The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-08-16
NEW BIG BUSINESS GENIUS OF

reaching nearly every state In the
Union. Less tina Mo years ago he
turned his attention to the production
of oil and is now the second largest
producer of reflnable oil in the world.
(C) Underwood & Underwood
liam sburC, when King George III, and
his rarliaments. little rocking Of the
Virginia spirit attempted to levy
stamp tax on the people of the colo
nias without the consent of the peo-
pie of tie colonies
Our British cousins could not un-
derstand and. indeed, their histori-
ans are still unable TO understand
why in the re-revolutionary COM
motions the American people broke
out in Virginia in 1919 as If Fiske
sition Of so small tax as the stamp
tax. ] heard a lady of title say at the
American ambassadors able in Lon
don, during this war, that she could
never forgive sir George Otto Ire
velyan for taking the American side
In his history of the American Revo-
luton. He has shown how the Ameri
cans in the American revolution
fought the battle of the English peo-
pie as well as their own. and has
argued that ii was not the English
people who were against them, but
Vic ID lush fIONI ana tIt SuUSefNltHl
house Of commons. The principles on
which our fathers stood in the revo-
luton were those which their fathers
stood for In the very inception of
self-government speaking through
this house OF commons. whose very
mama is suggestive of the fortress
of defence Of rights
Hutchinson. the historian Of the
Massachusetts Bay colony. states how.
house of burgesses, had broken
Que" in Virginia, in 1919, as If Fiske
says. there were an incurahle virus
of liberty in the English blood"
{Fiske's Virginia and Her Neighbors.
24o Hutchinson's Massa chusetts Bay
1870.
In arguing that the ATTEMPT OF
James | to suppress later the Virginia
charter really resulted in making the
Virginians more independent he adds
that however, honest disinterested
and broadminded Southampton: San
dys and Ferrar may have been: they
were too distant to govern such a
colony as Virginia, and holds that the
boon of self-government was so con-
genial to the temper of the Nirginians
that they would in any event have
contrivad TO obtain it somehow sooner
or later.
! EXPANSION
| In the same connection he shows
! inferentialiy but clearly how the Mas
sachusetts Bay colony was led by the
success of the Virginia colony, to set
up Second American House of
Representatives in 1884, though the
people of that colony were well aware
| that no provision for anything of the
sort had been made in that charter.
Ihus Clearly was the influence of the
Virginia colony stamped on the pro-
| gress of the New England one in that
| early time.
/ From the first, however. feeble the
colony am apparently small and in
slgnlncant the assembly. it contained
IN itself the element of life that ger
minated was TO fill the earth with
ITS fruits. 1t discussed and legislated
on questions which apparently local
ana trivial underlay the progress OF
mankind. 1t enacted laws, prescribed
means for enforcing them; tried
causes In which the commonwealth,
was concerned such as crimes. Ii as.
serted its right to decide as to the
| qualifications of its members AS
| when on Captain John Martins re,
fusal TO relinquish his privilege Of
exemption from obeying orders of the
colony saw in times of war the repre.
sentatives of his plantation were ex.
Guided from sitting in the assembly
tNeilis Virginia Co, 400. And in
due time Captain Martins privilege
was abandoned, as were all similar
privileges.
All the questions of Colonial Life
we're dealt with in the early sessions
Of our house of burgesses. And i,
Is curious how modern legislation
here in Virginia and elsewhere seem.
to have found OF late the old trial
From steps towards the establish.
ment of far reaching educational in.
stitution the laws extended to the
prevention of forestallng. or prof.
teering, as we say. (Hening's Stats al
! arSe !. 1874; FisAe's Old Virginia and
Her Neishbors / p 249)
| But they also went like our modern
legislatures, into other matters more
private and personal. They provide ed
stringently against, il not the use. al
least the abuse of liquor prescribing
definite penalties, from private ad.
lnonition by the minister, on to public
rebukes; imprisonment In irons and
f1naliy sewers punishment at the dis
erection of the governor and council
| / wonder II our modern burgeses
have improved on this legislation ?
But as they were entering on the way
of moral reformation they did no,
finch from pressing their protection
Ct the public interest further 1t was
I therefore provided early in the his.
! tory of the colony that Every Min
t ister should give notice in his church
that what man or woman so-ever
should use any word or speech tend
/ Ing 10 contract Of marriage to two
several persons at one time, as might
tntangle or bread scruples in their
consciences, should for such their Of
fence undergo corporal correction, or
he punished by finc or otherwise ac-
coTding to the quality of the person
SO Offering Cooke. as I recall II,
cities an instance OF a violation OF
this act with its due reward 1t IL
possibly one of the evidences Of the
II ogress of the spirit Of, shall we
say. Liberty that later on some OF
the old laws appear to have had a
tendency TO fall into allegiance. /
shudder to think what would have
been the result in the capital OF the
Old Dominion at later day has 1t
rot been so.
But as the Pafson was selected as
enc of the moral instruments to call
With authority men from the error
OF their ways. he was protected by a
provision which enacted that mo
man shall disparage minister
whereby the minoe or his parishioners
may be alienated from him and his