where they were assured of a welcome. They were transported at the expense of the corporation, and were married to the tenants of the company, or to men who were well able to support them, and who willingly defrayed the costs of their passage, which were rigorously demanded. The adventure, which had been in part a mercantile speculation, succeeded so well, that it was designed to send the next year another consignment of one hundred; but before these could be collected, the company found itself so poor, that its design could be accomplished only by a subscription. After some delays, sixty were actually despatched, maids of virtuous education, young, handsome, and well recommended. The price rose from

one hundred and twenty, to one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco, or even more, so that all the original charges might be repaid. The debt for a wife was a debt of honour, and took precedence of any other; and the company, in conferring employments, gave a preference to the married men. Domestic ties were formed, virtuous sentiments and habits of thrift ensued; the tide of emigration swelled; within three years, fifty patents of land were granted, and three thousand five hundred persons found their way to Virginia, which was a refuge even for puritans."*

The formation of a popular power in the colony was, though not openly approved, silently permitted by the company. At length, the company, in 1621, by an ordinance dated July of that year, promulgated a constitution for the colony. Every constitution framed by Eng

* Bancroft, History of America, vol. i. p. 155-157.

land for a colony since that period has followed the model of that which this company adopted. It set forth, as a preamble," that the object sought was the greatest comfort and benefit of the people, and the prevention of injustice, grievances, and oppression."

The administrative body was composed of a governor, appointed by the company, and a permanent council, also appointed by the company. The legislative body was a general assembly, composed of the governor, the council, and burgesses to be elected from each of the several plantations by their respective inhabitants. This assembly was to be convened once every year, and had full legislative authority-a negative voice being reserved to the Governor; and no law or ordinance was to be valid unless ratified by the Company in England. One step, of a peculiar nature, followed, and pointed most significantly to future events. The Company solemnly bound itself not to impose laws on the colony without the consent of the Colonial Legislature. When afterwards the King superseded the Company, and the Imperial Government occupied the relative position of the Company to the colony, this promise was not considered binding. The Imperial Parliament deemed itself supreme, struggled with the colony, and eventually lost it, because the prudent and long-sighted resolution of the Company, which founded the new community,* had been disregarded.

In addition to the Legislative, there was also a judicial body instituted; and their proceedings were ordered

* Bancroft, vol. i. p. 157.

to be in all things conformable to the laws and manner of trial used in the realm of England.

The next succeeding years were, as regarded the colony, years of prosperity. But, at this time, the great obstacle to American happiness was reared by English hands. Those men who had contrived and fashioned a rational plan for the preservation of liberty, and security, and happiness, forgot, in their eager pursuit of wealth, the dictates of justice, as well as of policy; and SLAVERY was allowed, in her most degrading and degraded form, to raise her horrid front amid a people of freemen. I need not dwell upon this painful spectacle. Such an evil cannot be brought again to life in an English community. Hereafter, we are to expiate the evil deeds of our ancestors, by labouring without respite in the great cause of human freedom, and by spreading a race of freemen, hating black as well as white slavery, over the many vast territories that belong to England. We are destined to be the chief and most effective opponents of a system which once we too successfully supported.

The King, finding the Company unwilling to listen to his behests, and refusing, at his dictation, to elect their officers, determined to overturn the Company, and resume the powers granted by the charter. Commissioners were sent to America, to inquire into the condition of the colony. These Commissioners seized the records, imprisoned the deputy-treasurer, examined witnesses, and intercepted private letters. They easily found evidence against the Company; some of which evidence, though thus collected, was honest. Smith, well known in Virginian history, was examined by them; "his

honest answers," says Mr. Bancroft, "plainly exposed the defective arrangements of previous years, and favoured the cancelling of the charter as an act of benevolence to the colony." Hereupon, the King determined to remodel the charter-in fact, to subvert the Company-and take back the powers which the first charter had reserved to the Sovereign, but which, under the advice of Cecil, had been granted to the corporation. A quo warranto was issued; and the Company was called upon for its defence. Commissioners were now again sent to the colony; there they found the colonists ready to throw off the Company, but utterly averse to submit themselves to the government of England, or the arbitrary will of the King. A remarkable distinction was now insisted on for the first time, which exercised a most potent influence throughout the remaining colonial existence of these communities. The King was spoken of as the King of Virginia. The supreme power in the colony was said to reside in the hands of the colonial parliament, and the King, as King of Virginia. This principle was never forgotten by the colonists, though it slumbered for many years after the revolution of 1688. The sturdy republicans of New England carried it still further: they, from the first, insisted upon their independence, and resisted, as long as they were able, the acts of the English Parliament; by which the celebrated system of our colonial monopoly was erected, and our Navigation Laws were enacted. The colonies yielded, indeed, to the superior force of England on that occasion; but, in due time, they renewed the contest, and with a different result. They not only withstood the enforcement of our law, but recurring to

their ancient doctrine, and dearly prized independence, cast off for ever the dominion of England, and called into existence the gigantic republic, which will ever remain the lasting memorial of our glory and our humiliation.

In June, 1624, the Court of King's Bench, during Trinity Term, gave judgment on the quo warranto against the Company. The House of Commons even did not attempt to protect this unpopular corporation. Its patents, therefore, were cancelled, and the Company was dissolved. Such was the first experiment of colonizing by a chartered company; and this experiment suffices to condemn the system.

A more favourable opportunity was never afforded for the successful employment of such a machinery. The company was composed of men of great power, wealth, and intelligence. The country to which colonists were sent was fertile, blessed with a healthy climate, and was found to possess a staple commodity, which proved the source of great and steady wealth; but a wealth that could only be attained by care and labour. There arose, therefore, none of the mischief that befalls a colony which gambles in mines. Steady habits of industry and thrift were acquired by the people; who, as a community, were likely to flourish, if permitted fairly to exercise their ingenuity and industry in the production of the fortunate commodity, tobacco, by which they could obtain an ample reward for their labour and capital. But the company could derive no advantage from the mere comfort and happiness of the colonists; they, as landlords, could hope for very small returns in a country in