Maryland, like Virginia, under these restrictive commercial laws, suffered from the over-production of tobacco, and black slaves, as being cheaper, were preferred to white labourers; an act, therefore, was passed in 1671, for encouraging the importation of negroes, which in consequence of the interrupted trade with Holland had now almost ceased. Lord Baltimore, by his prudence, moderation and wisdom, had been by far the most successful of all proprietary governors; and now in his old age he began to reap a rich harvest, not only of honour and respect, but of wealth, from the colony “which he had planted in his youth, and which crowned his old age with gratitude.” One thing only Lord Baltimore failed in, and this was an acknowledgment of those principles of popular liberty and popular rights which were the fundamental principles of the Anglo-American colonies. The leaven, however, was already working in Maryland under the paternal sway of Lord Baltimore, and nothing but his own virtues prevented it effectually leavening the whole lump. At the death of Lord Baltimore, after a supremacy of forty-three years, Maryland contained ten counties, five on either side of the Chesapeake, and about 16,000 inhabitants, the greater number of whom were Protestants. There was no established church in Maryland, either Catholic or Episcopal. The latter, however, had a strong hankering after this state of privilege, and one of the clergy appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury regarding their forlorn condition; “the priests,” said he, “are provided for; the Quakers take care of their own speakers; but no care is taken to build up churches in the protestant religion.”