rously
that Calvert was forced to flee. He gathered enough followers to drive
Clayborne out in turn. The Catholics then established a liberal
government and passed the famous "Toleration Act," which allowed
everybody to worship God as he saw fit. Many persons in the other
colonies, who were suffering persecution, made their homes in Maryland.

After a time, the Protestants gained a majority in the assembly and made
laws which were very oppressive to the Catholics. The strife degenerated
into civil war, which lasted for a number of years. The proprietor in
1691 was a supporter of James II., because of which the new king,
William, took away his colony and appointed the governors himself. The
proprietor's rights were restored in 1716 to the fourth Lord Baltimore.
The Calverts became extinct in 1771, and the people of Maryland assumed
proprietorship five years later. Comparative tranquillity reigned until
the breaking out of the Revolution.

An interesting occurrence during this tranquil period was the arrival
from England of George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends or
Quakers. In the assemblage which gathered on the shores of the
Chesapeake to listen to his preaching were members of the Legislature,
the leading men of the province, Indian sachems and their families, with
their great chief at their head.

The disputed boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania was fixed in
1767, by two surveyors named Mason and Dixon. This boundary became
famous in after years as the dividing line between the free and slave
States.

Charles II., in 1663 and 1665, granted the land between Florida and
Virginia to eight proprietors. The country had been named Carolina in
honor of their king, Charles IX. (Latin, _Carolus_), and since Charles
II. was King of England the name was retained, though he was not the
ruler meant thus to be honored. The country was comparatively
uninhabited after the failure of the French colony, except by a few
Virginians, who made a settlement on the northern shore of Albemarle
Sound.

THE CAROLINAS.

For twenty years the proprietors tried to establish upon American soil
one of the most absurd forms of government ever conceived. The land was
to be granted to nobles, known as barons, landgraves, and caziques,
while the rest of the people were not to be allowed to hold any land,
but were to be bought and sold with the soil, like so many cattle. The
settlers ridiculed and defied the fantastical scheme,