han called by her more formal title of
Queen of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, by the Grace
of God, Defender of the Faith. It was, therefore, not without reason,
that Nathaniel Bacon, glad at least of a pretext for advancing his
designs, should have considered the flight of Sir William Berkeley to
Accomac as a virtual abdication of his authority, more especially as it
had been ordained but two years before by the council at Whitehall, that
the governor should be actually a resident of Virginia, unless when
summoned by the King to England or elsewhere. At least it was a
sufficient pretext for the young insurgent, who, in the furtherance of
his designs did not seem to be over-scrupulous in regard to the powers
with which he was clothed. But twelve years afterwards a similar pretext
afforded by the abdication of James the Second, relieved the British
government of one of the most serious difficulties which has arisen in
her constitutional history.

Without proceeding on his expedition against the Indians, Bacon had no
sooner heard of the abdication of the governor than he retired to the
Middle Plantation, the site of the present venerable city of
Williamsburg. Here, summoning a convention of the most prominent
citizens from all parts of the colony, he declared the government
vacated by the voluntary abdication of Berkeley, and in his own name,
and the name of four members of the council, proceeded to issue writs
for a meeting of the Assembly. It is but just to the memory of this
great man to say, that this Assembly, convened by his will, and acting,
as may well be conceived, almost exclusively under his dictation, has
left upon our statute books laws "the most wholesome and good," for the
benefit of the colony, and the most conducive to the advancement of
rational liberty. The rights of property remained inviolate--the reforms
were moderate and judicious, and the government of the colony proceeded
as quietly and calmly after the accomplishment of the revolution, as
though Sir William Berkeley were still seated in his palace as the
executive magistrate of Virginia. A useful lesson did this young
colonial rebel teach to modern reformers who would defame his name--the
lesson that reform does not necessarily imply total change, and that
there is nothing with which it is more dangerous to tamper than long
established usage. The worst of all quacks are those who would
administer their sovereign nostrums to the