tomac, or go westward of the mountains, without a passport from
the Governor of Virginia. This treaty was ratified at Albany, September,
1722. An act concerning servants and slaves was repealed by
proclamation.

Spotswood urged upon the British government the policy of establishing a
chain of posts beyond the Alleghanies, from the lakes to the
Mississippi, to restrain the encroachments of the French. The ministry
did not enter into his views on this subject, and it was not till after
the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle that his wise, prophetic admonitions were
heeded, and his plans adopted. He also failed in an effort to obtain
from the government compensation for his companions in the Tramontane
exploration. At length, owing, as his friends allege, to the intrigues
and envious whispers of men far inferior to him in capacity and honesty,
but according to others, on account of his high-handed encroachments on
the rights of the colony, Spotswood was displaced in 1722, and succeeded
by Hugh Drysdale. Chalmers,[404:A] also a native of Scotland, and as
extreme a supporter of prerogative, thus eulogizes Spotswood: "Having
reviewed the uninteresting conduct of the frivolous men who had ruled
before him, the historian will dwell with pleasure on the merits of
Spotswood. There was an utility in his designs, a vigor in his conduct,
and an attachment to the true interest of the kingdom and the colony,
which merit the greatest praise. Had he attended more to the courtly
maxim of Charles the Second, 'to quarrel with no man, however great
might be the provocation, since he knew not how soon he should be
obliged to act with him,' that able officer might be recommended as the
model of a provincial governor. The fabled heroes who had discovered the
uses of the anvil and the axe, who introduced the labors of the plough,
with the arts of the fisher, have been immortalized as the greatest
benefactors of mankind; had Spotswood even invaded the privileges, while
he only mortified the pride of the Virginians, they ought to have
erected a statue to the memory of a ruler who gave them the manufacture
of iron, and showed them by his active example that it is diligence and
attention which can alone make a people great."

Governor Spotswood was the author of an act for improving the staple of
tobacco, and making tobacco-notes the medium of ordinary circulation.
Being a master of the military art, he kept the militia of Virginia
under admirable discipli