Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-08-05
SETTLEMENT ON SEVERN
Received Another Impulse In
Government OF Home Country.
A VERY WELCOME INVASION.
There Was No Act OF Recognition
Passed In MARYLAND.
lMr. RandaI'S Address on "Htstortc An.
IfSss I 4

nRpolis" Series VI
| have no time to linger upon the
history of those early days, but pass
on to the period when the little set
tlement on the Severn received an
other impulse from another revolu-
tion in the government of the Home
Country. The Revolution of 1858 in
England and the accession of William
and Mary to the throne, resulted al
most inevitably in the overthrow of the
Proprietary govern ment here. / say
almost inevitably" because in the
first place a continuance of the Pro-
prietary Government under the ex-
treme powers, and almost unlimited
prerogatives of the original MARYLAND
Charter would have been an anach-
ronism after the passage of the Eng.
lish Bill of Rights and the Act of Sue
cession; but chiefly because the then
living Proprietary in England and his
Council inMaryland had absolutely and
irretrievably committed themselves to
the ruined cause of the dethroned
King, James the Second-the most
tyrannical perhaps and certainly the
worst hated sovereign that England
ever had. Cecillius Calvert. by his
wise and far-seeing course, had saved
his Charter through three changes of
Government and had safely steered his
Ship of State for forty-three years
through the most perilous and per-
picking of uncharted channels that ever
tried a statesman; his son and sue
cessor, Charles, Lord Baltimore, made
RI oil h
of manifestly discredited and DOOM
ed cause; and, consequently, may be
almost said to have deliberately run
his Ship of State upon the first rock
that presented itself. Two little in
stances from the Colonial Records of
Maryland are sufficient to prove this
statement.
The Council passed a congratulatory
address to his Lordship, Charles, Lord
Baltimore, on his loyalty and generos-
ity in raising troop of horses for the
defense of His Majesty, i. e. James
Second, and for the purpose of resist
ing the Dutch invaders, i. e. William
of Orange and his Consort, Mary, who
by that very welcome invasion and by
almost universal claim in England,
became, by the Revolution of 1858, it's
sovereigns, William and Mary.
That same Provincial Council had
previously passed and dispatched
congratulatory resolution upon the
birth of James Seconds son, after
wards in England generally known as
'The Pretender." Another unfortu-
nate and wholly unnecessary, not to
say insane, performace on their part,
considering the bitter feeling in Eng
land at the time over this alleged and,
(as was believed there) fictitious heir
to the throne.
Another thing, after the accession,
four or five times in England was
Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore, sum-
moned before the Privy Council of
England, to show cause why he had
not caused the new sovereigns, Will
liam and Mary, to be proclaimed in
his Province of Maryland. He never
did show cause, nor offer even an ex-
cuse for not so doing, until about a
year had elapsed, and then he lamely
explained that his messenger had been
shipwrecked
Meantime, in Maryland, Indignation
had gradually become general and
overwhelming at his course and that
of his authorities there, especially in
their refusal to call together a Gen.
eral Assembly of the Province, after
the session of November, 1888. FL
nally the people rose and took posses
sion of the Government and them
selves ruled the Province through
Committees and a Convention until
April, 1892, when the first Royal Gov
ernor arrived, Lionel Copley.
There was no Act of Recognition
passed in Maryland, nor any formal
proclamation of the new Sovereigns
by duly constituted authorities there,
until the session of May, 1892, called
by the newly arrived Governor Copley
in the fourth year of their reign.
Our Provincial Records plainly show
these things and others of the same
sort, and, as stated before, the over
throw of the Proprietary Government
in Maryland was, as a consequence,
almost inevitable.