Virginia was now quiet, but her miseries were not at an end. Large crops of tobacco were raised, and the price sank far below a remunerative scale. Attempts were made to plant towns, to prescribe new channels for commerce, and to introduce manufactures; but these were not the natural growth of the times or the soil, and trade was only impeded by any laws to direct it. Tobacco sank still lower, and again the scheme of the “stint,” or the cessation of planting, was entertained. During two sessions the assembly endeavoured to legislate for these difficult circumstances; but in May, 1682, the malcontents commenced to cut up the tobacco-plants, especially the sweet-scented, which was produced nowhere else, and to this futile procedure, Culpepper, who had now returned, put a stop by measures of great severity—hanging the ringleaders and enacting plant-cutting high treason. Lord Culpepper had in the interim of his absence purchased the share of Arlington, and he now returned to establish his own claim to the Northern Neck. It was vain, spite of the injustice of the case, for the holders of land in this fine district to attempt the maintenance of their prior claims; nothing remained for them but compromise. A printing-press was at this time brought over into Virginia, by John Buckner, who printed the enactments of the session; but such publicity was dreaded. He was called to account by Culpepper, and forbidden to print anything until his Majesty’s pleasure should be known; and the following year any printing-press was forbidden in Virginia, under the royal authority. The slave-code received some alterations during Culpepper’s government, which were worthy of the remorseless spirit of the man. Slaves were forbidden the use of arms, or to leave their masters’ plantations without a written pass, or to lift a hand against a Christian, even in self-defence. Runaways, who refused to give themselves up, might be lawfully killed. “All accounts,” says Bancroft, “agree in describing the condition of Virginia at this time as one of extreme distress. Culpepper had no compassion for poverty; no sympathy for a province impoverished by perverse legislation; and the residence in Virginia was so irksome, that in a few months he again returned to England. The council reported the griefs and restlessness of the country, and renewed the request that the grant to Culpepper might be recalled. The poverty of the province rendered negotiation easy, and in the following year Virginia was once more a royal province.” Lord Howard of Effingham succeeded Culpepper as governor, but the change was hardly beneficial to the unhappy province. Office was only desirable to him as a means of making money. Nothing could exceed the mean avarice of this man; it became almost a proverb. It is said that, with an eye to the fees, he established a Court of Chancery, claiming, by virtue of his office, to be sole judge.