This was a dangerous thing to do, for it was in the midst of the War of the Spanish Succession, and an Assembly was needed to provide funds for the defense of the colony. But the Council gambled that no French fleet would appear in the Chesapeake Bay. The normal expenses of the government--their own salaries and those of the President, Auditor, Attorney General, and other officials--they paid out of the export duty on tobacco and the quit rent fund. In September, 1708, Jenings wrote that privateers had come in between the capes and had chased a merchant vessel up the York River, that the Indians were threatening the frontier, that the Governor's house was unfinished, and that the quit rent fund was "much drained," but that despite all, the Council would not call an Assembly.[21] In December, 1709, Lord George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, was appointed Governor General of Virginia. Orkney had been trained as a soldier, and had distinguished himself at Namur, Blenheim, Malplaquet, and elsewhere. It is probable that it was intended from the first that the office should be a sinecure, and though Orkney held it for years he never set foot on Virginia soil. But Virginia had to pay his salary, for his L1,000 a year was taken out of the export duty on tobacco. To carry on the administration in the colony Colonel Alexander Spotswood was made Lieutenant Governor. It would seem that in the years from the recall of Nicholson to the arrival of Spotswood, the danger to liberty in Virginia came less from the Throne than from the Council. A free people could not be quiet under the rule of a body of twelve men, not chosen by the voters but appointed by the sovereign. The average planter, not only the owner of only a few acres, but the man of means had reason to be alarmed. Was it consistent with the principles of English liberty, they must have asked, for a clique of wealthy men, many of them united in one family, to have such power over their lives and their property? If the people were to rule, final authority must be vested in the House of Burgesses, not the Council. FOOTNOTES: [1] CO5-1315, Bassett to Perry & Co., Aug. 30, 1706. [2] CO5-1314, Doc. 63iv. [3] Hugh Jones, _The present state of Virginia_, ed. R. L. Morton, 93. [4] P. A. Bruce, _Social life of Virginia_, 133 [5] T. J. Wertenbaker, _The planters of colonial Virginia_, 155-160. [6] CO5-1318, Spotswood to Lords of Trade, March 20, 1718. [7] CO5-1340, Doc. 15. [8] _Ibid._ [9] _Ibid._, Doc. 19. [10] CO5-1316, p. 450. [11] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1702-1712: 131. [12] _Ibid._, 147. [13] CO5-1362, March 26, 1707. [14] CO5-1315, Quary to Lordships, Sept. 1, 1706. [15] CO5-1317. [16] CO5-1315, Aug. 30, 1706. [17] _Executive journals of the Council_ 3: 119, 120. [18] CO5-1362, p. 121. [19] CO5-1314, Doc. 15. [20] CO5-1362, pp. 336-340. [21] CO5-1362, pp. 318, 325. CHAPTER X SPOTSWOOD