After an old English title they called the oldest among
them the Palatine. Palatine originally meant a person who held
some office about a king's palace. It has come to mean one who has
royal privileges. So a Prince Palatine is really a little king.
When the Palatine died it was arranged that the next in age should
take his place. As to the other seven proprietors they all had grand
sounding titles, such as Chamberlain, Chancellor, Constable, High
Steward, and so on.
Having settled all these grand sounding titles the proprietors went
on to frame a system of laws. They called it the Grand Model or
Fundamental Constitutions, but it was more like some old English
feudal system than anything else. It might have done for the
ancient Saxons of the ninth century; it was quite unsuitable for
rough colonists in a new and almost uninhabited country. It was
quite unsuited for men who had left Europe because they wanted to
get away from old conventions and be more free.
Yet the Lords Proprietors said that the Grand Model was to be the
law of Carolina for ever and ever. The settlers however, would
have nothing to do with the Grand Model, for it was altogether too
fanciful for them. The proprietors on their side persisted. But
when they found it impossible to force the settlers to obey their
laws they changed their Grand Model and tried again.
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