In the following year an important change was made in the organization of the Assembly, the deputies becoming a separate house coordinate with the assistants, each house occupying a separate room and having a veto upon the action of the other. It will help to form a correct idea of daily life in the country if I add that a bounty of ten shillings was paid for killing old wolves, and of the seaports and sea coast that privateers were fitted out from them with very irregular commissions. Blackbirds fared hard in Portsmouth, where every householder was required to kill twelve before the tenth of May, under penalty of two shillings, and with a premium of a shilling a head for all over twelve. This was to serve as a protection for fields. But the serious danger was from the Indians, for the treaty of Ryswick gave for sometime but an imperfect peace to the colonies. Inroads of Indians were frequent and sudden. Never had the councils of war been more active or more constantly in session, and never had the men who were fit for service been more constantly under arms. Scouting parties of ten men were sent out every two days to serve beyond the limits of the plantations. Such were the trials of the second generation of colonizers. The violation of the acts of trade and lax dealing with privateers became so flagrant that the home government after many vain complaints resolved to establish courts of admiralty in all the colonies. The attorney-general was consulted and said there was nothing in their charters to prevent it. The colonial agents, exerted themselves earnestly to ward off the blow, but without success, and when the Rhode Island agent, Jahleel Brenton, returned in December, 1697-8, he brought a commission to Peleg Sandford as Judge, and to Nathaniel Coddington as Register. Governor Clarke opposed it and tried to induce the Assembly to join in the opposition. Brenton advised that he should be impeached, whereupon Clarke resigned in favor of his nephew, Samuel Cranston. The Colony was entering upon a new period of trial and danger. The enemies of her chartered rights were numerous and powerful, and unhappily for her were supported in their charges by a dangerous array of specious evidence. The rival interests were represented by men admirably fitted for their respective tasks. The Royal Governor of Massachusetts, Lord Bellemont, a man of singular ability and strength of character, represented the party that would have made New England a vice-royalty. Cranston, firm, resolute and self-possessed, held that Rhode Island under the protection of her charter had fully proved her capacity for self-government.