ject to the justices of the peace, who may annul the nomination and displace them.* The general obligation on every Englishman to maintain the peace and prosecute criminals has been newly regulated by 1 and 2 Will. IV. c. 41, and 5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 43: when in any district a credible witness avers upon oath that there is reason to fear a riot or a felony in the neighbourhood, or that the ordinary officers are insufficient, any two justices of the peace may appoint as many special constables as they deem expedient. Station and rank in such case are no grounds of exemption; ordinarily speaking the ruling gentry have known how to protect themselves against the commotions of the populace by suitable nomination of special constables.† 5 and 6 Vict. c. 109. In the year 1848 Louis Napolcon acted as special constable in London. CHAPTER IX. THE TOWN CORPORATIONS. Meaning of "City."-Roman Towns.-Saxon Towns.-Fee-farm.-Guilds.-Identity of Guilds with Town Corporations.-English and Belgian Towns.-Towns under the Tudors.-Corporate and Non-Corporate Towns.-Bye-Laws.-Counties Corporate.-Corruption of Town Corporations.-Extent of the Powers of Corpora tions.-Opinions relative to the Older Town Constitutions. In the introductory chapter of the present book we have shown that a town in its social aspect need not be a town politically considered. The word "city" itself in nowise indicates a town community; it is merely a title of honour. Cowell in his Law Lexicon says "that a city is a town 'ORDINARILY' possessing an episcopal seat and a cathedral church." Westminster had a bishop only in the reign of Henry VIII., and yet it is a city. It was resolved by the Council of 1072 to remove episcopal seats out of the cities; a striking proof, accordingly, that the term city does not necessarily involve the establishment therein of an episcopal sec.* A borough is a place which sends a representative to parliament; socially considered, it may be smaller than a village. The Romans founded in Britain nine town colonies,† amongst which London, Colchester, Lincoln, Chester, Gloucester, and Bath are still of great importance; Verulam (St. Alban's) has, however, subsided into the condition of a neat country town. These towns (Civitates) were organised on a Roman type, and, like other Roman towns governed by aristocratic decurions. In like manner, analogously to the Roman guilds, workmen's guilds (collegia fabrorum) were established, with special rites and "mysteries." A ruined temple of Pallas and Neptune at Chichester perpetuates the importance and reverential zeal of a guild (or collegium fabrorum) which had founded and consecrated it. When Coke derived the word "mysterium," craft, from "maistre," magisterium, he assuredly overlooked the religious associations which *Bucher, Parlamentarismus, p. 56. See also Gneist, ii., 559. Blackstone, Coke, and Bowyer are against the opinion that a city is always an episcopal seat. See also, Christian's Blackstone, i., 114. the crafts originally formed amongst the Romans, and subsequently, amongst the Saxons.* The Saxons were not a people given to the founding of towns; the British and Roman population of the town-colonies probably incurred the fate of the other Britons. So far as they were spared they were reduced to the condition of subjects and vassals. The towns themselves were brought under the domination of some Saxon thane, who levied imposts at his own good pleasure. Those towns which existed in Saxon times were either settlements of vassals on the church lands or on the estates of the temporal lords. The government of the Saxon towns was democratic, as with all Saxon communal organizations. As a rule, at the head of any such larger aggregation of enclosed houses, which was regarded as a hundred, was placed, an alderman or borough-reve, whose authority was occasionally limited by a royal officer, the "wye," "port," or "burg-reve." These functionaries collected for the king a rent which however was frequently granted, either to the neighbouring thane or feudal lord.+ In Norman times in lieu of a borough-reve, a bailiff nominated by the king was substituted, who later on was usually styled "mayor." By charters from the king or lord of the manor, the soil and the town revenues were frequently granted to the towns in fee-farm, on condition that the burgesses should render a yearly rent, and should especially pay the rent punctually to the Exchequer or to the lord of the manor. Generally speaking, there was coupled with such grant a special, but limited jurisdiction, and the right to elect the functionaries. The towns were chiefly inhabited by freed-men; a serf who resided for a year and a day in any town became free. The burgesses, called also "citizens," and "townsmen," enjoyed personal freedom from toll, in any place where such toll existed, in conjunction with other privileges, oftentimes of an important nature, since arbitrary taxation had been abolished by Magna Charta, and the feudal