_Charles-town_ having been made the principal port, the first collector was established there in 1685. The governor and council were at the same time ordered, not to fail to shew their forwardness in assisting the collection of the duty on tobacco transported to other colonies, and in seizing ships that presumed to trade contarary to the acts of navigation. Little regard was paid to orders so contrary to the views of every one. An illicit trade was not only practised, but justified under the clause of the patent, _which the people believed to be of superior force to the law_.—Though the royal grant of 1665 was passed subsequent to the act of navigation, the present exemption was insisted upon, with the same spirit that it was contended during this reign, that a king of England may dispense with the law. The principle of the Carolinians, and the doctrine so fashionable at the court of James, were therefore exactly the same. _James Colleton_, esq. a proprietary, was appointed governor, in August. The next year he called an assembly, in which he and his party took upon them to pass such laws as lost him the affections of the people. During the ferments that followed, Seth Sothel, whom we have seen banished from Albemarle, suddenly arrived at Charles-town. Countenanced by a powerful party, and presuming on his powers as a proprietary, he seized the reins of government in 1690, notwithstanding the opposition of governar and council. A general return of member was procured, who readily sanctioned by their votes whatever was dictated by those that had thus acquired power. Colleton, whose conduct had been far from blameless, was instantly impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors, disabled from holding any office, and banished. Others were fined, imprisoned, and expelled the province. The proprietaries appointed a new governor; and the next year, [1692] upon the requisitions of the Carolinians, abrogated Mr. Locke’s system of laws, _the fundamental constitutions_, which far from having answered their end introduced only dissatisfaction and disorders, that were not cured till the final dissolation of the proprietary government.[42] The operation and fate of Mr. Locke’s system may convince us of this truth, that a person “may defend the principles of liberty and the rights of mankind, with great abilities and success; and yet after all, when called upon to produce a plan of legislation, he may astonish the world with a signal absurdity.”[43]