LXXXIX.—Every man speaking in Court, shall addresse his speech to the Treasuror, or deputie in his absence, as representing the Court: And all private speeches, or directed to particular persons, shall be forborne.
XCI.—No man with his speech shall interrupt the speech of another, before he have finished: Except the Treasurer, or in his absence the Deputie, (with approbation of the Court) see cause to put any to silence, for impertinency, or other unseemely speaking.
XCIV.—Whosoever shall attempt by private solicitation to packe the Court to any unjust or unlawfull end, shall, upon complaint, be convented before the Counseil, and, being convicted, shall be disfranchized.
CI.—All principal Officers in [for] Virginia, namely the Governour, Lieutenant Governour, Admirall, Marshal, chiefe Justice, and Treasuror, shall be chosen here by Ballating in a Quarter-Court.
CII.—The Counseil established in Virginia, and all other Officers there reserved to the choise of the Companie here, shall be chosen in a Quarter-Court by onely erection of hands; unlesse the Court desire to have it passe by Ballating.
[The frequent reference to the ballot in these rules is a sufficient answer to an absurd claim that the English colonies had to learn that device from Holland. Cf. American History and Government, § 77. The use of the ballot is referred to frequently in the Company's Records, in accounts of elections under these rules, as in Records, I, 315, 368, 385, 440, 468, 471, 474, 489; II, 28, 29, 154, 536, 537.]
24. An Order of the London Company as to Self-government February 2/12, 1619/20
Records of the Virginia Company in London (edited by Susan Kingsbury; Washington, 1906), I, 303.
This order, to provide for temporary self-government in new colonies under the jurisdiction of the Company, was adopted on the same day that the Company made four grants of land to companies expecting to settle in "Virginia." One of these grants was to John Pierce and his Associates. Pierce was one of the London partners of the Mayflower Pilgrims. The order below may therefore have suggested to the Pilgrims the Mayflower Compact (No. 52 below).