arliament, wore their hats during the session.

"This General Assembly convened in response to a summons issued by
Sir George Yeardley, the recently appointed Governor of the colony.
Hitherto the colony had been governed by the London Council; the
real life of Virginia dates from the arrival of Yeardley, bringing
with him from England 'commissions and instructions for the better
establishing of a commonwealth.'

"The centuries roll back, and before us, in solemn session, is the
first assembly upon this continent of the chosen representatives
of the people. It were impossible to overstate its deep import to
the struggling colony, or its far-reaching consequence to States
yet unborn. In this little assemblage of twenty-two burgesses,
the Legislatures of nearly fifty commonwealths to-day and of the
Congress with its representatives from all the States of 'an
indestructible union' find their historical beginning. The words of
Bancroft in this connection are worthy of remembrance: 'A perpetual
interest attaches to this first elective body that ever assembled
in the Western world, representing the people of Virginia and making
laws for their government more than a year before the _Mayflower_ with
the Pilgrims left the harbor of Southampton, and while Virginia
was still the only British colony on the continent of America.'

"It is to us to-day a matter of profound gratitude that these
the earliest American lawgivers were eminently worthy their high
vocation. While confounding, in some degree, the separate functions
of government, as abstractly defined at a later day by Montesquieu,
and eventually put in concrete form in our fundamental laws, State
and Federal--it is none the less true that these first legislators
clearly discerned their inherent rights as a part of the English-speaking
race. More important still, a perusal of the brief records they
have left, impresses the conviction that they were no strangers to
the underlying fact that the people are the true source of political
power, the evidence whereof is to be found in the scant records of
their proceedings--a priceless heritage of all future generations.
And first--and fundamental in all legislative assemblies--they
asserted the absolute right to determine as to the election and
qualification of members. Grants of land were asked, not only for
the planters, but for their wives, 'as equally important parts
of the colony.' It was wisely provided that of the n