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cITI'/.1:\S1II7' AND S(TFFI?AGE IN MARY L.1N1). 23
This law wa.s broken at once; for .tile Island of Kent wa.s summoned to
send four Burgesses to the next Assembly.' The " Kentish Burgesses," how-
ever, at the second session, sent only- two Burgesses, not desiring any
more,
lest the charge of this be equal with the former."=
Such a disinclination to pay the expenses of tile delegates Nvas show,, as
late as 1671, when the Lower House,' enquiring of tile Upper, why certain
Del-
e(ra.tes-elect were not summoned, received for answer that the Sherift~ of
Kent.
Dorchester, and Somerset Counties "besought the Governor not to charge their
poor Counties with more Delegates than they used to have," and hence only
the former number of two Delegates was summoned.
The same feeling; doubtless, led the planters of St. Clements and Matta-
panient Hundreds to choose, as their representatives to the second session
of
the fourth Assembly, irien already personally summoned, instead of those who
represented them at thofirst session.' ']'his change of representatives
between
sessions of the same. Assembly seems to have been thought quite proper, and,
at this same time, one so turned out of office was "refused voice in his own
person.":,
Then calve a -retrogression to the plan of tile folk-mote: the next
Assembly` was originally summoned to he a representative body ; bat, before
it could ineet, its character was chan(red to that of a mass-meeting. Its
siic-
cessor, in .July, 1641,' Nvas representative, there being a sinnillar
tluchiation of
plans. Two men from Kent, showin<- proxies from the freemen, who had made
them their Delegates,--avere refused admission until they could show they
Nvere also chosen Burgesses. Two months later, the mass-meeting was again
adopted, and a, freeman failing to come, or send a proxy, must pay twenty
pounds of tobacco, unless purged front contempt.' This embryo compulsory-
voting law, we shall see, had a successor.
The folk-mote principle endured for some time, but was gradually found
so awkward, that, in .January, 117-8, sixteen men were 11a11led,' Ally ten
of
whom, with tile Lientenwnt-Governor and Clerk, should constitute a quorum.
The scattered population already saw the iniprac ticabilitv of this town-
meeting principle, and, when the proclamation, which called tile _tssenlbly
elf
1650, ordered them to appear in person, unless the voters of ;I hundred
agreed
to send proxies,"' or Burgesses of a loosely specified nliinber, all
ap-reed and sent
Burgesses. In this ~ksseinbly, we find tile first desire for -in increased
repre-
(1) Held Oct., 1610, Assembly 1, rig.
1 2) held Aug., 1641, Assembly 1, 104.
(3) Assembly II. 241.
141 Assembly I. 104-106.
l5) Assembly I. 105. An advance upon the third Assembly.
. i6) Held March. 16 1=2. Thirty-nine freemen were then present bringing
many- hr(.xie,. A-scmlds 1, 114.
(Assembly I, 129. A man claiming to represent a newly formed hundred ryas
refused a seat.as uo writ had been
.cent it.
«) 1. 1G;, 1-'. Came in Dec.. 1612. p. 201 : Tlareb. 1Pr42-:3, p. 205:
Nov., tl44, 1). 20~. Of Assemhlbes of Feb., 1644-5,
amt Dec., 1646. nothing, is known.
(9! Assemldp I, 21:3, 220.
t10) \o one was to hold over two proxies.Assembly 1.1).'259. Kent County
still ranked as a hundred for purposes
of representation. The two Houses of A.sembly definiteiy separated at this
session. Assembly 1, 141. See Moran's Rise
and Development of Bicameral System, li. 45.
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