tained. To this conclusion we were led, in the first instance, partly by some examination of the New-Haven records, and partly by our success in tracing the several acts, which were afterwards in force, to a different origin, We have since been informed, by the venerable historian of Connecticut, that such also was the result of his researches.

Connecticut was originally a colony of Massachusetts. In May, 1634, the people of Cambridge, Dorchester, and Watertown, applied to the general court, for permission to remove, and effect a new settlement. There being, at that time, considerable opposition, the application failed of success; but on renewing it, the next year, they obtained permission to remove whithersoever they chose, subject to this restriction, that they should continue under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. Many of them having accordingly removed, in the summer and autumn of 1635, and settled at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, undeniably without the territorial limits of Massachusetts, and too remote to be under her immediate government, the general court, on the third of March, 1636, granted a commission, for one year, to Roger Ludlow, Esquire, and seven others, investing them with legislative and judicial powers in the new plantations, and authorizing them to convene the inhabitants, if necessary, to exercise those powers in general court. It does not appear, however, that the inhabitants, during the year, were convened for that purpose. The persons named in the commission met at Hartford, on the 26th of April following, as a court of magistrates, and proceeded, at that and subsequent sessions, to provide for the public safety, requiring each town to keep a watch, and the inhabitants to be trained to military exercise, supplied with arms and ammunitions, and kept in a posture of defence; to settle the boundaries of towns; to qualify municipal officers; to determine suits at law, by jury, or otherwise; to enforce the specific execution of agreements; and to exercise prerogative powers over

the estates of persons deceased. The commission expired by its own limitation, and was never renewed; nor did Massachusetts assert any further claim of jurisdiction.

The government, of course, came into the hands of the people. Such was their confidence in the men, who had been their legislators and judges, under the commission, that they continued them, with few changes, in the exercise of the same duties, and invested them with the same authority. At the next court, which was styled a general court, held on the 1st of May, 1637, deputies from the several towns were associated with the magistrates; but, at that period, the former were not necessarily a constituent part of the court, and attended only on important occasions.*

• The following account of the earliest period of our government, is given by Doctor TRUMBULL in his History, and copied by Judge MARSHALL into the introduction to his Life of Washington: "All the powers of gov. "ernment, for nearly three years, seem to have been in the magistrates, "of whom two were appointed in each town. These gave all orders, and "directed all the affairs of the plantation. The freemen appear to have "had no voice in making the laws, or in any part of the government, ex"cept in some instances of general and uncommon concern. In these in"stances, committees were sent from the several towns. During this "term, it seems, that juries were not employed in any case." As our account is a very different one, a due respect to the high authority to which it is opposed, requires us to state the evidence, on which we have taken it ourselves, and now give it to the public. The commission, copied from the records of Massachusetts, is contained in Hazard's Historical Collections, vol. i. p. 321. It bears date, on the face of it, March 3, 1635; which, as the framers of that instrument, in the computation of time, began their year on the 25th of March, was a year earlier than those terms would now denote. The persons named in the commission were Roger Ludlow, Esquire, William Pyncheon, Esquire, John Steele, William Swaine, Henry Smith, William Phelps, William Westwood, and Andrew Ward. The evidence that these men acted under the commission, for one year, is derived from the records of the colony. It is summarily this,―That within eight weeks from the date of the commission, and at seven different times afterwards, a court was held in the Connecticut plantations; that it was, at each time, composed of a majority of these men, and of no others; that their names are arranged on the records, precisely in the order, in which they appear in the commission; and that their proceedings were conformable to the powers, with which the commission invested them. That after the lapse of one year, the govern ment was changed, is inferred, from the express limitation of the com

On the 14th of January, 1639, all the free planters assembled, and adopted, for themselves and their posterity, a constitution, conformable in its principles to the frame of government already begun, and differing from it chiefly in its greater extension, and its adaptedness to an increased and increasing population.

