nes to backe that project which succeeded not at the first attempt." The Virginia Company was a semi-public undertaking and realised in many ways the author's requirements. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of those composing it. It has been reckoned1 that the incorporators consisted of 56 City Companies and 659 private individuals. Of these latter 21 were Peers, 96 Knights, II doctors, ministers, &c.; 53 captains, 28 esquires, 58 gentlemen, 110 merchants, and 282 citizens and others. At least 100 of them were at one time or another members of Parliament, and about 50 were members at the time of the granting of the Charter. Yet even the Virginia Company,] started as it was on commercial lines, had not the patience to wait the necessary development, and the hostile critic might see in the excessive cultivation of tobacco, which involved the abandonment of some at least of the ideals. under which the Colony had been started, a failure of the quid pro quo which had procured for it the ægis of state recognition.

2 Under the patent of 1606 to Sir Thomas Gates and others, 1606. the whole of North America between 34° and 45° N. latitude Charter of Virginia was claimed by the King of England, and the whole of this Company. vast territory was placed under the management of one and the same Royal Council of Virginia. Particular portions of this great tract, comprising not more than about 20,000 out of 2,000,000 square miles were allotted to two Colonies, the southern of which was apportioned to the Virginia or London Company, and the northern to a Company of adventurers to be known as the Plymouth Company. The exact situation of each Colony was not defined, but the Colonies were to have all lands stretching fifty miles in each direction from the first seat of their plantation, except towards the mainland in which direction each Colony was to extend for one hundred miles. It was provided that no settlement in either Colony should be made within one hundred miles of any settlement belong

1 Genesis of United States.

2 The Charters are set out in numerous books. satisfactory account of them is in the Genesis of U.S.

By far the most lucid and

ing to the other Colony, by which means it was intended to prevent the opportunities of collision. In addition to the paramount authority of the Royal Council of Virginia each Colony was to have its own Council resident on the spot, and consisting of thirteen members. In fact, however, the Plymouth Colony, in this form, never took shape, and need not therefore detain us. By the terms of the Charter, the patentees were allowed to impose a two and a half /per cent. duty on all English non-members of the Company trading in Virginia, and a five per cent. duty on all foreigners. The proceeds of such duties were reserved for twenty-one years to the uses of the Colony, and afterwards were to go to the King. A special provision exempted personal goods of colonists, arms, furniture, &c., from any import duty for a space of seven years. Power was given to erect a mint, a provision which was not found in subsequent charters, doubtless owing to the fact that gold had not been discovered in the Colony. The resident Council was to govern and order all matters and causes "according to such laws, ordinances, and instructions as shall . . . pass under the privy seal."

This provision has been severely criticised by Mr Doyle1:"The difference between James and his great predecessor is well illustrated by the manner in which each dealt with the newly settled Colonies. Elizabeth had a full share of the despotic temper of her race. But, when she tyrannized it was with a tyranny which never stooped to petty interference and meddlesome dictation. If the nonconformists of her reign had sought to establish a settlement in the New World, they would probably have fared far worse with her than their successors did with James, but the narrow and sordid illiberality which would trust men with the task of founding a Colony, but would grant them no share in its management, found no place in the policy of the great Queen, and nowhere is the character of James's Government, so strong in assertion, so weak in fact, shown more clearly than in the history of Virginia. The absolute power claimed at the outset is 1English in America. Virginia, &c., p. 148.

filched away piecemeal, without a shadow of resistance. The first constitution of Virginia made it a stronghold of despotism; in less than twenty years it was in everything almost, save name, an independent State."

