ABSTRACT OF PAPER ON

THE COLONIZATION OF VIRGINIA.

BY MR R. W. DALE.

February 8th, 1881.

THE causes which led to the great colonization movement of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are first considered. Passion for national glory; the struggle for existence between Catholic and Protestant countries, the hopes of wealth in gold and silver, and the impression that America was rich in secret treasure; the belief in the religious duty of colonization; these were motives which acted upon all alike.

England had special causes for activity. In the first place there was the abounding feeling of strength and confidence which was the result of her complete success in the tremendous struggle just finished, wherein the position she had assumed was that of the champion of Protestantism. The national mind was in exaltation and eager for new opportunities. But there was another motive which led the statesmen of Elizabeth and James I, to promote this enterprise." Since the destruction of the monasteries England had swarmed with beggars. "They were hereditary paupers: a lawless strain was in their blood: and they were impatient of common employments of industry." The first

English poor law was a measure, not so much of charity as of police. The American colonies appeared to offer a way out of this difficulty as out of another. In a pamphlet by Robert Cushman, published in 1621, he writes "Was there ever more suits in law, more envy, contempt and reproach than now-a-days. Abraham and Lot departed asunder when there fell a breach between them, which was occasioned by the straitness of the land, and surely, that howsoever the frailties of men are principal in all countries, yet the straitness of the place is such that as each man is fain to pluck his means, as it were out of his neighbours' throat, there is such pressing and oppressing in town and country, about farms, trades, traffick, etc., so as a man can hardly anywhere set up a trade but he shall pull down two of his neighbours. The Towns abound with young tradesmen and the hospitals are full of the ancient ; the country is replenished with new farmers and the almshouses are filled with old labourers.”

The extent to which colonization was promoted by religious persecution has not been fully recognized. Huguenots in the middle of the sixteenth century came, at Coligny's suggestion, to Rio Janeiro and Florida; English Roman Catholics, threatened in England, sailed to Maryland in the reign of James I.; the Pilgrim Fathers in the Mayflower landed at New Plymouth in 1620; nonseparatist Puritans, driven out by Laud came, also to Massachusetts, in 1629; Episcopalians, some years later fled, from the Commonwealth to Virginia; Presbyterians from Wales and Scotland, at the Restoration, came to Pennsylvania, Virginia, Carolina; Germans from the Palatinate settled near what is now Philadelphia; Piedmontese Protestants sought a refuge on the banks of the Hudson. Even Poland, early in the eighteenth century, sent a contingent of two hundred Protestants.

"Indeed this vast new world beyond the ocean has fulfilled the idea of a noble scheme projected by Gustavus Adolphus, a scheme which however was still only in the germ when he fell gloriously on the plains of Lützen. As early as 1626 he established a great commercial company with the right of planting colonies. The

Thirty Years' War was now begun, and the fortunes of Protestantism in Europe were still uncertain. It was the dream of Gustavus that his hardy Swedes should found a colony in America, where "the honour of the wives and daughters" of those whom war and bigotry had made fugitives might be safe; a blessing to the whole Protestant world. After his death Oxenstiern took up the scheme and about seven hundred Swedes settled on the Delaware. In less than twenty years, however, the colony was seized by the Dutch; some years afterwards it was transferred to ourselves; and so for a time the immigration from Sweden was arrested."

The paper then turns to consider especially the colony of Virginia, "not one of the noblest in origin,not one of the noblest in its subsequent history, but still a colony which has a special interest because it is the earliest of the British colonies, and because some of the greatest Americans were born on Virginian soil.”

"At the commencement of the reign of James I. two new companies were formed to settle plantations in Virginia. One was described as the London company and was empowered under a patent to plant a colony anywhere between thirty-four and fortyone degrees of North Latitude. The colony might have a sea board of 100 miles in length-50 miles each way from the spot first occupied-and it might stretch 100 miles inland. The charter declares that the undertaking is a work which may by the providence of Almighty God hereafter tend to the glory of the Divine Majesty, in the propagation of the Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge of God.

The Company had a monopoly of the trade with the colony: was empowered to search for mines, but was required to pay the King one fifth of the proceeds of all gold and silver mines and one fifteenth of all copper mines. They had authority to carry out settlers; to coin money; to keep the land to themselves and exclude all intruders They might levy duties on the exports from the colony and their goods were to come to England free of duty for seven years.

While all profits of trade and land were to form the interest on the capital sunk, real estate was ultimately to be held under the laws of England, but for the first five years the land was to remain undivided. A system of communism was to be established. Houses were to be built, cattle, seed and implements purchased by the company's funds, and they were to be the company's property. The company undertook to provide food for the settlers—who were to have all things common. All the proceeds of labour and of trade were to go into the common stock. At the end of five years there was to be a division of lands and goods.

For every share of £12 10s. the adventurers-whether they remained in England or went to the colony were ultimately to have one hundred acres of land; and another hundred acres when the first lot was brought under cultivation. Every settler who paid his passage money was also to have one hundred acres; and he was to have one hundred acres for every person whom he carried with him and for whose passage he paid.

The supreme control of the affairs of both company and colony was vested in a council in England which was to consist of thirteen persons, nominated-not by the shareholders-but by the King and removable at his pleasure.

The local affairs were under a council in the colony, nominated by the council in England, with power of veto of any appointment reserved to the King.

It is obvious that, although the charter declared that the colonists were to have all the rights of Englishmen, the principle of self-government was by this constitution absolutely ignored.

The local council, besides possessing extensive police powers, was specially charged with the duty of providing that "the true word and service of God, according to the rites and service of the Church of England, be preached, planted and used in the colony and among the neighbouring savages."

For a long while the colony had a miserable history. The first emigrants were in large part "gentlemen," that is men who knew nothing of the kind of work necessary in a new colony. Within

four months, four months of quarrelling, half of the original settlers were dead. Fortunately the authority of the council practically came into the hands of John Smith: it is an unheroic name, but he was a man of true heroic temper, and he managed for awhile to stave off disaster. This disaster was rendered inevitable by the men who were sent out. Two years after his appointment came out 120 new settlers, "vagabond gentlemen," with three or four bankrupt London Jewellers, etc., sent out to seek for mines. A year or so later followed another wretched set of poor profligate gentlemen and broken down tradesmen.

The paper then deals with the stock jobbing operations of which the company became the centre in London and with the change in constitution which followed in consequence of the failure of the colony, a change which gave no liberty to the settlers, but merely abolished the local council, putting all executive and judicial power into the hands of a governor appointed by the home council.

Smith having been disabled by a wound, the affairs of the colony, in a desperate state, were handed over to Sir Thomas Dale, who at once set about a root and branch reformation. His regulations were most searching and vigorous. Police, Religion, public and private life, labour, trade, everything fell under his code. The following examples will serve to illustrate its nature. The captain of each district was to see that every man went to his work at the beat of drum, and, when the day's work was over, the drum was to be beat again and the captain was to bring them to evening prayers. Again, for absence from morning or evening prayers on working days a man or woman lost a day's rations for the first offence, for the second offence the penalty was whipping, for the third six months at the galleys: while for the third absence on the Sabbath the penalty was death.

To wash dirty linen in the open street or to throw dirty water out of the washing tubs into the street was a crime to be punished with whipping. False weights in bread caused the offender to lose his ears for the first offence, and so forth.