Though the powers granted to the governor were exorbitant—“the armed force, the revenue, the interpretation of the law, the administration of justice, the church, all being under his control and guardianship”—the spirit of independence was vigorous in Virginia; and when, in 1691, the revenue being exhausted by the governor and his favourites, additional supplies were demanded, the assembly claimed the right, and maintained it too for some time, of nominating a treasurer of their own, and when finally this right was refused, declined to contribute their quota for the defence of the colonies against France. Nay indeed, being aware of the revenue derived by the mother-country from the duties on tobacco, “they made,” says old Quarry, “a nice inquiry into the circumstances of government, and concluded that the assembly itself was entitled to all the rights and privileges of an English parliament.” As regarded the established church, also, these independent colonists carried things very much in their own way. The Bishop of London might license, and the governor might recommend, a minister, but if the congregation did not like him they would not have him; and by refusing, spite of all protests, to accept a minister as an incumbent for life, but merely as a servant of the congregation from year to year, they kept the power in their own hands. Virginia was the opposite of Massachusetts; and though some of the parishes were so large that in many cases the inhabitants lived fifty miles from the church, the assembly would not be at the expense of altering the bounds, though it was threatened with “paganism, atheism, or sectaries.” Finally, this obstinacy with regard to the clergy led to a collision with the crown. In the meantime great was the liberty and great the enjoyment of Virginia. She had no large towns, no marts of commerce; “as to outward appearance,” it was said, “Virginia looked like a wild desert,” and in England it was reported to be “one of the poorest, miserablest and worst countries in all America.” Tobacco was still the general currency, and the colony having no vessels of its own, the merchants’ ships lay for months waiting for the cargoes which their boats picked up at the various plantations. The principles of liberty for which Bacon had perished were not by any means dead. “Pernicious opinions, fatal to royal prerogative,” says an old writer, “were improving daily;” and though the Virginians resented any charge of republicanism, yet the colonial mind was, in effect, strongly biased that way. From the insurrection of Bacon, for about three-quarters of a century, Virginia enjoyed uninterrupted peace.