in Virginia it was a mere contest for power
between the vestries and the government. The Free Church of Scotland, at
the time of the disruption, was still in theory in favor of an
establishment in which the clergy should be chosen by the people and
paid by the government.[368:A] Even in England, under the constitution
of the established church, the ministers of certain exceptional chapels
were formerly elected by the freeholders of the parish, subject to the
approval of the vicar, and the violation of their rights in this
particular was sometimes resented in the ruder districts of Yorkshire,
by outrageous insults offered to the new incumbent during the time of
service, and by brutal personal assaults upon the minister.[368:B]

Before the beginning of the eighteenth century the proprietary
government, granted by Charles the First to Lord Baltimore, had at
length been abolished, and the Church of England established there.
There was less tolerance under this establishment than before. In
Maryland as in Virginia, the discipline of the church was loose, the
clergy by no means exemplary, and their condition precarious and
dependent.

The differences between Dr. Blair and Governor Nicholson led to a
tedious controversy, in which charges of malfeasance in official duty
and private misconduct, especially in the affair of his attachment for
Miss Burwell, and his maltreatment of the Rev. Mr. Fouace, were
transmitted to the government in England, covering forty-four pages
folio of manuscript. The controversy produced no little excitement and
disturbance in the colony; a number of the clergy adhered to the
governor, being those with whom Commissary Blair was unpopular, and whom
the governor had ingratiated by siding with them against the vestries,
and by representing the commissary as less favorable to their cause.
Governor Nicholson ordered a convocation to be assembled, and during its
session held private interviews with his adherents among the clergy, who
signed a paper denying the charges made by the commissary and the
council. A public entertainment given to them was satirized in a ballad,
setting forth their unclerical hilarity, and depicting some of them in
unfavorable colors. This ballad soon appeared in London. In this
convocation seventeen of the clergy were opposed to the commissary, and
only six in his favor. Nevertheless his integrity and indomitable
perseverance and energy triumphed; and at length, upon the complaint