English nation took place, and many of the people from the strictest
rigour and severity in point of morals, became profane, dissolute and
abandoned. The Cavaliers, who had suffered during the usurpation, began
to retaliate on the Puritans, and having obtained the ascendency over
them in public affairs, on all occasions treated them with severe
ridicule and supercilious contempt. On the other hand, the morose
republican party, highly offended at the licentious manners and growing
wickedness of the times, ardently wished for some distant retreat to
shelter themselves from the storm of divine judgments which they believed
hung over the corrupted and profligate nation. To prevent disturbances
from these different parties, Lord Clarendon, and many more of the king's
council, from maxims of policy, encouraged emigration, which they
considered as a sovereign remedy for political disorders. A new field was
opened in Carolina for discontented and turbulent spirits, to whom the
proprietors promised grants of land, upon condition they would transport
themselves and families to that quarter. They knew that industry was a
good cure for enthusiasm, and that enthusiasm was an excellent spur to
new and hazardous undertakings. The privilege of liberty of conscience
allowed to every one by the charter equally suited all parties, and
proved a great encouragement to emigration. New-England indeed had drawn
over many of the warmest and most turbulent republicans, and proved a
happy shelter to some against the terrors of future reckonings. Still,
however, multitudes remained in the nation, who, being discontented with
their present circumstances, were willing to seek for liberty of
conscience in the deserts of America. Accordingly, many dissenters
embraced the offers of the proprietors, and the infant colony received
its earliest acquisitions from this restless and troublesome party.

Other reasons of state contributed to render those new settlements
seasonably useful and important to the king. Several of his zealous