ntations are to this
Crowne, hath at several times Commissionated certain select
persons to be Councells for the Plantations, every one of
which Councels were variously framed, instructed and encouraged,
w^{ch} have all expired without any considerable advantage, or
satisfaction to his Ma^{tie} or the Plantations. Among the other
Reasons w^{ch} may be given, why they proved fruitless, it seems,
That it is found by experience that whatsoever Council is not
enabled as well to execute as advise, must needs produce very
imperfect and weak effects. It being, by its subordination and
impotency obliged to have a continual recourse to superior
Ministers, and Councels filled with other business, w^{ch}
ofttimes gives great and prejudicial delays and usually begets
new or slower deliberations and results, than the matter in
hand may stand in need of, by w^{ch} means the authority and
virtue of this little Council became faint and ineffectual.
Seeing therefore it hath been held at all times, that may
distant Colonies, and the manifold Concernments thereof do
require and deserve to be consider'd and provided for by some
select persons as a Councel for those affairs, And that the
wisdome of our Government admits not such a plenary Authority,
but solely in the highest Council, it remains only as the best
expedient, That Com^{rs} be appointed out of the Privy Council
under the Great Seal, who may sit on some appointed day in every
[blank] and sometimes an hour before the Councel shall sit, as
occasion may call for it, to take consideration of any of the
affairs of the Plantations, who may give direcions in ordinary
cases, and in cases extraordinary may report to the King and
Councel."[13]

We do not know when this paper was written nor do we know whether
it ever came to the attention of the King and his advisers. Its
recommendation was certainly carried out, when the King, taking into
his own hands again the full control of trade and the plantations,
issued a commission in February, 1675, placing the entire charge of
these matters in the hands of the committee of the Council, which
through all the changes of fifteen years had never ceased to exercise
its functions of supervision and control of colonial affairs. This
committee, known as the Lords of Trade, acted as a board of trade and
plantations for twenty years and co