are loaded with the duty and Freight of that which is not only of no Value, but depreciates the pure tobacco at least 2d in every pound. The Tobacconists are under a temptation to manufacture the Stalk and mingle it with the leaf, whereby the Commodity is adulterated, and of course the consumption of it is lessend. And the Merchants are obliged to keep great quantities in their Warehouses, and at last to sell upon long Credit. In consequence of which the price of the Planters Labors, is fallen below what they are able to bear. And unless they can be relieved, they must be driven to a necessity of Employing themselves more usefully in Manufactures of Woollen and Linen, as they are not able under the present circumstances to buy what is Necessary for their Cloathing, in this Kingdom....[189] Although the usual covering phrase, "other manufactures," was omitted here, it could well have been included. Under such adverse restraints, enterprising Virginians were almost forced to turn to surreptitious manufacturing; perhaps the restraints became excellent excuses for pursuing such manufactures, which, perhaps, were in any case inevitable. Relief came by 1730 with the passage of a new tobacco act, liberalizing the restrictions on the planters. Meanwhile, in 1727, William Gooch was appointed Lieutenant Governor and, owing in part to his political astuteness and sympathetic awareness of the colonists' difficulties, the lot of the planter was greatly improved. Nevertheless, manufacturing persisted as the colonists increased in strength and numbers. Although official restrictions may have been a perverse encouragement to manufactures, the dynamics of a growing population in a new country predetermined even more an expansion of enterprise. Not only did economic depression force the industrious to turn to manufactures as an alternative to poverty, but economic prosperity, when it occurred in the 1730s, provided a financial stimulus to further that prosperity by means of local manufacturing. Governor Gooch doubtlessly understood this. He was remarkable among Virginia's colonial governors for his ability to achieve what the colonists wanted while pleasing the home government. His administration created an era of good feeling during which the Virginians frequently expressed their gratitude and praise. In 1728, after serving as Governor for seven months, he was given £500 by the Assembly as well as an illegal grant by the Council of £300 from the royal quit-rents, which led George Chalmers, an English historian, to comment sourly in 1782 that for this gift "he in return resigned in a great measure, the government to them."[190]