"Which if any shall refuse to
take," the commander of the fort at Point Comfort shall "committ him or
them to prison." Foreigners in birth and tongue, foreigners in thought,
must have found the place and time narrow indeed.
On the eve of civil war there arose on the part of some in England a
project to revive and restore the old Virginia Company by procuring from
Charles, now deep in troubles of his own, a renewal of the old letters
patent and the transference of the direct government of the colony into the
hands of a reorganized and vast corporation. Virginia, which a score of
years before had defended the Company, now protested vigorously, and, with
regard to the long view of things, it may be thought wisely. The project
died a natural death. The petition sent from Virginia shows plainly enough
the pen of Berkeley. There are a multitude of reasons why Virginia should
not pass from King to Company, among which these are worthy of note: "We
may not admit of so unnatural a distance as a Company will interpose
between his sacred majesty and us his subjects from whose immediate
protection we have received so many royal favours and gracious blessings.
For, by such admissions, we shall degenerate from the condition of our
birth, being naturalized under a monarchical government and not a popular
and tumultuary government depending upon the greatest number of votes of
persons of several humours and dispositions."
When this paper reached England, it came to a country at civil war.
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