Frequent complaints having been made to king James of the oppressions of the treasurer and company, and the before-mentioned calamities being attributed to their misconduct or neglect, it was determined that a commission should issue to enquire into the affairs of Virginia and the Somer-isles, from the earliest settlement of each. Upon the report of the commissioners, the king concluded on giving a new charter, and required of the company the surrender of former grants, which being refused, a writ of _quo warranto_ issued in November, 1623, against the patents of the corporation; and judgment was given by the court of king’s-bench against the treasurer and company, in Trinity-term, 1624. These proceedings “were so conformable to the general strain of the arbitrary administration of that reign, that they made little impression at the time, though the Virginia company was composed of persons of the first quality, wealth, and consequence in the nation.” The company probably would not have exercised so tame and submissive a spirit, had they not been wholly disappointed in their visionary prospects, and met with considerable losses, instead of acquiring enormous profits. They had obtained from individuals, who sported in their lotteries from the hope of sudden riches, £. 29,000. but the transportation of more than 9000 English subjects, had cost them £.150,000. They did not, however, abandon the colony in its distress, while they continued a corporation. Timely supplies were sent from England to the Virginia settlers, which so animated them, that they carried on an offensive war against the Indians, pursued them into their fastnesses, and drove them from the neighbourhood of those rivers where they had fixed their own plantations. As to king _James_, he “assuredly considered the colonies as acquired by conquest; and that they ought to be holden of his person, independent of his crown or political capacity; and might be ruled according to his good will, by prerogative; and he endeavored, agreeable to the strange œconomy of his reign, to convert them into a mere private estate, descendable to his personal heirs.”[36]