Privy Council.

The power of the Privy Council to approve or disapprove colonial legislation was an accepted notion from the days of the first English settlement. Any law passed by a colonial legislature needed the assent of the royal governor and the approval of the Privy Council before it could take effect. However, as the colonists began to challenge England's role in the control of purely local matters, this constitutional concept was called into question. One 1763 case, which would otherwise have been merely an obscure lawsuit by a clergyman for back pay, highlighted this challenge and also launched Patrick Henry's public career.

The Twopenny Acts.

In 1696 the Virginia assembly had set the salary of the clergy of the established church at sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco per year. Tobacco was a commodity of relatively stable value and was a medium of exchange in...