Sidenote: The theocracy established. It was early decided by the General Court (1631) that none but church members should be admitted as freemen. Four times a year the freemen were to meet in quarter court, and with them the governor, his deputy, and the assistants. But, as in Plymouth, it was found after a time that the towns and the freemen had so multiplied that this primary assemblage became inconvenient. In 1630 the assistants were given the power to elect the governor and deputy governor, and also to make laws. Then it came about that in certain cases the control of the colony was in the hands of only five of the assistants, which made the government almost oligarchical. The cap-sheaf was applied when (1631) it was ordered that the assistants were to hold office so long as the freemen did not remove them. Sidenote: The Watertown protest. That same year, however, came a vigorous protest against this autocratic rule. The Watertown freemen declined to pay a tax of £60, levied by the assistants for fortifications built at Cambridge. It was argued that a people who submitted to taxation without representation were in danger of "bringing themselves and posterity into bondage." The next General Court accepted this plea as valid, and a House of Representatives was inaugurated on the plan of the English Commons, each town sending two deputies, and the governor and assistants sitting as members. Sidenote: The representative system established. For a time the freemen resumed the right of election of governor and deputy-governor, but soon handed this duty over to the representatives. Voting by ballot was introduced in 1634, and the freemen, who had become annoyed at threats from England of interference with their charter, asserted their independence of the official class by rebuking the assistants, turning Winthrop out of office, electing Dudley as governor, making new rules for the election of deputies, providing for an oath of allegiance to the colony, and placing their representative system on an enduring foundation. Ten years later (1644), as the result of a quarrel between the assistants and the deputies, growing out of a petty civil suit over a lost pig, the colonial parliament became bicameral, the assistants forming one house, and the deputies the other. Sidenote: Aristocratic propositions rejected.