thousand emigrants arrived; and there was an increasing demand for the products of its soil.

In November of that year the career of Yeardley was closed by death. Posterity retains a grateful recollection of the man who first convened a representative assembly in the western hemisphere; the colonists, in a letter to the privy council, pronounced a eulogy on his virtues. The day after his burial, and in the absence of John Harvey who was named in Yeardley's commission as his eventual successor, Francis West was elected governor; for the council was authorized to elect the governor, "from time to time, as often as the case should require."

In the preceding August the king, by a letter of instructions to the governor and council, offered to contract for the whole crop of tobacco, desiring, at the same time, that an assembly might be convened to consider his proposal. In March, 1628, the assembly, in its reply, which was signed by the governor, by five members of the council, and by thirtyone burgesses, acquiesced in the royal monopoly, but protested against its being farmed out to individuals. The Virginians, happier than the people of England, enjoyed a faithful representative government; and, through resident planters who composed the council, they repeatedly made choice of their own governor. When West designed to embark for Europe, his place was supplied by the election of John Pott, the best surgeon and physician in the colony.

ernor.

No sooner had the news of the death of Yeardley reached England than the king issued a commission to Harvey as govThe instrument, while it renewed the limitations which had previously been set to the executive authority, permitted the governor to supply all vacancies occurring in the council in Virginia, subject to approval.

In 1629, after the appointment of Harvey and before his return to America, Lord Baltimore visited Virginia. Its government pursued him as a Romanist, and would not suffer him to plant within its jurisdiction. On the other hand, the people of New Plymouth were invited to abandon their cold and sterile abode for the milder regions on Delaware bay-a plain indication that Puritans were not as yet molested.

Late in the year Harvey arrived in Virginia. He met his first assembly of burgesses in 1630, a week before Easter. As his first appearance in America had been with no friendly designs, so now he was the support of those who desired large grants of land and separate jurisdictions; and he preferred the interests of his partisans and patrons, especially Lord Baltimore, to the welfare of the colony. Moreover, he held a warrant to receive for himself all fines arising from any sentence of its courts of justice. In his proceedings he was rough and passionate, pronouncing hasty judgments and quarrelling with the council; yet, while arbitrary power was rapidly advancing in England, the Virginians uninterruptedly enjoyed independent legislation; through the agency of their representatives, they levied and appropriated taxes, secured the free industry of their citizens, guarded the forts with their own soldiers at their own charge, and gave publicity to their stat utes. When the defects and inconveniences of infant legislation were remedied by a revised code, which was published with the approbation of the governor and council, the privileges which the assembly had ever claimed were confirmed. Indeed, they had not been questioned. The governor had advised that he should have, for the time being, a negative voice on all acts of legislation; and the government, in its reply, had suggested that the laws made in Virginia should stand only as propositions until the king should ratify them under his great seal; but the limitation was not introduced into his commission. De Vries, who visited Virginia in 1632-33, found reason to praise the advanced condition of the settlement, the abundance of its products, and the liberality of its government.

The community was nevertheless disturbed because fines, now the perquisites of the governor, were rashly imposed, and relentlessly exacted. In 1635, the discontent of Virginia, at the dismemberment of its territory by the patent of Lord Baltimore, was at its height. While Clayborne, who had been superseded as secretary, resisted the jurisdiction of Maryland over Kent island and over trade in the Chesapeake, Harvey courted the favor of Baltimore. The colonists were fired with indignation that their governor, who was hateful to them for his self-will and violence, should betray their territorial interests.

VOL. 1-11

In the latter part of April a multitude of people, among whom was the sheriff of York, assembled in that place at the house of William Barrene, who was the chief speaker at the meeting. Francis Pott read a petition written by his brother, the governor by election whom Harvey had superseded, and subscribed by many from other parts of the country, complaining of a tax imposed by Harvey; of the want of justice in his administration; and of his unadvised and dangerous dealings with the Indians. For this act the governor ordered the sheriff, Francis Pott, and another, to be apprehended, and called the council to assist in suppressing these mutinous gatherings. But, on the twenty-eighth, Matthews, an old planter, and other members of the council, came to his house, armed, and attended by fifty musketeers. John Utie, a councillor, struck him on the shoulder, and said: "I arrest you for treason;" which consisted, as they said, in going about to betray their forts into the hands of their enemies of Maryland. The musketeers were ordered to draw back until there should be use for them, and guards were stationed in all the approaches to the house. The three prisoners were set at liberty. The petition against the governor was produced, and made the pretext for calling for an assembly, by which, as a proclamation announced, complaints against the governor would be heard. Matthews, a man of quick temper, whom Harvey had opposed at the board with exceeding animosity, informed him that the fury against him could not be appeased. He attempted to make terms with the council; but they would yield to none of his conditions, and chose in his place John West, who immediately assumed the government. Harvey finally consented to go to England, and there make answer to their complaints. He professed to fear "that the mutineers intended no less than the subversion of Maryland."

