The beginning of operations, in accordance with the acts just cited, was delayed by the fact that the governor and judges, appointed under the Ordinance of 1787, and who alone could institute government under it, did not reach the Illinois country until 1790. In the meantime, anarchy continued. Contemporary accounts give a good idea of the attempts at government during the time, and the fact of their great interest, combined with the fact that most of them are yet unpublished, seems to warrant treatment of the subject at some length. The court at Kaskaskia met more than a score of times during 1787 and 1788. Its record consists in large part of mere meetings and adjournments. All members of the court were French, while litigants and the single jury recorded were Americans. Jurors from Bellefontaine received forty-five livres each, and those from Prairie du Rocher, twenty-five livres each. This court seems to have been utterly worthless.(117) At Vincennes, matters were at least as bad. “It was the most unjust court that could have been invented. If anybody called for a court, the president had 20 livers in peltry; 14 magistrates, each 10 livers; for a room, 10 livers; other small expenses, 10 livers; total in peltry, 180 livers—which is 360 in money. So that a man who had twenty or thirty dollars due, was obliged to pay, if he wanted a court, 180 livers in peltry: This court also never granted an execution, but only took care to have the fees of the court paid. The government of this country has been in the Le Gras and Gamelin family for a long time, to the great dissatisfaction of the people, who presented me a Petition some days ago, wherein they complained of the injustice of their court—in consequence of which, I have dissolved the old court, ordered new magistrates to be elected, and established new regulations for them to go by.”(118) Upon the dissolution of the court, Maj. Hamtramck issued the following: “REGULATIONS FOR THE COURT OF POST VINCENNES. “In consequence of a Petition presented to me by the people of Post Vincennes, wherein they complain of the great expence to which each individual is exposed in the recovery of his property by the present court, and as they express a wish to have another mode established for the administration of justice—I do, therefore, by these presents, dissolve the said court, and direct that five magistrates be elected by the suffrages of the people who, when chosen, will meet and settle their seniority.