Hard as this treatment was, this violent party did not stop here. They insisted, that the laws of England allowed no foreigners to purchase lands in any part of the empire under her supreme jurisdiction, and that no authority but the house of commons in Britain could incorporate aliens into their community, and make them partakers of the rights and privileges of natural-born Englishmen; that they ought to have been naturalized by parliament before they obtained grants of lands from the proprietors; that the marriages performed by their clergymen, not being ordained by a bishop, were unlawful; and that the children begotten in those marriage could be considered in law in no other light as bastards. In short, they averred, that aliens were not only denied a seat in parliament, but also a voice in all elections of members to serve in it; and that they could neither be returned on any jury, nor sworn for the trial of issues between subject and subject. The refugees, alarmed at these proceedings, and discouraged at the prospects of being deprived of all the rights and liberties of British subjects, began to suspect that the opposition of England would fall heavier upon them than that of France from which they had fled. Dejected at the thoughts of labouring they knew not for whom, if their children could not reap the fruits of their labours, or if their estates should escheat to the proprietors at their decease, they could consider themselves only as deceived and imposed upon by false promises and prospects. After holding several consultations among themselves about their deplorable circumstances, they agreed to state their case before the proprietors, and beg their advice. In answer to which the Proprietors instructed Governor Ludwell to inform them, that they would enquire what does in law qualify an alien born for the enjoyment of the rights and privileges of English subjects, and in due time let them know; that, for their part, they would take no advantages of the present grievous circumstances of the refugees; that their lands should descend to such persons as they thought proper to bequeath them; that the children of such as had been married in the same way were not deemed bastards in England, nor could they be considered as such in Carolina, where such unlimited toleration was allowed to all men by their charter. Though this served in some measure to compose the minds of the refugees, yet while the people harboured prejudices against them the relief was only partial; and, at the next election of members to serve in assembly, Craven county, in which they lived, was not allowed a single representative. [Sidenote] The manner of obtaining lands.