PRINCE CHARLES INVITED TO VIRGINIA.

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to put arms in their hands to make slaves of their masters. Berkeley met the commissioners with firmness. They were astonished at the boldness of the Virginians, and deemed it more prudent to compromise than to coerce. They made satisfactory arrangements, by which the political freedom of the colonists was guaranteed. Berkeley disdained to make any stipulation for himself with those whom he regarded as usurpers, and he withdrew to his plantation at Green Spring, where he lived in retirement as a private person. The Virginians then elected Richard Bennet, governor. When news of the preparation of an armament for the subjugation of the colony reached Virginia, Berkeley and the cavalier party resolved not to submit, and they sent a messenger to Breda to invite Prince Charles to come over and be their king. He was preparing to come, with his mother and some others of his family, when affairs took a turn in England which foreshadowed a speedy restoration of the monarchy there. That event occurred in 1660, when the prince ascended the throne of his father, as Charles the Second, at the age of thirty years. The monarch did not forget the loyalty of the Virginians. He caused the arms of that province to be quartered with those of England, Scotland and Ireland, as an independent member of his empire. From this circumstance the title of the "Old Dominion" was given to Virginia. Coins, with these quarterings, were struck as late as 1773.

Berkeley an Oppressor-Republicanism in Virginia-Royal Favorites Enriched-Condition of the Virginians-War with the Indians-Berkeley's Bad Conduct-Bacon's Rebellion Berkeley's Cruelties-A Breach of Privilege-A Profligate Governor-Virginians Impoverished and Degraded by Misrule-Political Troubles in England-White Slaves in Virginia Growth of Republicanism There -The Revolution of 1688.

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HE Virginians soon felt the deep significance of the injunction: "Put not your trust in princes." When Matthews died (1660), whom Cromwell had appointed Governor of Virginia, the people elected Berkeley. He refused to serve, excepting under royal appointment; and he went to England to congratulate Charles on his accession to the throne, when he was graciously received by the sovereign. The king spoke very kindly of the Virginians, because of their loyalty, and praised them as the "best of his distant children." These manifestations of love were the velvet coverings of the iron hand which soon afterwards signed those decrees of a pliant Parliament which deeply oppressed the Virginians by restrictions upon their commerce, their political franchises and their religious liberty.

Charles gave Berkeley a new commission, and he returned to Virginia prepared to execute his master's will in full. At an election of members for a new House of Burgesses, the candidates of the cavaliers and land-owners were chosen, and Berkeley had as pliant an assembly of royalists as his king possessed in the Parliament. Navigation laws, oppressive to the commerce of the colony, were passed, and Berkeley executed them. Marriage laws, the freedom of elections and almost every other franchise possessed by the people were modified, abridged or abolished. The Church of England was made supreme, and persecution with its fiery broom attempted to sweep Baptists, Friends and other Puritans out of Virginia. When Owen, the bold Quaker preacher, stood with his head covered with his hat before the court at whose bar he had been summoned, and said meekly but firmly, "Tender consciences obey the laws of God however they suffer," the angry reply of the court, in the spirit of the age, was: "There is no toleration for wicked consciences." Berkeley enforced the laws; and Friends and Puritans sought

REPUBLICANISM IN VIRGINIA.

315 peace and a refuge in the wilds of upper North Carolina, where they formed settlements.

Less tolerant and just than when he was younger and weaker, Berkeley, in the later years of his administration, drifted, in thought and action, with the cavaliers, who hated everything that marked the character of the Puritans. They despised the popular education and consequent elevation of the "common people" of New England; and Berkeley wrote, some years after the restoration of monarchy, "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing in Virginia, and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years. For learning has brought heresy and disobedience and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best gov ernment; God keep us from both!"

Stimulated by oppression, republicanism grew vigorously in Virginia. The men of toil, and righteous ones of the aristocracy, soon formed a powerful republican party. Their strength was increased by the rank injustice of the king, who seems not to have had a clear perception of right and wrong. He gave to profligate favorites large tracts of land in Virginia, some of them under cultivation; and in 1673, he actually gave to Lord Culpepper, a cunning and covetous member of the Commission for Trade and Plantations, and the Earl of Arlington, a heartless spendthrift, "all the dominion of land and water, called Virginia," for the term of thirty-one years.

This act excited the alarm of the more thoughtful men of the aristocratic assembly, and a committee was appointed to carry a remonstrance to the king. Its mission was unfruitful. The republicans were inflamed with just indignation, and rebellious murmurs were heard everywhere. The toiling people were made to regard the aristocracy as their natural enemies. The latter had the power to promote the welfare of the people at large, but omitted to do so. Everything of a public character was neglected. There were no roads or bridges in Virginia. In boats and along bridle-paths the people were compelled to travel, and to ford or swim the streams. There were no schools. Every planter was compelled to be his own mechanic. Most of the houses of the toilers were mean log-huts with unglazed windows. Villages nowhere existed, for the inhabitants were scattered over a wide domain. Even the capital of the colony consisted only of a church, statehouse and eighteen dwellings at the time we are considering, and the Assembly had, until lately, met in the hall of an alehouse.

Meanwhile, the large land-owners were living in luxury in fine mansions in sight of some beautiful rivers. They were surrounded by slaves or indentured servants, and were engaged in a sort of patriarchal life. At the same

time Governor Berkeley was clamoring for an increase of salary, while in his stables and his fields he had seventy horses; and large flocks of sheep whitened the broad acres of the Green Spring plantation. The "common people" saw clearly that the tendency of circumstances in Virginia was toward a rich landed aristocracy and an impoverished peasantry, and they longed for a pretext and an opportunity to assert their natural rights. That pretext and opportunity soon appeared.

In the summer of 1675, the Indians, in despair, invaded Virginia from the north. When they were sweeping through Maryland, John Washington,

the great-grandfather of our Beloved Patriot, n.et them with a force of Virginians. A fierce border war ensued. Governor Berkeley, who had the monopoly of the beaver trade with the Indians, and was willing to be just, treated them leniently. When he heard that six of their chiefs who came to treat for peace had been treacherously murdered by Englishmen, he exclaimed with warmth: "Had they killed all of my nearest relations, yet if they had come to treat of peace they ought to have gone in peace."

Fired by this treachery, the savages swept over the country between the