ments at high-handed government both at home and in the colonies, and would try them in the most stupid way. So we find George and his silly friends making hazardous experiments at home, first with an attempt to destroy the freedom of the press and in many ways to limit the power of the families of rank and wealth who had held uninterrupted authority in the government for nearly a half century. It should be understood that George acted not so much against the wishes of the people of England as against those of the aristocracy. There is no doubt that the American war was popular among the English people. It was to be expected, then, that the King, seeking to increase his power, even at home, should attempt to strengthen his grasp upon the colonies. Measures were, therefore, taken to invigorate the administration of the navigation laws, and by orders in Council the customs officers in the colonies were directed to apply to the courts for search warrants, called writs of assistance, to authorize them to enter any private house and search for smuggled goods. This searching aroused in the colonists the spirit of resistance to English authority, which kept on growing until it resulted in successful revolt.

The Declaration of Independence sums up in the fewest words the many grievances of the colonies and the catalogue of the King's offenses should be read in that famous document.

The Weakness of the Four Georges.-The great English novelist, Thackeray, wrote sketches of The Four Georges, to place these Kings in their proper light in history; but

we submit six lines by an English poet, which does this work more strikingly and as fully as these four essays:

"George the First was always reckoned
Vile-but viler George the Second;
And what mortal ever heard

Any good of George the Third?

When from earth the Fourth descended,

God be praised, the Georges ended!"

CHAPTER VIII

REVOLT OF THE COLONISTS

English Opposition to Tyranny.-Having glanced at the conditions in England, where resistance was being made to royal aggressions and arrogance under the leadership of such men as the elder Pitt (Lord Chatham), Burke,

Fox, Camden, Conway, and others of high ability and character, let us see how these conditions were transported directly to Carolina.

It has been shown by an eminent historian of our State (McCrady)

that

the first profes

sional men to arrive in Carolina

EDMUND BURKE

Woodward was the most remarkable. The prominence of physicians in the earlier affairs of the province can be accounted for by the absence of other learned secular professions. The physicians, being the best educated

and most cultured men among the colonists, were naturally drawn into public affairs. First, we have the physicians coming from the old country-Drs. Moultrie, Rutledge, Lining, Chalmers, and Garden bore names which afterwards became familiar and prominent in the State. Dr. William Bull was the first native of South Carolina who obtained a degree of doctor of medicine, and was also the first to practice medicine here, and not only was he the first Carolinian, but the first American physician. It is a curious coincidence that the first two native graduates in medicine from South Carolina should have remained loyal to the King during the Revolution, and that the first should be Lieutenant-Governor of South Carolina, and the other Lieutenant-Governor of Florida; and the coincidence is further carried out by the fact that both removed to England during the war and died there as self-made exiles.

Dr. David Ramsay.-Apparently the first man in South Carolina to remove the impression that a European education was essential to the confidence of the people in a medical practitioner was Dr. David Ramsay, who came to South Carolina from Pennsylvania in 1773. In the Revolution he was active in resistance to England and an early and zealous advocate of American independence, being a member of the Continental Congress for many years, and President pro tempore for one year during the absence of John Hancock. So we see that doctors on both sides of the great question exercised potent influence in Carolina.

Richard Furman.-Next came the clergymen. It is remarkable that most of the clergymen of the English

Church, not one of whom was a native of the province, sided with the patriots in the war against the King. The Rev. Robert Smith, afterward the first bishop of South Carolina, shouldered his musket and braved every danger, and both by precept and example stimulated resistance to British control. Cornwallis declared that one young clergyman, Richard Furman, was so zealous and labored so ably in the cause of America, that he feared

side of American liberty of the members of these two churches.

Distinguished Lawyers.-Next after the clergymen came lawyers; and it can be easily understood how these lawyers, like Pinckney, Rutledge, Matthews, Lynch,