any outside agency. Elsewhere in New England, too, local self-
government was a spontaneous growth. Usually the settlers grouped
themselves in small, compact communities known as towns, the freemen
coming together in the town meeting for the purpose of passing laws
and electing officials. The town meeting constituted a pure democracy,
in which the freemen governed themselves consciously and directly.

18. SPREAD OF THE REPRESENTATIVE IDEA.--The principle of
representative government appeared very early in English history,
expressing itself most clearly in the houses of Parliament. The
principle was early transplanted to America, for in 1619 we find the
London Company establishing in Virginia a House of Burgesses, the
first representative assembly in the New World. The representative
democracy spread rapidly through the colonies, in many cases replacing
the pure democracy as a form of local government. In Massachusetts
Bay, for example, the population of the colony became so dispersed,
and the complexity of its government so great, that it was necessary
for most freemen to remain at home, and to content themselves with
choosing a small number of individuals to represent their interests.
These representatives gathered in the General Court and transacted the
business of the colony.

19. THE SEPARATION OF POWERS.--As government develops in scope and
complexity, there is a tendency for the agents of government to
specialize in various types of work. A more or less recognizable
separation of the governmental machinery into legislative, executive,
and judicial branches had long been a feature of English government.
Early in the seventeenth century this principle was transferred to the
government of the English colonies in America. There was established
in each colony a legislative branch for the enactment of laws, an