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be granted to or held by a person not consecrated to the office
of a Bishop.
By the next Clause of the Charter, free full and absolute
Power is given to Lord Baltimore with the Advice Consent &
Approbation of the Freemen or their Delegates to enact Laws
for the good and happy Government of the Province.
" So nevertheless that the Laws aforesaid be con-
sonant to Reason, And be not Repugnant or contrary,
but (so far as Conveniently may be, agreeable to the
Laws Statutes Customs & Rights of this our Kingdom
of England."
So that any Laws enacted in Maryland repugnant or con-
trary thereto are in their own Nature tundamently null void
and of no Effect, as contradicting the first Principles which
gave them Birth.
The first Act of Assembly pass'd in Maryland, which gave
the Protestant Church a temporal Establishment, was in the
year 1692. It opens with this Declaration. .
" That the Church of England within this Province
shall have and enjoy all her Rights Liberties & Fran-
chises wholly inviolably, as now is, or hereafter shall be
establish' d by Law and also that the great Charter of
England be kept inviolable."
Three Supplementary Acts interven'd between the forego-
ing and an Act Pass'd in 1696, which was dissented to by
King William. This begins with a Clause Enacting —
" That the Church of England within this Province
shall enjoy all and Singular her Rights Privileges &
Freedoms as it is now or shall be hereafter establish'd
by Law in England "
This part of the Law was unexceptionable (however
unnecessary for the Very Establishment of the Church accord-
ing to the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of England
implies the Government of it by them) But the Conclusion of
this Clause gave the disgust which occasion'd the Dissent ;
"And that his Majesty's Subjects of this Province
shall enjoy all their Rights and Liberties according to
the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom of England
where the Laws of this Province are Silent."
This was consonant to the conclusive Sentence of the first
Section of the Act of 1692.
"And also that the great Charter of England be kept
inviolable :"
From both which Conclusions it is Observable, that the
General Assembly from a Confidence of their making One
Act that would appear Meritorious at the Court of England,
as endowing the Protestant Church with Temporalties in this
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