The Virginia company being dissolved, James took the colony under his immediate dependence, which occasioned much confusion. Upon his death, king _Charles_ [1625.] being of the same judgment with his father as to the government of Virginia, determined to tread in the same steps. In May he named a new governor and council for Virginia, and invested them with an authority fully legislative and arbitrary. They were empowered to make and execute laws, to impose taxes, and enforce payment. Neither the commission nor instructions mentioned expressly, or even alluded to an assembly, to the laws of England, or to the acts of the provincial legislature, as a rule of government. They were required to transport colonists into England, to be punished there for crimes committed in Virginia. This system increased the colonial dissatisfaction, which continued for years, till the Virginians received a letter containing the royal assurance, that “all their estates, trade, freedom, and privileges, should be enjoyed by them in as extensive a manner as they enjoyed them before the recalling of the company’s patent.” On this they were reconciled, and began again to exert themselves in making improvements.[37] Being left for some years in a manner to themselves, they increased beyond expectation. They remained under the administration of their governors and other officers, who respected their privileges because they loved the colony. The governor whom Charles had been anxious to appoint, had no opportunity of exercising those illegal and extraordinary powers with which he had been invested. His death in 1627, put an end to his authority, and prevented the colony’s feeling its full extent. His successor, _John Harvey_, esq. was nominated in March 1629; and his commission and instructions were precisely the same with those of the former. He departed soon after for Virginia. The spirit of his administration was an exact counterpart of what had too long prevailed in England. He was severe in his extortions, proud in his councils, unjust and arbitrary in every department of his government. The _Virginians_, roused almost to madness by oppression, seized and sent him prisoner to England, accompanied with two deputies, to represent their grievances and his misconduct. His behaviour was so thought of, that he was honored with a new commission which confirmed former powers, and he was sent back to Virginia in April, 1637. After that, his government was so excessively oppressive and cruel, that the complaints of the colonists became at length too loud to be longer neglected, and his commission was revoked in January, 16389—. During his ten years administration, the Virginians were ruled rather as the vassels of an eastern despot, than as subjects entitled to English liberties; but it is to their credit, that, having tasted the sweets of a simple government, they opposed with a firm spirit, during the reign of