One of the lessons of the war had been the importance of cavalry, and in 1682 a company was raised in the main-land towns consisting of thirty-six men, exclusive of officers. To put them on the same footing with the infantry they were allowed the same privileges, and held to the same obligation of exercising six days in the year. Not long after the number of majors was doubled, and John Greene appointed for the main-land and John Coggeshall for the island. Measures were also taken to give greater efficiency to the courts, and it was decided that the October sessions should be held in Providence and Warwick annually. That there might be no delay in the execution of sentences, each of these towns was required to furnish a cage and stocks. Thus surely but gradually the resolute Colony went on in its work of organization. But perilous days were at hand. The appeals of the colonies to England had attracted her attention to these distant domains, which but for that might long have continued to grow and prosper in obscurity. But when called upon to grant privileges she naturally began to examine into the nature of her rights, and interpreted them not by the genius of the colonies, but by the commercial interests of the mother country. The act of navigation, which had its origin in English jealousy of Holland, bore hard from the beginning on the commercial industry of the colonies. Although first passed by the republican Parliament of 1651, it did not become an efficient act until the first Parliament of Charles II. in 1660, when it was formally proclaimed in all the colonies by beat of drum. Custom-houses with all their parapheranalia followed close in its track. The burthen was soon felt, and smuggling, the natural relief of overtaxed commerce, became general. The bays and inlets of New England afforded great facilities for illicit trade, and the public conscience could not long resist the temptation. We shall see before another century is over to what England's narrow policy led.