“The list being entered, the high constable shall take three copies of
the same, whereof he shall presently return one to the lord high sheriff
of the tribe, a second to the lord custos rotulorum, and a third to the
censors; or these, through the want of such magistrates at the first
muster, may be returned to the orator, to be appointed for that tribe.
To the observation of all and every part of this order, the officers and
deputies of the hundred are all and every of them obliged, as they will
answer it to the phylarch, who has power, in case of failure in the
whole or any part, to fine all or any of them so failing at discretion,
or according to such laws as shall hereafter be provided in that case,
but under an appeal to the Parliament.” There is little in this order
worthy of any further account, but that it answers to the rulers
of hundreds in Israel, to the mora or military part of the tribe in
Lacedaemon, and to the century in Rome. The jurymen, being two in a
hundred, and so forty in a tribe, give the latitude allowed by the law
for exceptions. And whereas the golden balls at this ballot begin to be
marked with letters, whereof one is to be drawn immediately before it
begins, this is to the end that the letter being unknown, men may be
frustrated of tricks or foul play, whereas otherwise a man may bring a
golden ball with him, and make as if he had drawn it out of the urn. The
surveyors, when they had taken copies of these lists, had accomplished
their work in the hundreds.
So a hundred is the second division of land occasioned by the second
collection of the people, whose civil and military functions proper to
this place are comprised in the foregoing order.
Having stated the hundreds, they met once again by twenties, where there
was nothing more easy than to cast every twenty hundreds, as they lay
most conveniently together, into one tribe; so the whole territory of
Oceana, consisting of about 10,000 parishes, came to be cast into 1,000
hundreds, and into fifty tribes. In every tribe at the place appointed
for the annual rendezvous of the same, were then, or soon after begun
those buildings which are now called pavilions; each of them standing
with one open side upon fair columns, like the porch of some ancient
temple, and looking into a field capable of the muster of some 4,000
men; before each pavilion stand three pillars sustaining urns for
the ballot, that on the right hand equal in height to the brow of
a horseman, being called the horse urn, that on the left hand, with
bridges on either side to bring it equal in height with the brow of a
footman, being called the foot urn, and the middle urn, with a bridge
on the side toward the foot urn, the other side, as left for the horse,
being without one; and here ended the whole work of the surveyors, who
returned to the Lord Archon with this--
ACCOUNT OF THE CHARGE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account