all pay unto the party grieved three fold
damages and cost of suit, and shall forfeit one thousand pounds of
tobacco."[94]

It is not necessary to assume, however, that the Virginia planters
were noted for dishonesty in matters of business. They were neither
better nor worse than merchants in other parts of the world or in
other times. It was their daily life, their associations and habits of
thought that made it impossible for them to see in an ideal light the
highest conceptions of honor.

In their political capacity the leading men of the colony were
frequently guilty of inexcusable and open fraud. Again and again they
made use of their great influence and power to appropriate public
funds to their private use, to escape the payment of taxes, to obtain
under false pretenses vast tracts of land.

After Bacon's Rebellion, when the King's Commissioners were receiving
the complaints of the counties, from all parts of the colony came
accusations of misappropriated funds. The common people asserted, with
an earnestness and unanimity that carry conviction, that throughout
the second period of Governor Berkeley's administration large
quantities of tobacco had been collected from them which had served
only to enrich certain influential individuals. Other evidence tends
to corroborate these charges. In 1672, the Assembly passed a bill for
the repairing of forts in the colony, and entrusted the work to
associations of wealthy planters, who were empowered to levy as heavy
taxes in the various counties as they thought necessary. Although
large sums of money were collected under this Act, very little of it
was expended in repairing the forts and there is no reason to doubt
that much of it was stolen. Similar frauds were perpetrated in
connection with an Act for encouraging manufacture. The Assembly
decided to establish and run at public expense tanworks and other
industrial plants, and these too were entrusted to wealthy and
influential men. Most of these establishments were never completed and
none were put in successful operation and this was due largely to open
and shameless embezzlement.[95] The common people, emboldened by
promises of protection by Governor Jeffries, did not hesitate to bring
forward charges of fraud against some of the most influential men of
the colony. Col. Edward Hill, who had been one of Berkeley's chief
supporters, was the object of their bitterest attack. They even
accused him of stealing money tha