Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/552

 This law constitutes one of the most interesting acts of legislation in colonial history, and might be regarded as a remarkable triumph of legislative hope over practical experience were it not for the statement of the preamble that the Assembly had undertaken to encourage the building of towns because they looked upon it as their duty to conform to the wishes of their sovereign in England. There is a brief reference to the probable economic advantages to accrue to themselves. The determination to establish these towns had its origin almost exclusively in a feeling of loyalty, a poor justification for so momentous a step. The hand of Berkeley is detected in the whole framework of the statute and his preference is evidently consulted.

A full synopsis of this Act will be found interesting as revealing the procedure of the General Assembly in the seventeenth century when it sought to build up a town in the face of a powerful combination of hostile influences. The best means to promote the growth of the capital was the problem which was to occupy the attention of the Colony during the first year after the passage of the statute, and at the end of that time, the public energies were to be devoted to establishing a town on the York, Rappahannock, and Potomac respectively, and on the Eastern Shore. Under the terms of this statute, it was provided that Jamestown should consist of thirty-two houses, a number which indicated that the General Assembly was disposed to be moderate and prudent in its requirements. Each house was to be forty feet from end to end, twenty feet in width in the interior, and eighteen feet in height. Each was to be constructed of brick. The walls were to be two bricks in thickness as far as the water table, and one and a half the remaining distance. The roof was to be covered with slate or tile, and was to be fifteen feet in pitch. The manner of the relative arrangement of the