laws, "that they may be putt in print." Only part, however, of this resolution was carried out, and it was not till 1719 that the laws were put into a permanent form. Not the laws only but the language in which they were expressed attracted attention. We now meet for the first time in the enacting clause of a law, "and by the authority thereof be it ordained, enacted and declared." Instead of executor administrator was written, "it being in that case the more proper and usual term in the law." In one act we find an instance of grim humor. The accounts of a general sergeant were found to be in inextricable confusion. The auditing committee resolved to call them square "and voted that by this act there is a full and fynal issue of all differences relative to said accounts from the beginninge of the world unto this present Assembly." In some instances the public mind was not made up concerning a law, and one Assembly would undo the work of its predecessor. One of the most important acts of this class was an act denying the revisory power of the Assembly over decisions of courts of trials. In the August session of 1680, after two years of experiment, the act was repealed. The existence of a law proves, also, the existence of an evil. In the May session of 1679, we find an act for the protection of servants, whom "sundry persons being evil-minded" were in the habit of overtasking at home, and then hiring others to let out for work on Sunday--thus infringing the law which practically made Sunday a holiday. This is not a pleasant picture, but the action of the Assembly forbidding the abuse shows that public opinion was sound. We find, also, that then as now sailors were more or less at the mercy of sailor landlords. The Assembly took up their defence. Those who trusted a sailor for more than five shillings without an order from his captain forfeited their claim. Another law bearing directly upon navigation was passed in the May session of 1679. "The master of every vessel of over twenty tons burthen was required to report himself to the head officer of the town upon arrival and departure, and if over ten days in port, then to set up notice in two public places in the town three days before sailing." In this last act we see the influence of the navigation act which was so long held to be the guardian genius of England's commercial prosperity, and which was communicated to all the colonies by royal edict in 1680.