value at all except in Virginia, and even in
Virginia of a purchasing value not exceeding that of L20 sterling in
England.[39]

Nor, in justification of such a measure, could it be truthfully said
that there was at that time in the colony any general "dearth and
scarcity,"[40] or any such public distress of any sort as might
overrule the ordinary maxims of justice, and excuse, in the name of
humanity, a merely technical violation of law. As a matter of fact,
the only "dearth and scarcity" in Virginia that year was "confined to
one or two counties on James River, and that entirely owing to their
own fault;"[41] wherever there was any failure of the tobacco crop, it
was due to the killing of the plants so early in the spring, that such
land did not need to lie uncultivated, and in most cases was planted
"in corn and pease, which always turned to good account;"[42] and
although, for the whole colony, the crop of tobacco "was short in
quantity," yet "in cash value it proved to be the best crop that
Virginia had ever had" since the settlement of the colony.[43]
Finally, it was by no means the welfare of the poor that "was the
object, or the effect, of the law;" but it was "the rich planters"
who, first selling their tobacco at about fifty shillings the hundred,
and then paying to the clergy and others their tobacco debts at the
rate of sixteen shillings the hundred, were "the chief gainers" by the
act.[44]

Such, then, in all its fresh and unadorned rascality, was the famous
"option law," or "two-penny act," of 1758: an act firmly opposed, on
its first appearance in the legislature, by a noble minority of
honorable men; an act clearly indicating among a portion of the people
of Virginia a survival of the old robber instincts of our Norse
ancestors; an act having there the sort of frantic popularity that all
laws are likely to have which give a dishonest advantage to the debtor
class,--and in Virginia, unfortunately, on the subject of salaries due
to the clergy, nearly all persons above sixteen years of age belonged
to that class.[45]

At the time when this act was before the legislature for
consideration, the clergy applied for a hearing, but were refused.
Upon its passage by the two houses, the clergy applied to the acting
governor, hoping to obtain his disapproval of the act; but his reply
was an unblushing avowal of his determination to pursue any course,
right or wrong, which would bring him popular favor. They then