ought perhaps to be admitted as some extenuation of its defects.

Ir will be recollected, that the works of the most eminent writers are extremely unequal in their execution. I shall content myself with citing one example, Hume: whose account of the early part of English history, is extremely superficial; and whose delineations of the houses of Tudor and Stewart, differ widely from each other in the merit of execution. This inequality, so visible in almost every writer, I apprehend, arises not unfrequently from the difference in the real interest and magnitude of the transactions they relate; and I am not without hope, that when I shall come to events of real dignity, though I should fail to ennoble my subject, it is not impossible that I shall myself, be raised by it.

THE AUTHOR.

APPENDIX.

The London company-nature of its government APPENDIX. and forms of its proceedings-its political bias and opinions respecting religion. Different governments in the colony. Political temper of the times. State of learning. Its influence on the settlement of Virginia. Agriculture-manufac ́tures-commerce. State of the Indian nations of Virginia. General reflections.

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THE London Company, whether we consider the number and character of its members, or the very conspicuous part they were called on to act, is one of the most singular associations, which has been recorded in history. By referring to the list of its members, which is subjoined at the end The Lonof this volume, it will be seen, that independent a croud of gentlemen, barons, viscounts and earls, many of whom were the most prominent and conspicuous members of the British parliament, it contained almost all the subordinate corporations in London. Invested by their charter, which was supposed to be the highest species of tenure, flowing as it did from the fountain of all earthly honors, the king; with the government and the property of a large territory, they united the characters of legislators and proprietors. All the gradations of rank were forgotten at their meetings, and their elections were conducted on the natural and equitable principle of equality. It is not surprising then, that their government as well

as their forms, should finally become democratical; a vice, of which they were afterwards accused by the king, and which was probably the principal, if not the only, cause of their dissolution.

THE meeting of this singular company presented the appearance of an august popular assembly, invested with the government of a nation: And though they had an executive council, which like other executives, were presumed to be always in session, the love and the jealousy of liberty, and perhaps the seducing circumstance of dominion, (for here, each member was a ruler) suggested the propriety of frequent and more popular meetings. Monthly or inferior courts were holden once a month; whilst in their great courts, which sat four times in the year, were debated questions of a higher nature, with all the animation, the ability, and sometimes, the tumult of democratical assemblies.

In justice however, to this form of government, as well as to the company, it ought not to be concealed, that the tumult and discord which, in one or two instances, may be objected to them, arose from the interference of the king, and the concerted efforts of a small, but desperate knot of unprincipled men, who sought to bury their guilt in the dissolution of the company, and to reap, in the change of government, the rewards of their treason. The virtues, the talents, and (in gene. ral too,) the order and wisdom of their administration, were all their own.

Ar the time, when the first settlement was made at James Towa, the extent of the royal prerogative was not precisely knova; and although a free spirit was manifestly rising in the nation, and the parliament even went so far as to speak (tho' in respectful and modest terms) of their privileges, yet the range of royal discretion was a circle, whose

periphery was not exactly measured; in the opi- APPENDIX. nion of some, was too vast to be measured. The doctrines of the house of Tudor, were transmitted a fatal bequest, to their successors of the Stewart line: But the dawning genius of the age, and the expansive feelings and spirit, which literature creates, recoiled against the insolent assumption and exercise of power, which could boast no other title than precedent and prescription.

Ir was to be expected, that the London com pany, composed of such characters as have already been described, would not have been exempt from feelings, which agitated in some degree, all persons in the nation: And we find them accordingly, in defence of their chartered rights and privileges, seconding the national impulse, by manly and spirited exertions....whilst the walls of their assembly room responded to the house of commons, in the flights and sallies of fancy; in the bold invective; the spirited and poignant sarcasm, and the more lasting and impressive sounds of connected, profound and deliberate eloquence. If it be permitted us to judge from the characters of the members, it may be safely pronounced, that the London company possessed a stronger relish for the beauties of literature, than any other association in the nation, not excepting even the house of commons itself; and when we consider the solicitude they discover, both in their private resolves, and in their instructions to their governors, for the *propagation of knowledge in Virginia, by the endowment of schools and the establishment of an university, this conclusion appears to receive fresh confirmation.

THEIR treasurer, the earl of Southampton, was

Hume's Eng. IV. p. 319.

APPENDIX. the friend and patron of the immortal Shakespeare. Sir Edwin Sandys, sir Dudley Diggs, sir John Saville, with several other members of the London company, were considered the most elegant scholars and most eloquent speakers in the

nation.

IT was at this fortunate crisis, when the morals of the people were tolerably free from moral taint and contagion; when a taste and genius for the fine arts were becoming brighter, more radiant and distinct in the horizon; and when a newborn ardor in favor of liberty with the gripe of an infant Hercules, snapped the snaky cords with which tyranny had invaded its cradle; at such a juncture was it, that the foundations of this commonwealth were laid, by architects, who, appreciating themselves, above all price the blessings of liberty, to which all their wishes and exertions were directed at home, were resolved in those regions to prepare a temple, within whose walls, the human race might find a refuge and asylum, from the persecutions and tyranny of privilege and prerogative.

IT may be objected, that the company's gov ernment in Virginia, for several years was arbitrary and *tyrannical; and that even martial law, every where justly considered odious by freemen, was long their favorite scheme of policy, and their guide in administration. It will perhaps be argued, that these facts (for it is admitted, they are facts) ought forever to do away the opinion of their patriotism; and that, however attached they were themselves, to liberty; however desirous of securing their own rights and privileges from invasion, they scrupled not like the Spartans in their treatment of the Helots, deliberately to disfran

Rob. Hm. posth. vol.