By the second article of the charter it is provided, that an assembly shall be yearly chosen by the freemen, to consist of four persons out of each county, or of a greater number, if the governor and assembly shall so agree, on the 1st of October for ever, and shall sit on the 14th following, with power to choose a speaker and other their officers, and be judges of the qualifications and elections of their own members; shall sit upon their own adjournments, prepare bills, impeach criminals, and redress grievances; and shall possess all other powers and privileges of an assembly, according to the rights of the free-born subjects of England, and the customs observed in any of the king’s plantations in America. If any county or counties shall neglect to send deputies, those who meet, provided they are not fewer in number than two thirds of the whole, shall be considered as the legal representatives of the province. By the eighth article, in cases of suicide, all property is to descend to the next heirs, as if the deceased had died a natural death: nor is the governor to be entitled to any forfeiture, if a person shall be killed by causualty or accident. The same article provides, that no act, law, or ordinance whatsoever, shall at any time hereafter be made, to alter or diminish the form or effect of this charter, or of any part of it, without the consent of the governor for the time being, and six parts in seven of the assembly met—that the first article, relating to liberty of conscience, shall be kept without any alteration inviolably for ever—and that William Penn, for himself, _&c._ does solemnly declare, that neither he, _&c._ shall do any thing whereby the liberties, in this charter contained, nor any part thereof, shall be infringed; and that if any thing shall be done by any person contrary thereto, it shall be held of no effect. This new constitution differed greatly from the original.—The governor might nominate his own council, and he was left single in the executive part of the government, and had liberty to restrain the legislative, by refusing his assent to their bills.—The assembly, on the other hand, acquired the important privilege of propounding laws, as well as of amending or rejecting them; but though this new constitution was thankfully accepted by the province, it was unanimously rejected by the territories; and affairs stood in this untoward state when the proprietary sailed for England. The representatives of the province and those of the territories divided, and acted as two distinct bodies; and the attempts to unite them proved ineffectual. The _territories_ consisted of the three counties, _Newcastle_, _Kent_, and _Sussex_, on the Delaware, and are commonly known by the name of the three _Lower Counties on the Delaware_.