system had declined. The quality of burgess gave a claim to be initiated into the guilds * Coke, Inst. ii., 668. + Lappenberg, i., 608; Hallam, M.A. iii., 22. In Spain the fueros of the towns were generally contracts which the founder of the town concluded with the colo nists. Lemcke, Geschichte Spaniens ii., 419. In Portugal places which had distinguished themselves in war obtained the right, by means of charters (Beletria), of choosing their governors. Schäfer Geschichte Portugals, part i. existing in the town. The towns usually possessed their own court-leet; whosoever gave service in this court, that is, bore "lot," or paid dues, that is, "scot," (Saxon "sceat," a part) was regarded politically as a full burgess. as a full burgess. Burgess-ship was acquired by birth, by apprenticeship, and marriage. From the time of Richard the Lion Heart, charters were accorded to many towns. The democratic became thereby transmuted into an oligarchic element by the transference of the government to the " guilds," or associations of thriving burgesses. The Roman guilds had disappeared, and were followed by others of a Pagan-Saxon origin, which at first were simply meetings for purposes of special sacrifices. Christianity reputed these as "devils' guilds," but, as with SO many other heathen customs, was fain at last to effect a reconciliation. In the place of sacrifices, banquets were held in common, in edifices specially set apart (domus convivii, domus gildonæ, guild-hall).* In larger localities the several guilds† were united into a larger association, where the representatives of the tythings deliberated in common, both on the concerns of the guilds, and of the respective locality. Doomsday Book mentions three guilds as existing in and about Canterbury; at the time it was compiled, several guilds existed in London, dating, as it would appear, from the days of King Athelstan.§ Whenever the kings confided to the existing guilds the government of the town, and granted to them, as representatives of the town community, charters with jurisdiction, they probably did but confirm an actual condition of things already existing in many spots. The recognition of the burgesses of a town as an independent body, or the recognition and confirmation of their guild rights, was for many centuries one and the same thing. The statuta gilda of Berwick, of the year 1284, which, although at the period Scottish, had still social and political relations assimilating with those of English towns, demonstrate this fact most clearly. This statute is a complete town constitution undersigned by the mayor of the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the notables thereof.¶ The workmen's guilds,* fashioned on the guilds of the burgesses, speedily entered into opposition with the aristocratic town government. Towards the middle of the 15th century, according to Madox,† the custom of placing entire towns under guild constitutions ceased; in lieu of the word "guild," the form "communitas perpetua et corporata" came into vogue. The change is to be accounted for by the increased number of the small burgesses, who succeeded in obtaining a share in the municipal system, and likewise by the favour shown to towns by the revolutionary house of York. The main characteristic of nearly all the town constitutions remained aristocratic, their end and aim being to provide for the general security and common benefit. Under Tudor sway the towns were made use of as an instrument whereby to strengthen the royal power in parliament; to several was granted the privilege of returning members, and many towns even at that date were rotten boroughs. In the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, sixty-three boroughs, which neither previously nor subsequently have been represented, were allowed to return members to parliament. To those boroughs which obtained the right of being represented in parliament, a royal charter was usually granted, by virtue whereof they received a corporation. To the Tudors this was quite an immaterial matter, provided they could succeed in securing subservient members in parliament; but as they were not likely to procure such members from the town democracies, the charters which the Tudors granted, whenever not based on guild representation of an exclusive kind, created oligarchical governing bodies. From the reign of Henry VI. a distinction was made in granting charters with, or without, corporate rights. The latter guaranteed merely a town constitution; the former not only accorded the right to hold property, but granted to the corporate body the right of jural persons. By a clause of incorporation towns received a special title and powers to acquire, in perpetuum, property both real and personal; conjointly with the rights of corporation, a special jurisdiction was usually conferred. If the charter contained a non-intromittant clause, the concurrent jurisdiction of the county was excluded. * Wilda, 250. Madox, Firma Burgi, 20. + Wilda, 253. |