In the midst of these efforts depreciation was undermining the strength and corrupting the moral sense of the community. The property tax of freemen had doubled. Bribery and fraudulent voting gained ground, and an attempt was again made to meet them by increasing the severity of the law. Every voter and every officer was required to declare under oath that he had neither taken nor offered a bribe; and a single fraudulent vote was sufficient to invalidate an election. The evidence of the briber held good against the bribed; and that the law might not be forgotten it was ordered to be "read in town meeting at every semi-annual election for five years and the name of every transgressor stricken from the roll of freemen." Again, the vacillation of the ministry defeated the expedition against Canada. Then came tidings of a great French armada which was coming to the conquest of New England. Great was the alarm of the colonies. But help came from another quarter. Disease and tempest scattered and infected the hostile fleet. One commander died. His successor committed suicide, and the shattered remnants of the unfortunate armada had hard work to make their way back to the French coast. Before the tidings of this disaster could reach New England it had been resolved to send reinforcements to the succor of Annapolis Royal, the supposed point of attack. The Rhode Island troops sailed early in November. The Massachusetts troops soon followed. Both were overtaken by heavy gales which cast some of them ashore at Mt. Desert. Some, like their adversaries, the French, were crippled by disease and a few made their way to the nearest port. Winter set in and the campaign of 1746 closed in gloom. This was the year in which the royal decree concerning the eastern boundary was enforced. Rhode Island gained by it a large accession of territory--the towns of Bristol, Tiverton, Little Compton, Warren and Cumberland, which were incorporated and brought under the control of Rhode Island laws. Thus ten new deputies were added to the colonial representation. Thus, also, a revision of the judicial and military system of the Colony became necessary, and a new court was established under the title of Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize and General Jail Delivery, and consisting of a chief-justice and four associate justices annually chosen by the Assembly. The judicial powers of the assistants or upper House of Assembly ceased, though they still continued to act as a court of probate. Two militia companies were formed in Tiverton and one in each of the other new towns. The previous history of the new towns belongs to Massachusetts and Plymouth. Their annexation to Rhode Island brought her an increase of about four thousand inhabitants, well trained most of them in the tenets of religious freedom. CHAPTER XXI.