been on account of expenses in connection with the war. Fines form a principal element of the receipts, but the principal item was £299 13s. 2d. from the taxes of 1678 and 1680. The expenditures entered between September, 1681, and September, 1686, amounts to only £82 0s. 11d. largely for jury dinners and payments to the sergeant and recorder. The audit of the accounts of the treasurer under Andros show nominal receipts of £213 6s. 8d. from taxes, and expenditures of £232 7s. 1d, the principal items being the court houses and the bounty on wolves, the purposes for which the taxes were laid, and payment of the sheriff. (£18 4s.). Footnote 54: One of the complaints made against the colony by Bellemont in 1699 was, "They raise and levy taxes and assessments upon the people, there being no express authority in the charter for so doing." (R.I. Col. Rec. III, 386). Article IV, Sec. 10, of the present constitution provides that "The general assembly shall continue to exercise the powers they have heretofore exercised, unless prohibited in this constitution," but makes no more definite grant of the right to tax. It would seem that this right has never been _specifically_ granted to the assembly. Footnote 55: The separation took place in 1696, Arnold I, 533. Footnote 56: During the early years of the colony there were several outlying districts (Block Island, Conanicut, and certain districts which afterwards became Kingstown and Greenwich) not yet incorporated into towns. For those places assessors were generally appointed by the general assembly, collection was by the general sergeant. By 1678, however, these places had all attained to the dignity of towns. Footnote 57: R.I. Col. Recs. I, 306: If any person refused to assist an officer in gathering rates he was to be fined ten shillings. Footnote 58: R.I. Col. Recs. I, 227: Those individuals that did not pay their tax within twenty days were to be liable "in Generall, and each man in particular x x to the penealtie of the forfeiture of ten pounds," imposed by the court of commissioners upon the town for failure to pay its quota. Both of these provisions are also found in the act ordering that the magazines be supplied in 1650. (Ibid 223) Footnote 59: