ve in the hands of a benign sovereign could only be
exerted for "the good of the people, and not for their destruction."
"When, therefore, the governor and council (to whom this power is in
part delegated) find, from the uncertainty and variableness of human
affairs, that any accident happens which general instructions can by no
means provide for, or which, by a rigid construction of them, would
destroy a people so far distant from the royal presence, before they can
apply to the throne for relief, it is their duty as good magistrates to
exercise this power as the exigency of the state requires; and though
they should deviate from the strict letter of an instruction, or,
perhaps in a small degree from the fixed rule of the constitution, yet
such a deviation cannot possibly be treason, when it is intended to
produce the most salutary end--the preservation of the people."

The Rev. Andrew Burnaby, who passed some months in Virginia about the
time of this dispute, travelling through the colony and conversing
freely with all ranks of people, expresses himself on the subject in the
following manner: "Upon the whole, however, as on the one hand I
disapprove of the proceedings of the assembly in this affair, so on the
other I cannot approve of the steps which were taken by the clergy; that
violence of temper, that disrespectful behavior toward the governor,
that unworthy treatment of their commissary, and, to mention nothing
else, that confusion of proceeding in the convention,[512:A] of which
some, though not the majority, as has been invidiously represented, were
guilty; these things were surely unbecoming the sacred character they
are invested with, and the moderation of those persons who ought in all
things to imitate the conduct of their Divine Master. If instead of
flying out in invectives against the legislature, of accusing the
governor of having given up the cause of religion by passing the bill,
when, in fact, had he rejected it, he would never have been able to have
got any supplies during the course of the war, though ever so much
wanted; if instead of charging the commissary[512:B] with want of zeal,
for having exhorted them to moderate measures, they had followed the
prudent counsels of that excellent man, and had acted with more temper
and moderation, they might, I am persuaded, in a very short time have
obtained any redress they could reasonably have desired. The people in
general were extremely well affected to