marks human legislation, it
is wonderful to think how far our ancestors went in the march of
religious freedom. The earliest policy of Maryland was in striking
contrast with that of every other colony. The toleration which prevailed
from the first, and fifteen years later was formally ratified by the
voice of the people, must, therefore, be regarded as the living
embodiment of a great idea; the introduction of a new element into the
civilization of Anglo-American humanity; the beginning of another
movement in the progress of the human mind.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] The words in the English copy of the charter are "God's holy and
true Christian religion"; in the Latin, "_Sacrosancta Dei et vera
Christiana religio_."

[37] "The Virginians," says Chalmers, "boasted, with their wonted pride,
that the colonists of Kent sent burgesses to their assembly, and were
subjected to their jurisdiction, before Maryland had a name." Nor was
the boast without foundation. Their early legislative journals show
conclusively that the island was represented by Captain Nicholas Martin.

[38] The date of the settlement cannot be accurately given. Ethan Allen
supposes it was during the year 1629.

GREAT CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND

EXECUTION OF CHARLES I

A.D. 1649

LORD MACAULAY CHARLES KNIGHT

No period of English history is more crowded with important
events than that of the civil war. The intolerant reign of
James I had brought him into conflict, not only with the
religious elements in the kingdom, but also with Parliament.

Like James, his son and successor, Charles I, was a stubborn
believer in the divine right of the monarch; and as James had
shown throughout his reign a flagrant disregard of law, so
Charles from the outset betrayed the same disposition. He
surrounded himself with advisers who supported his favorite
views. In the first fifteen months of his reign he summoned two
parliaments only to dissolve them in anger. Next he raised
money by forced loans and other expedients which were odious to
many of his subjects.

For the first time England was now divided between two great
parties. Matters proceeded with constantly increasing friction,
and at last the struggle developed into civil war. Macaulay's
summary of it, and Knight's picture of its culmination in that
most melancholy tragedy, the execution of the King, cover the
su