608 Constitutwtial History. [chap.
cation with the royal exchequer. Newcastle-On-Tyne was
similarly promoted in 1400, Norwich in 1403, Lincoln in
1409, Hull in 1440, Southampton in 1448, Nottingham in
1449, Coventry in 1451, and Canterbury in 1461. At later
periods, Chester, Exeter, Gloucester, Lichfield, Worcester, and
Poole were added to the number of t counties corporate 1.*
Political im-
portance of
town his-
tory.
Insignifi-
cance of the
towns in
parliament.
Action of th
mercantile
interest
under
Edwaid HI.
489. It is by no means easy to ascertain the definite amount
cf political consciousness which underlay the municipal struggles
of medieval England ; or even to determine the direction in
which the influence of municipal feeling helped the national
advance. On the other hand it is very easy to speculate on the
affinities and analogies of continental town history and to draw
a picture of what may have been. Some speculation indeed is
necessary, but it must be guarded with many provisoes and
hedged in with stubborn facts. It has been already remarked
more than once that the battle of the medieval constitution, so
far as it was fought in the house of commons, was fought by
the knights of the shire. This fact is capable of two expla-
nations ; it may imply the hearty concurrence of the town
representatives or it may imply their neutrality and insigni-
ficance. As they are seldom even mentioned in connexion with
the greater struggles of the fourteenth century, it is impossible
to determine from any positive evidence which was really the
case. But there are some reasons for doubting whether political
foresight was to any considerable extent developed in the towns.
In parliament, throughout the fourteenth century, the presence
cf the borough members is only traceable by the measures of
local interest, taken on petitions which we must infer to have
been presented by them, local acts for improvement of the
towns, paving acts, diminution of imposts in consideration of
the repair of walls, and the redress of minor grievances. Out-
side the parliament, the merchant interest of England is seen
to have been nourished, utilised, and almost ruined by Ed-
ward III ; conniving at and profiting by his acts of financial
1 I must content myself here with a general reference to Merewethei'
and Stephens on the History of Corporate Boroughs, where most of the
details given above may be found.
XXI∙]
Borough Politics.
609
chicanery, and enabling him, by supplying money as long as
it was forthcoming, to disregard the wishes of the nation
expressed in the parliament. As the town members must
have been in many cases the great merchants of the country,
the only conclusion that we can draw from their conduct is
that they thought it more profitable and more prudent to
negotiate with the king in private or half public assemblies,
than to support his claims for increased grants of money in
parliament ; out of parliament they were his pliant instru- Snteertj-
ments, in parliament they were silent or acquiescent in the king,
complaints of the knights. In another point, which affects
the history of the following century, the inaction of the town
members is remarkable : there is scarcely a vestige of an
attempt to reform or even to regulate the borough repre-
sentation. There is no trace whatever, except in the statute
of 1382, of any interest felt on this point. There is a long
string of petitions and statutes touching the shire represent-
ation, from the year 1376 to the year 1445 ; but, with tho
exception of a single complaint against the sheriffs in 1436,
there is nothing answering to it on the part of the towns.
Yet, as we have seen, the borough franchise was in a very
anomalous condition, subject generally to the manipulation of
the governing bodies of the towns, whilst custom was nowhere
so strong or so uniform as to have presented any obstacle to a
general project of reform.
In these two points must be read distinctly an insensibility, Absence of
. , ɪ -t 1 . political
in the represented classes of the towns, as to the great questions wisdom in
at stake between the king and the nation, and as to the line
on which political liberty was ultimately to advance. This
absence of political insight may be explained in more ways
than one : and in some ways which, although in themselves
contradictory, may have been true in reference to different
parts of the country. In some counties the towns followed
with a good deal of sympathy the politics of their great
neighbours, who also led the shires ; in others there was no
doubt a rivalry, in England as elsewhere, between town and
country. In some towns the family factions of the royal house,
VOL. III.