Old Virginia and her neighbours

MARYLAND'S VICISSITUDES.IllMr. Carroll, a descendant of the famous Irish septof O'Carrolls, and one of the foremost citizens ofMaryland, had long been agent and receiver ofrents for the third Lord Baltimore. The schemewhich he was now contemplating might have ledto curious results, but it was soon abandoned.grant of territory by the Arkansas River wassought from the French government,^ but it provedimpossible to agree ujion terms, and that regionremained a wilderness until several questions ofworld-wide importance had been settled.Though the accession of the fifth Lord Baltimoredid not reinstate the Catholics in their civilrights, it nevertheless did much to mitigate theoperation of the oppressive statutes against them.An early symptom of Charles's temper was shownby his reappointment of Carroll as his agent. Hewent on to do such justice to Catholics as was inhispower, and under his mild and equitable rulethe fierceness of political passion was much abated.The proprietary government retained its popularityuntil it came to an end with the Declarationof Independence. But the interval of crown governmentfrom 1691 to 1715 had for the first timemade the connection with Great Britain ggg^^ ^^seem oppressive, and had planted the '^^0^"*'°"-seeds of future sympathy with the revolutionaryparty in Massachusetts and Virginia. As the longstruggle with France increasedAin dimensions, thepolitical questions at issue in the several coloniesbecame more and more continental in character.An were more or less assimilated one to another,1 Scharf , i. 390.