inia, as at the present day gold
and silver are ostracised by a depreciated paper currency.

The method of settling the colonial territory was by the king's grant of
fifty acres to every actual settler, but this rule was evaded and
perverted in various ways, and rights for that quantity of land could
easily be purchased from the clerks in the secretary's office at from
one to five shillings each. The powers of the governor were extensive;
he was a sort of viceroy, being commander-in-chief and vice-admiral,
lord treasurer in issuing warrants for the paying of moneys, lord
chancellor or lord keeper as passing grants under the colony's seal,
president of the council, chief justice of the courts, with some powers
of a bishop or ordinary. The governors managed to evade the king's
instructions, and by official patronage to silence the opposition of the
council, and even to hold the burgesses in check. The governor and
councillors were all colonels and honorable, and their adherents
monopolized the offices. The governor's salary was for many years one
thousand pounds per annum, to which the assembly added perquisites,
amounting to five hundred more, and a further addition of two hundred
pounds was made to Sir William Berkley's salary, making the whole salary
seventeen hundred pounds. The council, in effect the creatures and
clients of the governor, being appointed at his nomination, and
receiving office and place from him, had the powers of council of state,
(in case of vacancy of the governor the oldest of them _ex officio_
acting as president _ad interim_,) of upper house of assembly or house
of lords, in the general court of supreme judges, and as colonels,
answering to the English lord-lieutenants of counties. The councillors
were also naval officers in the customs department, collectors of the
revenue, farmers of the king's quit-rents; out of the council were
chosen the secretary, auditor, and escheators; the councillors were
exempt from arrests, and had a compensation of three hundred and fifty
pounds divided among them, according to their attendance. They met
together after the manner of the king and council. Their clerk received
fifty pounds per annum salary, besides perquisites. The office of
collector, held by members of the council, was indeed incompatible with
their office of judge, and their office of councillor unfitted them for
auditing their own accounts as collectors, and in different capacities
they both boug