commerce. CHAP. II. 1651. imposed on most vigorous to resist the endurance of its excesses. Having succeeded in obtaining from the colonies a recognition of the authority which they administered, they proceeded to the adoption of measures calculated to enforce their dependence on England, and to secure the exclusive possession of their increasing With this view, as well as for the pur- Restraints pose of provoking hostilities with the Dutch, by aiming the trade of a blow at their carrying trade9, the parliament not the colony. only forbore to repeal the ordinance of the preceding year, which prohibited commercial intercourse between the colonies and foreign states, but framed another law which was to introduce a new era of commercial jurisprudence, and to found the celebrated navigation system of England. This remarkable law enacted that no production of Asia, Africa, or America, should be imported into the dominions of the commonwealth, but in vessels belonging to English owners or the inhabitants of the English colonies, and navigated by crews of which the captain and the majority of the sailors should be Englishmen 1. Willing at the same time to encourage the cultivation of the staple commodity of Virginia, the parliament soon after passed an act confirming all the royal 1652. proclamations against planting tobacco in England 2. This unjust and injurious treatment kept alive in Virginia the attachment to the royal cause, which was farther maintained by the emigrations of the distressed cavaliers, who resorted in such numbers to Virginia, that the population of the colony amounted to thirty thousand persons at the epoch of the re 9 Hume's England, vol. vii. p. 210, 11. 1 Scobel's Acts, 1651, cap. 22. The germ of this famous system of policy occurs in English legislation so early as the year 1381, when it was enacted by the statute of 5 Rich. II. cap. 3, "that to increase the navy of England, no goods or merchandizes shall be either exported or imported but only in ships belonging to the king's subjects." This enactment was premature, and soon fell into disuse. An act to revive it to a limited extent in 1460, was rejected by Henry the Sixth. I. 1653. No. The were not enforced. BOOK storation3. But Cromwell had now prevailed over the parliament, and held the reins of the commonwealth in his vigorous hands; and though the discontents of the Virginians were secretly inflamed by the severity of his policy and the invidious distinctions which it evinced, their expression was repressed by the terror of his name, and the energy which he infused into every department of his administration; and under the superintendence of governors appointed by him, the exterior, at least, of tranquillity was maintained in Virginia till the period of his death. Warmly attached by similarity of religious and political sentiments to the colonists of Massachusetts, Cromwell indulged them with a dispensation from the commercial laws of the Long Parliament, while he rigorously exacted their observance in Virginia. The enforcement of these restrictions on the obnoxious colonists, at a time when England could neither afford a sufficient market to their produce nor an adequate supply to their wants4, and while Massachusetts enjoyed a monopoly of the advantages of which they were deprived, strongly impeached the magnanimity of the protector and the fearless justice by which he professed to dignify his usurped dominion, and proved no less burthensome than irritating to the Virginians. Such partial and illiberal policy subverts in the minds of subjects those sentiments which facilitate the administration of human affairs and assure the stability of government, and habituates them to ascribe every burden and restriction which views of public expediency may impose, to causes that provoke enmity and redouble impatience. In the minds of the Virginians it produced not only this evil habit, but other no less unfortunate consequences; for retorting the dislike with which they found themselves treated, and encountering the partiality of their ad II. 1653. the colony. 1658. not one governo. versaries with prejudices equally unjust, they con- CHAP. ceived a violent antipathy against all the doctrines, sentiments, and practices that seemed peculiar to the puritans, and rejected all communication of the knowledge that flourished in Massachusetts, from hatred of the authority under whose shelter it grew, and of the principles to whose support it seemed to administer 5. At length the disgust and impatience Revolt of of the inhabitants of Virginia could no longer be restrained. Matthews, the last governor appointed by Cromwell, died nearly at the same period with the well poned protector; and the Virginians, though not yet apprized of the full extent of their deliverance, took advantage of the suspension of authority caused by the governor's demise; and having forced Sir William Berkeley from his retirement, unanimously elected him to preside over the colony 6. Berkeley Sir William refusing to act under usurped authority, the colonists sumes the boldly erected the royal standard, and proclaimed government. Charles the Second to be their lawful sovereign; No. thus venturously adopting a measure which, according to all appearances, involved a contest with the arms of Cromwell and the whole resources of England. Happily for the colony, the distractions that ensued in England deferred the vengeance which 5 The prejudices of an old cavalier who had acquired the habit, so general and inveterate in seasons of violent party contentions, of lumping his opinions and taking them in the gross, whether by assent to his friends or opposition to his adversaries, are displayed by Sir William Berkeley in a letter descriptive of the state of Virginia, some years after the Restoration. "I thank God," he says, "there are no free schools nor printing; and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years. For learning has brought heresy and disobedience and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government: God keep us from both!" Chalmers, p. 328. That Cromwell had meditated some important changes in Virginia, which death prevented him from attempting to realize, may be inferred from the publication of a small treatise at London, in the year 1657, entitled "Public good without private interest," written by Dr. Gatford and dedicated to the Protector. In this little work the Protector is advised to reform the numerous abuses extant in Virginia-the disregard of religion-the neglect of education-and the fraudu lent dealings of the planters with the Indians; on all which topics the author descants very forcibly. Of this treatise, as well as of the tracts by Hamer, and Williams, and some others, which I have had occasion to notice elsewhere, I Berkeley re I. 1660. of Charles BOOK the ruling powers had equal ability and inclination to inflict upon it, till the sudden and unexpected restoration of Charles to the throne of his ancestors, Restoration converted their imprudent temerity into meritorious II. service, and enabled them safely to exult in the singularity which they long mentioned with triumph, that they had been the last of the British subjects who had renounced, and the first who had resumed their allegiance to the crown7. 7 Oldmixon, i. 244, 5. Beverley, p. 55. Chalmers, p. 124. CHAPTER III. The Navigation Act-its Impolicy.-Discontent and Distress of the Colonists.-Naturalization of Aliens.-Progress of the colonial Discontent.-Indian Hostilities.Bacon's Rebellion.-Death of Bacon-and Restoration of Tranquillity.-Bill of Attainder passed by the Colonial Assembly.-Sir William Berkeley superseded by Colonel Jeffreys.-Partiality of the new Governor-Dispute with the Assembly-Renewal of Discontents.-Lord Culpeper appointed Governor-Severity and Rapacity of his Administration.—An Insurrection-Punishment of the Insurgents.-Arbitrary Measures of the Crown.-James the Second--augments the Burdens of the Colonists.-Corrupt and oppressive Government of Lord Effingham.Revolution in Britain.-Complaints of the Colonies against the former Governors discouraged by King William.-Effect of the English Revolution on the American Colonies.-State of Virginia at this Period-Population -Laws-Manners. III. THE intelligence of the restoration soon reached CHAP. America, and excited in the different colonies very different emotions. In Virginia, whose history we 1660. must still separately pursue, it was received like the surprising fulfilment of an agreeable dream, and hailed with acclamations of unfeigned and unbounded joy. These sentiments, confirmed by the gracious expressions of esteem and good-will' which the king very readily vouchsafed, excited hopes of substantial favour and recompense which it was not easy to gratify, and which were fated to undergo a speedy and severe disappointment. For a short time, however, the Virginians were permitted to indulge their satisfac 'Sir William Berkeley, who made a journey to England to congratulate the king on his restoration, was received at court with distinguished regard; and Charles, in honour of his loyal Virginians, wore at his coronation a robe manufactured of Virginian silk. Oldmixon. This was not the first royal robe that America supplied. Queen Elizabeth wore a gown made of the silk grass, of which Raleigh's colonists sent a quan |