committee of the colonies of the mischiefs consequent
upon the exportation of tobacco in bulk; and the committee advised the
assembly to prohibit this practice. The assembly refused compliance; but
the regulation was subsequently established by parliament. A meditated
insurrection of the blacks was discovered in the Northern Neck just in
time to prevent its explosion. In November a message had been received
from the Governor of New York, communicating the king's instructions to
him to build forts for the defence of that colony, and the king's desire
that Virginia should contribute to that object, as being for the common
defence of the colonies. This project of James, it was suspected, had
its origin in his own proprietary interest in New York. The Virginians
replied, that the Indians might invade Virginia without passing within a
hundred miles of those forts, and the contribution was refused. In
December, William Byrd succeeded Colonel Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., as
auditor of the accounts of his majesty's revenue in Virginia; he
continued to hold that place for seventeen years. His MS. accounts are
still preserved.

James the Second, influenced by the counsels and the gold of France, and
in violation of the most solemn pledges made to the parliament when he
ascended the throne, showed himself incorrigibly bent upon introducing
absolute government and establishing the Roman Catholic religion in
England. In Virginia the council displayed, as usual, servility to
power. Upon the dissolution of the assembly, the colony was agitated
with apprehensions and alarm. Rumors were circulated of terrible plots,
now of the Papists, then of the Indians. The County of Stafford was
inflamed by the bold harangues of John Waugh, a preacher of the
established church, and three councillors were dispatched to allay the
commotions. Part of Rappahannock County was in arms. Colonel John
Scarburgh, of the Eastern Shore, was prosecuted for saying to the
governor that "his majesty King James would wear out the Church of
England, for that when there were any vacant offices he supplied them
with men of a different persuasion." Scarburgh was discharged by the
council. Others were prosecuted and imprisoned; and James Collins was
put in irons for treasonable words uttered against the king.

Effingham, no less avaricious and unscrupulous than his predecessor
Culpepper, by his extortions and usurpations aroused a general spirit of
indignation. He prorogued an