for any differences in speculative opinions with respect to religion; so
that all persons, of what denomination soever, had liberty to enjoy their
own judgments and consciences in religious concerns, provided they
disturbed not the civil order and peace of the province. And as the
assembly of freeholders could not be immediately called, the proprietors
had power granted them to make such orders and ordinances as might be
necessary to the government of the people and the preservation of peace,
and as were not repugnant to the laws and statutes of England. Liberty
was given to the king's liege subjects to transport themselves and
families to settle the province, only they were to remain immediately
subject to the crown of England, and to depend thereon for ever; and were
not compellable to answer to any cause or suit in any other part of his
majesty's dominions but in England and Wales.

[Sidenote] Of the foundamental constitutions.

Agreeable to the powers with which the proprietors were invested by their
charter, they began to frame a system of laws for the government of their
colony; in which arduous task they called in the great philosopher John
Locke to their assistance. A model of government, consisting of no less
than one hundred and twenty different articles, was framed by this
learned man, which they agreed to establish, and to the careful
observance of which, to bind themselves and their heirs for ever. But
there is danger of error, where speculative men of one country attempt to
sketch out a plan of government for another, in a different climate and
situation. This legislator must be acknowledged to have possessed great
abilities and merit; yet his fine-spun system proved in effect useless
and impracticable. Several attempts were afterwards made to amend these
fundamental constitutions, but all to little purpose; the inhabitants,
sensible of their impropriety, and how little they were applicable to