6o
BRITISH COLONIAL POLICY
ous. Liberty of conscience was allowed, except to such, whose tenets were “ inconsistent with a Civil government,” and an undertaking was given against the imposition of taxes, customs and impositions, without the consent of the Colony. It is noteworthy that Barbados, which resisted, seems to have obtained better terms than Virginia, which at once yielded on the arrival of the Commissioners. When the Articles signed by the Commissioners were presented to Parliament, those referring to the Charter and to the granting to Virginia as great privileges as to any plantation in America, together with the article guaranteeing freedom from all taxes, customs, and impositions whatsoever, without consent of the Grand Assembly, were referred to the Committee of the Navy ; and in the Report 1 of that Committee no mention is made of these questions thus referred to them. When we remember that the Colony had no less than four times solemnly asserted its exclusive right of imposing taxes the omission is noteworthy. The settlement in Maryland need not detain us, as it illustrated no question of principle. The art of statesmanship has been compared to the walking on a tight rope, and no more triumphant exhibition of such statesmanship was ever given than when the Papist son of the Stuart favourite was able to plead his fidelity to the Commonwealth as opposed to the stubborn Royalism of Virginia. Finally, the adroit schemer “ without force or fraud, without one substantial sacrifice, by the bloodless arts of diplomacy ,” 2 won back every position for which he had fought. Look where one will, one finds, in the dealings of Parliament, no thought of surrendering an inch of British territory. At the same time active brains are at work over the problem of the Empire. When Feb. 16, the ready-witted Colonel Modyford, anticipating later views, l652i makes the “immodest” suggestion that Barbados should be allowed representation in the Imperial Parliament, the suggestion is approved by the Committee for Foreign affairs. Naviga- Meanwhile a more powerful engine for moulding the Ordinance ^ m P' re into one was to be fashioned. The Navigation Acts,
i 6 $i- 1 Force Hist. Tracts , Vol. II. ; ‘Virginia and Maryland, 1 note to p. 20.
2 Doyle, Virg. ôfc., p. 416.