The general officers under the Patent were a president and four assistants, a general recorder, a treasurer, and a general sergeant. There was also a committee composed of six representatives from each town.[17] A general attorney and a solicitor were added in 1650.[18] Under the charter of 1663 the president was replaced by a governor and deputy governor, the number of assistants was increased to ten, and, instead of the committee of six from each town, provision was made for six deputies from Newport, four each from Providence, Portsmouth, and Warwick, and two each from all other towns that might come into existence. The other general officers remained the same as before. Under both governments the magistrates (president, or governor and deputy governor, and assistants) performed judicial functions.[19] Public service was considered as a duty the fulfilment of which was enforced by law[20] while payment, except where the method of fees was available, was either not given at all or was but daily wages for the time actually employed in the service. Payment for service in the general assembly or the court of trials did not exceed three shillings a day, with a much heavier fine for non-attendance.[21] In addition to this a law of 1679 provided that diet and lodging should be furnished those in attendance, the expense to be met out of the fines and forfeitures coming into the general treasury. The services of the recorder, sergeant, and general attorney were compensated by fees, though the first two seem also to have had daily wages for their time employed, and their payment was among the chief sources of expense at this early period.[22] The general treasurer enjoyed a percentage, sometimes as high as ten per cent, on the amount of his transactions.[23] The care of the highways and the poor was given over to the towns.[24] It is evident that the expenses of such a government could not have been great.