66 have been greatly excited, acted now with excessive rigor. Twenty persons were hanged, and it is supposed that a greater number would have endured the same punishment, had not the assembly presented an address entreating that he would spill no more blood." One of the deputies said, "had we let him alone, he would have hanged half the country.' Charles II., whose disposition was not cruel, exclaimed, "the old fool has taken away more lives than I for the murder of my father," and issued a proclamation censuring this conduct as derogatory to his clemency. Sir William was recalled, and his place temporarily supplied by Colonel Jeffereys, who, with two others, constituted a commission of inquiry. They seem to have made it very searching, with even a friendly disposition towards the people. The different counties were invited to produce statements of grievances, and the records of the assembly were forced from their clerk, a measure against which they strongly remonstrated. A report was drawn up, in which, while the conduct of the insurgents was strongly condemned, that of the government and several members of the council was also censured. These reflections against Berkeley are supposed to have hastened his death, which took place before he had an interview with the king. The assembly then felt a revival of their old attachment. They passed a vote, declaring, that he had been an excellent governor, and recommended a grant to Lady Berkeley of £300. Jeffereys, during his short administration, had the satisfaction of putting an end, on satisfactory terms, to the Indian war. On the death of Jefferey in 1678, Sir Henry Chichely succeeded to the government. During his administration the colonists enjoyed some repose. In 1680, Lord Culpepper was appointed governor for life. He was avaricious and unpopular. Penalties were enacted against those who should defame the administration, and other measures adopted, tending to make the government oppressive and despotic. This produced its natural effect a rebellion, which was quelled only by the prudence and rigor of Chichely. The complaints of the colonists reached Charles II., and when Culpepper arrived in England, his commission was submitted to the decision of a jury of Middlesex, who declared it forfeited. Lord Effingham succeeded Culpepper, and proved equally tyrannical. Gain was his principal object, and that he sought by the meanest ways. He established a Court of Chancery, with exorbitant fees; ordered that no printing-press should be used in the colony; and rigorously enforced the navigation act. The colonists were loud and constant in their complaints; but were not attended to until the revolution of 1688 had given the throne of England to William and Mary. Effingham then went to England and submitted to a trial. He was continued in office, but on condition of governing by a deputy, and Colonel Nicholson was appointed. This officer became popular with the colonists, because he favored liberal measures, and encouraged learning. In 1692, Sir Edmond Andross was appointed governor, and in the same year, the sovereigns granted a charter for the "College of William and Mary in Virginia." From this period to the commencement of the French War in 1756, there is little to interest in the history of Virginia. The colony continued to increase in population, wealth and importance. The government was vested in deputies appointed by the nominal governor, in England, and in an assembly elected by the colonists. Tobacco continued to be the principal article of cultivation and export. Virginia was a planting country. The means of subsistence were easily obtained from a fertile soil; but manufactures were neglected. On the whole, the colony was prosperous, and the people generally enjoyed the blessings of peace and plenty. HE Virginia Company had assigned to them a region of vast extent, including the heads of the great bays of Delaware and Chesapeake. This grant, however, was forfeited by the dissolution of the London Company, in the time of James I. Sir George Calvert had been secretary of state under that monarch; but being converted to the Roman Catholic religion, he was excluded from office; and thenceforth he devoted himself to colonial enterprise. Having obtained a liberal grant in Newfoundland, he vainly strove to make a permanent settlement in that cold and sterile region. He then went to Virginia, to negotiate arrangements for a colony; but the system of religious exclusion there in force, induced his speedy departure. Calvert possessed royal influence sufficient to obtain the grant of an extensive region, from the southern bank of the Potomac to the 40th degree of latitude, thus including the upper part of Chesapeake Bay and the whole of Delaware Bay. In compliment to the queen of Charles I., Calvert called this region, Maryland. He was now created Lord Baltimore, and enjoyed great favor at court. Having obtained the grant of the country, he resolved to settle it; making it not only an asylum of civil liberty, but a shelter for the persecuted of every denomination of Christians. Before he had completed his arrangements, death closed his useful career. Cecil, his son, inherited his father's title and liberal views, and determined to carry out his designs. In his father's name he completed and executed the charter. By this instrument, Lord Baltimore was created absolute proprietary of Maryland, saving the allegiance due to the crown; he was empowered, with the consent of the freemen, to make laws for the province and to execute the acts of assembly; by consent of the people, he might impose all just and proper subsidies; on the part of the king it was covenanted that neither his majesty nor his successors should impose any taxes upon the colonists, their goods or commodities. For the population of the new colony, license was given to his majesty's subjects, without distinction of sect or party, to emigrate thither, and they were declared to be entitled to all the rights of Englishmen, born in the realm. N November 1633, Leonard Calvert set sail with the first emigrants, consisting of about two hundred persons, including a son of of Sir Thomas Gerard, one of Sir Thomas Wiseman, and two of Lady Wintour. In February he touched at Point Comfort in Virginia, where his arrival was by no means acceptable; nevertheless Sir John Harvey, in obedience to the express orders of Charles, gave him a courteous reception. Early in March he entered the Potomac, to the people on the shores of which the sight of so large a vessel was quite new, and caused the utmost astonishment. The report was, that a canoe was approaching as big as an island, with men standing in it thick as trees in a forest; and they thought with amazement how enormous must have been the trunk out of which it had been hollowed. A piece of ordnance, resounding for the first time on the shores of this mighty river, caused the whole country to tremble. The intercourse, however, appears to have been judiciously conducted, and was, on the whole, very amicable. Calvert sailed up to Piscataqua, an Indian settlement nearly opposite the present site of Mount Vernon, where the chief received him with kindness, saying, "he would not bid him go, neither would he bid him stay; he might use his own discretion." On reflection, he considered the place too far up the river, and therefore the vessel was moved down to a tributary named then St. George's, and now St. Mary's. Ascending it four leagues, he came |