induce the home government to take the appointments from the assembly,
for that separation was itself virtually a government measure. Chalmers,
who was well versed in the documentary history of the colonies, says:
"Too attentive to overlook the dangerous pre-eminence of Robinson, the
board of trade took this opportunity to enjoin [1758] the new
governor[546:A] to use every rational endeavor to procure a separation
of the conjoined offices which he improperly held."[546:B] Lee, Henry,
and others, who voted for the separation, were in effect carrying out
the wishes of the English government. Nor does it appear probable that
the government was any more favorable to the loan-office scheme than to
the union of the offices of speaker and treasurer.

Upon the death of Speaker Robinson, Richard Bland was a candidate for
the chair, and was in favor of a separation of the offices of speaker
and treasurer. He, in the latter part of May, entertained no suspicion
of any malversation in office on the part of the late treasurer,
although he was aware that such suspicions prevailed much among the
people. He was at this time maturing a scheme for a loan-office, or
government bank, which he thought would be of signal advantage, and
would in a few years enable Virginia to discharge her debts without any
tax for the future. It is singular that he should have been preparing to
renew a scheme so recently defeated. Whether he ever again revived it in
the assembly, does not appear. Robert Carter Nicholas, at the same time
a candidate for the place of treasurer, was likewise in favor of a
disjunction of the two offices. To this position he and Bland were
brought, as well by the inducements of personal promotion as by a regard
for the public good.

Peyton Randolph was made speaker; and Mr. Nicholas, who had been already
appointed in May treasurer _ad interim_, by Governor Fauquier, was
elected to that post by the assembly.

Lewis Burwell, George Wythe, John Blair, Jr., John Randolph, and
Benjamin Waller were appointed to examine the state of the treasury. The
deficit of the late treasurer exceeded one hundred thousand pounds. Mr.
Robinson, amiable, liberal, and wealthy, had long been at the head of
the aristocracy, and exerted an extraordinary influence in political
affairs. He had lent large sums of the public money to friends involved
in debt, especially to members of the assembly, confiding for its
replacement upon his own ample fortune,