the enemies of the Crown, that
promise would not be required of him. Let him be Governor of Virginia,
by their authority only, and only so long as the confusion in England
continued. If a new Protector, or a new Commonwealth gained the
ascendency, and demanded Virginia's submission, he might resign. If
England returned to its obedience to the Throne, he could petition the
King for a new commission. To this Berkeley assented. "Wee have all," he
said, in another short address, "had great and pressing feares of
offending a Supreame power which neither by present possession is soe,
nor has a publiquely confessed politique capacity to be a Supream power.
I alsoe, Mr. Speaker, have my pressing feares too, and I am seriously
afraid to offend him, who by all Englishmen is confessed to be in a
naturall politique capacity of being a Supreame power." He therefore, he
said, made this declaration in the presence of God, that if any
government became fixed in London, he would immediately lay down his
commission. When this was recorded and they were still of the same mind,
he was ready most thankfully to serve them.[377]

Thus did Sir William Berkeley a second time become Governor of Virginia.
It must have been with trepidation that this man, who had so often
denied the right of any officer to serve save by the King's commands,
accepted now this commission from the hands of the people. The stern
hater of republicanism was becoming the head of an independent little
republic. For such Virginia was and must continue to be until there
should appear in England some fixed government to which it could submit.
"I am," Berkeley wrote Governor Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam, "but a
servant of the assembly's; neither do they arrogate any power to
themselves, further than the miserable distractions of England force
them to. For when God shall be pleased in his mercy to take away and
dissipate the unnatural diversions of their native country, they will
immediately return to their own professed obedience."[378]

The restoration of the monarchy took place May 29th, 1660. When the news
reached Virginia some weeks later, the people accepted the change
without opposition, and probably with relief, for they were weary of
uncertainty and confusion. Berkeley's unaffected joy was mingled with a
deep apprehension that the King might be angered at his accepting office
without his consent. But Charles was not so unmindful of his staunch
support at a time when