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CHAPTER Violations of this law, and prosecutions were commenced

XV. against those who disregarded it. But, upon the remon1680. strance of the English merchants trading to Virginia,

to whom it proved very inconvenient, its execution was suspended by order in council.

The old project of a "stint," or "cessation" in the planting of tobacco, was also revived. The inhabitants of several counties signed a petition to the governor to call a special session of Assembly for that purpose. Alarmed at symptoms which seemed to portend a new rebellion, without consulting his council he granted the 1682. request. The Assembly met, but, after vehement deApril 18. bates, proceeded no further than to petition the king to order a stint, not in Virginia only, but in Maryland and Carolina also, the importation of whose tobacco into Virginia had lately been prohibited by statute. The disappointed planters assembled tumultuously in the petitioning counties, and cut up the tobacco plants. The actors in this affair being "inconsiderable people," proceedings against them were suspended for the present, in hopes of fixing the offense on persons of more conse

quence.

Notwithstanding Beverley's services as Berkeley's lieutenant in suppressing the insurrection of Bacon, his jealous custody of the records of the House of Burgesses, and his refusal to submit them to the inspection of the king's commissioners, had given great offense. A royal letter had suggested to the council the propriety of visiting all concerned in that business with special "marks of the king's displeasure." With the object apparently of compelling the Assembly to choose anothMay. er clerk, Beverley was arrested on the charge of stirring up informations under the Cohabitation Act, setting on foot petitions for an Assembly, and giving assurances

XV.

of a cessation, whereby he had provoked the people to CHAPTER riot. On these vague accusations he was kept a prisoner, his discharge on writ of Habeas Corpus being re- 1682. fused, and the subject referred to the king. Finally he Nov. was accused of interfering with the business of the secretary, in opening a letter containing writs for the election of burgesses. But this he insisted had been done by the governor's special order. At last, upon an information of the attorney general, he was found guilty of high misdemeanors, or, rather, he confessed himself guilty, 1684. and compounded matters by asking pardon on his bended May. knees. The next Assembly evinced their sympathy by again choosing him their clerk.

Meanwhile prosecutions against the plant-cutters proceeded. Under advice from England, several of them were found guilty and executed for treason, which, by a declaratory act of Assembly, was pronounced to be April. committed by all who assembled to the number of eight or more, to cut up or destroy tobacco plants or any other crop.

The slave code during Culpepper's administration received some additions. Slaves were prohibited to carry 1682. arms, offensive or defensive, or to go off the plantations of their masters without a written pass, or to lift hand against a Christian even in self-defense. Runaways who refused to be apprehended might be lawfully killed. The condition of slavery was imposed upon all servants, whether negroes, Moors, mulattoes, or Indians, brought into the colony by sea or land, whether converted to Christianity or not, provided they were not of Christian parentage or country, or Turks or Moors in amity with his majesty. An unsuccessful attempt was made in the council, whether dictated by humanity, by policy, or by a wish to promote the interests of the Royal African

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CHAPTER Company, to re-enact the old law prohibiting the enslavement of Indians. The evils of the slave system were 1682. already felt. Culpepper refers, in an official report, to "the buying of blacks" as having "exceedingly contributed" to the over-production of tobacco.

Though Culpepper had obtained from the Assembly a salary of £2000, $8000, besides presents and perquisites, he seems to have had little relish for a banishment to Virginia, whence he twice returned without leave. On his return the second time, convicted by a jury of receiving presents from the Assembly contrary to his orders, he was deprived of his office by a legal process, and he soon found it expedient also to surrender his patent, receiving therefor a pension of £600. Virginia thus restored to the crown, Lord Howard of Effingham 1684. was sent out as governor, with a frigate to enforce the navigation acts.

It was by an Assembly which he called that the already mentioned act against plant-cutters was passed. April. The public revenue was aided by a tax of threepence per gallon upon all liquors imported, except from England. Additional measures were also taken for frontier defense, in furtherance of which Effingham presently visited Albany, and, with the assistance of Dongan, governor of New York, negotiated a treaty with the Five Nations, which put a stop to the depredations on the frontier, under which, for several years past, Virginia had suffered.

1685.

Oct.

A new Assembly was presently called; but, instead of proceeding to business, the members "spent their time in frivolous and unnecessary debates"—at least such was the judgment of James II. on their conduct--"presuming so far as to raise contests touching the governor's negative voice."

This behavior the king was pleased to

XV.

ascribe not only to a disposition to protract the session, CHAPTER and thereby to increase their wages, but also to the influence of Beverley, whom they had elected as their 1685. clerk, and whom the king now declared incapable of any office or public employment in Virginia, and ordered to be prosecuted, if the governor found cause, "according to the utmost rigor of the law, for altering the records of the Assembly." The governor's conduct in proroguing the Assembly was approved; he was ordered to dissolve it; and henceforward to assume to himself authority to appoint a fit person to execute the office of clerk of the House of Burgesses. Nor did the House regain the appointment of its clerk till the reign of Queen Anne.

Previous to the arrival of this order, the Assembly, at an adjourned session, had passed an act, by which debts 1686. contracted in Maryland and Carolina were first made recoverable in the Virginia courts.

Effingham, like his predecessor, was greedy for money. All probates of wills were required to be sealed, and, for the use of his seal, the governor demanded a fee of two hundred pounds of tobacco. A new fee of thirty pounds of tobacco was demanded by the secretary for recording grants of land. It was partly, perhaps, this

Oct.

same desire of fees which led to the establishment of 1687.

a Court of Chancery, of which the governor claimed, Oct. 27. by virtue of his office, to be sole judge, with the assistance, however, of such counselors as he chose to consult. In conformity with the policy adopted by James II. not less in America than in Europe, Ludwell and Custis were displaced from the council to make room for 1686. two papists.

An act of Lord Culpepper's first Assembly, reciting "that all courts in this country are many times hindered

CHAPTER and troubled in their judicial proceedings by the impertXV. inent discourses of many busy and ignorant men, who 1687. will pretend to assist their friend in his business, and to clear the matter more plainly to the court, although never desired nor requested thereunto by the person whom they pretend to assist, and many times to the destruction of his cause, and the great trouble and hinderance of the court," for the prevention of these evils, prohibited any person to appear in any court as attorney without first obtaining a license from the governor. This act, being found "inconvenient," was repealed by the next Assembly. But the repealing act was itself repealed by royal proclamation, whereupon Effingham claimed that the first act revived, and would allow no attorneys to practice without his license.

The planters of Virginia were not a little alarmed at an excise duty imposed in England on tobacco-the commencement of a system, since carried so far in that country. They attempted to retaliate by acts for the encouragement of domestic manufactures. But these acts were disallowed by the king in council, as hostile to English interests.

The increase of discontents in the colony was evinced not only by many prosecutions for seditious words, but 1688. in the conduct of a new Assembly, presently called, of April. whose clerk, conformably to his recent orders, Effingham

1662.

assumed the appointment. That Assembly was soon dissolved without passing any acts, and Effingham proceeded to England, followed by Philip Ludwell, sent by the Assembly to complain of his conduct. Upon Effingham's departure, Nathaniel Bacon, president of the council, succeeded to the temporary administration.

For some years after young Calvert's accession as governor, things in Maryland went on happily.

Some

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