The town was in New England the political unit. The town-meeting was a primary assembly, at which were transacted all local affairs,--those which came nearest to the individual. The colonial government dealt with general interests; the colonial machinery of administration might break down, and yet the immediate needs of the people would have been for a time subserved by the town governments. This was the case at the beginning of the Revolution. But the indispensable function of legislation upon property and contracts, the definition of crimes, and all the judicial affairs of the people, were from the first carried out by the colony. In the town-meetings--and in church congregations, which were for a long period scarcely distinguishable from them--the people were trained in self-government; their intellects were sharpened, and there was bred a stout spirit of political self-sufficiency. By the beginning of the eighteenth century a freehold test for suffrage was common in New England, as in most of the American colonies. Taxes raised on land, polls, and personal property were not onerous, as public expenditures were carefully watched and criticised by a frugal people. The introduction of royal governors opened the door to bickerings between the executive and the legislature,--so prominent a feature in eighteenth-century colonial history prior to the Revolution. Up to 1700, with a few exceptions, the political machinery had run quite smoothly, when not subjected to outside interference. The several colonial governments in New England varied in detail, but they were alike in being largely independent of England, in being administered in a spirit of simplicity and economy, and in the extent to which the body of the people were enabled to influence the conduct of affairs. Sidenote: Summary.