In this distracted state of the colony, the inhabitants of Colleton county, composed chiefly of Dissenters, met and drew up a state of their grievous circumstances, which they resolved to transmit to the Proprietors, praying their Lordships to repeal this oppressive act. John Ash, one of the most zealous men in the opposition, agreed to embark for England as agent for the aggrieved party, computed to be at least two thirds of the whole inhabitants of the colony. The governor and his friends, apprized of this design, used all possible means to prevent him from obtaining a passage in any ship belonging to Carolina. Upon which Ash went to Virginia, to which province his instructions were conveyed to him, and from thence he set sail for England. After his arrival he waited on Lord Granville, the Palatine, acquainting him with the design of his message; but met with a very cold reception. That nobleman was too deeply concerned in bringing about that establishment against which Ash came to complain, favourably to listen to his representations. Accordingly, after staying some time in London, and giving the Proprietors all the information in his power relating to public affairs, the only satisfaction he could obtain from the Palatine was this, that he should cause his secretary write to the governor an account of the grievances and hardships of which Mr. Ash complained, and require an answer from him with respect to them. Mr. Ash, observing how the Palatine stood affected, and despairing of success, immediately began to draw up a representation of their case, which he intended for the press: but before he had finished it he was taken sick, and died; and his papers fell into his enemies hands. He was a man of a warm and passionate temper, and possessed of all those violent sentiments which ill usage, disappointment, and oppression, naturally kindle in the human breast. His representation, intended as an appeal to the nation in general, for the sufferings of the people under the tyrannical proprietary government, was full of heavy charges against the governor and his party in Carolina, and bitter reflections on their conduct, which he considered as in the highest degree injurious to the colony. Without doubt the Lords Proprietors planned this establishment with a view to the peaceful influence it would have upon the civil government of the country, as the preamble to the act expressly indicates. Their feeble and fluctating state required the assistance and authority of an established church, and the sanction of religion, to give it more weight and influence with the people. How far the measures adopted served to promote the desired end, and were consistent with prudence and good policy, will afterwards more clearly appear. [Sidenote] Lay commissioners appointed. [Sidenote] The acts ratified by the Proprietors.