George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

[146] in the vision of the Evangelist John, as the asylum

Chap. Xxxiii} 1768. April.

of persecuted multitudes, to whom ‘the wings of a Great Eagle’ had been given to bear them to the ‘place prepared by God’ for their ‘rest from tribulation.’

Meantime, on Saturday, the second day of April, the Assembly of Virginia read the Circular letter from Massachusetts, and referred it to a committee of the whole House.¹ The petitions of freeholders of the counties of Chesterfield, Henrico, Dinwiddie and Amelia, pointed to the Act of Parliament suspending the legislative power of New-York, as of a tendency, fatal to the liberties of a free people. The county of Westmoreland dwelt also on the new Revenue Act, as well as on the Billeting Act. The freeholders of Prince Williams enumerated all three, which, like the Stamp Act, would shackle North America with slavery. On the seventh, the illustrious Bland reported Resolutions, reaffirming the exclusive right of the American Assemblies to tax the American Colonies; and they were unanimously confirmed. A committee of twelve, including Bland and Archibald Cary, prepared a Petition to the King, a Memorial to the House of Lords, and a Remonstrance to the House of Commons, which, after being carefully considered and amended, were unanimously adopted. On Friday, the fifteenth, Bland invited a conference with the Council; and the Council with Blair,² as acting President after Fauquier's death, agreed to the papers which the House had prepared, and which were