its legislative action, but made no special provision for the summoning of such General Courts.

The Company had power to admit or expel members, to refuse admission as freemen to any persons considered undesirable, and to exercise jurisdiction over those persons who were on the land granted to the guild and who were not freemen of the Company, as if they were its servants. The Charter, like those of the guilds of the Realm, proceeded on the assumption that the Company was subject to all laws of Parliament, all orders and regulations of the Crown, and all regulations of any municipal organization which should be instituted by the King or Parliament for the local government of the region in which the Company was allowed to carry on its operations. It was given power to govern the English colonists

according to such orders, ordinances, constitutions, directions and instructions, as by our said Council shall be established; and in defect thereof, in case of necessity, according to the good discretion of the said Governor and officers respectively; so always as the said statutes, ordinances and proceedings, as near as conveniently may be, be agreeable to the laws, statutes, government and policy of this our Realm of England.

The Governor of the Colony appointed by the Council of the Company was given the powers of a Lord-Lieutenant in a county of England. The Council was still called "Our Council"-that is, the King's Council-and its acts were, therefore, theoretically, the acts of the King.

The system provided by the Charter of 1609 proved an utter failure. The Council appointed by the King was ineffective and unsatisfactory to all concerned, and after a short time it became evident that another plan would have to be adopted.

The Virginia Charter of 1611 was granted partly in or

der to extend the jurisdiction of the Colony so as to include the Bermuda Islands, but principally because of the mismanagement of its affairs. The London guilds which were adventurers evidently insisted that the Company should be given the same powers of self-government as they had, and were successful, so that the freemen of the Company were given full power of managing all its affairs.

In the Charter of 1611, the words appropriate to guilds are uniformly used. Those who had become adventurers in the Company since the granting of the Charter of 1609 were declared to be "brethren and free members of the Company." The business meetings of the Company were called Courts," and these courts, as in the case of guilds, were divided into Ordinary Courts and General Courts. The Ordinary Courts were to be held as often as the Company might think proper, and to consist of the Treasurer, any five or more members of the Council, and any fifteen of the freemen of the Company. The General Courts were to consist of the Treasurer and all the freemen of the Company and were to be held four times a year on the next to the last Wednesday of the Hilary, Easter, Trinity, and Michaelmas terms, and to be called "The Great and General Courts of the Council and Company of Adventurers for Virginia." The Ordinary Courts were to have a superior jurisdiction, being granted power

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'for the handling and ordering and dispatching of all such casual and particular occurrences and accidental matters, of less consequence and weight, as shall from time to time happen, touching and concerning the said Plantation."

The General Courts were to have a supreme jurisdiction, being granted power

for the handling and disposing of matters and affairs of greater weight and importance, and such as shall or may, in any sort,

concern the weal public and general good of the said Company and Plantation, as namely, the manner of government from time to time to be used, the ordering and disposing of the land and possessions, and the settling and establishing of a trade there, or such like.

The Company assembled in "General Court" was authorized:

To ordain and make such laws and ordinances, for the good and welfare of the said Plantation as to them, from time to time, shall be thought requisite and meet: So always as the same be not contrary to the laws and statutes of this our Realm of England.

In addition to this full grant of legislative powers over the Colony, the power of appointing the Governor and. other officers to manage the local affairs of the Colony was taken out of the hands of the Council and vested in the Company assembled in General Court; so that the whole Company, so far as it was granted governmental powers, was the deputy of the King, for the time being, to administer both the English interest in the Colony and the Colony itself, subject to the right of the King to withdraw the commission at any time, and substitute another form of agency. Its Courts" were the Council in England for Virginia," the so-called "Council" of the Company being simply its Board of Directors.

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The Colony in Virginia languished under the bad and arbitrary management of the " Courts" of the Company, abusing their powers as the de facto Council in England for Virginia, until 1619, when Sir Edwin Sandys, one of the great lawyers and patriots of England, was elected Treasurer (i. e., President) of the Company. He was assisted by the equally public-spirited and capable Earl of Southampton. By the influence of these two men and their friends in the Company, the Courts of the Company performed the functions of a true Council in England for

Virginia, and a most satisfactory administration was given to the Colony. The functions of the Courts, as the Council in England, were separated from the functions of the Local Government and each confined to its proper sphere of action. The consent of the King was after a time secured to the admission of this principle, and on August 3, 1621, the General Court, by the King's consent, granted to the freemen of the Colony, then called burgesses, the right to participate by their Representatives in the management of the affairs of the Company, by an ordinance entitled "An Ordinance and Constitution of the Treasurer, Council and Company in England, for a Council of State and General Assembly." By this Ordinance, a Council of State in Virginia, appointed by the Company in England, was created, which was the Privy Council of the Governor. The Governor in Council was given full governmental powers except that he could not act contrary to the expressed will of either the General Assembly of the Colony, the General Court of the Company, the King in Council, or Parliament. The General Assembly, which consisted of the Governor, the Council, and Representatives from every "town, hundred or particular plantation," was the General Legislature of the Colony. It was permitted to hold only one session in each year, except on occasions of emergency, and was given full powers of legislation except that it could not act contrary to the expressed will of either the General Court of the Company, the King in Council, or Parlia

ment.

This Ordinance did not purport to be granted under the terms of the Charter, but by special authority from the King-" by authority directed to us from his Majesty under the Great Seal." It was a strictly political instrument, having no characteristics whatever of a guild charter, and on its face negating the possibility of its ever being claimed to be such, since it included all inhabitants

of the Colony, present and future. It was not only an Ordinance, but a Constitution, since it showed on its face that the arrangements which it made were intended to be permanent. It recognized the Courts of the Company as the Imperial Administrative Council for Virginia. The legislative acts of the Company were called "Orders of Court," following the practice when the Council for Virginia existed, the acts of which were called "Orders of Council." The most remarkable part of this Ordinance is, however, the arrangement by which, after the government of the Colony should be settled, no law or ordinance enacted by a Court of the Company was to be valid in Virginia unless ratified by the General Assembly of the Colony. As none of the acts of the General Assembly were valid unless ratified by a Court of the Company, this would have left matters, after the government was settled, so that the acts of the Courts of the Company -that is, the acts of the Imperial Council-would have been only co-ordinate in authority with the acts of the General Assembly of the Colony, consisting of Governor, Council, and Representatives, and so that all laws or ordinances would have had to be agreed upon by the General Courts of the Company in England and the General Assembly of the Colony in Virginia. In case of a deadlock, the King would undoubtedly have been obliged to settle the matter by an Order in Council. The special authority granted by the King to the Company to enact this Ordinance, or Constitution, was, in effect, a complete alteration of the plan of administration laid down in the Charter of 1611. It was practically a return to the plan of the Charter of 1606, according to which there was to be an Imperial Administrative Council in England and a Local Administrative Council in Virginia. The differences were that the King, instead of insisting upon his right of appointing the Council in England, allowed the whole Company, composed of persons pecuniarily in