When  the  commission  for  the  first  executive  of  New
Hampshire  passed  the  seals,  it  contained  a  clause  authoriz-
ing the  president,  with  the  council's  consent,  to  continue  for
the  support  of  the  government  the  taxes  and  impositions
that  were  then  being  levied  upon  the  inhabitants,  until  such
time  as  the  general  assembly  could  be  convened  and  devise
other  ways  and  means  of  defraying  the  expenses  of  the
government.^  At  the  time,  the  insertion  of  such  a  clause
in  the  commission  was,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,
necessary,  as  there  was  no  revenue  arising  for  the  support
of  a  central  government.  But  when  an  assembly  had  been
once  convened  and  provision  had  been  made  for  a  revenue,
the  purpose  for  which  the  clause  had  been  inserted  was  ful-
filled and  from  that  moment  the  question  of  raising  money
was  one  which  concerned  the  entire  legislature  and  not  the
governor  and  council  alone.
When,  a  few  years  later,  this  form  of  government  gave
^ay  to  the  regular  type  of  royal  government  and  Cranfield
became  lieutenant  governor,^  the  same  provision  was  inserted

^Provincial  Papers,  vol.  i,  p.  379.
'^Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  440;  vol.  xix,  p.  690.
