Page:The Rise of American Civilization (Volume 1).djvu/58

 The growing prosperity of Virginia, instead of yielding wealth and security to the Company, only added to its troubles. As the population increased in size difficulties of administration multiplied and these in turn aggravated the dissensions that constantly raged in London. Every part of the social order in England was now being shaken by a conflict between the Crown and the titled aristocracy on one side and merchants and minor gentry on the other, a conflict that was in a few years to break out into civil war and revolution. Each party to this controversy had its spokesmen in the Virginia Company rending its transactions with angry disputes. The mercantile element, prominent both in the corporation and in the House of Commons, steadily opposed all high notions of royal prerogative and all arbitrary schemes of taxation.

Unable to abolish Parliament, the king, James I, resentfully turned his wrath against the Company. Judicial proceedings were instituted calling for the forfeiture of its charter; the case was heard by judges appointed by the king to serve his interests; the conclusion was foregone. In 1624, the charter was annulled and the colony became a royal province administered directly under the king's authority. After sinking £150,000 in an unprofitable speculation but making experiments that pointed the way to successful colonization, the Company thus came to an ignominious end. Yet for the moment no radical changes were made in the economic and political life of Virginia. The last executive sent over by the corporation was continued in office as a royal appointee; the affairs of Virginia were managed by a royal governor aided by a small council designated by the Crown and the House of Burgesses elected by the planters.

Such were the beginnings of the colony which historians are accustomed to contrast with Puritan New England as if it were a secular enterprise carried out by freethinkers. As a matter of fact, if records are to be taken at face value, "neither the desire for treasure nor even the wish to pro-