Maryland presents a great variety of configuration, soil and
climate. The four most westerly counties extend through
the systems of mountain ranges known as the Allegany and
the Blue Ridge; east of these is the Piedmont region, gently
inclining towards tide-water, and on both sides of the bay lies
the Coastal Plain.

The foundation of Maryland is primarily due to George
Calvert, first Baron of Baltimore. When that nobleman, who
had been a trusted councillor of James I, and had held the
office of Principal Secretary of State, became a convert to the
Roman Catholic faith, he retired from public life and deter-
mined to spend the remainder of his days in the New World.
He already held by charter a considerable part of the Island
of Newfoundland, called the province of Avalon; and to it he
removed with his family in 1628. But after about a year's
sojourn in this bleak region, the extreme severity of the long
winters, and the evident impossibility of making Avalon more
than a fishing station, determined Baltimore to seek a home
in some more genial clime; and he asked the King, Charles I,
for a grant of land north of the Potomac, within the territory
that had previously been granted to the Virginia Company,
but which now, by the legal forfeiture of their charter, was
again in the King's hands.

His request was granted, and the charter made out. Before
it had passed the great seal, Baltimore died, and the charter
was issued in 1632, to his son, Cecilius Calvert, second Baron
of Baltimore, who named his province Maryland, in compli-
ment to the Queen, Henrietta Maria.

The territory thus conveyed was considerably more exten-
sive than that covered by the present State of Maryland, being
bounded on the north by the fortieth parallel of north latitude,
on the east by the Delaware bay and river, and the Atlantic
ocean, on the south by a line drawn from the mouth of the
Potomac river eastward to the ocean, and on the west by the
farther or right-hand bank of the Potomac to its most distant
source, and thence due north to the fortieth parallel.

The privileges conveyed by the charter were the most com-
plete ever granted by an English sovereign to a subject; the
Proprietary was invested with palatinate authority, under
which were included all royal powers, both of peace and war.
The province was entirely self-governed, all laws being made
by the Proprietary and the freeman, and these laws required
no confirmation from the King or Parliament. By an express-
clause the King renounced for himself and for his successors
forever, all right of taxation in Maryland. All that was re-
quired of the colonists was that they should be British sub-
jects, and that the Proprietary should acknowledge the King