The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-07-31
R0LFE D|SCLOSES
Continued from page ~

t1oilliiuSu IIoiD UdSc -
!
ernment of Virginia." a government.
he went on, the most temperate and
Just tina. ever was in this country
tCo mild. indeed for many of this
colony, whom unwonted liberty hath
made insolent n not to know them
selves"
Role had been in England from
June 1916 until early in 1917 and he
had seen enough, no doubt. to justify
his stress upon "unwonted liberty" II
he had not read. he must have heard
the echo Of that amazing speech de-
livered by James l. to parliament in
1909 when the Stuart monarch had
proclaimed a new the divine right of
kings: Kings are justly called gods
he had said: for that they exercise a
manner of resemblance of divine
power upon earth for II you will
consider the attributes to God, you
snail sac how they agree in the per-
son of a king. / would not have
you NEEDLE with such ancient rights
of mine as | have received them from
my predecessors" If. hearing of this,
lsolfe in England had asked how par
Lament met such lofty pretensions OF
The king, he might have been told,
as Clarendon assures us men con
strued the royal proclamation. that it
was prohibited for men 80 much as
to speak OF a Parliament" M If,
still further bewildered at the disap-
pearance of representative govern
ment in England, Rolfe had sought
III books the reason, he might easily
rave turned to a mueh-disoussed
volume. Cowells interpreter, then ten
years old, and under the. heading
Parliament" he would have read:
Q these two, one must be true,
either that the king is above the par
lament, that is. the positive laws of
his kingdom. or else that he is not
an absolute king. And. therefore,
though it be a merciful policy, and
also a polite mercy, not alterable
without great peril. to make laws
by consent of the whole realm .
yet simply TO bind ~thapfince to or by
Lutte monarchy"
Truth is that when'John Rolfe was
e%nlarging upon the ~"unwonted liberty
of Nirginians in 1919. the forces OF
representative government in Eng,
land were halted in their onward
march before. a barrier of autocracy
Behind lay three centuries and a lit
tie more from the great charters OF
Edward L., ahead were three centuries
TO the fnal defeat of the lords. I'm
mediately before the England thai
buried Shakespeare in 1915 and wit
messed the outbreak of the Thirty
Years war in 1918 was the struggle
two generations long. that eliminated
in h declaration of right in 1858.
we can perhaps appreciate better the
perspective of Rolfe's comparison il
we remember that he was nearer Joan
or Arc than he is near us-and thai
he spoke to ~hurgesses some of whom
doubtless remember the SPANS ar.
mazda.
! The verify OF John Rolfe's com
paint is one of the great facts in the
history of representative government
When ne spoke, the burgesses of Vir-
Einia were more than the representa-
tives of the most temperate and Just
government the countrv had eve,
known: They were the only rcpresen.
tatfves OF free government In the An.
gio-saxon world. Parliament. for the
nve years on either side of 1919, die
not exist. Civil rights were dead. de.
spite the mighty i~nvocations OF ST.
Edward Coke. The constitution oI
England. In Hume's familiar mixed
metaphor, was. at that time. al in
consistent fabric, whose Earring and
fulScoruaut parts must soon destroy
each other, and, from the dissolution
OF the old beget some new form oil
lcivil government more uniform and
consistent
The hurgesses of Virginia, once
meeting, never surrendered THEN
rights. STYLED sometimes the House
of Commons and. with the council, the
General Assembly of Virginia those
representatives, in fashion more thai
poetic. lit a torch Of liberty, the rays
of which. in two brief wears, had
reached Britain and had wrung fol-
Virginia, from the puckered lips OF
Gondomar, the sinister Spanish coun-
sellor OF James. denunciation as a
seminary for a seditious parliament
In this hall and on this day it seems
of all places and times the most APP
propriate to rejoice that the torch Is
still ahame. In sense, at least,
the General Assembly OF Virginia.
founded three hundred years ago this
day, is the Oldest representative body
OF continuous history among English
speaking peoples. For it's nearest
parallel we must turn, not to a
Britain parliament disdained by
James. defed by Charles and sent
a-packing by Cormwell. but to the
government OF the Swiss cantons.
The promise of those early days was
not unseen by wiser minds. In a pas
sage thai william Writ Henry hap
PLY unearthed in the writings OF
Francis Bacon, that great man asked a
question We may not answer This
kingdom" said Bacon, on June rs.
1921. now hrst i'll His Majesty's times,