HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 107

Amersfoort, and Pavonia chose eighteen of “the most notable, reasonable, honest, and respectable” among them, from whom, according to the custom of the Fatherland, the Director and Council selected Nine Men as an advisory Council; and although their powers and duties were jealously limited and guarded by the Director's Proclamation, yet the appointment of the Nine Men was a considerable gain to the cause of popular rights. Distinctly considered as “good and faithful interlocutors and trustees of the commonalty,” they were to confer with the Director and Council, "as their tribunes, on all means to promote the welfare" of the public, “as well as that of the country,” and after due consultation upon the propositions of the Director and Council, might then “bring forward their advice.” The Director might at any time attend their meetings and act as president. Three of their number, in rotation, were to have seats at the Council once a week, on regular court day, to act as arbitrators in civil cases ; and their awards were binding, although, on payment of a special fee, appeal was permitted to the Council. Six of their number were to vacate their seats annually, whose successors were to be chosen by the Council, the Director, and “the Nine assembled;” by which means, in the first election only, the choice proceeded directly from the people. In this first popular assembly Breuckelen was represented by Jan Evertsen Bout, a farmer by occupation, and one of the original founders of the town.

The various measures of improvement in civil, municipal, military, religious, and educational matters, which the Director submitted to the Nine Men, were approved, and they promptly undertook to tax themselves for all, except for the expenses of finishing the fort, which they claimed the Company, by the charter of 1629, had bound themselves to do, and the Governor was obliged to waive that point.

The subsequent history of Stuyvesant’s government is a record of quarrels with colonial patroons, with the English in New England, the Swedes on the South River, and last-not least-with his own people. In fact, the government was by no means well adapted to the people or adequate to protect them. The laws were very imperfect, and the Director and Council either incompetent or indis-