thy for those who had killed the King, and
the Assembly took to heart Governor Berkeley's warning of 1651 that the
blood of Charles I "will yet staine your garments if you willingly
submit to those murtherers hands that shed it." It is true that
following the surrender the Parliamentary commissioners agreed with the
representatives of the people on a provisional government for Virginia,
but the bonds that held Virginia to England had lost much of the cement
of love and tradition. Local and self-interest were now to dominate to a
great extent Virginia's actions. Such motives had always been latent,
and indeed active. But under royal government, the Governor could often
exert a countervailing force to prevent such interests from overriding
the interests of nation and morality.

Under the terms of the settlement the Grand Assembly was to continue to
function, and the Assembly and commissioners agreed that Richard
Bennett, one of the commissioners, should act as Governor for a year. It
was expected that orders would shortly arrive from England establishing
new patterns of government. Such instructions were especially necessary
to determine the role and authority of the Governor and Council,
formerly appointed by the King. The new rulers in England were made
aware of the need for a new policy for the colonies, but they never
found time to make the necessary decisions. At intervals the colonists
were informed that Cromwell had not forgotten them and that His Highness
would soon let them know his pleasure. But instructions never came
except spasmodically and inadequately. The merchants who stood to gain
from the Navigation Act of 1651, which generally excluded foreign ships
from the colonies and attempted to restrain colonial trade with foreign
countries, complained at the failure of the colonists to obey the act
and demanded that orders be sent to enforce it, but no adequate
provisions were ever made.

Thus the colony was left to its own devices during the period. Virginia
traders paid little attention to Parliamentary restrictions on their
commerce. They insisted that the provision of the Articles of Surrender
allowing them free trade with all nations according to the laws of the
Commonwealth did not prevent them from trading with foreigners. They
argued that since the first article of the surrender agreement
guaranteed them the rights of freeborn Englishmen, an act discriminating
against them in matters of trade because th