Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/139

 for improvement which the freemen enjoyed.

The aristocratic class very naturally obtained a controlling ascendancy in the management of public affairs. Sir William Berkeley had been put forward by them as especially devoted to their interests. Warmly attached to the soil of Virginia, Berkeley's views accorded well with those of the Assembly by whom he had been chosen, and their influence was united to perpetuate the tenure of that power already In their hands. The term for which they were authorized to hold office was two years, when a fresh election, according to previous usage, ought to have taken place. They continued, nevertheless, quietly to retain possession of their seats, to obtain the reappointment of Berkeley, and to legislate in a spirit entirely favorable to their own interests. Furthermore, in order to insure the continuance of aristocratic influence, they disfranchised, by their own act, a large proportion of the people who had chosen them, confining in future the exercise of the elective privilege to freeholders and householders—a principle maintained in Virginia to this day. The taxes became exorbitant, the governor and Assembly were overpaid, while all power of checking these disorders was taken out of the hands of the people.

The navigation act, which was warmly opposed by Massachusetts, met with equally earnest and strong opposition ill Virginia. It bore very severely upon their trade by restricting the market to England and English vessels alone. Berkeley was sent to England to endeavor to obtain relief, but without success; though he did succeed in getting for himself a share in the newly-erected province of North Carolina. Meanwhile the proceedings of the Virginia Assembly were very much like those of the government in England. Intolerance obtained the ascendancy, old edicts were revived and sharpened, and fresh ones enacted against Puritans, Baptists, and Quakers, who were visited with fines and banishment;—although it is but fair to say, that Virginia did not, like Massachusetts, hang and put to death the unfortunate followers of George Fox. With the remembrance of what had happened during the civil war, even the pulpit itself was feared, Berkeley expressing a wish that the established ministry "should pray oftener and preach less." Education, too, was studiously discouraged. "I thank God," are the words of the governor some years later, "that there are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government: God keep us from both!"he piously concludes. Such was the aim of the party in power, to maintain the domination of a body of wealthy aristocratic planters, over a submissive and ignorant commonalty, and a still lower class of indented white servants and negro slaves.

The popular discontent was certainly not allayed by the news that the prodigal Charles II. had granted away the