History Of The United States Of America Author:George Bancroft Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: house of lords, where Somers prevailed. In 1706, an address to Queen Anne in their behalf was adopted; the lords of trade and plantations reported that the propr... more »ietaries had forfeited their charter, and advised its recall by a judicial process; the intolerant acts were, by royal authority, declared null and void. In November of the same year they were repealed by the colonial assembly; but, while dissenters were tolerated and could share political power, the church of England was immediately established as the religion of the province, and this compromise continued as long as the power of the crown. Meantime, the authority of the proprietaries was shaken by the declaration of the queen and the opinion of English lawyers. Strifes ensued perpetually respecting quit-rents and finances; and, as the proprietaries provided no sufficient defence for the colony, their power, which had no guarantee even in their own interests, and still less in the policy of the English government or the good-will of the colonists, awaited only an opportunity to expire. This period of turbulence and insurrection, of angry factions and popular excitements, was nevertheless a period of prosperity. The country rapidly increased in population and the value of its exports. The prolific rice-plant had, at a very early period, been introduced from Madagascar; in 1691, the legislature rewarded the invention of new methods for cleansing the seed ; and the rice of Carolina was esteemed the best in the world. Hence the opulence of the colony; hence, also, ita swarms of negro slaves. Early in the eighteenth century the Carolina Indian trader had penetrated a thousand miles into the interior for the skins of bears, beavers, wild-cats, deer, foxes, and raccoons. The oak was cleft into staves for the West Indies...« less