governor's authority by his
commission; his assent is virtually that of the crown, and by
his assent the law is in force till his majesty's
disapprobation arrives and is ratified, consequently
everything done in the colony till then conformably thereto is
legal.

"As to the order in council having declared the act void _ab
initio_, it seems to have been a mistake, the order being as
usual generally expressed that the act be disallowed, declared
void, and of none effect, which purposely left the effect of
the law, during the interval, open to its legal consequences.

"The king's commission to his governor directs him that he
shall transmit all laws in three months after their passage.
That when the laws are so signified, then such and so many of
the said laws as shall be disallowed and signified to the
governor should from thenceforth cease, etc. Upon appeal from
the Cockpit to the privy council, the cause was put off _sine
die_."

When the clergy appealed to the king, they sent over the Rev. John Camm
to plead their cause in England, and agents were employed by the
assembly to resist it. Mr. Camm remained eighteen months in England in
prosecution of the appeal. The king at length, by the unanimous advice
of the lords of trade, denounced the Two Penny Act as an usurpation, and
declared it null and void: and the governor, by express instructions,
issued a proclamation to that effect. Fauquier was reprimanded for not
having negatived the bill, and was threatened with recall; and he
pleaded in excuse that he had subscribed the law in conformity with the
advice of the council, and contrary to his own judgment. The board of
trade deemed the apology unsatisfactory.[514:A]

But the king's decision not being retrospective, the repeal of the act
not rendering it void from the beginning, was in effect futile, the act
having been passed to be in force for only one year.

At Mr. Camm's instance a suit was brought against the vestry of his
parish of York Hampton, for the recovery of the salary in tobacco, the
assembly having, in the mean while, determined to support the vestries
in their defence. The case was decided against the plaintiff, Mr. Camm,
who, in accordance with the advice of the board of trade, thereupon
appealed to the king in council. The appeal was dismissed upon some
informality. Camm experienced the perfidy of courtiers, and i