Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1858-12-30

ing one, and [ trust he may pursue it fur
ther. Perhaps it may be as profitable and
pleasant to US to read Of the foibles of long
buried yet unforgotten worthless as those Of
our immediate contemporaries. We may be
as much instructed and amused by the scan
dal which was talked in the circles of hun
drcd years ago as by the gossip of to-day !;
and the person of quality who reigned in
beauty over the colonial generation may be
as fair a subject of ridicule as the lady who
has just left the room.
The manners and customs of the Virgi-
mans in the colonial times, differed very es-
sentially from those of any Of the other set
tiers of the continent The Puritans who
a stern ascetic race, tolerant Of none OF the
graces and elegancies Of life, and banded
together by common hatred of the court
from whose persecution they had fled, and a
and a common sense of the dangers which
surrounded them. The Pilgrim Father
that truly heroic fgure-so often sketched
for us by our brethren Of New Eng gland,
was, as nearly as we'll can be conceived, the
social antipode Of the Virginia adventurer.
A man of self-denial, he not only held in
adherence all the delusions in which Cava-
liers indulged, but taught his children,
whom he named Deliverance, Mercy, Fight
the goodnight and God-be-g glorifed, to re-
gard them as devices of the devil. 10 build
up little communities for trade, to drive a
hard bargain with those who dealt with him,
was as instinct of his nature.
The settlers of the Old Dominion neither
practced the austere virtues nor the world
Iy wisdom of these pilgrims. They were
mostly gay gentlemen, and the sons of gen
tlemen, who brought with them from the
old country, the profuse mode of living to
which they lad been accustomed in better
days, and who made, as it were, another
England -altogcther different from New
En- gland-along the banks Of the various
tributaries Of the Chesapeake. Their laws
were nodded after those administered in
Westminster Hall Fine looking old gen.
tleman, .in~Nigs as rreposterous as thsssc
worn by the Judge of the Common Please,
sat upon the bench. Primogeniture and
entail with their enlarged application to a
great slave property, gave feudal cast to
the entire framework of the civil policy
The sports and pass times Of ''Merrie Eng
land' were kept up by immemorial usage.
sChurch and State became part Of poll
tical orthodoxy, for even the most Goddess
Of the gentry, always entertained a profound
reverence for the establishment.
The great distinguishing characteristic of
Virginia society, however, was isolated ru-
raj life While the Puritans built their
| ! 4ho If
logs, wherein they worshipped God after
the severe formula of Genevra; while the
gregarious Dutchman of Manhattan raised
their fantastic gables under the shadow OF
the old Stadt-House Of their Knickerbocker
liberties; while the staid followers of Penn
were laying off the rectangular streets of the
City of Brotherly Love, the Virginia emf
grant sought some lovely eminence, over
looking majestic river, where he erected
his family mansion and established his
household gods. At later day, some of
these country-seats assumed an aspect OF
manorial dignity, and might even vie with
the beautiful residences that adorn the banks
of the Thames and the Wy. They were
fondly designated from old and hospitable
English memories as Shirley, Berkley
Brandon. Keswick and Lexington. Each
;. of these houses was the seat of little auto
crat. Here he reigned supreme over his
immediate household. and exercised lord
ly sway which was vicariously administered
by subordinates, over the slaves and inden-
ted servants Of his estate. These indented
servants, although white, differed in no re-
spect from the blacks, born in slavery, ex-
cept in the duration Of their servitude. a.
They were outcasts from the society of Eng
land or continental Europe, and utter " un-
fit, either from chronic debasement or a
long career Of crime, for any other condi-
ton than that of an absolute subiection to
the will of a master. What sort Of naauvaas
snjets were shipped from the channel for SER
vice on the plantations Of Virginia, may be
gathered from some nameless romances of
DeFoe. Here there was community of
castes as widely separated as the Pariah
from the Brahmin. There were, indeed,
other members of the community resident
at points where the commerce Of the colony
was carried on-factors and agents but ex-
cept for the mere convenience of the plan
ter in the shipment Of his produce and the
scorge of such things as he imported from
England these good people did not exist in
his contemplation at all. If he ever deign-
cd to honor them with passing emotion, it
was that sort of pity the proud Duke of
Somerset felt for Adam, because he had no
ancestors. They were the OF pozloi;; they
we're outsiders, very well in the place where
in it was the design of Providence, accord
ing to the planter, to have them, but not to
be thought of in any other. As for these
third persons themselves, they were we'll