were taken on shore, and replaced by cannon. Berkeley and his men awaited what was to follow.

Then

At the moment when the broadsides seemed about to begin, the captain of the frigate sent a boat ashore to demand a surrender. A long discussion took place between him and the Virginians, and a curious circumstance is said to have ended it. The English captain privately informed two members of the Council that he had on board his frigate valuable goods consigned to them. If there was no trouble these would reach their owners, if there was trouble they would not. Was this bribery, or is it true? It is impossible now to say. The only authority for it is Beverley, and he is often inaccurate. What is certain is, that the Virginians, after solemn and prolonged discussion, determined to surrender. We have official authority for this hesitation. The Commissioners themselves reported that the "Burgesses of all the several plantations being called to advise and assist therein, upon long and serious debate, and in sad contemplation of the great miseries and certain destruction," etc. In a word, the chief men of Virginia having considered the demand of the Parliament, agreed, much against their will, and only "to prevent the ruin and destruction of the Plantation," to surrender to the Commonwealth.

This would seem to be a plainly stated historical occurrence; and yet some historians cannot understand it. Even Mr. Bancroft, followed by Mr. Campbell, adopts the statement of Clarendon, and says that "no sooner had the Guinea frigate anchored in the waters of the Chesapeake, than all thoughts of resistance were laid aside." Opposed to them we have Beverley, Marshall, Robertson, and others, above all, the English Commis

1

sioners who were present. If the Virginians suddenly lost heart when the English ships anchored in the Chesapeake, they must have regained it as suddenly, since the Commissioners reported that "having brought a fleet and force before James Cittie, in Virginia," they found "a force raised by the Governor and country to make opposition against the said fleet." It seems so plain, from the record, that the Virginians meant to fight, and only gave up the intent after long and serious consultation, that one is surprised to find the contrary stated as the truth. There seems no trouble at all in understanding the transaction. The Virginians did not wish to surrender to the Parliament, preferring to fight, but finding that their enemy was too powerful, they surrendered.

The" Articles at the Surrender of the Country" is a remarkable paper. The parties treat as between crowned heads. Virginia was to obey the Commonwealth, but this submission was to "be acknowledged a voluntary act, not forced nor constrained by a conquest upon the country." The people were "to enjoy such freedoms and privileges as belong to the freeborn people of England;" the Grand Assembly was to continue; there was to be a "total indemnity for all acts, words, or writings, done or spoken against the Parliament of England"; the colony was to have free trade with all nations, in spite of the Navigation Act; the Virginia Assembly alone was to have the right to tax Virginia ; and all persons refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the English Commonwealth should have a year to

1 The report of the Commissioners and other documents relating to the surrender, are preserved in Hening's Statutes at Large, and set all doubt at rest.

dispose of their property and depart out of the colony. The strangest article of all was that in reference to the hated Prayer-Book. The Virginians were to go on using it for the space of one year, only provided, that "those things which relate to Kingship be not used publicly." As to the "total remission and indemnity," to be extended to everybody, Sir William Berkeley and his advisers were expressly included in it. Neither he nor his Council were to be obliged to swear fealty to the Commonwealth for a year; nor be "censured for praying for, or speaking well of, the King in their private houses;" and were to be allowed to sell their property and go whither they pleased. Then this grand finale comes, signed by Bennett, Clayborne, and Curtis, the Parliamentary Commissioners: "We have granted an act of indemnity and oblivion to all the inhabitants of this Colony, from all words, actions, or writings, that have been spoken, acted, or writ against the Parliament, or Commonwealth of England, or any other person, from the beginning of the world to this day."

Some of these articles were not ratified by the Long Parliament, which was dissolved soon afterwards; notably that engaging that no taxes or impositions should be laid on Virginia without the consent of the Assembly. Otherwise they remained the terms on which the surrender was made, and were respected. If any persons fancied that the Virginia royalists would be proscribed, and their leader, Sir William Berkeley, beheaded like Charles I., for his armed resistance to Parliament, they were agreeably, or disagreeably disappointed. Since the scene in front of Whitehall, beheading was out of fashion, and there was to be no confiscation of property, or any vengeance whatever, since

there was little to avenge. A general amnesty covered all. A single ceremony sufficed to blot out all the misdeeds of the past, an oath of allegiance to the Parliament. As to that there was to be no discussion. Those refusing to take it were to go away and stay away from Virginia.

VIII.

VIRGINIA UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH.

THUS in the short hours of a March day Virginia passed from the King under the Commonwealth. By the scratch of a pen in the fingers of a few men in black coats, this ancient dominion of royalty had become the new dominion of the Parliament.

There was no sudden convulsion of society, or even the least confusion. The old went and the new came as mildly and peacefully as one hour succeeds another on a May morning. The haughty Cavalier Berkeley, in his silk and lace, goes away to Greenspring, and the shorthaired people, called by their enemies "Roundheads" for that reason, are the masters. Berkeley afterwards spoke bitterly of these scenes at Jamestown. He burst forth in his address to the Burgesses, speaking of the Parliamentarians, with, "they sent a small power to force my submission, which, finding me defenseless, was quietly (God pardon me!) effected." And one of hist followers growled out that the Parliament ships had reduced the colony under the power (but never to the obedience) of the Usurper." But there was absolutely nothing for the fiery old Cavalier to do but to submit. He sold his "house in James Cittie, the westernmost of the three brick houses I there built," and went away to

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his Greenspring manor, and on one pretext or another remained in Virginia. Every poor friend of the King found his house and purse open; the days were spent, no doubt, in lamenting the hard times and in drinking confusion to Noll and his traitorous crew; and all through the times of the Commonwealth, the bitter Cavalier was permitted to remain undisturbed.

This was strange, it may be said, since this man had hated the very names of Puritan and Commonwealth, with a perfect hatred; had issued his proclamation denouncing the friends of the party now in power; had fully approved when they were pilloried for deriding the King; and had risen in armed defiance of the Parliament. The same party in England had beheaded the King and confiscated the estates of his followers. Why was Berkeley, the King's viceroy, left in peace, and none of his adherents persecuted? The true explanation may be indicated in a very few words. The mass of the Virginia population, and a vast preponderance of the wealth and influence of the colony were Cavalier, always taking the word to mean friendly to Church and King. The Commonwealth's men now in power had little personal enmity toward their opponents, as in England. There were few vengeances to wreak, or old scores to settle; and to have attempted to outrage the great body of Cavalier planters would have been absurd. Such outrage might be dangerous. Revolutions were uncertain. The Roundheads were up to-day, but they might be down to-morrow. The King's friends might regain the ascendency. But strongest perhaps of all, was the feeling that their adversaries were good Virginians like themselves. They were willing to accept rule under Cromwell or the