e was a decided change for the worse in his nature.
He is depicted in his declining years, as arbitrary, crabbed and
avaricious.

He had for the populace the greatest contempt. To him they seemed a
mere rabble, whose sole function in life was to toil and whose chief
duty was to obey strictly the mandates of their rulers. He discouraged
education because it bred a spirit of disobedience. "I thank God," he
wrote, "there are no free schools and printing (in Virginia) and I
hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought
disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has
divulged them, and libels against the best governments."[206] That the
common people should have a share in the government seemed to him,
even more than it had seemed to Charles I, a thing absurd and
preposterous. After the Restoration, therefore, he resolved to free
himself as far as practicable from all restraint, and to assume an
arbitrary and almost absolute power.

Berkeley was far better qualified for this task than had been his
royal masters the Stuarts. He possessed remarkable vigor and
determination, and despite his quick temper was not lacking in tact
and diplomacy. With a discrimination and care that marked him as a
master in the art of corruption, he tried to make the Assembly
dependent upon himself, by bribing the members of both houses.
Selecting men that he thought he could most easily manage, he gave to
them places of honor and emolument in the colony, some being made
collectors, some sheriffs, some justices.[207] The House of Burgesses
was entirely corrupted, and so far from seeking to defend the rights
of the people they represented, they proved willing instruments to the
governor in his attempt to establish absolute power.[208] Nor could
the colony correct this evil by returning to the Assembly new
burgesses, for Berkeley would not permit an election, and having once
won over the House, continued to prorogue it from year to year.[209]
For nine years before Bacon's Rebellion there had been no election of
burgesses. "In this way," complained the commons of Charles City
county, "Berkeley hath soe fortifyed his power over us, as himselfe
without respect to our laws, to doe what soever he best pleased."[210]

His power over the Council became even more marked. The men composing
this important body looked to the governors for appointment to
lucrative offices and endeavored usually to keep their favor.[2