Local subcommittees of regulators all over the country corresponded with the central board at Westminster.

[312] The persons on whom James chiefly relied for assistance in his new and arduous enterprise were the Lords Lieutenants.

Every Lord Lieutenant received written orders directing him to go down immediately into his county.

There he was to summon before him all his deputies, and all the justices of the Peace, and to put to them a series of interrogatories framed for the purpose of ascertaining how they would act at a general election.

He was to take down the answers in writing, and to transmit them to the government.