as to fulfil essential purposes; surveys being instituted chiefly by the government, while the consequent grants were issued by the officers of the proprietary. This state of things continued, but with various fluctuations, and some absolute suspension of the business of the land office, throughout the successive reigns of William and Mary, king William (alone) and queen Anne. Upon the accession of king George I. in 1715, the powers of government were restored to the then proprietary Charles lord Baltimore, grandson of the (c) former Charles, who was at that period found to have been educated in the established religion of England, and had thus become capable of holding governmental authorities subordinate to the crown. This event forms a new aera in the land affairs of Maryland. The proprietary sent out a commission to the king's governor, Mr. Hart, to continue in the same station under his authority, and that gentleman accepted the trust, but soon became dissatisfied with his situation. Mr. Carroll who had long held the place of chief agent, and who about this time had gone to England, brought out with him a new commission which bore evidence of a greater change in the proprietary's circumstances than in his sentiments by vesting the same agent with additional powers appertaining seemingly rather to matters of government than to the functions of a revenue officer. The governor offended at the abridgement of his own power, desired to be recalled, and was, in effect, some time afterwards required to appear in England, in order to defend himself against several charges that had been made against him: but, previous to this, although the government and the agent now held their authority from the same source, they were far from having a good understanding respecting the affairs of the land office. Governor Hart refused to commission the surveyors appointed by the agent for the several counties, unless they would qualify in the form required by law (by taking the oath of abjuration, &c.) The agent accused the governor of having shut up his lordship's land office by withholding the necessary commissions from his officers duly appointed: the charge was retorted, and much dispute and recrimination continued to agitate the provincial government, and to affect the course of land transactions until the departure of Mr. Hart, when these unnecessary violences seem to have subsided. From this time the affairs of the province     (c) The second proprietary never returned to the province after leaving it in 1684. He died on the 20th of February 1714—15, leaving the proprietaryship, to his son Benedict Leonard Calvert, who had scarcely time to notify his succession by letter to Mr. Carroll and to desire copies of the commission and instructions under which that gentleman acted, when he also died, and was succeeded by his son Charles then a minor, and under the guardianship of lord Guilford who joined his name to that of the proprietary in all public acts.