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Mary were proclaimed, a meeting of the representatives of South Carolina disfranchised Colleton, and banished him from the province.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE GRAND REBELLION IN VIRGINIA.

FOR more than eight years, 66 THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA had governed themselves; and their government had been conducted with wise moderation. Tranquillity and a rapid increase of population promised the extension of its borders, and colonial life was sweetened by the enjoyment of equal franchises. Every officer was, directly or indirectly, chosen by the people.

The power of the people naturally grew out of the character of the early settlers, who were, most of them, adventurers, bringing to the New World no wealth but enterprise, no rank but that of manhood, no privileges but those of Englishmen. Unlike Massachusetts, Virginia was a continuation of English society. The first colonists were not fugitives from persecution; they came, rather, under the auspices of the nobility, the church, and the mercantile interests of England; they brought with them an attachment to monarchy, a deep reverence for the Anglican church, a love for England and English institutions. The principle of the English law which grants real estate to the eldest born, was respected; but generations of Virginians had hardly as yet succeeded each other; the rule had produced no effect upon society, and, from the beginning, had been modified in many counties by custom. Yet a body of large proprietors had existed from the infancy of the settlement; and their vast possessions began to awaken the feelings of family pride.

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SERVANTS AND SLAVES IN VIRGINIA.

The power of the rising aristocracy was still further increased by the character of the plebeian population of Virginia. Many of them had come as servants, doomed, according to the severe laws of that age, to a temporary bondage; and this division of society into classes was unmitigated by public care for education. The system of common schools was unknown. "Every man," said Sir William Berkeley, in 1671, "instructs his children according to his ability"-a method which left the children of the ignorant to hopeless ignorance. "The ministers," continued Sir William, in the spirit of the aristocracy of the Tudors, "should pray oftener and preach less. But, I thank God, there are no free schools, nor printing; and I hope we shall not have, these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects, into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both!"

Still white laborers were emancipated, when their years of servitude were ended; and the law was designed to secure and to hasten their enfranchisement. The insurrection which was plotted by a number of servants in 1663, did not extend beyond a scheme of indented servants to anticipate the period of their freedom. The effort was the work of ignorant men, and was easily suppressed.

Towards the negro the laws were less tolerant. The statute which declares who are slaves, followed the old idea, long prevalent through Christendom, "All servants, not being Christians, imported into this country by shipping, shall be slaves." Yet it was added, "conversion to the Christian faith doth not make free." Doubts arose, if the offspring of an Englishman by a negro woman should be bond or free; and the rule of the Roman law prevailed over the Anglo-Saxon: the offspring followed the condition of its mother. "The death of a slave from extremity of correction, was not accounted felony." Finally, it was made lawful for "persons, pur

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suing fugitive colored slaves, to wound, or even to kill them." The master was absolute lord over the negro. The aristocracy, which was thus confirmed in its influence by the extent of its domains, by its superior intelligence, and by the character of a large part of the laboring class, naturally aspired to the government of the country; from among them the council was selected; many of them were returned as members of the legislature; and in the organization of the militia, they also held commissions. The entire absence of local municipal governments necessarily led to an extension of the power of the magistrates. The justices of the peace for each county fixed the amount of county taxes, assessed and collected them, and superintended their disbursement; so that military, judicial, legislative, and executive powers were often deposited in the hands of men, who, as owners of large estates, masters of many indented servants, and lords of slaves, already indicated an established aristocracy.

The emigrant royalists had hitherto not acted as a political party, but took advantage of peace to establish their fortunes. On the tidings of the restoration of Charles II., the fires of loyalty blazed up, perhaps the more vehemently for their long inactivity. Virginia shared the passionate joy of England; and, with general consent, Sir William Berkeley, no longer acting as governor, elected by the people, but assuming such powers as his royal commission bestowed, issued writs for an assembly in the name of the king. The sovereignty over itself, which Virginia had exercised so well, had come to an end.

The apprehensions of Virginia were awakened by the establishment of the colonial monopoly in the navigation act; and the assembly, alarmed at this open violation of the natural and prescriptive "freedoms" of the colony, appointed Sir William Berkeley its agent, to present the grievances of Virginia and procure their redress. Here, again, the influence of royalist legislation is perceptible. But Sir William Berkeley did not, even after years of

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experience, understand the principles of the act against which he was deputed to expostulate. We have seen that he obtained for himself and partners a portion of the territory of Virginia; for the colony he did not secure one franchise; and Virginia long and vainly at tempted to devise a remedy against the commercial oppression of England.

Thus, at the very season when the rising aristocracy of Virginia was seeking, by the aid of royal influence, to confirm its supremacy, the policy of the English government oppressed colonial industry so severely as to excite the hostility of the province. The party which united with the officers of the crown in the desire of gaining a triumph over democratic influences, was always on the point of reconciling itself with the people, and making a common cause against the tyranny of the metropolis.

At the epoch of the restoration, the royalist party had gained the ascendency in the legislature, elected under the first influence of excited loyalty. At once it disfranchised " a factious and schismatical magistrate; and, in the course of its long-continued sessions, it modified the democratical features of the constitution, till a radical change was effected. In 1662, the English Episcopal church became once more the religion of the state. For assessing parish taxes, twelve vestrymen were now to be chosen in each parish, with power to fill all vacancies in their own body; so that the control of church affairs passed from the parish to a close corporation. No nonconformist might teach, even in private, under pain of banishment; no reader might expound the Catechism or the Scriptures. The obsolete severity of the laws of Queen Elizabeth was revived against the Quakers. Absence from church was for them an offence, punishable by a monthly fine of twenty pounds sterling. To meet in conventicles of their own, was forbidden under further penalties. To the remonstrance of the Quaker Owen, that "tender consciences must obey the law of God, however they suffer," the answer was, "there is no toleration for wicked consciences."

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Virginia permitted no ceremony of marriage but according to the rubric in the Book of Common Prayer. The "new-fangled conceits" of the Baptists were punished by a heavy mulct. In 1663, Virginia, as if resolved to hasten the colonization of North Carolina, sharpened her laws against all separatists, punished their meetings by heavy fines, and ordered the more affluent to pay the forfeitures of the poor. The colony, that should have opened its doors wide to all the persecuted, punished the ship-master that received non-conformists as passengers, and threatened such as resided in the colony with banishment. John Porter, the burgess for Lower Norfolk, was expelled from the assembly, "because he was well affected to the Quakers."

The legislature was equally friendly to the power of the crown. In every colony where Puritanism prevailed, there was a uniform disposition to refuse a fixed salary to the royal governor. The royalist legislature of Virginia, for the purpose of well paying his majesty's officers, established, in 1662, a constant revenue by a permanent imposition on all exported tobacco; and the royal officers, requiring no further action of an assembly for granting taxes, were placed above the influence of colonial legislation.

The organization of the judiciary placed that department of the government almost entirely beyond the control of the people. The governor and council were the highest ordinary tribunal; and these were all appointed, directly or indirectly, by the crown: besides this, there were in each county eight unpaid justices of the peace, commissioned by the governor during his pleasure. These justices held monthly courts, in their respective counties. Thus the administration of justice, in the counties, was in the hands of persons holding their offices at the good-will of the governor; while the governor himself, and his executive council, constituted the general court, and had cognizance of all sorts of causes. Was an appeal made to chancery- it was but for another hearing before the same men; and it was only