23, the king declared his intention to grant a new charter
modelled after that of 1606. This astounding order was read three
times, at a meeting of the company, before they could credit their own
ears; then, by an overwhelming vote, they refused to relinquish their
charter, and expressed their determination to defend it.

The king, in order to procure additional evidence to be used against the
company, appointed five commissioners to make inquiries in Virginia into
the state and condition of the colony. In November, 1623, when two of
these commissioners had just sailed for Virginia, the king ordered a
writ of _quo warranto_ to be issued against the Virginia Company.

In the colony, hitherto, the proclamations of the governors, which had
formed the rule of action, were now enacted into laws; and it was
declared that the governor should no more impose taxes on the colonists
without the consent of the Assembly, and that he should not withdraw the
inhabitants from their private labor to any service of his; and further,
that the burgesses should be free from arrest during the session of the
Assembly. These acts of the legislature of the infant colony, while
under the control of the Virginia Company, render it certain that there
was more of constitutional and well-regulated freedom in Virginia then,
than in the mother country.

Of the commissioners appointed to make inquiries in Virginia, John
Harvey and John Pory arrived there early in 1624; Samuel Matthews and
Abraham Percy were planters resident in the colony, and the latter a
member of the House of Burgesses; John Jefferson, the other
commissioner, did not come over to Virginia, nor did he take any part in
the matter, being a hearty friend to the company.[172:A] Thomas
Jefferson, in his memoir of himself,[172:B] says that one of his name
was secretary to the Virginia Company. The Virginia planters at first
looking on it as a dispute between the crown and the company, in which
they were not essentially interested, paid little attention to it; but
two petitions, defamatory of the colony and laudatory of Sir Thomas
Smith's arbitrary rule, having come to the knowledge of the Assembly, in
February, 1624, that body prepared spirited replies, and drafted a
petition to the king, which, with a letter to the privy council, and
other papers, were entrusted to Mr. John Pountis, a member of the
council.[173:A] He died during the voyage to England. The letter
addressed to the privy c