On the eleventh of December the cause of Sir John Harvey was investigated by the privy council, the king himself presiding. "To send hither the governor," said Charles, "is an assumption of the regal power; it is necessary to send him back, though to stay but a day; if he can clear himself, he shall remain longer than he otherwise would have done." The commissioners appointed by the council of Vir

ginia to present their complaints had not arrived. In their absence, Harvey pleaded that there was no particular charge against him. It appeared that he had assumed power to place and displace members of the council, and that under the provocation of ill language he had struck one of them and sequestered another. But he denied that he had unduly favored trade with the Dutch, or that he had countenanced the popish religion in Maryland; and he even denied that mass was publicly said in that province.

A few days later, in accordance with the request of Lord Baltimore, Harvey received a new commission, which limited his powers as before, but reserved the appointments to vacancies in the council to the government in England. In consequence of the unseaworthiness of the king's ship in which he was to have sailed, he did not reach Virginia until January, 1637, after an absence of more than a year and a half. Without delay, he met the council at the church of Elizabeth City, published the king's proclamation, pardoning, with a few exceptions, all persons who had given aid in the late practices against him; and summoned an assembly for the following February. During the period of his office the accustomed legislative rights of the colony were not impaired.

In November, 1639, he was superseded by Sir Francis Wyatt, who, in the following January, convened a general assembly. In Virginia, debts had been contracted to be paid in tobacco; and as the article rose in value, in consequence of laws restricting its culture, the legislature did not scruple to enact that "no man need pay more than two thirds of his debt during the stint;" and that all creditors should take “forty pounds for a hundred." Beyond this, the second administration of Wyatt passed silently away.

After two years, Sir William Berkeley was constituted governor. The members of his council were to take part with him in supplying vacancies in that body. His instructions enjoined him to be careful that God should be served after the form established in the church of England, and not to suffer any innovation in matters of religion. Each congregation was to provide for its own minister. The oaths of supremacy and allegiance were to be tendered to residents, and recusants

"to be sent home." Justice was to be administered according to the laws of England. Besides the quarter courts, inferior courts were to be established for minor suits and offences; and probate of wills was provided for. All men above sixteen years were to bear arms. Trade with the savages without special license was forbidden. To every person who had emigrated since midsummer, 1625, a patent for fifty acres of land was ordered. The general assembly was to meet annually, the governor having a negative voice on its acts. With the consent of the assembly, the residence of the government might be removed to a more healthful place, which should take the old name of Jamestown. One of the instructions imposed by the prerogative most severe and unwarrantable restrictions on the liberty of trade, of which the nature will presently be explained.

It was in February, 1642, that Sir William Berkeley assumed the government. He summoned immediately the colonial legislature. The memory of factions was lost in a general amnesty of ancient griefs. The lapse of years had so far effaced the divisions which grew out of the dissolution of the company that, when George Sandys presented to the commons of England a petition praying for the restoration of the ancient patents, the colonial assembly disavowed the design, and, after a full debate, opposed it by a protest. They asserted the necessity of the freedom of trade, because it "is the blood and life of a commonwealth." And they defended their preference of self-government through a colonial legislature, by a conclusive argument: "There is more likelyhood that such as are acquainted with the clime and its accidents may upon better grounds prescribe our advantages, than such as shall sit at the helm in England." The king, who regarded "all corporations as refractory to" monarchy itself, declared, in reply, his purpose not to change a form of government in which they "received so much content and satisfaction."

The Virginians, aided by Sir William Berkeley, could now deliberately perfect their civil condition. Condemnations to service had been a usual punishment; these were abolished. In the courts of justice, a near approach was made to the laws and customs of England. Religion was provided for, the law