The meetings and acts of the Assembly still continue to form the principal record of our history. The Assembly itself claimed equal rights with those exercised by Parliament over its own members, and at a special session in 1701, suspended an assistant who had married a couple illegally and refused to acknowledge his error. The Board of Trade had more than once called for a printed copy of the laws of the Colony, and as a proof that they were regularly administered Governor Cranston sent a full statement of the mode of procedure in all the courts. I have already spoken of Lord Bellemont's plan for the formation of a great vice-royalty over all the colonies, including the Bahama Islands. After his death this wild scheme, fatal to the freedom and prosperity of British America, was revived by Dudley. The irregular administration of the navigation laws was the chief pretext, and it probably was held to be a sufficient concession to freedom that the local government was left in the hands of the colonial assemblies. A bill for this purpose was drawn up near the close of William's reign and brought forward early in that of Anne. But the rights of the colonies were boldly and ably defended by Sir Henry Ashurst, the agent of Connecticut, and the fatal bill rejected after a full discussion. Dudley himself, however, was in high favor. He was appointed Governor and Vice-Admiral of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and what was still more objectionable Vice-Admiral of Rhode Island and King's Province, a fruitful source of jealousies and bickerings. Meanwhile the Assembly went on in its work of legislation, taking advantage of its experience to correct old errors, and gradually adapting the laws to the increasing wants of society. At the May session of 1701 we find justices of the peace first mentioned in connection with a general election. Thirteen were then appointed. In the same session a resolution for the reörganization of the militia law was again brought forward and the law of marriage revised and made more stringent. New powers were given the governor for enforcing the navigation act. Progress had been made towards a correct estimate of the obligations of society to its officers. The governor's salary was raised to forty pounds--a sum much increased during the year by special gratuities. The recorder was forbidden to practice at the bar except in cases which concerned himself or the town or Colony. Protection against vagrants was sought in a rigid vagrant act, extending to comers from other colonies, deserters from the King's service and "passengers brought in by sea and landed without consent of the authorities."