The
surveyors, therefore, being every one furnished with a convenient
proportion of urns, balls, and balloting-boxes -- in the use
whereof they had been formerly exercised -- and now arriving each
at his respective parish, being with the people by teaching them
their first lesson, which was the ballot; and though they found
them in the beginning somewhat froward, as at toys, with which,
while they were in expectation of greater matters from a Council
of legislators, they conceived themselves to be abused, they came
within a little while to think them pretty sport, and at length
such as might very soberly be used in good earnest; whereupon the
surveyors began the institution included in --
The first order, requiring "That upon the first Monday next
ensuing the last of December the bigger bell in every parish
throughout the nation be rung at eight of the clock in the
morning, and continue ringing for the space of one hour; and that
all the elders of the parish respectively repair to the church
before the bell has done ringing, where, dividing themselves into
two equal numbers, or as near equal as may be, they shall take
their places according to their dignities, if they be of divers
qualities, and according to their seniority, if they be of the
same, the one half on the one side, and the other half on the
other, in the body of the church, which done, they shall make
oath to the overseers of the parish for the time being (instead
of these the surveyors were to officiate at the institution, or
first assembly) by holding up their hands, to make a fair
election according to the laws of the ballot, as they are
hereafter explained, of such persons, amounting to a fifth part
of their whole number, to be their deputies, and to exercise
their power in manner hereafter explained, as they shall think in
their consciences to be fittest for that trust, and will acquit
themselves of it to the best advantage of the commonwealth.
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