The ecclesiastical unit in episcopacy is a diocese, comprising many churches and ruled by a prelate; in congregationalism it is a single church, self-governed and entirely independent of all others; in Presbyterianism it is a presbytery or council composed of ministers and elders representing all the churches within a specified district.
It still needed nearly a century of struggle to render the burghers independent of lordship, with a fully organized commune, self-governed in its several assemblies.
The states are self-governed, and have exclusive control of the public lands, mines, industries, and all local affairs.
The local assembly, in which 36 out of 38 members were committed to repeal, passed an address to Her Majesty praying her not to " reduce this free, happy and hitherto self-governed province to the degraded condition of a servile dependency of Canada," and sent Howe with a delegation to London to lay the petition at the foot of the throne.
