Here, and here only, then, do we see the first rays of true civil and religious liberty in the American colonies—a glimmer of light in old S. Mary's like Portia's candle:
“Portia—That light we see is burning in my hall.
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
If now, indeed, the greater glory dims the less, we must not forget the light of the candle in the then surrounding darkness.
Everything connected with the early history of Maryland is, and ought to be, deeply interesting to every American of liberal culture or sentiment. We are pleased to see that the Maryland Historical Society is making earnest efforts to gather and save all the fragmentary lore pertaining thereto. The volume we now have in hand bears evidence of the fact. We give the title-page in full, as a summary of its substance:
“Fund Publication, No. 7.”—Relatio Itineris in Marylandiam. Declaratio Coloniæ Domini Baronis de Baltimoro. Excerpta ex Diversis Litteris Missionariorum, ab anno 1635, ad annum 1638. (Seal of Maryland Historical Society.) “Narrative of a Voyage to Maryland. By F. Andrew White, S.J. An Account of the Colony of the Lord Baron of Baltimore. Extracts from different letters of missionaries, [pg 538] from the year 1635 to the year 1677. Edited by the Rev. E. A. Dalrymple, S.T.D. Baltimore, February, 1874. Baltimore: John Murphy & Co. (Printers to the Maryland Historical Society).”
The Historical Society gives us a neat octavo volume of nearly 200 pages, issued in a style that would do credit to any publishing house in America, or, for that matter, in Europe either.
The learned editor, Dr. Dalrymple, tells us in the preface where and how these valuable documents were obtained: “About the year 1832 the Rev. William McSherry, S.J., discovered, in the archives of the ‘Domus Professa’ of the Society in Rome, the originals of the MSS. which are named on the title-page. He carefully copied these MSS., and placed the copies in the library of Georgetown College, D. C., of which institution (being at the same time the provincial of the society in Maryland) he afterwards became the honored president.”
Translations were made and printed of these manuscripts; but, copies being nearly exhausted, the Historical Society determined to make a new issue, accompanying the new translation with the Latin text, as far as that could be obtained, some pages of the original transcripts being unfortunately lost. The present volume is of the new issue, and it is little to say that its contents are intensely interesting.