ed--and now arriving each at his respective parish, being with
the people by teaching them their first lesson, which was the ballot;
and though they found them in the beginning somewhat froward, as at
toys, with which, while they were in expectation of greater matters from
a Council of legislators, they conceived themselves to be abused, they
came within a little while to think them pretty sport, and at length
such as might very soberly be used in good earnest; whereupon the
surveyors began the institution included in--

The first order, requiring "That upon the first Monday next ensuing the
last of December the bigger bell in every parish throughout the nation
be rung at eight of the clock in the morning, and continue ringing
for the space of one hour; and that all the elders of the parish
respectively repair to the church before the bell has done ringing,
where, dividing themselves into two equal numbers, or as near equal as
may be, they shall take their places according to their dignities, if
they be of divers qualities, and according to their seniority, if they
be of the same, the one half on the one side, and the other half on the
other, in the body of the church, which done, they shall make oath to
the overseers of the parish for the time being (instead of these the
surveyors were to officiate at the institution, or first assembly) by
holding up their hands, to make a fair election according to the laws of
the ballot, as they are hereafter explained, of such persons, amounting
to a fifth part of their whole number, to be their deputies, and to
exercise their power in manner hereafter explained, as they shall think
in their consciences to be fittest for that trust, and will acquit
themselves of it to the best advantage of the commonwealth. And oath
being thus made, they shall proceed to election, if the elders of the
parish amount to 1,000 by the ballot of the tribe, as it is in due place
explained, and if the elders of the parish amount to fifty or upward,
but within the number of 1,000, by the ballot of the hundred, as it is
in due place explained. But, if the elders amount not to fifty, then
they shall proceed to the ballot of the parish, as it is in this place
and after this manner explained.

"The two overseers for the time being shall seat themselves at the upper
end of the middle alley, with a table before them, their faces being
toward the congregation, and the constable for the time being shall set
an urn