Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/168

154 governor; the other to be called the general aſſembly to be co n vened by the governor once yearly, or oftener, which was to conſiſt of the council of ſtate, and two bergeſſes out of every town, hundred, or plantation, to be reſpectively choſen by the inhabitants. In this all matters were to be decided by the greater part of the votes preſent; reſerving to the governor a negative voice; and they were to have power to treat, conſult, and conclude all emegrant occaſions concerning the public weal, and to make laws for the behoof and government of the colony, imitating and following the laws and policy of England as nearly as might be: providing that theſe laws ſhould have no force till ratified in a general quarter court of the company in England and returned under their common ſeal, and declaring that, after the government of the colony ſhould be well framed and ſettled, no orders of the council in England ſhould bind the colony unleſs ratified in the ſaid general aſſembly. The king and company quarrelled, and by a mixture of law and force, the latter were ouſted of all their rights, without retribution, after having expended 100,000l, in eſtabliſhing the colony, without the ſmalleft aid from government. King James ſuſpended their powers by proclamation of July 15, 1624, and Charles I. took the government into his own hands. Both ſides had their partiſans in the colony; but in truth the people of the colony in general thought themſelves little concerned in the diſpute. There being three parties intereſted in theſe ſeveral charters, what paſſed between the firſt and ſecond it was thought could not affect the third. If the king ſeized on the power of the company, they only paſſed into other hands, without increaſe or dimenution, while the