ore became more pronounced and the justices
were compelled to seek aid from the Council in protecting the Dutch. In
June, 1653, the turbulent people met and, amid scenes of disorder,
denounced the action of the authorities. When a voice from the crowd
cried out that the justices were a "company of asses and villyanes", the
people roared out their approval. The Assembly, at its meeting in June,
1653, was forced to take active steps to suppress the agitation and to
restore order upon the peninsula. Mr. Bennett with several members of
the Assembly, was sent to Northampton, "for the settlement of the peace
of that countie, and punishinge delinquents". In this he seems to have
been entirely successful, for we hear no more of disorders upon the
Eastern Shore during this period.[361]

When the commissioners and the Burgesses, in 1652, established anew the
gubernatorial office, they were somewhat vague in defining the duties
belonging to it. They first declared that Mr. Bennett was to exercise
"all the just powers and authorities that may belong to that place
lawfully".[362] But that it was not their intention to give the new
officer the prerogatives enjoyed by the royal Governor is shown by their
further statement that he was to have such power only as should be
granted him from time to time by the Assembly.[363] This lack of
clearness led, quite naturally, to several clashes between the
legislative and executive branches of the government.

At the session of Assembly of July, 1653, the Burgesses showed that they
would brook no interference from the Governor with their affairs. On the
eve of the election of the Speaker, they received a message from Mr.
Bennett and the Council advising them not to choose a certain
Lieutenant-Colonel Chiles. Although it was clearly shown that this
gentleman could not serve with propriety, the Burgesses gave him the
election, merely, it would seem, as a rebuke to the presumption of the
Governor.[364]

Edward Digges, who succeeded Mr. Bennett, seems to have had no clash
with the Assembly, but during the next administration, when Samuel
Matthews was Governor, the executive made a determined effort to break
the power of the Burgesses. At the session of 1658, the Governor and the
Council sent a message to the Assembly declaring that body
dissolved.[365] This move startled the Burgesses. The royal Governors
had always possessed the right of dissolving the House, but no such
authority had been deleg