Colonel Oakey, in whose regiment he had served as chaplain,--which
cost them their lives. He was forthwith knighted, and his commission
as ambassador renewed. After a while, he returned to England; went
into Parliament from Morpeth, and ever after the exchequer was in his
hands. By his knowledge, skill, and ability, he enlarged the financial
resources of the country, multiplied its manufactures, and extended
its power and wealth. He was probably the original contriver of the
policy enforced in the celebrated Navigation Act, having suggested it
in Cromwell's time. By that single short act of Parliament, England
became the great naval power of the world; her colonial possessions,
however widely dispersed, were consolidated into one vast fountain of
wealth to the imperial realm; the empire of the seas was fixed on an
immovable basis, and the proud Hollander compelled to take down the
besom from the mast-head of his high-admiral.

Sir George Downing did one thing in favor of the power of the people,
in the British system of government, which may mitigate the resentment
of mankind for his execrable seizure and delivery to the royal
vengeance of Oakey, Corbett, and Barkstead. He introduced into
Parliament and established the principle of Specific Appropriations.
The House of Commons has, ever since, not only held the keys of the
treasury, but the power of controlling expenditures. The fortune of
Sir George, on the failure of issue in the third generation, went to
the foundation of Downing College, in Cambridge, England. It amounted
to one hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling. It is not
improbable, that Downing Street, in London, owes its name to the great
diplomatist.

This remarkable man spent his later youth and opening manhood on Salem
Farms. In his college vacations and intervals of study, he partook,