During the first week of March, 1705, Nicholson was busy preparing his defence so that it could get off on the first vessel sailing for England. He penned long letters to the Lords of Trade on the first, the third, and the sixth, and enclosed them with a memorial against Blair, and an address from the Virginia clergy. These papers were received on May 2, and read May 31. Whether they would have influenced the Lords in Nicholson's favor we do not know, for on April 2, just a month before their arrival, the Board received a communication from Secretary Hedges, advising them that the Queen wished them to prepare a commission and instructions for Colonel Edward Nott to be Governor General of Virginia.[40] It was on August 15, 1705, that the Council met in their beautiful room in the new Capitol, for Nott's inauguration. When all had been seated Nicholson entered and read a letter from the Queen directing him to deliver up the government and "repair to her royal presence." He must have looked around at the men who had been his bitter enemies with an air of triumph as he read a letter from Secretary Hedges, stating that he was being recalled, not because of the charges made against him, but merely for her Majesty's service. Then he handed over the seal of the colony and the charter of 1676. One wonders whether, as he bowed himself out, he took one last look at the room for which he had been so largely responsible--the portrait of Queen Anne, the large oval table, the stiff-backed chairs, the Queen's arms, the panelling. Nicholson's administration proved once more that the Virginians could not be governed by illegal and arbitrary means. That he was not ousted by violence as was Sir John Harvey, or that he did not drive the people into open rebellion as did Berkeley, is explained by the difference in the character of the times. Harvey acted in the spirit of the First Stuart Despotism, Berkeley of the Second Stuart Despotism; Nicholson was out of step with his time. To remove him it was not necessary to resort to violence; an appeal to the Queen was all that was needed. Perhaps it was fortunate for the cause of self-government that an experiment in despotism had failed in the opening years of the eighteenth century. It made succeeding Governors wary of trampling upon the people's rights, it gave the people confidence. Having won this victory, they went on to others until their Governors became their servants rather than their masters. FOOTNOTES: [1] CO5-1309, Doc. 9. [2] CO5-1339, Doc. 33 V. [3] T. J. Wertenbaker, _Planters of colonial Virginia_, 183, 247. [4] T. J. Wertenbaker, Attempt to reform the church of colonial Virginia, _Sewanee Review_ 25: 273-275. [5] CO5-1409, p. 135A. [6] CO5-1314, Doc. 35, IIb. [7] CO5-1360, p. 117. [8] CO5-1314, Doc. D10. [9] _Ibid._, Doc. 15G. [10] CO5-1314, Doc. 36. [11] _Ibid._, Doc. 15G. [12] _Ibid._, Doc. 15. [13] CO5-1314, Doc. 17. [14] _Ibid._, Doc. 35 II 6. [15] _Ibid._, Doc. 10.