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

[129] most profound philosopher of England. The king,

Chap. XIII.}

through an obsequious judiciary, annulled the government of Massachusetts; the colonists repudiated the constitutions of Carolina. The principles of the former possessed an inherent vitality, which nothing has yet been able to destroy; the frame of the latter, as it disappeared, left no trace of its transitory existence, except in the institutions which sprung from its decay.

The reign of Charles II. was not less remarkable for the rapacity of the courtiers, than for the debauchery of the monarch. The southern part of our republic, ever regarded as capable of producing all the staples that thrive on the borders of the tropics, was coveted by statesmen who controlled the whole patronage of the British realms. The province of Carolina, extending from the thirty-sixth degree of

1663 Mar. 24.

north latitude to the River San Matheo, was accordingly erected into one territory; and the historian Clarendon, the covetous though experienced minister, hated by the people, faithful only to the king;¹ Monk, so conspicuous in the restoration, and now ennobled as duke of Albemarle; Lord Craven,² a brave Cavalier, an old soldier of the German discipline, supposed to be husband to the queen of Bohemia; Lord Ashley Cooper, afterwards earl of Shaftesbury; Sir John Colleton, a royalist of no historical notoriety; Lord John Berkeley, with his younger brother,³ Sir William Berkeley, the governor of Virginia; and the passionate, and ignorant, and not too honest Sir George Carteret,⁴ —were instituted its proprietors and immediate sovereigns.