Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/619

 a man of the sternest soldierly instincts, who thought that the infant settlements ought to be governed by military rules as strict as those prevailing in a fort under garrison. Virginia to him was a community to be controlled by the most rigid military discipline. Under such regulations as he insisted upon enforcing, the evil which might be expected to result from the introduction of criminals would necessarily have been very much diminished.

No objection was offered by the Company, as the demand for laborers increased in the Colony, to the reception of persons who were either in part or entirely dependent upon the poor rates for subsistence. In 1620, on motion of Sir Edwin Sandys, a committee was appointed which was instructed to obtain from the justices of the peace in the shires of the kingdom, such youths above fifteen years of age as were a burden upon the resources of their respective parishes. Each of these parishes was to be asked to contribute five pounds sterling towards the equipment of every youth to be delivered by it, this being in accord with the policy already inaugurated in connection with the city of London. In the spring of 1619, the Company dispatched to Virginia one hundred children who had been furnished by the authorities of that great corporation. In the following January, the Lord Mayor consented, after a conference with the Treasurer and Deputy Treasurer, to provide one hundred children additional for shipment to the Colony, and to allow five pounds sterling towards the cost of their clothing and transportation across the ocean. He showed great solicitude to