which the law of God eſtablithed in Iſraell concerning ſuch perſons doeth morally require. This exempts none from ſervitude who ſhall be Judged thereto by Authoritie." M. H. S. Coll., iii., viii., 231.
Theſe laws were not printed, but were publiſhed in manuſcript[1] under the ſuperintendence of a committee in which Deputy-Governor Endicott was aſſociated with Mr. Downing and Mr. Hauthorne, and, Governor Winthrop ſays, "eſtablifhed for three years, by that experience to have them fully amended and eſtablifhed to be perpetual." Maſs, Records, i., 344, 346. Winthrop's Journal, ii., 55. By the ninety-eighth and laſt ſection of this code, it was decreed as follows:
"98. Laſtly becauſe our dutie and deſire is to do nothing ſuddainlie which fundamentally concerne us, we decree that theſe rites and liberties, ſhall be Audably read and deliberately weighed at every Generall Court that ſhall be held, within three yeares next inſueing, And ſuch of them as ſhall not be altered or repealed they ſhall ſtand ſo ratified, That no man ſhall infringe them without due puniſhment.
“And if any Generall Court within theſe next thre yeares ſhall faile or forget to reade and conſider them as aboveſaid, The Governor and Deputy Governor for the time being, and every Aſſiſtant preſent at ſuch Courts, ſhall forfeite 20 ſh. a man, and everie Deputie 10 ſh. a man for each neglect, which ſhall be
- ↑ There is no reaſon to doubt the authenticity of the ancient MS. which was the foundation of the very able and inftructive paper of the late Mr. Francis C. Gray on "The Early Laws of Maſſachuſetts," as a part of which the Body of Liberties was printed in 1843.
