and Dublin had returned to its allegiance. The Virginian Royalists might not know how assured was the triumph of their cause, but we may be sure that they knew enough to inspire them with fresh hopes.

Governor.

The choice of representatives unluckily tells us but little. The majority of the names were new, but this proves nothing, as we Berkeley find the same tendency to a complete change during appointed the tranquil times of the Commonwealth. This is only natural in a community like Virginia, where the habits of the people make attendance at the seat of government both troublesome and costly, and where there is little in the career of a representative to stimulate political, social, or intellectual ambition. But whatever may have been its composition, the proceedings of this Assembly leave no doubt as to the temper in which it met. It clearly contemplated the probability of a restoration, while at the same time it approached the subject in a thoroughly cautious and temperate manner. This was well illustrated by its first measure. This provided that during the unsettled state of things in England, the supreme power of the colony should be vested in the Assembly, and that all Acts should issue in that name till some lawful authority should appear from England. The leanings of the Assembly towards the restoration of the monarchy were shown by its choice of Berkeley for Governor. At the same time it imposed on him three conditions, all manifestly intended to strengthen the hands of the Burgesses and to check any exercise of arbitrary authority by the Governor. These conditions bound the Governor to call an Assembly every two years or oftener, to choose a Secretary of State with the approval of the Assembly, and not to dissolve the Assembly without the consent of the Burgesses.1

To confirm the authority thus asserted, an Act was passed declaring all persons who should refuse to obey the Assembly public enemies, and threatening them with punishment as such.

After making these provisions for further peace and freedom, the Assembly proceeded with its ordinary administrative and legislative functions. The only noteworthy measure in these was a bill, formidably entitled an Act for the Annihilation of the Councilors, formally repealing the law by which the post of Councilor had lately been made a life appointment. Finally, the Assembly adjourned till October, leaving the Governor, however, at liberty to summon it earlier if necessary.

1 For all these proceedings see Hening for 1659-60.

RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY.

229

In October the Assembly again met and peaceably accepted the restored monarchy. Berkeley was formally described in the record of proceedings as "the king's Governor," while the day the late king's execution was declared a public fast, and that of the Restoration a day of rejoicing.

Apparently the solemn acceptance of the new order of things was the only purpose for which this Assembly met. It made no laws, and confined its business to passing orders analogous to the Private Acts of an English Parliament.

CHAPTER IX.

VIRGINIA AFTER THE RESTORATION.'

The overthrow of the royal authority had been achieved without bloodshed and, as it would seem, even without rancor, and Change of the same moderation and tranquillity marked the Ressystem. toration. But though that event brought no definite and declared change in the condition of Virginia, yet it clearly marks an epoch in the relations of the mother country to this and the other dependencies. The restored monarchy carried on the policy of the Commonwealth in dealing with the colonies as a special department of the state. In 1662 a commission was issued to thirty-four members of the Privy Council constituting them a Council for Foreign Plantations. The nature and limits of their functions was distinctly laid down in their instructions. It was their duty to supervise the government of all the colonies, to acquaint themselves with their commercial and political condition, their revenue and means of defense. They were as far as might be to combine the whole body of colonies into an organized whole, dependent on the mother country and contributing to her wealth. For this purpose they were to make special inquiry as to the government of dependencies by other nations. The due execution of the Navigation Act and the supply of servile labor

1 Our material now for the first time becomes embarrassing from its very abundance. After the Restoration, letters from leading Virginians to public men in England are far more fre quent than before, and these, together with pamphlets, official reports, and instructions to governors, furnish us with ample means of judging of the general condition of the colony. As we approach the revolution of 1688, Beverley's History of Virginia begins to be valuable. The author was a rich Virginian planter. His father emigrated before 1676, and took a prominent, and not always creditable, part in the troubles of that year. Accordingly, the son's statements probably represent, if not his own experiences, at least the oral tradition of eyewitnesses. The authorities for Bacon's rebellion deserve a special note. I should mention that, examining the papers for this period, I have been much indebted to Mr. Sainsbury for kindly allowing me the use of his MS. calendar, now in process of publication.

