of the admiralty laws, were, in short, coun tenancing illegal trade, and were diverting all the revenue possible in the direction of the Proprietors. As was well known, Ran dolph was a bitter opponent of the Proprie tary Government. He had more than once urged upon the King the necessity for the merging of all the proprietary possessions in America into English Provinces, under di rect control of the Crown. The truth is, Mr. Randolph had an axe to grind in this, and one he desired should be ground to its finest edge. It was not so much the King for whom he was looking out as for Ran dolph. For with the Proprietors out of the way, all currents of revenue would set to ward the one Royal Sea, the King's Collec tor receiving a full flood tide of it. He had succeeded so far as to secure the passage by Parliament, in 1695, of an act which required the Proprietors of all Pro prietary Governments to submit to the King for his approval the appointments of Gov ernors, and no Governor was to receive his commission until he first took oath to faith fully enforce the Navigation Acts. Ran dolph was wiser than many of his day. He saw clearly how resistance, sure to come, to these arbitrary enactments would bring the independence of the Colonies, unless the King took matters more rigidly into his own hands. Even then there were signs on the horizon that a keen eye could not fail to read. Thus Randolph was ever on the alert for any irregularity in the enforcement of these acts, whence the King drew his heaviest revenue from the American plantations. They were not only openly defied, but shamefully abused, he asserted. Scotch men, Frenchmen and others, in vessels from New England and Pennsylvania, were al lowed to trade, without special grant from the Crown, between the West Indies, the Caro lina Colony, and elsewhere. They were al lowed, too, to carry away plantation com modities without the tax being collected. Matters now came to a clash between the
collector, the Governor of the Carolina Col ony and the Judge in Admiralty. As the sell ing of the vessel, to which allusion has been made, involved a delicate point of the law, the matter came before the Chief Justice. He was utterly incapable of dealing with it. Had he been a lawyer of tact and ability, instead of a scholar and a dreamer, it is cer tain he would have found some way out, one that would at least have brought with it credit to himself. But his ignorance, as well as his punctiliousness and his quick temper, led him into grave errors, which finally precipi tated him into a maelstrom of legal disaster. To add to his distress, appearances were against him in the accusation made that he had arrived at the decision finally reached through a moneyed bribe. It must have been mortifying in the highest degree to him to receive, not long after, the letter of stern condemnation from the Proprietors, which, among other words, contained the following : "Wee can't о mitt, to tell you that you likewise have been to blame and have done things im prudently and irregularly. Wee rather that you calmly considering of -what is past, should find them out, than wee be forced to tell you of them. . . . Wee would recommend to you not to shew too great a love for money which is not beautiful in any man much worse be dues coming and aif judge. they at present Take no be of more the than least your con . sider time will mend them; and if that don't there may be means found to doe it. The way to compass that is not by complaint or passion. When you have convinced everybody by your actions of your justice and especially if you act with prudence and temper you will gaiiie their love, and they will be studying to make such a man easy. Sir your very affectionate friend,
BATH PAL-ATINB. This was a characteristic letter from the men who were alone to blame for the disas ter that had overtaken their first counsellor. Having, out of pure niggardliness, selected for a position involving the adjustment of the weightiest legal matters a man wholly unpre
