But there was a strong underlying sentiment in the colony against burning the notes. The soil of tidewater Virginia, after a century and a half of cultivation, was beginning to wear out, and thousands of acres were gradually reverting to forest land. This, with war taxes and an occasional drought, had brought hard times. But the planters, instead of tightening their belts, continued the old extravagant mode of living by borrowing money. "I fear they are not prudent enough to quit any article of luxury till smart obliges them," observed Fauquier.[32] So for many cheap money meant salvation from ruin.
These men made their influence felt in the House when a scheme for borrowing £240,000 from the British merchants was passed in May, 1765. Of this sum £100,000 was to be used for a new currency to replace old notes, and £140,000 to be lent out at five per cent interest. But when the bill came up to the Council it was bitterly opposed by Corbin and finally defeated.[33]
In the meanwhile, people were wondering why the rate of exchange did not drop. They were not ignorant of the quantative law of currency, and they knew that the amount of paper in circulation ought to have been reduced each year. So they were surprised to find it remaining between sixty and sixty-five per cent. Behind this apparent contradiction of economic law there must be some mystery.[34]
The mystery was explained in May, 1766, when a bomb exploded which shook the colony from the capes to the Alleghenies. That month the beloved John Robinson, Speaker and Treasurer, died. Fauquier had called him "the darling of the country." The _Gazette_ lamented his loss and praised "the many amiable virtues which adorned his private station."
So there was universal astonishment when the examiners of his accounts found a deficit of £100,000. Robinson had not taken the money for his own use. Even had he been dishonorable enough to do so, there would have been no need for it, since he was one of the richest men in the colony. What he had done was to lend his friends thousands of pounds from the public funds.[35] In this he was guilty of two serious breaches of his duty. Since the Assembly had refused to establish a public loan office, he must have known that he had no right to do so on his own responsibility. And there could be no excuse for his disregard of the law which required that he burn the paper money as it came in.