ase--"_sacrosancta Dei_"--forms a distinct branch of the
sentence.

If the translation given in Bacon is the true one, the positions of the
words "sacrosancta" and "Dei" should be reversed, for their present
collocation clearly violates accurate Latin construction. In that case,
"_Dei_" being subject to the government of "_religio_," ought to precede
"_sacrosancta_," which would be appurtenant to "_religio_," while
"_et_," which would then couple the two adjectives instead of the two
members of the sentence, should be placed immediately between them,
without the interposition of any word to disunite it either from
"_sacrosancta_" or "_vera_." If my translation be correct, then the
collocation of all the words in the original Latin of the charter, is
proper. If "_sacrosancta_" is a neuter adjective agreeing with
"_negotia_," understood,--and "_et_" conjoins members of sentences, then
the whole clause is obedient to a positive law of Latin verbal
arrangement. Leverett says: "The genitive is elegantly put before the
noun which governs it with one or more words between; _except_ when the
genitive is _governed by a neuter adjective_, in which case, _it must_
be _placed after it_."

4th, Again:--if "_et_" joins "_sacrosancta_" and "_vera_," which,
thereby, qualify the same noun, there are _then_ only two nominatives in
the Latin sentence of the charter, viz: "_religio_" and "_ligcantia_."
Now these nouns, being coupled by the disjunctive conjunction "_aut_,"
must have the verb agreeing with them _separately_ in the singular. But,
as "_patiantur_" happens to be in the plural, the author of the charter
must either have been ignorant of one of the simplest grammar rules, or
have designed to convey the meaning I contend for.

I must acknowledge the aid and confirmation I have received, in
examining this matter, from the very competent scholarship of my friend
Mr. Knott, assistant Librarian of the Maryland Historical Society.

APPENDIX No. II.

The scope of my discourse is confined to the illustration of
_principles_ either announced, or acted on, in the _founding_ of
Maryland and Pennsylvania. I have contended that Sir George Calvert, the
_first_ Lord Baltimore, so framed the charter which was granted by
Charles I, that, without express concessions, the general character of
its language in regard to religious rights, would secure liberty of
conscience to christians.

I: 1632.--Language can scarcely be more perspicu