ESTABLISHED BY THE GENERAL COURT, MAY, 1650 .*[Recorded in Vol. II.]
[6*] Forasmuch as the free fruition of such Libberties, Immunities,Privileges, as Humanity, Civillity and Christianity , call for, as dueto euery man in his place and proportion, without Impeachm* andinfringement, hath euer beene and euer will bee the Tranquillity andStabillity of Churches and Common wealths, and the denyall or de-privall thereof, the disturbance if not ruine of both :—
It is therefore ordered by this Courte and Authority thereof, thatno mans life shall bee taken away, no mans honor or good nameshall bee stained, no mans person shall be arrested, restrained, ban-ished, dismembered nor any way punnished ; no man shall bee de-prived of his wife or children, no mans goods or estate shall beetaken away from him, nor any wayes indamaged, vnder colour ofLaw or countenance of Authority , vnless it bee by the vertue orequity of some express Law of the Country warranting the same,established by a Generali Courte, and sufficiently published, or incase of the defect of a Law in any perticular case, by the word ofGod .
*In April, 1646, the General Court desired Mr. Ludlow “to take some paynes in drawingforth a body of lawes for the gouernment of this Commonweith, & present them to the nextGenerali Courte.” (p. 138, ante.) The request does not appear to have been immediately com-plied with,—at least, the work was not completed in time to be presented for the action of theCourt , before May, 1647; it was then ordered, that when the body of laws should be per-fected, as the Court had desired, Mr. Ludlow “ should, besides the paying the hyer of a man, befurther considered for his paynes.” (p. 154.) No further mention of the progress of the work,or of its completion, occurs upon the records, until Feb. 1651, when an order of the Court ,granting extra-compensation to the Secretary for “drawing out and transcribing the countryr orders, concluded and established in May lust," enables us to fix the date of its adoption.
| This Code, (usually cited as ‘ Mr. Ludlow’s code,’ or ‘ the code of 1650,’) is recorded at the end
) of Vol. II. of the Colony Records, and separately paged. The orders subsequently passed, were,from time to time, added at the end, or occasionally inserted under the appropriate title, by the1 Secretary. Prefixed to the Laws is a copy of the Fundamental Orders, or Constitution of 1639,already printed, on pages 20—25 of this volume.
44 *