During the month of March of this year died William the Third. His manner was taciturn, reserved, haughty; his genius military; his decision inflexible. In his fondness of prerogative he showed himself a grandson of the first Charles; as the defender of the Protestant religion, and Prince of Orange, he displayed toleration toward all except Papists. The government of Virginia under him was not materially improved. He was succeeded by Anne, daughter of James the Second. Louis the Fourteenth having recognized the Pretender as lawful heir to the British crown, Anne, shortly after she succeeded to the throne, in 1702, declared war against France, and its ally Spain; but Virginia was not directly affected by the long conflict that ensued. In compliance with the requests of the assembly, the queen granted the colony warlike stores, to the value of three thousand and three hundred pounds, which the governor was directed to pay from the revenue of quit-rents. Her majesty, at the same time, renewed the requisition formerly made by the crown for an appropriation in aid of the defences of New York; but the burgesses still steadily refused.
During the reign of William the Third the commerce of Virginia had been seriously interrupted, and her customary supplies withheld; she, therefore, encouraged the domestic manufacture of linen and wool; but an act for the establishment of fulling-mills was rejected by the board of trade, as also was one for "the better securing the liberty of the subject." Governor Nicholson, in a memorial to the council of trade, described the people of Virginia as numerous, rich, and of republican principles, such as ought to be lowered in time; that then or never was the time to maintain the queen's prerogative, and put a stop to those pernicious notions, which were increasing daily, not only in Virginia, but in all her majesty's other governments, and that a frown from her majesty now would do more than an army thereafter; and he insisted on the necessity of a standing army.[363:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[357:A] Account of Va. in Mass. Hist. Coll., first series, v. 144.
[357:B] Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia, i. 157.
[357:C] European Magazine, 1796.
[358:A] Beverley, B. i. 98.
[359:A] Hugh Jones' Present State of Virginia; Beverley, B. i. 99; Va. Hist. Reg., vi. 15.
[359:B] Beverley, B. i. 97.