The provincial legislature, denominated a Parliament was to consist of the proprietors, in the absence of any one of whom, his place was to be supplied by a deputy appointed by himself; of the nobility; and of the representatives of the freeholders, who were elected by districts. These discordant materials were to compose a single body which could initiate nothing. The bills to be laid before it were to be prepared in a grand council composed of the governor, the nobility, and the deputies of the proprietors, who were invested also with the executive power. At the end of every century, the laws were to become void without the formality of a repeal. Various judicatories were erected, and numerous minute perplexing regulations were made. This constitution, which was declared to be perpetual, soon furnished additional evidence, to the many afforded by history, of the great but neglected truth, that experience is the only safe school in which the science of government is to be acquired; and that the theories of the closet must have the stamp of practice, before they can be received with implicit confidence. {1670} The duke of Albemarle was chosen the first palatine, but did not long survive his election; and lord Berkeley was appointed his successor. The other proprietors were also named to high offices; and Mr. Locke was created a landgrave. After this change of constitution, the attention of the proprietors was first directed to the south. A settlement was made at Port Royal, under the conduct of William Sayle, who had been appointed governor of that part of the coast which lies south-west of cape Carteret. He was accompanied by Joseph West, who was intrusted with the commercial affairs of the proprietors, and who, with the governor, conducted the whole mercantile business of the colony. William Sayle, after leading the first colony to Port Royal, and convening a parliament in which there were neither landgraves nor caciques, became the victim of the climate; after which, the authority of sir John Yeamans, who had hitherto governed the settlement at cape Fear, was extended over the territory south-west of cape Carteret. In the same year, the foundation of _old Charlestown_ was laid, which continued, for some time, to be the capital of the southern settlements.