COMMENTARIES ON THE HISTORY, CONSTITUTION, AND CHARTERED FRANCHISES OF THE CITY OF LONDON. BY GEORGE NORTON, Esa. BARRISTER AT LAW; ADVOCATE GENERAL OF MADRAS; "For that the restoring of the said mayor, commonalty, and citizens to their ancient liberties, of which they had been deprived, tends very much to the peace and good settlement of this kingdom, "BE IT ENACTED, That the mayor, and commonalty, and citizens of the City of London shall for ever hereafter remain, continue and be, a body corporate and politic, and shall enjoy all their rights, gifts, charters, grants, liberties, privileges, franchises, customs, &c. &c." Stat. 2nd William & Mary, sess. 1. cap. 8. reversing the quo warranto judgement of Charles II. "To treat of the great and notable franchises, liberties, and customs of the City of London, would require a whole volume of itself."-Coke's 4th Inst. ΤΟ THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM THOMPSON, M.P. LORD MAYOR, THE ALDERMEN, AND COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LONDON; THIS ATTEMPT TO ELUCIDATE THE HISTORY AND CONSTITUTION, TO EXPLAIN THE CHARTERED FRANCHISES, AND TO ESTABLISH THE CORPORATE RIGHTS OF THEIR ANCIENT CITY, IS, IN RECOLLECTION OF OBLIGATIONS FORMERLY RECEIVED, GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED BY THEIR FELLOW CITIZEN AND OBEDIENT SERVANT THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. THERE are few subjects in English History more involved in obscurity than the original constitution and progressive condition of cities and boroughs. A theme of such national importance has by turns exercised the pens of legal, of statistical, of political, and of historical writers; but although their labours, and particularly those of Madox and Spelman, have scattered much light over its darker topics, yet the public have still to regret the want of a connected and systematic treatise comprehending the whole of the subject. Those authors who have pursued their inquiries with so much industry as to advance theories, may be said rather to have raised controversies than to have established principles: and no positions have been more confidently disputed of late years, than those regarding the origin and mercantile quality of town communities, propounded by Dr. Brady in his elaborate treatise on Boroughs. It may readily be imagined that the City of London, the most ancient constitutional borough in England,—which has preserved its ancient Saxon independence, and its political and judicial customs |