Page:American Historical Review, Vol. 23.djvu/41

Rh Customs to mold and guide imperial relations in the interest of the mother-country and to the advantage of the privileged companies.

After all, the changes effected in imperial administration after 1675 lay rather in the infusion of a sharper tone and the perfecting of the functions of colonial control than in any radical alterations in the processes of doing things. The Lords of Trade took up their assigned tasks, not only qualified by apprenticeship and assisted by a competent board, but with many precedents to point the way. The select councils, even though they had been impotent in conduct, were not without a considerable value in fixing lines of practice and principles of colonial control that promised a better order and served as guides for the future. The Lords of Trade simply took in hand the loosely co-ordinated policies initiated by the separate councils and carried them out more vigorously and more intelligently. In the matter of the systematic handling of business, previous efforts to create a bureau and methods had fallen short of good order because of the frequent changes through which the select councils had passed. The Lords of Trade took prompt steps to secure an orderly procedure. The king detailed Sir Robert Southwell, one of the clerks of the Privy Council and an official of good ability, to act as constant secretary to the committee. To his patient toil was due the initial organization of an office, a clerical staff, and routine methods. He labored hard. The preparation of business for the committee and waiting upon it, making detailed reports, abstracting long documents from the colonies, answering letters, bringing completeness into the keeping of records, and directing routine matters in general formed the 'burden of his work. He complained of the lack of assistance and his health broke under the strain. In March, 1676, his request for leave to resign as permanent secretary was granted, with merited praise for his "extraordinary paines and diligence". The plantation bureau was then placed on a regular footing. The four clerks of the council were to serve as secretaries, each in,turn for six months, and