In 1710, Governor Spotswood penetrated the Blue Ridge, a portion of the Allegany chain, an enterprise which had not been attempted since the days of Sir William Berkeley; and though settlers were slow to advance into these new regions, yet the Indian trader, gradually crossing the Alleganies, brought back knowledge of the country on the Ohio and the western lakes. The English Revolution, which destroyed the doctrine of legitimacy, was fatal to the claims of Lord Baltimore. He had left Maryland, to assert his rights in England, just before the deposition of James, entrusting the administration of the colony to nine deputies; and these having hesitated for some time to proclaim the new sovereign, a rumour gained ground of a plot between the Catholics and Indians for the murder of the Protestants, and an armed association was formed for asserting the rights of King William and for the defence of the protestant faith. This rumour was utterly baseless, but the Catholics were compelled to surrender all power of government, and the king proceeded, against every claim of justice, to deprive Lord Baltimore of his charter, though no charge existed against him but that of being a Catholic. In 1692, Sir Lionel Copley arrived in Maryland as the royal commissioner, and the whole system of government was arbitrarily changed. “The first act of the new assembly recognised William and Mary; the second established the Church of England as the religion of the state, to be supported by general taxation.” Toleration was, however, secured to Protestant Dissenters; the Quakers travelled about on their “religious visits” as well as “a sort of wandering pretenders from New England, who deluded even churchmen, we are told, by their extempore prayers and preachments.” All were tolerated excepting the Catholics, they who had been the founders of the province, and the first to acknowledge and legislate for liberty of conscience for all; they were subjected to a system of legalised persecution; mass was forbidden to be celebrated publicly; catholic priests were forbidden to preach or teach, and children were basely tempted to change their profession of religion by the offered bribe of a portion of their parents’ property. And, pitiable to say, Benedict, the son of Lord Baltimore, the worthy catholic proprietary, only recovered the province by renouncing the catholic church for that of England, in the year 1715.