In October following, the general court appointed a committee to revise the laws. It consisted of Mr. WYLLYS, afterwards governour of the colony, Mr. WELLS, for many years a magistrate, and Mr. SPENCER, an intelligent deputy from Hartford. They were required to transcribe such as they deemed conducive to the public good, and deliver them to the secretary to be published to the several towns; and such as they should think proper to omit, were to be suspended, until the further order of the court. At the same session, it was provided, that the constables should, within a limited time, cause the public statutes then in force, and afterwards those of each session as they should be passed, to be written in a book in their respective towns, to be kept for the town's use. And in order to render the publication of the laws as complete as possible, without the aid of printing, the constables were required to read them, once a year, in some public meeting.

In April, 1646, Mr. LUDLOW was requested to compile "a body of laws" for the commonwealth, and present it to the next general court. This work not being completed in May, 1647, the request was then repeated, and a compensation offered in addition to what had been, at first, proposed. Such, however, was the weight

mission, and the total silence of historical documents as to its having been renewed; from the accession of new members to the court; and from the attendance of deputies (called committees] from the several towns. That juries were in use, even during the first year, is proved, by the record of one action, in which the jury gave a verdict; of another, in which a juror was withdrawn, by consent; and by a legislative act, providing a specific compensation to each juror, for every action committed to them.

and difficulty of the undertaking, requiring time for reflection, and opportunity for research, that its accomplishment was protracted until the spring of 1650.† We find no formal ratification of it, by the general court; but it was, at that time, copied, by the secretary, into the book of public records, and is frequently referred to, in subsequent statutes. It comprised, besides a complete collection of our own laws, then in force, many provisions borrowed from Massachusetts, which seemed necessary to perfect the system, and which the experience of a people in corresponding circumstances, had proved to be salutary. It was divided, like the books of the Justinianean code, into titles, and laws. The titles, of which there were seventy-four, were arranged in alphabetical order.

In 1662, the constitution of 1639, was superseded by the charter of Charles the second. The latter, having been procured on the application of the general court, was, on the 9th of October, submitted to the freemen, convened at a general election; who, on the same day, manifested their reception of it, by choosing a committee to take it into their custody, in behalf of the freemen. The legislature, organized under this instrument, thus adopted, proceeded to establish all the former officers, civil and military, in their respective offices; and to declare all the laws of the colony, not contrary to the tenour of the charter, to be in full force and virtue. The charter included New-Haven; but that colony did not unite with Connecticut under it, until May, 1665.

+ The date assigned by Doctor TRUMBULL, is May session, 1649. But this is manifestly too early; for an act passed in September, 1649, is included in the body of the code. At a session of the general court, on the 20th of March, 1650, an act of some importance, which had been passed a few years before, was repealed; and that act is omitted in the code; the inference from which is, that the compilation was not then completed. But, that it was completed before the end of the May session following, is equally evident; because an act of that session, instead of appearing, under its appropriate title, in the code, is placed after it, and is immediately followed by other acts, of a later date, arranged in chronological order.

In consequence of the union, a more perfect promul. gation of the laws became necessary. Manuscript copies of the acts of each session of the general court had been regularly transmitted to the several towns within the former limits of Connecticut, and publicly read to the inhabitants; but the new members of the community had enjoyed no such means of information. The design of procuring an edition of the statutes to be prin. ted was formed; but, as many new ones had been passed, and many old ones had been repealed, had expired, or become obsolete, since the compilation of the code, it was deemed expedient to make, in the first place, a general revision. In May, 1671, a committee, consisting of the governour, the deputy-governour, and a majority of the assistants, were appointed to revise the laws, to arrange them, and, with the assistance of the secretary, to prepare a draught to be laid before the general court, at a future session, for their confirmation. The committee entered upon the business of their appointment; and, during their progress, received occasional instructions from the general court. In October, 1672, the revised draught was presented, approved, and ordered to be printed. The division and arrangement of the code of 1650 were preserved, the new titles, of which there were about seventy, being inserted in their appropriate places. The seal of the colony, and a preface written by the committee, in pursuance of a special resolve of the general court, were prefixed to the statutes, and an index subjoined. In the course of the following year, an edition was printed at Cambridge, in Massachusetts, by Samuel Green, the first printer in North America. SAMUEL WYLLYS, and JAMES RICHARDS, Esquires, were appointed to inspect the impression, with instructions to compare it with the original, and to see that it should be made correct. The constables were then ordered to distribute the copies in their respective towns, it being made, by law, the duty