been put into practice by the
previous boards. Efficient though some of the former councils and
committees had been, no one of them had endeavored to cover so wide a
range of colonial business or to inquire so minutely into the details
of colonial government as did this Council of 1670. It not only took
into consideration all petitions, memorials, statements of claim, and
subjects in dispute, but it also set up an elaborate system of inquiry
on its own part, following out the instructions which had been given to
it to require of every colonial governor frequent information regarding
the condition of his government. It drafted long series of queries which
were despatched to all the colonies, and to which elaborate replies
were received, notably from Berkeley, of Virginia, Wheeler, of St.
Christopher, and Lynch, of Jamaica. It supplemented the information
thus received by demanding letters from the governors, and received
in response long and frequent epistles, dealing with colonial affairs
in the most minute detail. Wheeler, Stapleton, Lynch, Willoughby,
Colleton, and others furnished the Council with all sorts of descriptive
and statistical matter, and were always ready to offer suggestion and
advice. Merchants, planters, agents, and others familiar with colonial
trade were also called upon for statements, either in person or in
writing, and at many a meeting outsiders were called in to make reports
to the board. The evidence thus obtained was generally discussed
in the Council itself, at which the King and officers of state were
occasionally present, and it was also referred to committees of two or
more, which made their report to the Council. Upon the information and
opinions thus obtained, the Council based its orders and reports to the
Privy Council.[7]

In addition to these functions, the Council assumed an important and in
some ways a new role when it took upon itself the business of preparing
all the preliminary drafts of the various commissions and instructions
of the governors, often spending many days in the consideration of
these instruments, and often receiving from the appointees themselves
suggestions as to the wording of certain clauses. As far as the more
general powers and duties were concerned, these instructions were
modelled somewhat after those which the Council itself had received,
and lively debate arose not infrequently over the nature and extent of
the authority that ought to be conferred on the