and planted in the New World the germs of civil liberty.  In this service the company did not escape the troubles incident to the mercenary purpose of a joint-stock partnership, yet it assumed a national and patriotic character, which entitles it to be considered the greatest and noblest association ever organized by the English people.[26] However unjust the measures taken by King James to overthrow the London Company, the incident was fortunate for the inhabitants of Virginia.  The colony had reached a stage of development which needed no longer the supporting hand of a distant corporation created for profit.

In Virginia, sympathy with the company was so openly manifested that the Governor’s council ordered their clerk, Edward Sharpless, to lose his ears[27] for daring to give King James’s commissioners copies of certain of their papers; and in January, 1624, a protest, called The Tragical Relation, was addressed to the king by the General Assembly, denouncing the administration of Sir Thomas Smith and his faction and extolling that of Sandys and Southampton.  The sufferings of the colony under the former were vigorously painted, and they ended by saying, “And rather (than) to be reduced to live under the like government we desire his ma^tie y^t commissioners may be sent over w^th authoritie to hang us.”

Although Wyatt cordially joined in these protests, and was a most popular governor, the General Assembly about the same time passed an act[28] in the following words:  “The governor shall not lay any taxes or ympositions upon the colony, their lands or commodities, other way than by authority of the General Assembly to be levied and ymployed as the said assembly shall appoynt.”  By this act Virginia formally asserted the indissoluble connection of taxation and representation.

The next step was to frame a government which would correspond to the new relations of the colony.  June 24, 1624, a few days after the decision of Chief-Justice Ley, the king appointed a commission of sixteen persons, among whom were Sir Thomas Smith and other opponents of Sandys and Southampton, to take charge, temporarily, of Virginia affairs; and (July 15) he enlarged this commission by forty more members.  On their advice he issued, August 26, 1624, authority to Sir Francis Wyatt, governor, and twelve others in Virginia, as councillors to conduct the government of the colony, under such instructions as they might receive from him or them.

In these orders it is expressly stated that the king’s intention was not to disturb the interest of either planter or adventurer; while their context makes it clear that he proposed to avoid “the popularness” of the former government and to revive the charter of 1606 with some amendments.  King James died March 27, 1625, and by his death this commission for Virginia affairs expired.[29]