Preamble.
Writs of Election
shall
be issued 40
Days at least,
before the
Meeting of
the Assembly,
in the following |
FORASMUCH as the chiefest and only Foundation and Support of any
Kingdom, State, or Common-wealth, is the providing, establishing and
enacting good and wholesome Laws, for the good Rule and Government
thereof, and also upon any necessary and emergent Occasion, to raise
and levy Money for defraying the Charge of the said Government, and the
Defence thereof, neither of which, according to the Constitution of this
Province,
can be made, ordained, established or raised, but by and with the Consent
of the Freemen of this Province, by their several Delegates and Representatives
by them freely nominated, chosen and elected to serve for their several
Cities and Counties in a General Assembly.
II. And forasmuch
as the safest and best Rule for this Province to follow,
in electing such Delegates and Representatives, is the Precedents of the
Proceedings
in Parliaments in Great-Britain, as near as the Constitution of
this
Province will admit, the Governor, Upper and Lower Houses of this present
General Assembly, do humbly pray that it may be Enacted,
III. And be it
Enacted, by the Right Honourable the Lord Proprietary, by
and with the Advice and Consent of his Lordship's Governor, and the Upper
and
Lower Houses of this present General Assembly, and the Authority of the
same,
That for the future, when and as often, as his Excellency the Governor
of
this Province, for the Time being, shall, upon any Accident and urgent
Affair
of this Province, think fit to call and convene an Assembly, and to send
out Writs for electing of Burgesses and Delegates to serve in such ASsembly,
such Writs shall issue forth Forty Days at least, before the Meeting of
such
Assembly; the Form of which Writs for Election of Delegates and Representatives,
shall be as followeth, |
