The provincial legislature, dignified with the name of parliament, was to be biennial, and to consist of the proprietaries, alias landgraves, or the deputy of each, of the cacique nobility, of the representatives of the freeholders of every district, who were to meet in one appartment, and every member to enjoy an equal vote: but no business was to be proposed till it had been debated in the grand council, whose duty it was to prepare bills for the parliamentary consideration. The grand council was to be composed of the governor, the nobility, and the deputies of the proprietaries, these being absent; and was invested with the executive of the province. The church of England alone was to be allowed a public maintenance by parliament; but every congragation might tax its own members for the support of its own ministers; and to every one was allowed perfect freedom in religion. However the most degrading slavery was introduced by investing in every man the property of his negro.[40] These constitutions, consisting of 120 articles, and containing a great variety of perplexing regulations, were declared to be the sacred and unalterable rule of government in Carolina for ever; and yet they were never altogether adopted. The parties engaged in this act of legislation should have reflected, that the inhabitants had settled no conditions, which it was no longer in their power to abrogate; and that in the forms of government which had been actually established, the people had acquired an interest which could not be taken away without their consent. [1670.] A number of emigrants were sent in January, under _William Sayle_, esq. appointed governor of that part of the coast which lies south-westward of Cape Carteret, to form a colony at Port-Royal. They arrived safe; and as it was found impracticable to conform to the constitutions, it was determined to keep as close to them as possible. Sayle dying, Sir _John Yeamans_ had his command extended to and over this colony in August, 1671. This year planters resorted from Clarendon on the north, and Port-Royal on the south, to the banks of Ashley river, for the convenience of pasture and tillage; and laid on the first high land the foundation of old Charles-Town. The proprietaries promulgated temporary laws, till through a sufficient number of inhabitants, government could be administered according to the fundamental constitutions. The temporary laws were of no long duration, being derided by a people without whose consent they had been established.