the church of Salem was gathered and Mr. Higginson was consecrated as
their teacher. In that same month Winthrop, Saltonstall, and others met at
Cambridge and signed an agreement binding themselves upon the faith of
Christians to embark for the plantation by the following March; "Provided
always that before the last of September next, the whole government,
together with the patent, ... be first by an order of court legally
transferred and established to remain with us and others which shall
inhabite upon the said plantation." [Footnote: _Hutch. Coll._, Prince
Soc. ed. i. 28.] The Company accepted the proposition, Winthrop was chosen
governor, and he anchored in Salem harbor in June. [Footnote: 1630] More
than a thousand settlers landed before winter, and the first General Court
was held at Boston in October; nor did the emigration thus begun entirely
cease until the meeting of the Long Parliament.

From the beginning the colonists took what measures they thought proper,
without regarding the limitations of the law. Counties and towns had to be
practically incorporated, taxes were levied upon inhabitants, and in 1634
all pretence of a General Court of freemen was dropped, and the towns
chose delegates to represent them, though the legislature was not divided
into two branches until ten years later. When the government had become
fully organized supreme power was vested in the General Court, a
legislature composed of two houses; the assistants, or magistrates, as
they were called, and the deputies. The governor, deputy governor, and
assistants were elected by a general vote; but each town sent two deputies
to Boston.

For some years justice was dispensed by the magistrates according to the
Word of God, but gradually a judicial system was established; the
magistrate's local court was the lowest, from whence causes went by appeal
to the county courts, one of whose judges was always an assistant, and