There were still dissensions and jars, but the Colony throve and grew in industry and strength. Newport above all increased in wealth and population. In estimating the population, however, we must bear in mind that not every inhabitant was a freeman, nor every resident a legal inhabitant. A probationary residence was required before the second step was reached and the resident became an inhabitant with certain rights to the common lands, the right of sitting on the jury and of being chosen to some of the lower offices. This, also, was a period of probation, and it was only after it had been passed to the satisfaction of the freemen that the name of the new candidate could be proposed in town meeting for full citizenship. Even then he had to wait for a second meeting before he could be admitted to all the rights and distinctions of that honorable grade. As a picture of the times it deserves notice that there was still a struggle with crime which called for stocks and a jail; that the sale of liquors was regulated by a license, and the number of taverns that could be licensed in a single town limited to three; that the bars were closed at nine in the evening; that a fine of ten pounds or whipping, "accordinge as y^e court shall see meete," was the penalty of giving a blow in court; that malicious language was treated as slander and made ground for legal prosecution. The Assembly seldom sat beyond three or four days, and six in the morning was the usual hour of entering upon the business of the day. Absence from roll call was punished by a fine of a shilling. As an illustration of the degree in which the idea of the duties of citizenship prevailed over the idea of the dignity of office, it deserves to be recorded that when the first justices' court was established in Providence for the hearing of cases under forty shillings, Roger Williams though President of the Colony was appointed one of the justices, and of the other two Thomas Olney was assistant for Providence, and Thomas Harris a member of the Assembly. The principle of the reciprocal obligation of citizen and state seems, as we have already observed, to have found early acceptance. High treason was recognized as a great crime and provision made for sending the accused to England for trial--a dangerous measure even in that early day, and which in the following century became a just ground of alarm. But now, even Coddington not only came off unharmed from his daring usurpation, but appears again in 1656 as member of the Court of Trials. A written submission and a fine for refusing to give up the public records were the only penalties that he paid for his offence. Early provision was made for the protection of marriage, and to give it that publicity which is essential to security the bans were announced in town meeting, or at the head of a company on training days, or by a written declaration signed by a magistrate and set up in some place of common resort.