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differently, and in the Saxon tongue burgh-war signified the martial men of the boroughs, whence by corruption of the terms were rendered burghers and burgesses; and from the first men of trust and substance; and thus, in the plural, rendered by the Saxons, in the Latin, barones, or men of might. In proof of this, after the Conqueror's time, the burgesses in several cities and towns were expressly styled barons. One writ of William's is directed to the "Portgreve or Burgesses of London," afterwards another to the Mayor and Barons of the city of London." (Vide Argument Antinor, p. 74.) Thus, in one instance denoted by their Saxon, and in the other by their Norman, appellation. In another of William's writs (Argument Antinor, pp. 82, 83.) the Burgesses of Carlisle are so styled (barones),—in Domesday the Burghers of London and Warwick are called barons, and amerced as such in their lands. (Pleadings in the quo Warranto, 2, 3. 8, 9.) also the Barons of Corfe Castle (burgesses); but by lands, in a letter to their representative Hobart, (afterwards chief justice,) so styled themselves. (Willis's Act. Parl. vol. ii. p. 499.) There were also the Barons of the Cinque Ports, (commoners,) who held by grand sergeanty, and whose representatives retain that appellation to this day; thus the Lord Mayor of London is, as such, the king's cup bearer at the coronation, and the Barons of the Cinque Ports always support the canopy at that solemnity. Therefore, were burgesses, or barons, in the ancient acceptation, men of trust and some substance; for if the importance of a coronation is properly understood, their services will be found equal in dignity to the most honourable, as it proves their ancient connexion with the personal representation and support of sovereign power. This is a death-blow to the principles of the Whig Bill of equalization, if the government mean to set it up as an enlargement, or a restoration, of the early system of municipal privilege adapted to modern usages, so abundantly illustrated in the elaborate writings of Dr. Brady, on the early Constitution of English Boroughs. The boroughs, it has been proved, held these judicial rights and legislative powers within themselves, that is, election of their own legal functionaries; they were vested with this right in the time of the Saxons, and it has been abundantly shown in the accompanying work, they had the same powers under William the First, and his successors.-The plan proposed

is, therefore, a positive departure from the ancient principle and practice. In many boroughs, by their gradual decline from wealth, these powers have become lost, and even their remembrance is obliterated; but in others the principle and even practice is fully retained, as in the city of London itself, more strikingly remarkable in having preserved its immunities during many ages, rather than in having any peculiar to itself. The privileges of the city of London were always sustained as a royalty within itself; for so late as the time of Henry the Fourth, such was the legal power of the mayor, that he peremptorily refused the passage of the king's troops through the city, (vol. i. Collect. Hist. of England, p. 421.) and to this day the sword and mace, the two greatest emblems of legal authority, are carried before the lord mayor.

The municipal laws are called bye laws, from two old Saxon words, by and lagen, which signifies borough laws; neither does it appear, in the times treated of, that the assent of any but the burgesses, or barons, was requisite to give them obligatory effect. From this ancient legislative power in boroughs, possessed by the holders of property, or manorial estates, &c. we find the explanation of diversity of privilege so fully detailed by Lord Coke, and showing wherein a borough might prescribe for customs which a town could not; for those customs were originally only so many different rules of acting prescribed by the legislature of the different boroughs, which being disused are yet said to bind by prescription, (excepting so far as altered by the Reform Bill,) even as many things first established by the legislature of the realm, are now said to bind by common law, (vide Spelman's Codex Leg. and Camden's Britan. Willis's Act. Parliam.) which is agreed to differ from customs only, in the extent of ground wherein they retain the force of law; thus, if it bind them through the whole kingdom, it is called common law; if in a borough, or manor, it is called custom now towns being parcel of a manor, which is one royalty, cannot prescribe for customs, because the orders made at the manor court, bind not only the town, but the whole manor; for, in all cases, by the rule of common law, the prescription must be as extensive as the custom: whereas, boroughs being a distinct or entire liberty, as the law now stands, may prescribe for customs within the extent of their own territories, excepting so far as they stand affected by the arrangements under the Reform Bill

of 1832. And with regard to judicial offices, or corporate magistrates for life, we may collect the fact, that the making of a judge for life, as in the two original courts of common law, is nothing more than restoring the principle of the ancient English borough constitution, and shows the grounds on which the judges yet sit, by virtue of their office, in parliament, and which once were of more consequence than they are now; and that, consistently with Magna Charta, they amerced Peers. This principle agrees with the universally received opinion of our most judicious, legal, and constitutional authors, who universally agree, that the citizens and burgesses, as privileged barons, sat in Parliament long before any knights of the shire were chosen, and that they represented the royalties within their jurisdiction; and under such constitution both houses originally sat together. (Vide Atkins's Rights of the Commons, pp. 24. 26. and 35.) Here at once is shown the reason why the Parliaments were the supreme courts of judicature, and why writs of error did, and still do lie to Parliament; and although the members of the House of Lords are now the sole judges; yet is the error of corporate or borough legislation supposed still to be redressed in Parliament, as of old; for the ancient Parliament consisted of earls who presided in the county court, barons who did the same in the court barons, and the representative barons or burgesses were the parties judged. (Vide Crompton's Jurisdict. 17 Hen. II. 12 Rich. II. and 28. Ed. III. 2. Inst. 26.) What system can be more equitable or natural, for a free people, than that the errors of one or more responsible judges, shall be redressed or corrected by an assembly of the chief judges in every district of vested interests? Hence the origin of the Privy Council, the Courts of King's Bench and Exchequer, &c. and their present constitution'. O ye modern state philosophers, in entering upon politics, an abstruse science, you have forgotten its true end, that of securing the happiness and property of the whole community, upon a valid foundation!

