VIRGINIA 63 



ruined condition ; and the clergy for the most part dead 

 or driven away and their places unfilled. Virginia 

 has long granted a full liberty of conscience, but there 

 were formerly in this state a smaller number of dis- 

 senters than in any other, and the English Church 

 could be regarded as very nearly dominant : but this 

 is no longer so, other sects having on the one hand 

 greatly increased in numbers, and on the other, the 

 English Church being compelled to give up many of 

 its one-time privileges. The warmer adherents of that 

 church, under the lead of a few ambitious members of 

 the clergy, have in Virginia also made fruitless at- 

 tempts to secure for the church its former legal pre- 

 eminence ; the opinions of the public were very much 

 against this and the outcome was the thesis : that in a 

 republick no church nor its ministers should be pre- 

 ferred by the government above the rest, no matter 

 how great the number of members professing alle- 

 giance. + 



No matter if special privileges are denied the 

 churchly order, and in general an equality of all ranks 

 is promoted and defended, the ladies here are not the 

 more inclined to part with any advantage of position 

 to which they fancy themselves entitled through the 

 offices held by their husbands. News of the definitive 

 treaty just arrived in America was the occasion at 

 Richmond of illuminations, fire-works, banquetings, 

 and finally, a ball, at which the honor of the first dance 

 fell by lot to the very honorable daughter of a very 

 honorable shoemaker. That the distinction should 

 have been awarded by lot was the cause of great dis- 

 pleasure to the ladies of the Governor's family and his 

 relatives, and the incident was the subject of every 



