law, expressly provides, "so always as the said statutes, ordinances and proceedings, as near as conveniently may be, be agreeable to the laws, statutes, government and policy of our realm of this England." By the first charter of Virginia, which was granted to Sir Thomas Gates and others, dated April 10th, 1606, the government of the plantation was vested in a council to consist of thirteen persons, "to be ordained, made and removed from time to time according as we shall be directed and comprised in instructions, etc.” This council was vested with power to govern and order all matters and causes which shall arise from or happen according to such laws, ordinances and instructions as shall be given and signed with our hand or sign named, and pass under the privy seal of our realm of England, etc. (1 Hening's Stautes at Large, p. 61). Afterward, in 1621, a new form of government appears to have been introduced by the organization of what was termed a Council of State," consisting of the governor of the plantation and divers distinguished persons, who were to be associated with him, to be designated, chosen, nominated, placed and displaced from time to time by the "treasurer, council and company;" and another council to be called "The General Assembly," to be called by the governor once yearly, and no oftener but for very extraordinary and important occasions, shall consist, for the present, of the said Council of State and of two burgesses out of every town, kindred or other particular plantation to be respectively chosen by the inhabitants, wherein (as also in the Council. of State) all matters shall be decided, determined and ordered by the greater part of the voices then present, reserving to the governor always a negative voice (1 Hening's Statutes, p. 112). In the year 1621, which was the seventeenth year of James the I., Sir Francis Wyatt was appointed goverernor to the London Company, his commission bearing date November 18th, 1621, and he continued till the 26th of August; 22 Jac. 1; then the king granted him a commission to be governor till some other course should be settled and resolved upon, but owing to the death of George Wyatt, Esq., his father, he got leave to return to Ireland to manage his affairs, and was succeeded by Sir George Yeardley. Accompanying the commission of Governor Wyatt were certain instructions which were to be his guide, in and by which he was, among other things, directed "to keep up religion of the Church of England as near as may be; to be obedient to the king, and do justice after the form of the laws of England, and not to injure the natives, and to forget old quarrels now buried. To be industrious and suppress drunkenness, gaming and excess in cloths; not to permit any but the council and heads of hundreds to State and of y town, kin lantation to the inhabi he Council De decided, by the then pres or always Statutes, was the me I., Sir gover ny, his ember ill the n the to be Ourse pon, Orge ave his Sir He re e wear gold in their cloths, or to wear To use means to convert the hea- To make a catalogue of the people in every plantation and their conditions, and of deaths, marriages and christenings; to take care of dead persons' estates for the right owners, and keep a list of all cattle, and cause the secretary to return copies of the premises once a year; to take care of every plantation upon the death of their chief; not to plant over one hundred pounds of tobacco per head; to sow great quantities of corn for their own use, and to support the multitude to be sent yearly; to inclose lands; to keep cows, swine, poultry, etc., and particularly kyne, which are not to be killed yet. Next to corn, plant mulberry trees, and make silk, and take care of the Frenchmen and others sent about that work; to try silk grass; to plant abundance of vines, and take care of the Vignerors sent. To put prentices to trades, and not let them forsake their trades for planting tobacco or any such useless commodity. To take care of the Dutch sent to build saw mills and seat them at the falls, that they may bring their lumber by the current of the water. To build water mills and block houses on every plantation; that all contracts in England or Virginia be performed, and the breaches punished according to justice. Tenants not to be enticed away; to take care of those sent about on ironwork, and especially Mr. John Berkeley, that they don't miscarry again, this being the greatest hope and expectation of the colonies. To make salt, pitch, tar, soap, ashes, etc., so often recommended, and for which materials had been sent; to make oyl of walnuts, and employ apothecaries in distilling lees of beer, and searching after minerals, dyes, gums and drugs, etc., and send small quantities home. To make small quantity of tobacco, and that very good; that the houses appointed for the reception of new comers and public storehouses be built, kept clean, etc.; to send the state of affairs quarterly, and a duplicate next shipping. To take care of Capt. Wm. Norton and certain Italians sent to set up a glass house. A copy of the treatise of the plantation, business and excellent observances made by a gentleman of capacity, is sent to lie among the records, and recommended to the councilors to study. Governor and council to appoint proper times for administration of justice, and provide for the entertain That care be taken that there be no engrossing commodity or forestalling the market. To see that the Earl of Pembroke's thirty thousand acres be very good. To make discoveries along the coast, and find a fishery between James River and Cape Cod. That the chief officers ought to set examples in raising staple commodities, and to aim at the establishment of a colony. And lastly, not to let ships stay long, and to freight them with walnut and any less valuable commodity. (See Ist Hening's Statutes at Large, pp. 114, 115, 116, 117.) The record of "The Laws and Orders concluded on by the General Council, March 25th, 1623, 4," contain many things of a very great interest, but we can make room for only a few of them. The first law or order is: That there shall be in every plantation where the people used to meete for the worship of God a house or roome sequestered for that purpose, and not to be for any temporal use whatsoever, and a place empaled in, sequestered only to the buryal of the dead. That whosoever shall absent himselfe from divine service any Sunday without an allowable excuse shall forfeite a pound of tobacco, and he that absenteth a month shall forfeit 50 pounds of tobacco. That the 22d of March be yearly solemnized as a holiday. (This was in commemoration of the escape of the colony from entire extirpation by the fatal massacre of Indians on the 22d of March, 1622). That no minister be absent from his church above two months in all the yeare upon penalty of forfeiting halfe his means, and whosoever shall absent above foure months in the year shall forfeit his whole means and |