Soon after the restoration of domestic quiet, sir William Berkeley returned to England, and was succeeded by Herbert Jeffreys, who relieved the colony from one of its complaints by making peace with the Indians.
About the year 1680, an essential change was made in the jurisprudence of Virginia. In early times, the assembly was the supreme appellate court of the province. During the administration of lord Culpeper, a controversy arose between the burgesses, and counsellors, who composed also the general court, concerning the right of the latter to sit as a part of the assembly, on appeals from their own decisions. The burgesses claimed, exclusively, the privilege of judging in the last resort. Assembly deprived of judicial power.This controversy was determined by taking all judicial power from the assembly, and allowing an appeal from judgments of the general court to the King in council, where the matter in contest exceeded the value of three hundred pounds sterling.[102]
From the rebellion of Bacon to the revolution in 1688, the history of Virginia affords no remarkable occurrence. The low price of tobacco, that perpetual source of dissatisfaction, still continued to disquiet the country. Combinations were formed among the people to raise its value by preventing, for a time, the growth of the article; and disorderly parties assembled to destroy the tobacco plants in the beds when it was too late to sow the seed again. Violent measures were adopted to prevent these practices, and several individuals were executed.
These discontents did not arrest the growth of the colony. A letter from sir William Berkeley, dated in June, 1671, states its population at forty thousand, and its militia at eight thousand. A letter from lord Culpeper in December, 1681, supposes that there might then be in the colony fifteen thousand fighting men. This calculation however is probably exaggerated, as the report of general Smith, prepared in 1680 from actual returns, represents the militia as then consisting of eight thousand five hundred and sixty-eight men, of whom thirteen hundred were cavalry.[103]
CHAPTER VI.
Prosperity of New England.... War with Philip.... Edward Randolph arrives in Boston.... Maine adjudged to Gorges.... Purchased by Massachusetts.... Royal government erected in New Hampshire.... Complaints against Massachusetts.... Their letters patent cancelled.... Death of Charles II.... James II. proclaimed.... New commission for the government of New England.... Sir Edmond Andros.... The charter of Rhode Island abrogated.... Odious measures of the new government.... Andros deposed.... William and Mary proclaimed.... Review of proceedings in New York and the Jerseys.... Pennsylvania granted to William Penn.... Frame of government.... Foundation of Philadelphia laid.... Assembly convened.... First acts of the legislature.... Boundary line with lord Baltimore settled.
1680
Prosperity of New England.
After the departure of the commissioners, New England was for some time quiet and prosperous. The plague, the fire of London, and the discontents of the people of England, engrossed the attention of the King, and suspended the execution of his plans respecting Massachusetts. In the mean time, that colony disregarded the acts of navigation, traded as an independent state, and governed New Hampshire and Maine without opposition.[104]