and dissolution of the company.
But the dissolution of the company was rapidly approaching. That corporation contained many men of the first rank and talents in the nation, who in their assemblies, were in habits of discussing the measures of the crown with the accustomed freedom of a popular body. Two violent factions, which assumed the regular appearance of court and country parties, divided the company, and struggled for the ascendancy. James endeavoured to give the preponderance to the court party, but his endeavours were unsuccessful; and his failure disposed him to listen to complaints against a corporation, whose deliberations he found himself unable to control. To their mismanagement he ascribed the slow progress made by the colony, and the heavy losses that had been sustained.[37]
1623
After hearing both the corporation and their accusers, the privy council determined to issue a commission, appointing persons to be named by the crown, to inquire into the affairs of Virginia from the earliest settlement of the province, and to report thereon to the government. This commission seized the charters, books, and papers of the company; and all letters and packets brought from the colony were ordered to be laid unopened before the privy council. Their report attributed the misfortunes of the colony to the corporation in England; and James, at no time a friend to popular assemblies, communicated to them his resolution to revoke the old charter and grant a new one, which should respect private property, but place power in fewer hands. The requisition that they should assent to this proposition, and surrender their charter, was accompanied with the information that the King was determined, in default of submission, to take such proceedings for recalling their letters patent as might be just. 1624Colony taken into the hands of the King.The company, however, resolutely determined to defend its rights; whereupon a writ of quo warranto was instituted in the court of King's Bench, which was decided according to the wishes of the monarch. The company was dissolved, and all its powers were revested in the crown.
Above one hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling had been expended in planting the colony; and more than nine thousand persons had been sent from England to people it. Yet, at the dissolution of the company, the annual imports from Virginia did not exceed twenty thousand pounds in value, and the population of the country was reduced to about eighteen hundred persons.
While these things were transacting in England, the war against the Indians was prosecuted in the colony, with vigour and success. The neighbouring hostile tribes were nearly exterminated, and were driven entirely from the rivers, so that the settlements were extended in safety.
In February, the general assembly was once more convened. The several orders which had been previously made by the governor and council, were enacted into laws; and form the oldest legislative rules of action now remaining on record. Among them are various regulations respecting the church of England. But the act best representing the condition of the colonists, is a solemn declaration, "that the governor should not impose any taxes on the colony, otherwise than by the authority of the general assembly; and that he should not withdraw the inhabitants from their private labour to any service of his own." At this session, too, the privilege of exemption from arrest, while the assembly was sitting, was extended to the burgesses. Several other measures were adopted for the correction of abuses; and the laws of that session, generally, are marked with that good sense and patriotism, which are to be expected from men perfectly understanding their own situation, and legislating for themselves.
From this assembly, the royal commissioners endeavoured, in vain, to procure an address to the King, professing "their willingness to submit themselves to his princely pleasure, in revoking the ancient patents;" but a petition was agreed to and transmitted, acknowledging their satisfaction at his having taken the plantation into his more especial care, beseeching him to continue the then form of government, to confirm to Virginia and the Somers isles, the sole importation of tobacco, and soliciting that, if the promised aid of soldiers should be granted them, the governor and assembly might have a voice in directing their operations.
Virginia having thus become a royal government, the King issued a special commission, appointing a governor and twelve councillors, to whom the entire direction of the affairs of the province was committed. No assembly was mentioned, nor was it intended to permit the continuance of that body, for, to the popular shape of the late system, James attributed the disasters of the colony. But some attention to their interests, was mingled with this subversion of political liberty. Yielding to the petitions of the English parliament and of the colonists, he issued a proclamation prohibiting the growth of tobacco in the kingdom, and the importation of it into England or Ireland, except from Virginia, or the Somers isles, and in vessels belonging to his subjects. His death prevented the completion of a legislative code for the colony, which he had commenced, and which he flattered himself, would remedy all the ills that had been experienced.
Charles I.
Arbitrary measures of the crown.
1625
Charles I. adopted, in its full extent, the colonial system of his father. He committed to Sir George Yeardly, whom he appointed governor of Virginia, and to his council, the whole legislative and executive powers of the colony, with instructions to conform exactly to orders which should be received from him. They were empowered to make laws and to execute them; to impose taxes, and to enforce the payment of them; to seize the property of the late company; and to apply it to the public use; and to transport the colonists to England, to be punished there for crimes committed in Virginia. To complete this hateful system, the crown exacted a monopoly of the tobacco trade, and appointed agents, to whose management that article was entirely committed.[38]
1629
Sir John Harvey.
The full pressure of these arbitrary regulations was not felt till Sir John Harvey, on the Sir John death of Sir George Yeardly, was appointed governor of Virginia. The mind of this gentleman is represented by the historians of the day, as having been of a structure to make even tyranny more odious. Rapacious, haughty, and unfeeling, he exercised his powers in the most offensive manner. Respect for his commission, suppressed opposition to his authority for several years. 1636Roused, at length, almost to madness by oppression, the Virginians, in a fit of popular rage, seized their governor, and sent him a prisoner to England, accompanied by two deputies charged with the duty of representing their grievances, and his misconduct.
Charles deemed it necessary to discountenance this summary and violent proceeding, so entirely incompatible with that implicit obedience which he had ever exacted from his subjects. The deputies of the colony were sternly received; no inquiry appears to have been made into the conduct of Harvey; 1637and, early in the succeeding year, he was sent back to Virginia, invested with all his former powers.[39]
The time, however, approached, when a new system of administration was to be adopted. The discontents of the nation, and his own wants, obliged Charles to determine on convening a parliament. He was probably unwilling to increase the ill temper resulting from his maladministration at home, by bringing before the representatives of the people, complaints of the despotism which had been exercised in America.
Sir William Berkeley.
To this change of circumstances may be ascribed the appointment of Sir William Berkeley to succeed Harvey as governor of Virginia. In almost every respect, this gentleman was unlike his predecessor. Highly respectable for his rank and abilities, he was still more distinguished by his integrity, by the mildness of his temper, and by the gentleness of his manners. To complete the satisfaction of the colonists, he was empowered and directed to summon the burgesses of all the plantations, to meet the governor and council in the general assembly, Provincial
