ry and to obtain a
Charter--The effort fruitless.

THE acts of a session were headed as follows: "At a Grand Assembly
holden at James City, by prorogation from the 24th day of September,
1672, to the 20th of October, Annoque Regni Regis Caroli Secundi Dei
Gratia Angliae, Scotiae, Franciae et Hiberniae, Regis, fidei Defensoris,
&c., Anno Domini 1673. To the glory of Almighty God and public weal, of
this his majesty's colony of Virginia, were enacted as followeth."

Provision was made during this year for a supply of arms and ammunition.
The commissioners appointed for determining the boundaries of the
Counties of Northumberland and Lancaster were Colonel John Washington,
Captain John Lee, Captain William Traverse, William Mosely, and Robert
Beverley.

The restoration, that worst of all governments, re-established an
arbitrary and oppressive administration in Virginia in church and state;
and as soon as reinstated, tyranny, confident of its power, rioted in
wanton and unbridled license.

The grant which had been made by Charles the Second in the first year of
his reign, dated at St. Germain en Laye, of the Northern Neck, including
four counties and a half, to Lord Hopton, the Earl of St. Albans, Lord
Culpepper, etc., was surrendered, in May, 1671, to the crown, and new
letters-patent were issued, with some alterations, to the Earl of St.
Albans, Lord Berkley, Sir William Morton, and others,--to hold the same
forever, paying annually the quit-rent of six pounds thirteen shillings
and four pence to his majesty and his successors. In February, 1673, the
king granted to the Earl of Arlington and Thomas, Lord Culpepper, the
entire territory of Virginia, not merely the wild lands, but private
plantations long settled and improved, for the term of thirty-one
years, at the yearly rent of forty shillings. The patents entitled them
to all rents and escheats, with power to convey all vacant lands,
nominate sheriffs, escheators, surveyors, etc., present to all churches
and endow them with lands, to form counties, parishes, etc. Although the
grants to these noblemen were limited to a term of years, yet they were
preposterously and illegally authorized to make conveyances in fee
simple.[275:A]

Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, said to have been the best bred person
at court, like his master, as far as he had any pretension whatever to
religion, was a disguised Papist. He became allied to the monarch as
father-in-law to the