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Untitled Article
who . more than once saved it from destruction , it would have Shared the fate of all the former attempted settlements . One grand fault of which the colonists were guilty , was the perpetration of treachery and oppression on the Indians ; the fatal effect of which , as Mr . Graham e finely remarks , " was not
experienced , till after the lapse of one of those intervals which to careless eyes appear to disconnect the misconduct from the sufferings of nations , but impress reflective minds with an awful sense of that strong , unbroken , chain which , subsisting unimpaired by time or distance , preserves and extends the moral consequences of human actions /'—Vol . I . p . 68 .
On this occasion the interval was of nearly ten years , continuance , when a dreadful massacre of the English by the Indians took place . Meantime , a new charter had been arbitrarily introduced by the king , and the administration vested entirely in the London Company , and a governor appointed by them ; but the colony had not existed altogether above thirteen years , when the rising discontents forced him to allow it to form
a freer constitution . In the year 1619 the first representative assembly of America was called together at James Town , framed with all possible analogy to the parliament of the parent state . It consisted of the governor , the council , and a number of burgesses elected by the seven existing boroughs . The London Company ratified this constitution ; reserving to themselves ,
however , the nomination of a council of state , to assist the governor in the executive , and to form part of the legislative assembly ; and also providing that the enactments of the assembly should not have the force of law till ratified by themselves , nor their own orders the force of law till ratified by the assembly . Between this period and the English rebellion , the Virginian constitution went through many vicissitudes . James
I . arbitrarily dissolved the company , but this piece of tyranny was rather an advantage to the colony . Charles I . utterly overturned the representative system , but at the moment when his oppression had rendered the revolt or ruin of the settlement certain , the discontent in England obliged him to alter his policy ; and the restitution of their rights , their provincial assembly , and administration of justice , with their consequent prosperity , so endeared him to the Virginians , that in the
ensuing contest they espoused the royal cause , and their country became a place of refuge for the distressed cavaliers . It was however subdued without a contest by the Long Parliament , and by the articles of surrender , the colonists recognising the authority were admitted into the English commonwealth ; their constitution preserved , and special provision made " that they should be free from all customs , taxes and impositions whatsoever without the consent of their own assembly . "—Vol . I . p . 100 . These important privileges were counterbalanced by restrio
Untitled Article
20 ft North America .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1836, page 304, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2657/page/40/
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