Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1856-05-08
co NJ NJ u MIC A TONS.
For the Times.

come into our midst, Iperceive, s'The Day
Star of American Freedom -the work of
Mr.. GEO. L. L. DAVIS, of the Baltimore Bar:
The title and table of contents of which have
of late so often appeared in your columns.
At the same time you transfer to your pa
per from another, an expression of opinion
upon the merits of the work above referred to.
Will you not do me the favor to admit into
your columns the following notice from the
Church Jovnal-and very much oblige
your friend and well wisher? Z.
The Day-iStar of american Freedom is
another contribution to history, devoted to
''the birth and early growth Of liberation in
Maryland" by G: L. L. Davis, Esq. Of
the Baltimore bar. The Romanists have
loudly claimed the credit of the religious
liberation enjoyed from the first in the colo
ny of Maryland: and as it is the only case
IN tile aeAoye range Of history where even a
plausible color can be given to such claim
in their behalf, it is to be expected that an
this free country they will make the most of
it. It is never considered as anything to
boast of by Romish writer's and orators in
Italy or in Austria The theological impor-
lance thus attaching to the historical ques
ton must be our excuse for rather longer
notice than usual with work of this char
acter.
The industry and persevering research of
Mr.. Davis are worthy Of all praise, and he
has furnished work which cannot fail to
prove exceedingly acceptable to very many
Marylanders, and will, no doubt, be extern
sively read by them. We are pleased to
find him concurring with other recent writer's,
in the statement that Maryland was first
settled by Pfotestonts, on Kent Island, be-
fore Lord Baltimore even obtained his char
ter Of the Province (see chapters . and l4),
though we do not see why the fact should
be placed so far in the background, especial
ly when, as he shows, it preceded by four
or fre gears Lord Boltimore's occupation Of
St. Mary's.
Again, we are pleased that.his Sd chapter
| is headed ''The liberation secured by the
| Charter for Maryland" 1t doubtless was
secured thereby. And bearing in mind that
this Charter was, as is so well known, a
Charter granted by Protestant King of a
Protestant country, with a thoroughly Pro
testant Privy Council, the fact itself will be
certainly satisfactory to Protestants now
That Lord Baltimore's administration of
the Government, under this Charter, did
well and faithfully carry out the liberation
''secured by the Charter" entities him GER
tainly to no little of the praise and honor
which Mr. Davis awards him: and the hon
or would have been still higher, had this
course been disconnected from those 2ooliti-
cat circ,1,, stances which made it as arise as
it was just. Yet notwithstanding the course
which he pursued, Mr.. Davis himself being
witness, he actually lost his Province for
two years or more, from 1914, by Ingles'
rebellion under the Presbyterian Parlia-
ment's ascendency in England and then
again for three years, from 1862, by the
Puritans, under their ascendancy in Eng
land, when Cromwell was in possession of
the Government and then, from the COM
mencement of William and Mary's reign,
for more than twenty-five years, at the end
of which time the Lords Baltimore became
Professionals Themselves, and so continued till
their race became eatinct. Now with these
facts before us, it is in vain to say that Lord
Baltimore, from the first, governed the Pro-
vince unt7er no constratM.
After Lord Baltimore regained the Pro-
vince from Ingles' usurpation, he very wise
| ly placed the Government under a Protes-
tant Governor, and required of him and his
Council-a majority of which were Protes-
tants-an oath to protect especially his Ro-
man Catholic friends in the Province, as
we'll as others, in the exercise Of their re-
Hgion We say, advisedly, majority were
Protestants, (see the Commission Of the
Council of State in Maryland" in Bozman,
vol. 2, p. $40, where five only are named,
three of whom it is well known were Pro
testants.)
Under this Governor and Council, in 1919,
as Mr.. Davis shows us, the General Assem-
bly passed the celebrated ''Act concerning
Religion" We wish that Mr.. Davis had
copied into his book that Act in full. Had
he done so, its claim to be a liberation Ac
would not have needed more than half O
Mr.. Davis's pages to prove it such. Bu
Mr.. Davis states that it was a liberation Act
and that it was a Roman Catholic Act. IL
this he devotes twenty-five chapters out O
thirty-two of which his book consists; ane
labors to show that eight certainly of the
fourteen members of the Lower House o
Assembly, which passed that Act, were Ro
man Catholics. We are far from being
satisfied, however, that he has established
his point.
That the Protestads had a majority IL
, the Lower House in 1647 and in 1850, Mr.
D,,;s DOCS not call in question And VIVA
was the character of the population Wa
it's majority Roman Catholic, as Mr. Davis
: so strongly asserts? In a letter from th'
. General Assembly of 1913 to Lord Baltl
more. it is stated there, that during lngles
: usurpation but '..teao remained" Of Roman
, Catholics in the Province, but that ''mos