The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-30
Virginia a gaze Us hopeful Of better for
tunes as the gaze OF the common laborer
dreaming Of those remote plantations.

IuIl6S db u16 gaze OF U06 COTlIDUn lbDOICt
dreaming Of those remote plantations.
II.
What, however, were the special reasons
why Virginia after II began to grow in
wealth and population should appeal more
strongly than the other old colonies to the
English landed gentry? OF such reasons
the author enumerates four. In the first
place, the Old Dominion was firmly loyal
to the monarchy in spite Of the harsh and
injurious operation OF the Navigation Act,
in spite Of sweeping grants OF its territory
to independent proprietaries like Lord
Baltimore or to private benebciaries like
Arlington and Culpeper, in spite OF selfish
denials OF reasonable requests like That
for the cessation Of tobacco culture for a
time, and in spite Of royal Governors like
Howard and Culpeper, bent upon the quick
enrichment Of themselves by unjust impo-
sitions upon the oolonists. In the second
place, Virginia rs a whole was devoted
TO the Church OF England. At no time
previous TO the proclamation of the Act
OF federation was Virginia a comfortable
place Of s~ojourn for dissenters. The Viz
ginians as a body we're at heart as oon-
sentative as the English themselves, and
conformance to the Church OF England was
but one phase Of loyalty to the established
order in the State. In the third place, the
whole power OF Virginia society was di-
rected by the land owners. That society
was composed entirely Of the landed pro-
prietors and their dependents. There were
no cities, nor even towns, deserving the
name. Consequently the number OF per-
sons following the special callings which
thrive best in urban communities was too
small to challenge notice from a social point
of view. Public sentiment meant exolu-
sively the sentiment Of men who, like the
land owners Of England, looked to agri-
culture for the income which went for the
support OF their families, and whose only
material interests were those associated
directly with the soil. The member OF the
English landed gentry contemplating the
advantages OF sending his son out to viz
ginia deemed it a favorable circumstance
that the young man would engage there IN
the %agronomic pursuits which had occupied
the time and thoughts Of his f~orefathers
in England for 80 many hundred years.
Nor was it a drawback that Tobacco, instead
OF wheat, would be the staple which that son
would cultivt to as soon as he had acquired
an estate, for in the course Of a very few
generations the English people had seen a
great community built up in Virginia en-
tirely through the profits obtained from
the sale Of the leaf Of the tobacco plant.
There was still another reason, however,
why the particular colony Of Virginia
strongly appealed to Englishmen who be-
longed to the landed gentry. In essentials
the life which the V%irginian led on his es-
tate was the sam which the English gentle
man led on his own. The comparative
isolation Of the plantation would be con-
sidered by the latter 10 drawback, as it
made possible the independence Of indi-
vidual action which was so highly valued
by him in his native country. Breadth OF
area only assured %ampleness OF room for
the master to move in without touching
elbows with his ~neighbors to the diminution
of his sense OF personal supremacy. Life
in Virginia owing to the absence Of towns
was even more rural In character than life
in England. The Englishman, accustomed
to country pursuits, knew in emigrating
to Virginia hat he was seeking a residence
in a community where all the tastes and
habits Of the English rural gentry were in
some respects only accumulated by the dis
DerSlOn OF tne pOpuidIiOh' nho0hoi law
which obviously must have had much in
huenoe is noted by the author. Love OF
home, as the centre OF the most sacred
affections, may have been not more fervent
in Virginia than in England, but the bonds
OF kinship were much stronger, because in
the secluded existence OF the colonists ties
OF blood assumed a far higher degree Of
importance, while the pleasures Of hospi-
tally were more relished, for the presence
OF a guest was an event Of greater rarity
and distinction" The Englishman was
also aware that in no manor house OF Sur
rey, Essex or Devon was the devotion to
England and all things English deeper than
In the plantation residences OF Virginia,
that the subtle tie Of nationality was as
binding there as in the mother country,
that the recognition OF class distinctions
and social divisions was quite as sharp and
clear, and that as an English gentleman
he would at once take the same position
In the society Of the colony as he had held
in his native shire and would hardly recog-
nize in outward customs that he had made
q change OF h~abitation.
It is in the chapters on the origin OF the
higher planting class in Virginia that the
extraordinary amount of research accom-
plished by the author is most strikingly
attested. Mr.. Bruce shows that even from
the earliest years OF it's settlement Virginia
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