Any stick is probably good enough for a modern historian to use against a Stuart king, but it is a little difficult to find in the patent of 1606 the excuse for this strong language. We have already stated the problem-to arrange for the government of Englishmen separated by thousands of miles. of sea, surrounded by wholly new circumstances. There was surely nothing very extraordinary in the idea that such people could be best governed by laws enacted at home. The patents of Elizabeth had given very wide powers to private individuals. Doubtless there was present in the minds of those who drew up those grants, the idea of appropriation by conquest rather than by settlement. The statesmen of Elizabeth would have been surprised could they have been told that their action was intended to promote democracy among the adventurers, whifflers, and criminals, who formed a large portion of the earlier settlers. A clearer recognition of facts led the advisers of James I. to attempt another solution of the question. We are able to gather James's intentions from the instructions issued in the same year as the Patent. The Royal Council of Virginia, or the most part of them, is to have "full power and authority at our pleasure, in our name and under us, to give directions to the Council for the Colonies for the good government of the people to be placed in those parts." The instructions declared that the President and Council of the said Colonies "shall and may lawfully from time to time constitute, make, and ordain such constitution, ordinances, and officers to the better order, government, and peace of the people of the respective Colonies, so always as the same ordinances and institutions do not touch any party in life or member; which constitution and ordinances shall stand and continue in full force until the same shall be otherwise altered or made void by us, &c., so always as the same alterations may be such as may stand with, and be in substance consonant with the laws of England or

1609.

the equity thereof."

It is worth remarking that under these instructions trial by jury is established.

The

When we consider that the Council of Virginia was to deal with a far larger area than the particular Colonies then established, it seems clear that the intention was to establish a new Privy Council for colonial purposes. So far from such being a retrograde step it was an attempt to realize an idea which was in the minds of men such as Bacon. actual outcome of events-complete popular governmentwas at the time in the thoughts of no one; but, putting this out of the question, the scheme of government suggested by the first Virginian Charter was as wise a solution of the problem as could at the time have been suggested. That the idea was quietly dropped within a few years without complaint, so far as we know, having been made by anyone, is enough to show that it was part of no general scheme of petty tyranny. If, as is conjectured by Mr Brown, the patent was drawn by Chief Justice Popham, the charge becomes the more untenable.

Under the new patent of 1609, power was given to the Charter of Virginia Company itself, acting through a Treasurer and Virginia Company. Council, to make, ordain, and establish all manner of orders and laws fit and necessary for and concerning the government of the said Colony and plantation, and to abrogate, revoke, or change the same. Also power was given to the governor and officers, to punish, according to orders established by the Council, so always as the said statutes, ordinances, and proceedings, as near as conveniently may be, be agreeable to the laws and statutes, government, and policy of this our realm of England. The Council to which these powers were given was to be chosen out of the Company of the adventurers by the voice of the greater part of the said Company of the said adventurers, in their assembly for that purpose, as vacancies might arise.

It should be noticed that in one respect the second Charter was less liberal in its terms than was the first. Under it there was to be no council resident in Virginia, but the Governor, under the Council in England, was to

be sole and absolute. In all other respects, however, the second was a great improvement on the first. Under it the duties to be enforced from outsiders and foreigners were increased to five and ten per cent., the colonists were to be free of all subsidies and customs in Virginia for twentyone years, and from all taxes and impositions upon any goods, either upon importation into the Colony or exportation to England for ever, except only the five per cent. due for Customs, which being paid, they might export again without any fresh duty to foreign parts within thirteen months.

It is stated that the second and third patents were drawn) up by Sir Edwin Sandys, according to the received view, the most enlightened member of the Virginia Company, so that here, at least, the most captious critic can find no ground for the theory that James I. was from the first illdisposed towards the Colony. Being without the gift of statesmanship he doubtless did not foresee the part they might play in history, but they interested his versatile and dilettante nature. A flash of light is thrown on his manner of regarding them by a letter written in 16091 by Lord Southampton to Salisbury, in which he reports that the king is very earnestly asking for a flying squirrel :—“ I would not have troubled you but that you know so well how he is affected for these toys." A king of this kind had objects nearer at heart than the suppression of English liberties.

By the 1609 Charter the extent of Virginia was greatly increased. Its limits now extended over an area of one million square miles, and from sea to sea. It was to reach two hundred miles north, and two hundred miles south of Cape Comfort, near the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. The intention of the founders of the Company was that its stock should be divided into shares of £12, 10s. each. Personal emigration in the service of the Company was to entitle to one share. Certain "extraordinary men," such as clergymen, doctors, etc., were to receive a certain number of shares. The money subscribed was to be spent upon the settlement, 1 Sainsbury Cal.