mode of it to be determined. The North America of which he spoke was at the time only a geographical expression, with its civilized portion divided into governments as different in size and various in constitution as the petty states of Italy before 1860, but with this difference that whereas the latter constituted so many varieties of absolutism, the former were the mixed but healthy offspring of English freedom.
The royal colonies, with the exception of Georgia, which since the surrender of its charter was practically ruled from Whitehall, were governed in one uniform manner by a Governor, Council, and Assembly, making three distinct branches of Legislature in imitation of King, Lords, and Commons in this kingdom.[1] The Governor and the Members constituting the Council were appointed by the Crown, and on their first appointment received instructions, as rules for their particular conduct, calculated according to the powers which were vested in such Governors by virtue of letters-patent under the Great Seal. Through the whole of these royal provinces, viz. North and South Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and New Hampshire then including Vermont, these powers were uniform as to essential matters of Government, and differed no further than as the local and particular circumstances required. The Council acted in a double capacity, viz. in matters of State as a Council to advise the Governor, who was constrained by special instructions to take their opinion on particular occasions, and in legislative matters as a distinct branch of the Legislature, in which capacity it acted alone without the presence of the Governor. The Assembly constituted the third branch of the Legislature, and consisted of the representatives of the people, chosen by the freeholders according to provincial Acts of Assembly. Bills read three times in both Houses of Assembly, when assented to by the Governor thenceforward became laws to all intents and purposes, and operated immediately unless
- ↑ The report prepared by Mr. James Abercromby in 1754 for the Board of Trade, and now among the Lansdowne MSS., has been principally relied on in the above sketch, together with the account of the Colonial Constitutions published in 1774 by Governor Pownall.
