ample has been said on the subject, in the earlier pages of this work, to render further . reference to it here unnecessary ; hence, we will hasten to enumerate the various legislative enactments that have been spread upon the statutes of our several states, since their legislatures respectively have existed.
' The first legislature that ever sat in America, was in the Colony of Virginia, in 1619, at which time Sir George Yeardley was Gov- ernor. The sanction, however, of the home government, was not obtained until 1621, when an ordinance came from England allowing the establishment of a Colonial Legislature, but required that body, in all its acts, " to imitate the policy of the form of government, laws, customs, and manner of trial, and other administration of justice, used in the realm of England, as near as may be."