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Show • V I R G I N I A. bacco, at the current price of tobacco. They may, I am perfuaded, in cafes of exigency, always make, and might then have made,fuch a law, without any confiderable detriment to the colony: for, fuppofing the price of tobacco to be, what it was at that time, about fifty {billings currency per hundred, what would the whole fum be, were the clergy to be paid ad valorem ? Not ·zooool. fierling. There are in Virginia, as I obferved before, about fixty-five -clergymen : each of thefe is allowed I 6,ooo weight of tobacco ; which, at the rate of fifty il1illings currency per hundred, amounts to 4ool.; 4ool. multiplied by 6 5, is equal to 26,ooo 1. ; which, allowing 40 per cent. difco_unt, the difFerence of exchange, is about 18 57 I 1. fierling. Now what is this fum to fuch a colony as Virginia? But to this it will be faid, perhaps, why iliould the clergy be gainers in a time of public difl:refs, when every one elfe is a fufferer ? The clergy will doubtlefs reply, and why lhould the clergy be the only fufferers in plentiful feafons, when all but themfelves are gainers? Upon the whole, however, as on the one hand I difapprove of the proceedings of the affembly in this affair, fo, on the other, I cannot approve of the fieps which were taken by the clergy. That violence of temper; that indecent behaviour towards the governor; that unworthy treatment of their commiffary; and, to mention nothing elfe, that confufion of proceeding in the convention, of which fome, though not the majority, as has been invidioufly reprefented, were guilty; thefe things were furely unbecoming the facred character they are invefl:ed with; and the moderation of thofe perfons, who ought in all things to imitate the conduct of their divine M fl:er. If, infiead of flying out in invectives againf1: the Iegiflature; of accufing the governor of having given up the caufe of religion by palling the bill; when, in faCt, had he rejected it, he would never have been able to have got any {up-plies V I R G I N I A. plies during the courfe of the war, though ever fo much wanted; if, infiead of charging the commiifary with want of zeal for having exhorted them to moderate meafures, they had followed the prudent counfels of that excellent man, and had acted with more temper and moderation, they might, I am perfuaded, in a very fhort time, have obtained any redrefs they could reafonably have defired. The people ir. general were extremely well affected towards the clergy, and had fhewn their regard for them in feveral in.fl:ances ; they were fenfible, moreover, that their falaries were too fcanty to [upport them with dignity, and there had been fome talk about raifing them : ~ad the clergy, therefore, before they applied to England, only offered a memorial to the affembly, fetting forth that they thought the act extremely hard upon them, as their falaries were fmall ; and that they hoped the affembly would take their cafe in to confideration, and enable them to live with that dignity which became their charaCter; I am perfuaded from the knowledge which I have of the people in general, and from repeated converfations with feveral members of the affembly, that they might have obtained almoft any thing they could have wi{hed ; if not, they undoubtedly would have had reafon to appeal. But infl:ead of this, without applying to the alTembly for relief, after the act was palled, (for before, indeed, fome of them did apply to the fpeaker in private) they flew out into the mofi violent invectives, immediately fent over an agent to England, and appealed to his majefiy in council. The rcfult has been already related. The progrefs of arts and fciences in this colony has been very inconfiderable: the college of William and M ary is the only public place of education, and this has by no means anfwered the defi.gn of its infl:itution. It has a foundation for a prefident and fix profetTors. The bufinefs of the prcfld n t is to D f pe r ~ |