Commonwealth; and it
may be reasonably inferred that the bulk of the retiring members were
well affected to the Commonwealth of England. Intelligence of the
restoration of Charles the Second had already reached Virginia, and was
joyfully received. The word "king," or "majesty," was used in the public
acts now for the first time, since the commencement of the Commonwealth
of England--an interval of twelve years.

An address was sent to the king, praying him to pardon the inhabitants
of Virginia for having yielded to a force--which they could not resist.
Forty-four thousand pounds of tobacco, worth two thousand and two
hundred dollars, were appropriated to Major-General Hammond and Colonel
Guy Molesworth, for "being employed in the address." Sir Henry Moody was
dispatched on an embassy "to the Manados," or Manhattan. Colonel Carter
was required to declare what passed between him and Colonel William
Clayborne at the assembly of 1653 or 1654, relative to the making an act
of non-address to the Right Honorable Sir William Berkley; but the
particulars of this affair have not been handed down. The rent paid for
the use of the house where the assembly met, was three thousand five
hundred pounds of tobacco, equivalent to one hundred and seventy-five
dollars. Four thousand pounds of tobacco, worth two hundred dollars,
were paid for the rent of the room where the governor and council held
their meetings. The name of Monroe occurs at this early day in the
County of Westmoreland as one of the commissioners, or justices of the
peace.

The assembly strove to display its loyalty by bountiful appropriations
to the governor and the leading royalists; the restoration in England
was reflected by the restoration in Virginia. The necessity of the case
had made the government of the colony republican; she was as free and
almost as independent during the Commonwealth of England as after the
revolution of 1776. For a short time even Sir William Berkley appears to
have been identified with this system. He and the new assembly were now
eagerly running in an opposite tack, and were impatient to wipe out all
traces of their late forced disobedience and involuntary recognition of
the popular sovereignty.

Sir William continued as governor till the 30th of April, 1661, when
being about to visit England, Colonel Francis Morrison was elected by
the council in his place. Sir William, it is said, was dispatched to
England as agent to defend the colony