ficent; the people were free, harmonious,
and prosperous; and while Cromwell's sceptre commanded the respect of
the world, he exhibited toward the infant and loyal colony a generous
and politic lenity; and during this interval she enjoyed free trade,
legislative independence, civil and religious freedom, republican
institutions, and internal peace. The Governors Bennet, Digges, and
Matthews, by their patriotic virtues, enjoyed the confidence, and
affection, and respect of the people; no extravagance, rapacity,
corruption, or extortion was charged against their administration;
intolerance and persecution were unknown. But rapine, corruption,
extortion, intolerance, and persecution were all soon to be revived
under the restored dynasty of the Stuarts.

Richard Cromwell resigned the Protectorate on the 22d day of April,
1659. Matthews, the governor, had died in the preceding January. England
was without a monarch; Virginia without a governor. It was during this
interval that public opinion in England was in suspense, the result of
affairs depending upon the line of conduct which might be pursued by
General Monk. The Virginia assembly, convening on the 13th day of March,
1660, declared by their first act that as there was then in England no
resident, absolute, and generally acknowledged power, therefore the
supreme government of the colony should rest in the assembly; and writs
previously issued in the name of his Highness, the Lord Protector, now
issued in the name of the Grand Assembly of Virginia. By the second act,
Sir William Berkley was elected governor; he was required to call a
grand assembly once in two years at the least, and was restricted from
dissolving the assembly without its consent. The circumstances of
this reappointment of Sir William Berkley have been frequently
misrepresented; historians from age to age following each other in
fabulous tradition, erroneous conjecture, or wilful perversion, have
asserted that Sir William was hurried from retirement by a torrent of
popular enthusiasm, and made governor by acclamation, and that Charles
the Second was boldly proclaimed in Virginia, and his standard reared
several months, some say sixteen, before the restoration; and thus the
Virginians, as they had been the last of the king's subjects who
renounced their allegiance, so they were the first who returned to
it![243:A]

Error in history is like a flock of sheep jumping over a bridge; if one
goes, the rest all