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52 GEOKGIA AND GEORGIANS
the economic basis for his proposed enterprise, Oglethorpe enlisted the
co-operation of some of the best men in England, including members
of the nobility like Lord Percival. These, on September 17, 1730, joined
him in a memorial addressed to the Privy Council, asking for a grant of
land in the new world on which to start this humane experiment; and,
broadly speaking, the practical reasons set forth in favor of the proposed
enterprise were as follows -. * 1. To establish an asylum for indigent
debtors in the new world would not only give these insolvents a fresh
start but would prove a material saving to England's treasury already
little short of bankrupt; that languishing in the prisons of London there
were thousands of worthy debtors, from the number of whom a meritori
ous few could be selected with which to start the experiment; and that
these would willingly and gladly seek a livelihood in any of his majesty's
plantations in America, if they were only provided with transportation
and furnished the means of settling. Moreover, it was believed that men
of property could also be found to embrace an opportunity for acquiring
lands in Georgia, and whose maintenance would not be .an item of
expense. 2. It was urged that a colony planted between the Savannah
and the Altamaha, if organized upon a military basis, would provide an
adequate protection to the' exposed frontiers of South Carolina, whose
large slave population was largely at the mercy of designing Spaniards
in Florida ; also that a failure to establish in this region a permanent set
tlement might strengthen the claims of rival powers to South Carolina's
disputed lands. 3. It was argued that a successful colony, in this part
of North America, lying well within the temperate zone, where grapes
and mulberry trees could be cultivated with great success, would prove a
rich asset to the mother country and would mean much to the maritime
supremacy of England.
Finally, the petitioners agreed to take charge of the enterprise, to
transport the colonists to America, and to erect the plantation into a
proprietary government; they prayed that the lands above indicated be
granted to them under a royal patent and that as a corporation they be
allowed both to receive and to disburse all contributions and benefactions
and to be clothed with full authority to enforce law and order within the
limits of the province; they also requested the right to acquire lands of
inheritance in Great Britain to the value of £1,000 sterling.
First, the petition was referred to a committee of the Privy Council
for investigation, after which the law officers of the crown and the Board
of Trade were consulted as to the legal questions involved and as to the
expediency of granting the proposed charter. Thus two years elapsed.
There was inevitably some delay; but in the end the proposed enterprise
was favorably reported by the Privy Council: whereupon, under his
Majesty's direction, a charter was prepared which on June 9, 1732,
received the royal sanction, thus kindling a new star in the diadem of
England.
* '' Reasons for Establishing the Colony of Georgia with Regard to the Trade of
Great Britain, etc." Benjamin Martyn, London, 1733.