Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/102

 62 other New-England states, indulges an honest, and not unreasonable pride.

§ 76. After the grant of the provincial charter, in 1691, the legislation of the colony took a wider scope, and became more liberal, as well as more exact. At the very first session an act passed, declaring the general rights and liberties of the people, and embracing the principal provisions of Magna Charta on this subject. Among other things, it was declared, that no tax could be levied but by the General Court; that the trial by jury should be secured to all the inhabitants; and that all lands shall be free from escheats and forfeitures, except in cases of high treason. A habeas corpus act was also passed at the same session; but it seems to have been disallowed by the crown. Chalmers asserts, that there is no circumstance in the history of colonial jurisprudence better established than the fact, that the habeas corpus act was not extended to the plantations until the reign of Queen Anne.

§ 77. It does not seem necessary to go into any minute examination of the subsequent provincial legislation. In its general character it did not materially vary from that antecedently adopted, except so far as the charter required, or a progressive spirit of improvement invited a change. Lands were made liable to the payment of debts; the right of choosing their ministers was, after some struggles, secured in effect to the concurrent vote of the church and congregation in each parish; and the spirit of religious intolerance was in some measure checked, if not entirely subdued. Among the earliest acts of