distinctions, to the injury of Ireland. Neither country was represented
in the British Parliament. In both countries the representatives of the
Crown were appointed by England, and controlled, in America almost
completely, in Ireland absolutely, the Executive and Judges. In Ireland
the Viceroy was always an Englishman; in America, the Governors of a few
of the non-proprietary Colonies were colonials, but most Governors were
English, and some of the proprietary class were absentees.[11] In the
case both of Ireland and America the English Government claimed a
superior right of control over legislation and taxation, and in both
cases it was found necessary to remove all doubts as to this right by
passing Declaratory Acts, for Ireland in 1719, for America in 1766. The
great difference lay in the Legislature, and was the result of different
degrees of remoteness from the seat of power. America was profoundly
democratic from the beginning, outpacing the Mother Country by fully two
centuries. There was no aristocracy, and in most Colonies little
distinction between upper and middle classes. The popular Assemblies,
elected on the broadest possible franchise, were truly representative.
Some of the Legislative Councils, or Upper Chambers, were elective also.
Most of them, although nominated, and therefore inclined to be hostile
to the popular body, were nevertheless of identical social composition;
so that there was often an official, but never a caste, ascendancy. From
very early times there was occasional friction between the Home
Government, represented by the Governors, and the colonial democracies,
over such matters as taxation, official salaries, quartering of troops,
and navigation laws. Writs of _quo warranto_ were issued against
Connecticut, Carolina, New York, and Maryland, in the latter part of the
seventeenth century, and the Charter of Massachusetts, after long
wrangles with the Crown, was forfeited in 1684, and not restored until
1692, after a period of despotic government under Sir Edmund Andros. But
for a century or more the system worked well enough upon the whole.