the governors and elsewhere, that "each place within itself and all of them being as it were made up into one Commonwealth, may by his Majesty be here governed and regulated accordingly upon common and equal principles." This comprehensive scheme, based on the actual experiences of a group of English merchants trading with the West Indies during the Cromwellian era, was placed before the king's advisers after the Restoration, and doubtless helped to shape their plans for the management of the colonies.

July 4, 1660, a Council Committee for Foreign Plantations was designated, and with it were two subordinate advisory councils, one for trade the other for plantations, the latter of which was to consist of "several principal merchants of the several companies," to which the king would add gentlemen of quality and experience, and for their greater honor and encouragement some of the lords of his own Privy Council." It was duly organized in December, 1660. Clarendon was appointed president of the board, among the members of which were Ashley, Colleton, Noell, Povey, and two members from each of the great trading companies, men already familiar with the trade of the plantations.

1 Privy Council Register (MS.), Charles II., III., 125, etc. * Cobbett, Hist. of Parliament, IV., 128; Life of Clarendon, written by himself (ed. 1798), III., 201.

Bannister, Writings of W. Patterson, III., 251, 252, quoted by Egerton, British Colonial Policy, 75, n.

The board, of which five members constituted a quorum, at once perfected its organization and appointed sub-committees for the several colonies. The members were expected to inform themselves of the state of the plantations, and procure copies of the grants under which they were settled; to correspond with the governors and require accounts of the laws and governments from them; to use means for bringing the colonies "into a more certain, civil, and uniform way of government"; to investigate the colonial policies of the other European states; to secure transportation of noxious and unprofitable persons to the plantations; to propagate the Gospel, and to have a general oversight of all matters relating to the plantations.'

Of the activities of this council we know but little. Some of their minutes and reports are preserved, and Pepys and Evelyn occasionally refer to their proceedings. The merchants seem to have been largely in control, and till 1663 displayed considerable efficiency. They performed their work largely through committees, and busied themselves with the affairs of Jamaica, Barbadoes, New England, and Virginia. The membership was changed in 1670, 1671, and again in 1672, when the councils of trade and foreign plantations were united under the presidency of Ashley, with John Locke as secretary and treasurer and many of the former members as colleagues.

1 N. Y. Docs. Rel. to Col. Hist., III., 34-36.

This joint committee was to form a “standing council in and for all the affayrs which doe concerne the navigation, commerce, or trade, as well domestic as forraigne, of these our kingdoms and our forraigne colonyes and plantations.

These frequent changes in the select council were due to the belief among those in authority that such a separate board possessing no plenary powers was inefficient and "without any considerable advantage to his Majesty or the plantations." A contemporary expresses a very general opinion when he says: "The council is obliged to have a continual recourse to superior ministers and councils, which oftentimes gives great and prejudicial delays and usually begets new or slower deliberations and results than the matter in hand may stand in need of." It was therefore felt necessary to appoint commissioners "out of the Privy Council, under the great seal, to consider the plantations, to give directions in ordinary cases, and in extraordinary to report to the king and council . . . [commissioners] empowered to act and order with as ample an authority as the commissioners of the admiralty now do." When in 1668 Charles II. reorganized the administrative methods of the Privy Council and adopted a system of "fix't and established committees," he set up a standing committee of the

1 Shaftesbury Papers, MSS. in Public Record Office, X., Nos. 8 (vi.-ix.), 9, 10 (commissions, instructions, members added in 1670, 1672).

council, to act in conjunction with the separate board and to consider whatever concerned "his Majesty's forraigne plantations." This dual arrangement lasted fifteen years, but cannot have been successful; for in 1674 the select council of which Shaftesbury was president was abolished, and its duties were entrusted to a new standing committee of the council composed of twenty-four members, henceforth known as the Lords of Trade.1

This committee held its first meeting on February 9, 1675, though the commission is dated a month later. At first, five constituted a quorum, afterwards three, but the number present rarely fell below six or seven, while frequently ten, fifteen, and twenty attended the meetings. The committee generally sat in the council chamber at Whitehall, and it was attended by many of the most important men of the kingdom, including many men trained under the Protectorate. The king, the duke of York, Prince Rupert, the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of London, the chancellor of the exchequer, the lord privy seal, the lord high chancellor, the vice chamberlain, and others attended, some of them frequently. Occasionally the discussion in the council chamber was only ended by the entrance of the king to hold a meeting of his council. As compared with the inefficiency and inactivity of the permanent board of trade after 1720, a body too often made

1 Egerton MSS., in British Museum, 2395, f. 276, 2543, f. 205; Journal of the Lords of Trade, I., 1, 8.

up of needy politicians and placemen, the committees from 1674 to 1688 display dignity and devotion to business.

The committee was a hard-working body that met frequently and sat long. It considered carefully every matter that came before it; sought to settle every difficulty as expeditiously as possible; obtained information from every available source, summoning and closely questioning merchants, seamen, factors, colonial agents, and even colonial proprietaries like Penn and Baltimore. It purchased books,1 maps, charts, and globes, bade Locke bring in all records and documents of the old commission, and even talked of continuing Purchas's Pilgrimage from accounts to be sent in by merchants and sea-captains. In its wide range of interests it discussed treaties with foreign countries, watched carefully the workings of the great companies, listened to their quarrels and complaints, called on the commissioners of customs to suggest new methods of encouraging trade, and asked for reports from these officials and the clerk of Parliament, on the trade of England. It demanded lists of English ships with the burden of each, and endeavored to lay down rules for the more efficient interpretation of the navigation acts. It prepared instructions and despatches, wrote the king's proclamations, and even dealt with the granting of patents for inventions.

1 See catalogue of committee's library in N. E. Historical and Genealogical Register, XXXVIII., 261.