REVIVAL OF COLONIZATION.

231

to the colonial market were both to form subjects of attention, while the latter was to be so arranged as to relieve England of its surplus population. Nor was the internal welfare of the plantations themselves, and their religious and moral discipline, to be overlooked.

Fresh

coloniza

tion.

The temper of the age gave a quickening spirit to these forms. Historians have hardly done justice to that outburst of energy and activity which marked the colonial history of the interest in years immediately following the Restoration. We shall see it fully displayed at a later stage of our subject in the revived spirit of colonial enterprise which founded Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and which, by the conquest of New York, gave England a continuous Atlantic seaboard. In the older colonies, too, the results of this spirit could be plainly traced. In New England it led to an amount of interference and to a state of ill-feeling which well-nigh rent asunder the colonies from the mother country, and might have anticipated in a narrow and imperfect form, the achievement of American independence. In Virginia, as in the West Indies, we trace the new system in the almost constant supervision of colonial affairs by the authorities at home. Everything of importance in the colony is reported, examined, and commented upon by the Council. And it must be said in justice to those under whose control the colonies fell, that this supervision was for the most part intelligent, and that the colonists were not abandoned, as at a later day, to the greed of place-hunters or the caprice of factions. There are few bright spots in the government of Charles II., but the historian of the colonies may at least be thankful that he has to deal only with its better aspects.

instruc

The instructions sent out to Berkeley in the following year (the Restoration) show no definite change in the system of colBerkeley's Onial administration. At the same time there is a detions. tailed precision about them which proves that henceforth the English government would exercise a more minute supervision, and that the Virginians would no longer enjoy that amount of self-government which had hitherto been permitted to them. Berkeley is specially instructed to send home an annual report, and henceforth we have a mass of continuous official correspondence, which furnishes ample material for the history of the colony. The most noteworthy point in Berkeley's instructions

1 Colonial Entry Book, No. lxxix. p. 265.

was an injunction to maintain Divine worship, according to the forms of the Church of England, to keep churches in good repair, and to add to their number.

The old difficulties come up again. Towns are to be built on the various rivers, and plantation of tobacco is to be limited, in such manner as may seem best to the colonists. New industries, the production of iron, flax, hemp, and pitch, are to be encouraged.

It is clear that the Civil War had left few scars behind it. The Act of Indemnity is extended to the colony with the same. specific exceptions as in England, and all Acts of the Assembly passed during the time of the Commonwealth are to be repealed. This was done, but nearly all the Acts of substantial importance were re-enacted.

and uneasiness.

The political and economical condition of the colony might well have seemed enviable to those who remembered the evil Discontent days of struggle and suffering which followed the massacre. In the twenty years which preceded the Restoration the population had multiplied nearly fourfold.1 In spite of restrictions the export trade had steadily increased. So friendly were the relations with the Indians that the very possibility of danger seemed to be forgotten. The Virginian settler, however, was not destined to sink into a state of political torpor. There is indeed in races trained to freedom a wholesome principle of discontent never long dormant, which saves them from many of the dangers of a tranquil and inactive prosperity. It was but natural that when the horrors of the wilderness and the perils from Indians and wild beasts were first overcome, the colonists should be carried away by the enjoyment of their newly-won happiness. Hence came that pervading tone of content and satisfaction which we trace in the annals of Virginia during the period which we have already surveyed. That however could not last. As the memory of early hardships and difficulties died away, so the settlers became aware of defects in the social and political system, defects which had been willingly overlooked in the presence. of rapidly-increasing prosperity. Shortcomings in the social state of the colony, the accumulation of land in a few hands, the lack of towns, of schools, and of churches, all began to be felt, and even if not laid directly to the charge of the government, served

1 Berkeley, in a letter to Arlington, 1665, August 1, sets the population of the colony at forty thousand.