Equally important was the training received by the people in self-government. For eight years they had been their own masters, enacting such laws as they chose, and free from the restraining hand of the King. There had been no royal Governor to veto their bills, or threaten the Burgesses, or intimidate the voters, or overawe the Council, or sway the courts of justice. And the experience was priceless. It schooled them in governmental affairs and taught them self-reliance, patience and stubbornness to oppose oppression. Having tasted the sweets of freedom, they were ill prepared ever again to tolerate injustice and misgovernment. If there had been no Commonwealth period in Virginia, possibly there had never been a Bacon's Rebellion. FOOTNOTES: [314] Report of Commission on Hist. Manuscripts. 3. [315] Hen., Vol. I, p. 235. [316] P. R. O., CO1-20. [317] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 236, 237. [318] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 236, 237. [319] Hen., Vol. I, p. 237. [320] Hen., Vol. I, p. 356. [321] Hen., Vol. I, p. 244. [322] Hen., Vol. I, p. 263. [323] Hen., Vol. I, p. 265. [324] Hen., Vol. I, p. 267. [325] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 280, 281. [326] Hen., Vol. I, p. 230. [327] Hen., Vol. I, p. 231. [328] Va. Hist. Reg., Vol. I, p. 160. [329] P. R. O., CO5-1371-6 to 16. [330] Beverley. [331] The Assembly, in 1645, ordered that the 18th of April be celebrated ever afterwards for the deliverance of the colony from the savages. Hen., Vol. I, p. 290. The year is fairly well determined by the fact that mention of an Indian war occurs for the first time, during this period, in the statutes of the session of Assembly of October, 1644. Hen., Vol. I, p. 285. [332] Beverley. [333] P. R. O., CO1-30-71; CO1-41-111. [334] P. R. O., CO5-1371-6 to 16. [335] CO5-1371-6 to 16. [336] CO5-1371-6 to 16. [337] P. R. O., CO1-41-111. [338] Beverley. [339] Hen., Vol. I, p. 323. [340] Hen., Vol. I, p. 323. [341] P. R. O., CO1-30-71. [342] Hen., Vol. I, p. 123, 149, 277. [343] Bruce, Inst. Hist., Vol. I, p. 254. [344] Bruce, Inst. Hist., Vol. I, p. 254. [345] Hen., Vol. I, p. 277. [346] Hen., Vol. I, p. 355. [347] Hen., Vol. I, p. 360. [348] Hen., Vol. I, p. 361. [349] Sp. Dom. Inter., 1-94. [350] Scobell, Vol. II, p. 132. [351] Va. Mag., Vol. I., p. 77. [352] Va. Mag., Vol. I, pp. 75 to 81. [353] Hen., Vol. I, p. 363. [354] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 363-365. [355] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 365-367. [356] Hen., Vol. I, p. 371. [357] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 371, 373. [358] Sp. Dom. Int., 1-75; Hen., Vol. I, p. 510; Bruce, Inst. Hist., Vol. II, p. 302. [359] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 371, 408. [360] Wise, p. 139. [361] Hen., Vol. I, p. 371. [362] Wise, pp. 114, 115; Hen., Vol. I, p. 380. [363] Hen., Vol. I, p. 372. [364] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 377, 378. [365] Hen., Vol. I, p. 499. [366] Hen., Vol. I, p. 499. [367] Hen., Vol. I, p. 500. [368] Hen., Vol. I, p. 501. [369] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 502, 503. [370] Hen., Vol. I, pp. 499, 505. [371] Hen., Vol. I, p. 510.