that spirit which
was then brought in has ever since continued, so that, except a few
Quakers, we have no dissenters. But what has been the consequence? We
have increased by slow degrees, except negroes and convicts, while our
neighboring colonies, whose natural advantages are greatly inferior to
ours, have become populous."[454:A] He also wrote to Governor Dinwiddie,
then in England, to the same effect. He replied that it would be
difficult to obtain the desired exemption for the Dutch settlers, but
promised to use his utmost endeavors to effect it. It does not appear
whether the ministry ever came to a decision on this subject. The
non-conformists augured favorably of Dinwiddie's administration. The
Rev. Jonathan Edwards, in a letter addressed to Rev. John Erskine, of
the Kirk of Scotland, says: "What you write of the appointment of a
gentleman to the office of lieutenant-governor of Virginia, who is a
friend to religion, is an event that the friends of religion in America
have great reason to rejoice in, by reason of the late revival of
religion in that province, and the opposition that has been made against
it, and the great endeavors to crush it by many of the chief men of the
province. Mr. Davies, in a letter I lately received from him, dated
March 2d, 1752, mentions the same thing. His words are, 'We have a new
governor who is a candid, condescending gentleman. And as he has been
educated in the Church of Scotland, he has a respect for the
Presbyterians, which I hope is a happy omen.'" Jonathan Edwards was
invited in the summer of 1751 to come and settle in Virginia, and a
handsome sum was subscribed for his support; but he was installed at
Stockbridge, in Massachusetts, before the messenger from Virginia
reached him.[454:B]

Dinwiddie, the new governor, an able man, had been a clerk to a
collector in a West India custom-house, whose enormous defalcation he
exposed to the government; and for this service, it is said, he was
promoted, in 1741, to the office of surveyor of the customs for the
colonies, and now to the post of governor of Virginia. She was at this
time one of the most populous and the most wealthy of all the
Anglo-American colonies. Dinwiddie, upon his arrival, gave offence by
declaring the king's dissent to certain acts which Gooch had approved;
and in June, 1752, the assembly remonstrated against this exercise of
the royal prerogative; but their remonstrance proved unavailing. The
Virginians were