Page:Notes on the History of Slavery - Moore - 1866.djvu/23

 paid out of their proper etate, and not by the Country or the Townes which chooe them, and whenoever there hall ari{[ls}}e any quetion in any Court amonge the Aitants and Aociates thereof about the explanation of thee Rites and liberties, The Generall Court onely hall have power to interprett them." M. H. S. Coll.,, viii., 236, 237.

It is not to be doubted that at the following eions of the General Court, "the lawes were read over,” in accordance with this decree. And before the expiration of the three years, committees were appointed to revie the Body of Liberties, and orders relating to it were paed every year afterward until 1648, when the laws were firt printed. Gray's Reports,, 513.

Of this firt printed edition of the laws it is uppoed that no copy is now in exitence. Ibid. This is much to be regretted, as a comparion might poibly throw ome light on the change in the law of lavery, which appears in all the ubequent editions. Although hitherto entirely unnoticed, we regard it as highly important; for it takes away the foundation of a grievous charge againt that God-fearing and law-abiding people. For, if "no peron was ever born into legal lavery in Maachuetts," there was a mot {[ls}}hocking chronic violation of law in that Colony and Province for more than a century, hardly to be reconciled with their hitorical reputation.