Relations with Great Britain
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requests from the colonies to create new legislative districts or to pass
‘‘triennial acts’’ providing for automatic meetings of the legislatures at
regular intervals. They also refused to accept speakers chosen by the assemblies on an automatic basis. These were rights that Parliament had
long enjoyed. The principal check on the colonial assemblies was the
Board of Trade, which instructed the royal governors, controlled colonial
patronage, assisted the Privy Council in appeals from the colonial courts,
advised Parliament and the Crown on matters of colonial policy, and,
most significantly, had the power to recommend approval or disallowance of colonial legislation, much like a court exercising judicial review.
Between 1696 and 1774, some 400