and a fifth kingdom
and planted in the New World the germs of civil liberty. In this
service the company did not escape the troubles incident to the
mercenary purpose of a joint-stock partnership, yet it assumed a
national and patriotic character, which entitles it to be considered
the greatest and noblest association ever organized by the English
people.[26] However unjust the measures taken by King James to
overthrow the London Company, the incident was fortunate for the
inhabitants of Virginia. The colony had reached a stage of development
which needed no longer the supporting hand of a distant corporation
created for profit.

In Virginia, sympathy with the company was so openly manifested that
the Governor's council ordered their clerk, Edward Sharpless, to lose
his ears[27] for daring to give King James's commissioners copies of
certain of their papers; and in January, 1624, a protest, called _The
Tragical Relation_, was addressed to the king by the General Assembly,
denouncing the administration of Sir Thomas Smith and his faction and
extolling that of Sandys and Southampton. The sufferings of the colony
under the former were vigorously painted, and they ended by saying,
"And rather (than) to be reduced to live under the like government we
desire his ma^tie y^t commissioners may be sent over w^th authoritie
to hang us."

Although Wyatt cordially joined in these protests, and was a most
popular governor, the General Assembly about the same time passed an
act[28] in the following words: "The governor shall not lay any taxes
or ympositions upon the colony, their lands or commodities, other way
than by authority of the General Assembly to be levied and ymployed as
the said assembly shall appoynt." By this act Virginia formally
asserted the indissoluble connection of taxation and representation.

The next step was to frame a government which would correspond to the
new relations of the colony. June 24, 1624, a few days after the
decision of Chief-Justice Ley, the king appointed a commission of
sixteen persons, among whom were Sir Thomas Smith and other opponents
of Sandys and Southampton, to take charge, temporarily, of Virginia
affairs; and (July 15) he enlarged this commission by forty more
members. On their advice he issued, August 26, 1624, authority to Sir
Francis Wyatt, governor, and twelve others in Virginia, as councillors
to conduct the government of the colony, under such instructions as
they might receiv