In 1621, Sir George Yeardley was succeeded as governor by Sir Edward Wyatt, who carried out with him a _written constitution_, ratifying in the main the form of government established by Yeardley. The form of constitution prescribed was similar to that of England, and remained to be the model of all other Anglo-American governments. Its purport was declared to be “the greatest comfort and benefit to the people, and the prevention of injustice, grievances, and oppression.” A more sound basis than this for any government could not have been devised. A governor and permanent council were to be appointed by the company; a general assembly was to meet yearly, consisting of the members of the council, and delegates chosen by the people as their representatives, two for each borough, the colony being divided into eleven boroughs. All enactments of the General Assembly, however, required, to become valid, the ratification of the company in England. It was further ordained—and this gave the greatest satisfaction perhaps of all—that after the government of the colony had once become established, no orders of the company in London should be valid unless ratified by the General Assembly of the colony. The courts of justice were to be constituted according to the laws and mode of trial established in England. Representative government and trial by jury were established in America; and the colonists, no longer depending on a commercial corporation, now became enfranchised citizens. “Henceforth,” says Bancroft, “the supreme power was held to reside in the hands of the colonial parliament, and of the king, as king of Virginia. This ordinance was the basis on which Virginia erected the superstructure of her liberties. Its influences were wide and enduring, and can be traced through all following years of the history of the colony. It constituted, in its infancy, a university of freemen; and succeeding generations learned to cherish institutions which were as old as the first period of the prosperity of their fathers. The privileges which were now conceded could never be wrested from the Virginians, and as new colonies arose at the south, their proprietaries could hope to win emigrants only by bestowing franchises as large as those enjoyed by their older rival.”