Insignifi-
cance of
town mem`
bers in par-
liament.
General
estimate of
municipal
change
during the
period.
578 Constitutional History. [chap.
town members in the house of commons would have been more
distinctly apparent. Throughout the middle ages it scarcely
can be detected at all except in two or three very narrow
points ; a tendency to precision in mercantile legislation, a
somewhat illiberal policy towards the inhabitants of towns who
were not privileged members of the town communities’, and
an anxiety to secure local improvements ; the only important
act attributed to any borough member is that for which the
member for Bristol, Thomas Yonge, was imprisoned, the pro-
posal, in 1450, to declare the duke of York heir to the crown;
and the only distinct act of the borough members as a body
is the grant of tunnage and poundage, at the request of the
Black Prince.
The two limits of municipal change, between the reign of
Henry III and that of Henry VII, may be simply stated. In
1216 the most advanced among the English towns had suc-
ceeded in obtaining, by their respective charters and with local
differences, the right of holding and taking the profits of their
own courts under their elected officers2, the exclusion of the
sheriff from judicial work within their boundaries, the right
of collecting and compounding for their own payments to the
crown, the right of electing their own bailiffs and in some
instances of electing a mayor; and the recognition of their
merchant guilds by charter, and of their craft guilds by
charter or fine. The combination of the several elements thus
denoted was not complete ; the existence of bailiffs implies the
existence of a court Ieet and court baron or court customary
of the whole body of townsmen ; the existence of the merchant
guild implies an amount of voluntary or privileged association,
ɪ See vol. ii. pp. 485, 509.
2 In many of the towns which are called , hundreds ’ in Domesday, and
doubtless in others, the right of holding their own courts was already
established (vol. i. pp. ɪoɪ, 443). In other cases, as at Dunwich, ‘sac and
soc ’ were given by charter (Select Charters, p. 311). In towns like
Beverley, which were under a great lord, the jurisdiction remained with
him, and the courts were held by his officers, the merchant guild confining
itself to the management of trade and local improvements. Bor the com-
pletion of municipal judicature, it would appear that these three points
were necessary, the holding of the courts, the reception of the fines, and
the election of the bailiffs or mayor.
XXi.] 'Mimicipal Offices. 579
which in idea, whatever may have been the case in fact, is in
contrast with the universality and equality of the courts Ieet ;
the relations of the craft guilds to the merchant guild are by
no means definite ; and the character of a communa, which is
symbolised by the title of the mayor, is not clearly reconcileable
either with the continued existence of the ancient courts, or
with the restrictive character of the merchant guild. Such in
very general terms is the condition of affairs at the starting-
point. At the close of the period the typical constitution of Condition of
. . , . » s. -.τ τ ., towns at tlιθ
a town is a close corporation oɪ mayor, aldermen and council, Cioseofthe
with precisely defined numbers and organization, not indeedperι0d,
uniform but of the same general conformation ; possessing a
new character denoted by the name of corporation in its definite
legal sense ; with powers varying in the different communities
which have been modified by the change, and in practice sus-
ceptible of wide variations. Between these two limits lies a
good deal of local history which it is scarcely possible even
briefly to summarise.
485. The most important preliminary points to be determined Points to Ъе
, , examined.
are these : the first, at what date does the chief magistracy pass
from the old bailiffs or praepositi to a mayor, whose position gives
to the town constitution a unity which is not apparent before ;
the second, what is the precise relation of the merchant guild to
the craft guild on the one side and to the municipal government
on the other ; and thirdly, how were those bodies finally created
and constituted to which charters of incorporation were granted.
The first historical appearance of the office of mayor is in offl∞ of
London1, where the recognition of the communa by the national mayor'
council in 1191 is immediately followed by the mention of
Henry Fitz-Alwyn as mayor : he retained the office for life,
and in 1215, three years after his death, John granted to the
citizens, or recognised, the right of electing their mayor an-
nually2. In the year 1200, twenty-five citizens had been
1 In the lists of mayors of other places, e.g. Oxford and York, there are
names much earlier than 1191, but no reliance can be placed upon the
lists, and, if the persons designated really bore the name, it must be
regarded as an imitation of continental usage which has no further consti-
tutional significance.
2 Select Charters, p. 314; Rot. Chart, p. 207.
P p 2