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Show 144 Acts RELATING Part II; Sect. V. general grants of Virginia, was Mary/(172d. TO THE COLONIES. Then comes a claufe, 145 which feems lt was granted, by a charter of the year " in hopes of enjoying liberty of confei- {irongly to charaflerife the light in which the continent of North America, as we have before intimated, had till that time been conlidered; I mean that of a {lation for fizcizorlfl, and not for lettlcmeritzs; a " ence for himfelf, and fecuring it to fuch country to trade in rather tha 1632, to Caecilius, Lord Baltimore 9%, a Roman Catholic, who " was induced," we are told, " to attempt this fettiemcnt, to culti- I \ " of his friends, to whom the feverityot " the laws might loofen their ties to their " mother country 1"." The confiitution given to the colony by this charter, is remarkably different from that of any other we have yet feen. In the firlt place, the whole colony, that vate. A fpccial appellation is accordingly befioWed on the country granted in this charter; it is ereéled into affirming, in order (lays the charter) " that the country " thus granted may be eminent above all " other parts of the {aid territory, and " dignified with higher titles." is, we are to underfland the [oil of it, is It is declared in exprefs terms to be no under the ufual refervation of the fifth part of all gold and filver ore granted to that longer a part of Virginia, or any other lord and his heirs, to be holden of the them, nor fuhjeé't to their laws, but en- king, as of his cafile of Windfor in free, tirely feparated from them; to be {'ubjeét and common foccage by fla/ty only. to the crown of England only, and there- colony whatever, nor dependent on on to depend. * Colleftion of Charters, No. IV. 1' Account of the European Settlements in America, Vol. ii. p. 227. Then To lord Baltimore is granted the {ole and ahr'iilute proorietorlhip, as we have already intimated, of all the lands, as allb L the |