During the Commonwealth, Virginia not only enjoyed the utmost political liberty, but unlimited freedom of commerce also, while her own internal state was that of peace and prosperity. “Tobacco, the great staple product of the country, was the medium of exchange. Theft was hardly known, and the spirit and administration of the criminal law was mild and merciful; the cultivation of land was carried on very successfully; and as regarded commerce, the navigation laws were a mere dead letter. Virginia even traded with the Dutch during the period when the Protector and Holland were desperately contesting the sovereignty of the seas. The Virginians were the early advocates of free trade, and invited the Dutch and all foreigners to trade with them on the payment of no higher duty than that which was levied on such English vessels as were bound for a foreign port.” Proposals of peace were discussed between New Netherlands, the Dutch colony on the North American shore, and Virginia. During this period, also, considerable advance was made in religious liberty, although the Quakers were banished from the colony. At the period of the Restoration, Virginia possessed, among the privileges which she had won for herself, freedom of commerce with the whole world, and the universal elective franchise. The population amounted now to 30,000, and it was esteemed an honour to be a born Virginian. Numbers of the emigrants of late years had been, as we have seen, royalist officers, men of family and education, and these, though they still retained their loyalty, offered no impediment to the free exercise of independent principles in Virginia, and finally the newly-adopted country superseded the old, and the interests and liberties of Virginia became to them dearer even than the monarchical principles of which they had been the supporters in England, and for their adherence to which they had been exiles. “God Almighty,” says their statute-book of this time, “hath vouchsafed myriads of children to this colony.” Young Virginians were growing up throughout the length and breadth of the land. Virginia was becoming the home of patriots. “Labour,” adds Bancroft, summing up the advantages and prosperity of the colony, “was valuable; land was cheap; competence promptly followed industry. There was no need of a scramble; abundance gushed from the earth for all. It was the best poor man’s country in the world. Yet, as the shadow-side of this bright picture, it must be conceded that plenty encouraged indolence; everything was imported from England. The chief branch of industry, for the purpose of exchanges, was tobacco planting, and the spirit of invention was enfeebled by the uniformity of pursuit.” CHAPTER V. COLONISATION OF MARYLAND.