paid out of their proper eſtate, and not by the Country or the Townes which chooſe them, and whenſoever there ſhall ari{[ls}}e any queſtion in any Court amonge the Aſſiſtants and Aſſociates thereof about the explanation of theſe Rites and liberties, The Generall Court onely ſhall have power to interprett them." M. H. S. Coll., iii., viii., 236, 237.
It is not to be doubted that at the following ſeſſions of the General Court, "the lawes were read over,” in accordance with this decree. And before the expiration of the three years, committees were appointed to reviſe the Body of Liberties, and orders relating to it were paſſed every year afterward until 1648, when the laws were firſt printed. Gray's Reports, ix, 513.[1]
Of this firſt printed edition of the laws it is ſuppoſed that no copy is now in exiſtence. Ibid. This is much to be regretted, as a compariſon might poſſibly throw ſome light on the change in the law of ſlavery, which appears in all the ſubſequent editions. Although hitherto entirely unnoticed, we regard it as highly important; for it takes away the foundation of a grievous charge againſt that God-fearing and law-abiding people. For, if "no perſon was ever born into legal ſlavery in Maſſachuſetts," there was a moſt {[ls}}hocking chronic violation of law in that Colony and Province for more than a century, hardly to be reconciled with their hiſtorical reputation.
- ↑ In the elaborate, learned, and moſt valuable note of Mr. Gray, here referred to, the reader will find references to all the original authorities, which it is needleſs to repeat in this place. We have been unable to verify his reference to Maſs. Records, ii., 2, for proceedings of the General Court on the 20th May, 1642, in the common copies of that volume.