1 Vide Madox's History of the Exchequer, Brady's History, Tyrrell's History, Hales's Hist. of the Law, Selden's Titles of Honour, Petyt's Rights of the Commons, Coke's Cases, Prynn's Plea for the House of Peers, and Nicholson's History. For information on the Scotch boroughs-Dalrymple's Collection of Scotch History, Craig's Works, Mackenzie's Institutes of the Laws of Scotland. See also Sergeant Merewether's History of the Boroughs, recently published.

N.B. FOR corroboration of the principles asserted, and the opinions expressed in this work, as well as for the further illustration of the doctrines and policy of the Church of Rome, any of the following works may be consulted with advantage by the reader; and most of which are immediately accessible.

Hallam's Constitutional History of England, especially for the Middle Ages.

Mendham's Literary Policy of the Church of Rome. London. Duncan. 1830. 1 vol. 8vo.

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Corpus librorum symbolicorum, qui in Ecclesia Reformatorum auctoritatem publicam obtinuerunt; novam collectionem instituit, dissertationem historicam et literaram subjunxit, et indices adjecit, Jo. Chron. Guil. Augusti. 8vo. Eberfeldi. 1827." This work is invaluable for its expositions; the collection contains sixteen different Catechisms, or Confessions of Faith; the Helvetic, French, English, Scotch, Belgic, Hungarian, Polish, Bohemian, &c.

Browning's History of the Huguenots. London. 1829.

Clarke's Succession of Sacred Literature. London. 1830. Contains a Chronological Arrangement of Authors and their Works, to 1445.

Cramp's Text Book of Popery. Dublin. 1831.

Dr. Phelan's History of the Policy of the Church of Rome in Ireland, from the Introduction of the English Dynasty to the Great Rebellion. London. Cadell. 1827. Contains a full illustration of the causes which led to the increase of the papal domination in Ireland, and its moral results to the general population of that portion of the British empire.

O'Donnoughue's History of the Church and Court of Rome. 2 vols. 8vo. Dublin. 1831. Contains copious Chronological Tables, aud detailed notices of the eighteen General Councils; also a succinct History of the three grand Epochs of the Romish Church-its rise, transcendance, and declension; notices of the Crusades, Institution of the Jesuits, the Court of the Inquisition, &c. &c.

The Difficulties of Romanism, by G. S. Faber, B.D. London. 8vo. 1830. Rivingtons. A work of superior intellectual research, and sound information with regard to evidence.

Soames's History of the Reformation of the Church of England. 4 vols. 8vo. London. 1826. Rivingtons. This work is chiefly founded on the documentary evidence furnished by Burnet and Strype.

M'Gavin's History of the Reformation in Scotland. Glasgow. 1831. A truly important work, showing the perfect independence of the Episcopal Church of Scotland of the See of Rome to the latter end of the fifth century.

Gilly's Waldensian Researches. 8vo. London. 1831. Rivingtons. One of the most interesting records of faithful Protestantism, and an able exposé of the artifices of the Jesuits, Gretser and others; especially valuable at this time, on the eve of the foundation of an extensive Jesuits' College in the centre of the kingdom.

Bishop Gibson's Preservative. Curry and Co. Dublin. A new edition of this standard work, with considerable additions, has been published by Mr. Curry, Upper Sackville Street.

Latimer's Sermons, by Dr. Watkins. London. 1824. Duncan. Archdeacon Cotton's Publications, expository of the Doctrines of the Romish Church.

The Writings of John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, obit. 1571. London. (Religious Tract Society. 1831.)

Archbishop Cranmer's Works. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

The Marchmont Papers, edited by the Right Hon. Sir Geo. H. Rose, Bart. An original and elegant history of public affairs in Britain; from the death of Charles the Second to the accession of George the Third. 3 vols. Murray.

Edgar's Variations of Popery. London. 1831. Key and Cochrane; and Curry and Co. Dublin. An elaborate and strict analysis of the variations of Romanism, especially useful for those who cannot obtain Basnage's History of the Reformed Churches, which is a triumphant refutation of the celebrated learned Romanist Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, in his work "Les Variations des Protestans."

Histoire des Variations de l'Eglise Gallicane. Par J. B. Renoult. Amst. 1703. (Letters to the Bishop of Meaux.—“ I will freely confess to you, that nothing has so effectually convinced me of the falsehood of your religion, as the bad faith of all your controversialists, and their impudence in denying or disguising the most notorious facts!!")-Renoult, p. 149.

The Modern Jesuits, from the French of L'Abbé Martial M. de la Roche Arnauld. Longman and Co.

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