LEGISLATION OF A ROYALIST LEGISLATURE. 207 XIV. escaped taxation. The method, less arbitrary in Vir- CHAP. ginia, where property consisted chiefly in a claim to the labor of servants and slaves, than in a commercial country, or where labor is free, was yet oppressive to the less wealthy classes. The burgesses, themselves 1663. Sept. great landholders, resisted the reform which Berkeley 27. had urged,' and connected the burden of the tax with the privileges of citizenship. If land should be taxed, none but landholders should elect the legislature; and then, it was added, "the other freemen, who are the more in number, may repine to be bound to those laws, they have no representations to assent to the making of. And we are so well acquainted with the temper of the people, that we have reason to believe they had rather pay their tax, than lose that privilege." 2 Thus was the jealous love for liberty remembered, when it furnished an excuse for continuing an unjust method of taxation. But the system of universal suffrage could not permanently find favor with an assembly which had given to itself an indefinite existence, and which labored to reproduce in the New World the inequalities of English legislation. It was discovered that "the usual way of chusing burgesses by the votes of all freemen," produced "tumults and disturbance." The instinct of aristocratic bigotry denied that the electors would make "choyce of persons fitly qualified for so greate a trust." The restrictions, adopted by the monarchical government of England, were cited as a fit precedent for English colonies; and it was enacted that "none Oct. 1 Hening, ii. 204. "A levy upon lands and not upon heads." 2 Richmond Records, No. 2. 1660 to 1664, p. 175. 1670. 208 LEGISLATION OF A ROYALIST LEGISLATURE. CHAP. but freeholders and housekeepers shall hereafter have XIV. a voice in the election of any burgesses."1 1670 Oct. Thus was a majority of the people of Virginia disfranchised by the act of their own representatives. So true it is, that, in representative governments, unless power be limited, and responsibility steadily maintained, the choice of representatives becomes the establishment of a tyranny. The great result of modern civilization is the diffusion of intelligence among the masses, and a consequent increase of their political consideration. The result is observable every where. In the field, the fate of battles depends on infantry, and no longer on the cavalry. Influence has passed away from walled towns and fortresses to the busy scenes of commercial industry, and to the abodes of rustic independence; an active press has increased, and is steadily increasing, the number of reflecting minds that demand a reason for conduct, and exercise themselves. in efforts to solve the problem of existence and human destiny. Every where the power of the people has increased; it is the undisputed induction from the history of every nation of European origin. The restoration of Charles II. was, therefore, to Virginia a political revolution, opposed to the principles of popular liberty and the progress of humanity. An assembly continuing for an indefinite period at the pleasure of the governor, and decreeing to its members extravagant and burdensome emoluments; royal governor, whose salary was established by a permanent system of taxation; a constituency restricted and diminished; religious liberty taken away 1 Hening, ii. 280. a CHARLES II. GIVES AWAY VIRGINIA. 209 XIV. almost as soon as it had been won; arbitrary taxation CHAP. in the counties by irresponsible magistrates; a hostility to popular education, and to the press;-these were the changes which, in about ten years, were effected in a province that had begun to enjoy the benefits of a virtual independence, and a gradually ameliorating legislation. The English parliament had crippled the industry of the planters of Virginia; the colonial assembly had diminished the franchises and impaired the powers of its people; Charles II. was equally careless of the rights and property of its tens of thousands of inhabitants. Just after the execution of Charles I., during 1649. the extreme anxiety and despair of the royalists, a patent for the Northern Neck, that is, for the country between the Rappahannock and the Potomac, had been granted to a company of Cavaliers, as a refuge for their partisans. About nine years after the restoration, this patent was surrendered, that a new 1669. May. one might be issued to Lord Culpepper, who had succeeded in acquiring the shares of all the associates. The grant was extremely oppressive, for it included plantations which had long been cultivated.' But the prodigality of the king was not exhausted. To Lord Culpepper, one of the most cunning and most covetous men in England, at the time a member of the commission for trade and plantations, and to Henry, earl of Arlington, the best bred person at the royal court, allied to the monarch as father-in-law to the king's son by Lady Castlemaine, ever in debt exceedingly, and passionately fond of things rich, polite, and prince- 1673. ly, the lavish sovereign of England gave away "all 25. 1 Beverley, 65. Chalmers, 330. 2 Hartwell, Blair, and Chilton, 31. 27 VOL. II. 3 Evelyn, ii. 342. Feb. 210 VIRGINIA REMONSTRATES AGAINST THE GIFT. CHAP. the dominion of land and water, called Virginia," for the full term of thirty-one years.' XIV. Sept. 21. The assembly of Virginia, composed as it was, in part at least, of opulent landholders, were excited to alarm by dangers which were menaced by the thoughtless grants of a profligate prince; and Francis Morryson, Thomas Ludwell, and Robert Smith, were 1674. appointed agents to sail for England, and enter on the difficult duty of recovering for the king that supremacy which he had so foolishly dallied away. "We are unwilling," said the assembly, "and conceive we ought not to submit to those to whom his majesty, upon misinformation, hath granted the dominion over us, who do most contentedly pay to his majesty more than we have ourselves for our labor. Whilst we labor for the advantage of the crown, and do wish we could be yet more advantageous to the king and nation, we humbly request not to be, subjected to our fellowsubjects, but, for the future, to be secured from our fears of being enslaved." Berkeley's commission as governor had expired; the aristocratic legislature, which had already voted him a special increase of salary, and which had continued itself in power by his connivance, solicited his appointment as governor for life.3 The envoys of Virginia were instructed to ask for the colony the immunities of a corporation; for a corporation could resist further encroachments, and would be able, according to the forms of English law, to purchase of the grantees their rights to the country. The agents more than fulfilled their instructions. They asserted the natural liberties of the colonists; 1 Hening, ii. 569-583, 427–521. Burk, ii. App. xxxiv., &c. 2 Burk, ii. App. xxxiii. xxxiv. 3 Ibid. xxxix. 66 CHARACTER AND CONDITION OF THE VIRGINIANS. 2 3 211 XIV. claimed, with earnest zeal, an exemption from arbitra- CHAP. ry taxation; insisted on the indefeasible right of the colonists to the enjoyment of legislative powers, as the birthright of the children of Englishmen; and fortified their demands by the favor of Coventry, whom they extolled as one of the worthiest of men; by the legal erudition of Jones and Winington, and by the voices of many great friends," won by a sense of humanity, or submitting to be bribed by poor Virginia. But fidelity, justice, and favor, were not enough to secure the object. The agents were detained a twelvemonth without making any progress; the final failure has been ascribed to tidings from Virginia; but there is reason to believe, that a secret influence had been irrevocably exerted against the grant of a charter,1 before the news reached England of the events which involved the Ancient Dominion in gloomy disasters. For at the time when the envoys were appointed, Virginia was rocking with the excitements that grew 1674. out of its domestic griefs. The rapid and effectual abridgment of its popular liberties, joined to the uncertain tenure of property that followed the announcement of the royal grants, would have roused any nation; how much more a people like the Virginians! The generation now in existence was chiefly the fruit of the soil; they were children of the woods, nurtured in the freedom of the wilderness, and dwelling in lonely cottages, scattered along the streams. No newspapers entered their houses; no printing-press furnished them a book. 1 Burk, ii. App. xxxix. and lvii. 2 Ibid. xl. xli. 3 Ibid. xxxix. "Some with, some without charge." 4 Loyd's Letter of April 19, They had no recreations but 1676, in Burk, ii. App. xxxvi. He- |