PREFACE.

This volume continues the Acts and Proceedings of the Assembly from
the point at which the preceding volume closed. It was at first our
intention to take up the earliest Council Proceedings; but as much of
this copy was nearly ready for the press, we determined to print it first,
and follow with the Council. By the plan adopted, of distinguishing the
volumes by titles and dates only, dispensing with numbers, they can be
arranged either in chronological order, or each series to itself.

As before, the utmost care has been taken to secure a faithful text.
The copyists have been most painstaking in their minute accuracy, and
the copy has been collated, word by word with the original, before going
to press. In this collation, the use of a lens was often necessary when
the text was almost illegible from stains or fading of the ink.

We have been able to supply the text of many laws missing from the
Archives, by copies obtained from the Public Record Office, London;
and these are distinguished, as before, with the letters P. R. O.

From the fact that the letter of Lord Baltimore dated February, 1665/6,
dissenting to the laws of 1665, was not read until the Session of 1669, we
may safely infer that there was no Session of the Assembly between
1666 and 1669. There is also no break between 1671 and 1674, as the
Session was postponed by repeated prorogations, so that this volume
contains an unbroken record of the Sessions from 1666 to 1676.

The original Lower House Journals of 1666 and 1674/5 have been
frightfully ravaged by damp and worms, as the breaks show, which, how-
ever, give no idea of the size of the gaps. Some part of the text
may be completed from the Upper House Journals; but as most of it is
found in no other copy, it has been thought best to print it as it stands.
Happily, but few of our records are in so desperate a state.

When words or parts of words are inserted in brackets (as in U. H.
J. 1674) they are missing or illegible in the original, and supplied from a
later copy.

It is hardly necessary to explain that the character p is a contraction
for the syllable per, pre, or pro; thus pson = " person "; ppty =
" property."

The proclamation with which the volume opens properly belongs to
the preceding volume, but was not discovered until that was printed.
The two leaves should be inserted after p. 506 of the former volume.

The editor has again to acknowledge his indebtedness to the constant
and unwearying assistance of Mr. J. W. M. Lee.