Although  from  the  instructions  which  Governor  Andros
received  it  is  evident  that  the  Crown  intended  that  all  pre-
existing colonial  laws,  not  repugnant  to  the  English  statutes,
should  be  regarded  as  possessing  a  continuing  validity  until
formally  repealed  by  the  king  in  council  or  legally  displaced
by  others,  it  appears  from  the  answer  which  the  council  gave
Lieutenant  Governor  Usher  in  1692,  when  he  asked  them
what  laws  were  then  to  be  regarded  as  still  in  force  in  the
province,  that  that  body  did  not  consider  the  matter  in  the
same  light. For,  when  the  question  was  put  to  them,  they
replied  that,  considering  the  many  revolutions  and  changes
in  this  province  for  several  years  past,  they  were  of  the
opinion  that  there  were  no  laws  nor  standing  revenue  in
the  province  when  his  honor  arrived  there,  so  that  what  is
necessary  for  the  king's  service  and  the  support  of  the  gov-
ernment are  to  be  enacted  by  the  legislature. And,  it  is  a
significant  fact,  that,  when  Governor  Dudley  was  requested
by  the  home  government  in  1702  to  send  over  copies  of  all
the  laws  then  in  force,  he  forwarded  none  that  were  enacted
prior  to  1692. The  laws  that  were  passed  by  the  first  as-


6i9]  JUSTICE  437

sembly  which  Usher  summoned  did  not,  however,  constitute
a  code  nor  were  they  intended  to/  In  fact,  no  assembly  ever
adopted  a  complete  code  of  laws. As  a  rule  laws  were
passed  only  as  needed. Moreover,  such  a  code  was  not
called  for  by  the  authorities  in  England,  for  the  English
laws  were  to  be  in  force  in  the  province  in  so  far  as  the
state  and  condition  of  the  inhabitants  and  the  circumstances
of  the  country  permitted. Naturally,  many  of  the  English
laws  wer^  unsuited  to  a  people  living  in  a  new  country  while
others  were  quite  inapplicable. Physical,  political,  social
and  industrial  conditions  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  were
different  from  what  they  were  in  England. Moreover,  the
laws  by  which  the  people  had  been  governed  during  the
period  of  nearly  forty  years  that  the  New  Hampshire  settle-
ments were  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,  had
never  been  officially  transmitted  to  the  home  government  for
inspection,  for  the  latter  did  not  then  require  that  colony  to
send  its  laws  to  England  for  confirmation  or  repeal. 