tors of this presumption".[830]
The King commanded Lord Culpeper to carry these recommendations into
effect. On the third of July, 1680, Culpeper brought the matter before
the Virginia Council, preparatory to delivering the rebuke. But the
Councillors made a vigorous defense of the action of the Assembly, and
unanimously advised the Governor to suspend the execution of the King's
command.[831] After some hesitation, Culpeper yielded, and the matter
was referred back to the Privy Council. Charles was finally induced to
rescind the order, but he insisted that all reference to the declaration
"be taken off the file and razed out of the books of Virginia".[832]

The work of the commission being completed, Berry and Moryson, in July,
1677, sailed with the royal squadron for England.[833] Their report,
which was so damaging to the Virginia loyalists, was not allowed to go
unchallenged. Sir William Berkeley, upon his death bed, had told his
brother, Lord John Berkeley, of the hostility of the commissioners, and
charged him to defend his conduct and character. And Lord Berkeley, who
was a member of the Privy Council and a man of great influence, did his
best to refute their evidence and to discredit them before the
King.[834] Their entire report, he declared, was "a scandalous lible and
invective of Sir William ... and the royal party in Virginia".[835] His
brother's conduct had been always prudent and just, and it was
noticeable that not one private grievance had ever been brought against
him before this rebellion.[836] The meetings of Lord Berkeley with the
commissioners in the Council chamber were sometimes stormy. On one
occasion he told Berry, "with an angry voice and a Berklean look, ...
that he and Morryson had murdered his brother". "Sir John as sharply
returned again" that they had done nothing but what they "durst
justify".[837]

As the other members of the Privy Council protected the commissioners,
and upheld their report, the attacks of the angry nobleman availed
nothing. Secretary Coventry averred that Berry and Moryson had been most
faithful in carrying out the King's directions, and he showed his
confidence in their honesty and their judgment by consulting them upon
all important matters relating to the colony.[838] And for a while,
their influence in shaping the policy of the Privy Council in regard to
Virginia was almost unlimited.

Nor did they scruple to use this great power to avenge themselves upon
those