serted; the settlements were reduced from eighty to eight; and famine superadded to the accumulated distresses of the colony, its afflicting

As soon as intelligence of these calamitous events reached England, a contribution of the adventurers for the relief of the sufferers was ordered; arms from the tower were delivered to the treasurer and company; and several vessels were immediately dispatched with those articles which might best alleviate such complicated distress.

But the dissolution of the company was rapidly approaching. In that corporation were many men of the first rank and talents in the nation. In their assemblies, they were in habits of discussing, with the accustomed freedom of a popular body, the measures of the crown, many of which materially affected them. Two violent factions, which assumed the regular appearance of court and country parties, divided the company, and struggled for the ascendency. James endeavoured to give the preponderance to the court party, but his endeavours were unsuccessful; and this failure disposed him to listen to complaints against a corporation, whose deliberations he found himself unable to control. To their mismanagement was ascribed the slow progress made by the colony, and the heavy losses that had been sustained. In April, (1623,) they, as well their accusers, were heard before the privy coun

d

c Robertson.... Chalmer.... Stith.

d Ibid.

cil, and it was then 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 of inquiry, in the execution of its powers, 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 to the corporation in England the misfortunes of the colony; and James, who was at no time a friend to popular assemblies, soon communicated to them his resolution to revoke the old charter, and grant a new one, which, while it respected private property, should place the powers of government in fewer hands. Their assent to this proposition, and a surrender of their char ters were required, and they were at the same time informed that the king was determined, in default of submission, to proceed for recalling. their letters patent, as might be just. 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 in June, (1624,) in a manner entirely consonant to the wishes of the king. The company was dissolved, and all its powers revested in the crown.

Above one hundred and fifty thousand pounds 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. Mingling artifice with force, the neighbouring hostile tribes were nearly exterminated, and 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 of record. Among them are various regulations respecting the church of England. But the act which will attract most attention 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 burgesses, as well as the counsellors, were freed from arrest while the assembly should be sitting. Several measures were adopted tending to correct abuses, of which they had felt the mischievous operation; and the laws of that session

e Robertson....Chalmer..., Stith.

generally, are said to be 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 Somer 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. A representation of nearly the same import was, at the same time, transmitted to the privy council by a special agent, who was empowered to superintend the interests of the colony.

Virginia having thus become a royal government, the king issued a special commission, appointing a governor and twelve counsellors, to whom was committed the entire direction of the affairs of the province. No assembly was men. tioned, nor was it intended to permit the continuance of that body; for to the popular shape of the late system, James attributed its disasters. With this subversion of all political liberty, was mingled, however, some attention to their individual interest. Yielding to the petition of the

English parliament, and of the colonists, he issued a proclamation, prohibiting the growth of tobacco in the kingdom, and the importation of that commodity into England or Ireland, but from Virginia or the Somer isles, and in vessels belonging to his subjects. His death, which happened soon afterwards, 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. adopted in its full extent, the colonial system of his father. On sir George Yeardly, whom he appointed governor of Virginia, and on his council, he devolved the whole legislative and executive powers of the colony, with instructions to conform strictly to orders which should be received from him. They were empowered, without the intervention of the representatives of the people, 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 without their assent, to apply it to the public use; and to transport the colonists to England, there to be punished for crimes committed in Virginia. To complete this hateful system, a monopoly of the tobacco trade was exacted by the crown, and the whole of that article imported into the kingdom, was ordered to be delivered to agents appointed by the king to be managed entirely by them."