Footnote 616: _Massachusetts Records_, vol. III, p. 49; _R. I. Records_, vol. I, p. 133. Nothing had been done by the Narragansett towns to combine under their patent, until May, 1647, when a meeting attended by freemen from all four, was held at Portsmouth, at which it was voted to give Warwick the same privileges as Providence.[617] The new government derived directly from the people, and not from the towns, those present also agreeing that it should be “democraticall, that is to say, a Government held by the free and voluntarie consent of all, or the greater parte of the free Inhabitants.”[618] Legislation was, in the main, to be initiated by the people in town meeting, and not by the Assembly, which latter was to be a representative body, consisting of six delegates from each township. Such bills as might be initiated in the Assembly, or General Court, were required to be submitted to the four towns at their meetings, the whole legislative system thus being “a crude combination of initiative and referendum.”[619] Footnote 617: _Ibid._, pp. 147 _ff._ Footnote 618: _Ibid._, p. 156. Footnote 619: Osgood, _American Colonies_, vol. I, p. 358. Meanwhile, Gorton had obtained a letter from the Commissioners for Plantations, granting him safe conduct through Massachusetts, and allowing him to resettle upon his lands without molestation, until the disputed title should be decided.[620] To this, Massachusetts returned an answer defending her actions in the case and her refusal to allow of appeals to England; but Gorton was permitted to pass through her territory on his way to Warwick.[621] The settlers there, however, were much troubled by the Indians, whom Massachusetts claimed as under her jurisdiction; and after receiving two complaints from the Warwick people, the Commissioners of the United Colonies finally returned answer that they were ready to undertake the settlement of the question as to “under what Colonie youer Plantation doth fall.”[622] The following year, 1650, Massachusetts, by agreement with Plymouth, acquired all rights which that colony might possess about Warwick, but the Commissioners of the United Colonies refused to sanction the transfer.[623] Footnote 620: _R. I. Records_, vol. I, pp. 367 _ff._; J. Winthrop, _History_, vol. II, p. 333. Footnote 621: _Massachusetts Records_, vol. III, pp. 95 _ff._; J. Winthrop, _History_, vol. II, pp. 360 _ff._ Footnote 622: _Acts United Colonies_, vol. I, p. 150. The previous complaint, and the Commissioners' mild rebuke to the Indians, are on p. 111. Footnote 623: _Massachusetts Records_, vol. III, pp. 198 _f._; _Acts United Colonies_, vol. I, pp. 170 _f._; _Massachusetts Records_, vol. III, p. 216.