"
Such was the first charter of James to the colony of Virginia. We will
not now pause to consider it minutely either for praise or for blame.
With some provisions that seem to be judicious, and which afterward
proved themselves to be salutary, it embraces the most destructive
elements of despotism and dissension. The settlers were deprived of the
meanest privilege of self-government, and were subjected to the control
of a council wholly independent of their own action, and of laws
proceeding directly or indirectly from the King himself. The Parliament
of England would have been a much safer depositary of legislative power
for the colonists than the creatures of a monarch who held doctrines
worthy of the Sultan of Turkey or the Czar of the Russian empire.
But all parties seemed well satisfied with this charter, and neither the
King nor the adventurers had before their minds the grand results that
were now giving birth. The patentees diligently urged forward
preparations for the voyage, and James employed his leisure hours in
preparing the instructions and code of laws contemplated by the charter.
His wondrous wisdom rejoiced in the task of acting the modern Solon, and
penning statutes which were to govern the people yet unborn; and neither
his advisers nor the colonists seemed to have reflected upon the enormous
exercise of prerogative herein displayed.
Pages:
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604