sympathy with the rising tide of liberal sentiment in
English politics.

The liberal policy which Sandys favored in England, he was now prepared
to adopt for the management of Virginia. Convinced that the military and
joint-stock regime, even if it had ever served a useful purpose, was
retarding the development of the colony, Sandys and Southampton
determined to reverse the policy of their predecessors by instituting
private property in land and conceding a measure of self-government. A
popular assembly was accordingly established in 1619; restrictions on
conduct and religious opinion were relaxed; and land grants, both to
individuals and to corporations, in small and large tracts, were made on
easy terms. It was hoped that an appeal to self-respect and to
self-interest would encourage immigration and foster thrift and
industry. When Sandys became treasurer in 1618 the time seemed
propitious; for it had already been discovered that Virginia tobacco
could be sold at a profit in London; and it was the expectation of
Sandys, by obtaining for the company its fair share of the profit
arising from the importation of tobacco into England, to repay to the
shareholders the long-delayed interest on their investments.

The scheme was not without great possibilities, and the company spared
neither money nor effort to make it a success. Within three years more
than thirty-five hundred emigrants crossed to Virginia. In 1621 the
expenditures of the company had reached a total of L100,000, and in 1624
the amount had been doubled. Yet, quite apart from the high death-rate
which depleted the colony, or the Indian massacre of 1622 which
threatened its existence, all the efforts of Sandys ended in failure.
Drawn into the main current of English politics, the Virginia Company
was unable to live in those troubled waters. James regarded with little
favor the liberalism which Sandys and Southampton were promoting in
England as well as in America. On high moral grounds he disliked the
use of tobacco, and for economic and fiscal reasons was opposed to its
cultivation in Virginia. He was determined, at all events, that such
profits as might arise from its importation should enrich the royal
exchequer rather than a powerful corporation controlled by men who were
carping at the king's prerogative. And the king found support in the
company itself; for Smythe and Warwick turned against the corporation
and furnished pretexts to prove that it had bet