establish order and the supremacy of the proprietaries.
But he had power to inquire into grievances, not to redress them.
Disputes respecting quitrents and the tenure of lands continued; and, after floating for a year between the wishes of his employers and the necessities of the colonists,
Ludwell gladly withdrew into
Virginia.
A concession followed.
In April, 1693, the pro-
prietaries voted ‘That, as the people have declared they would rather be governed by the powers granted by the charter, without regard to the fundamental constitutions, it will be for their quiet, and for the protection of the well-disposed, to grant their request.’
So perished the legislation of Shaftesbury and Locke.
It had been promulgated as immortal, and, having never gained life in the colony, was, within a quarter of a century, abandoned by the proprietaries themselves.
Palatines, landgraves, and caciques, ‘the nobility’ of the Carolina statute-book, were doomed to pass away
On the abrogation of the constitutions, Thomas Smith was by the proprietaries appointed governor.
The system of biennial assemblies, which, with slight changes, still endures, was immediately instituted by
