These acts were not rigorously enforced until after the passage of the administrative act of 1696 and the establishment of admiralty courts. Even then it does not appear that they bore heavily on the colonies, or occasioned serious protest. The trade acts of 1764 and 1765 are described in "The Eve of the Revolution".—EDITOR.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The literature of the Colonial South is like the leaves of Vallombrosa for multitude. Here may be indicated some volumes useful in any general survey.
VIRGINIA
Hakluyt's "Principal Voyages." 12 vols. (Hakluyt Society. Extra Series, 1905-1907.) "The Prose Epic of the modern English nation."
"Purchas, His Pilgrims." 20 vols. (Hakluyt Society, Extra Series, 1905-1907.)
Hening's "Statutes at Large," published in 1823, is an eminently valuable collection of the laws of colonial Virginia, beginning with the Assembly of 1619. Hening's own quotation from Priestley, "The Laws of a country are necessarily connected with everything belonging to the people of it: so that a thorough knowledge of them and of their progress would inform us of everything that was most useful to be known," indicates the range and weight of his thirteen volumes.
William Stith's "The History of the Discovery and First Settlement of Virginia" (1747) gives some valuable documents and a picture of the first years at Jamestown.
Alexander Brown's "Genesis of the United States", 2 vols. (1890), is a very valuable work, giving historical manuscripts and tracts. Less valuable is his "First Republic in America" (1898), in which the author attempts to weave his material into a historical narrative.