pendence was, however, soon lost. On August 8, 1766,
an order in Council declared that all measures relative to commerce and
the colonies should originate either with the King in Council, the
Committee of the Council, or one of the principal Secretaries of State.
This order, which evidently originated with Shelburne, Secretary of the
Southern Department, that he might increase thereby his control over
all colonial affairs, reduced the board to the position of an advisory
and consulting body upon such matters as the Council might refer to
it. Henceforth all estimates for colonial services and the direction
and application of money granted thereupon, which had hitherto been
transacted by the board, were resumed by the higher authorities. From
this time the importance and influence of the board steadily declined
until it was finally abolished in 1782. The control of the colonies
during the period from 1768 to 1782 was assumed by the new Secretary
of State for the colonies and remained in his charge until his office
also was abolished in the same year.

* * * * *

[Footnote 1: See various papers among the Shaftesbury MSS., Division X,
particularly 8, No. 4, "L^{d} Shaftesbury's Advice to his Majesty about
Trade, etc."]

[Footnote 2: Edward Long, governor and historian of Jamaica, viewed
the appointment of the Council as a piece of jobbery and graft, an
undertaking espoused not for the national good, but in order to obtain
new and lucrative offices for Ashley and others "his Brethren in the
ministry." Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 12438, iii, f. 17.]

[Footnote 3: Henry Slingsby is named secretary and treasurer in the
commission and his signature or initials are appended to all orders from
October 5, 1670, to July 23, 1672. During this time and until September
13, 1673, Dr. Worsley acted as assistant and is called "secretary" until
November 15, 1672, when he was made treasurer also. On October 15, 1673,
after the discharge of Worsley, John Locke, secretary, friend, and ally
of the Earl of Shaftesbury, president of the new Council of 1672, was
sworn in as secretary and as treasurer on December 16, 1673. He remained
in service until the abolition of the Council. Evelyn speaks of Worsley
as dead on October 15, but this statement cannot be true as Worsley was
still alive in March, 1675.]

[Footnote 4: Evelyn in describing the room in which the Council sat
mentions atlases, maps, charts, globes, etc.,