Blair's answer was to take ship for England, there to lay his complaints before the English prelates and through them before the Board of Trade. To the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Salisbury, and the Bishop of London he undoubtedly poured out his complaints of Andros--that he was an enemy of the college, that he did not support the efforts to secure better livings for the clergy, that he had disobeyed the King's express orders to keep him in the Council. This ecclesiastical lobby was too much for Sir Edmund. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, he wrote that he wished to come home because of ill health. On May 31, 1698, his resignation was accepted and Francis Nicholson named to succeed him as Governor General.[25] When Andros bade Jamestown goodbye and set sail for England, a full decade had passed since the Glorious Revolution, time sufficient for one to judge its effect upon self-government in Virginia. Some of the losses of the Second Stuart Despotism had not been regained. The act of 1680 giving the Crown a perpetual revenue had not been repealed; the judicial powers of the Assembly had not been restored; the efforts to secure a charter for the colony had been abandoned; the Burgesses had not regained the right to name their clerk. Yet the gains far outweighed these failures. Of first importance was it that the Assembly itself had been preserved with most of its rights and privileges. It still could initiate legislation, it alone could initiate money bills, it could determine the uses of all appropriated funds, it could appoint the Treasurer. The petitions of the Assembly to the Throne were no longer cast aside with scorn as in the days of Charles II and James II, but were given careful consideration. The battle for liberty had not yet been won, many bitter struggles lay ahead, but the gains made under the mild rule of King William and Queen Mary were vital to the eventual victory. FOOTNOTES: [1] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1660-1693: 370. [2] CO5-1318. [3] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1660-1693: 352. [4] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1660-1693: 352. [5] CO5-1314, Doc. 9. [6] _Documentary history of New York_ 2: 25, 31, 42, 181-183. [7] CO5-1306, Doc. 64. [8] _Executive journals of the Council_ I: 158. [9] CO5-1306, Doc. 41. [10] _Sainsbury papers_ 5: 100. [11] A. T. S. Goodrick, _Edward Randolph_ 7: 430. [12] _Sainsbury papers_ 5: 165. [13] A. T. S. Goodrick, _Edward Randolph_ 7: 448. [14] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1659-1693: 292, 482-493. [15] _Ibid._, 1695-1702: 9-42. [16] CO5-1359, p. 79. [17] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1659-1693: 360. [18] CO5-1359, pp. 101, 102. [19] W. W. Hening, _Statutes at large_ 3: 197, 198. [20] T. J. Wertenbaker, _The first Americans_, 133. [21] _Sainsbury papers_ 5: 225, 226. [22] _Ibid._, 236. [23] _Executive journals of the Council_ I: 350, 352. [24] _Ibid._, 364. [25] CO5-1359, p. 208. CHAPTER VIII