of Canterbury. The proctor so admitted is qualified to commence business upon his own account immediately; but he is not entitled to take an articled clerk, until he shall have been for five years within the number of the 34 senior proctors.

The Court of Admiralty.-The Court of Admiralty is held before the Lord High Admiral or his deputy, who is called judge of the court. When there was a Lord High Admiral, the judge of the Admiralty held his place most commonly by patent from him, and was called his lieutenant, as the vice-admirals of the several districts were called deputies. The judge now holds his place by direct commission from the Crown, under the great seal: to him appeals lie from the ViceAdmiralty Courts in the West Indies and other plantations and settlements. The Court of Admiralty is twofold; the Instance Court, which takes cognisance of contracts made and injuries committed on the high seas; and the Prize Court, which has jurisdiction over prizes taken in time of war. The commissions to hold these courts are perfectly distinct, though usually given to the same person. The Instance Court is governed by the civil law, the laws of Oleron, and the customs of the Admiralty modified by statute law.

The Prize Court is to hear and determine according to the course of the Admiralty and the law of nations.

From the Instance Court an appeal lies to the King, by whom it is referred to the judicial committee of the Privy Council. An appeal from the Prize Court also lies to the Privy Council.

for

The jurisdiction of the Admiralty as a criminal court, which it once possessed, seems now withdrawn, and given to the ordinary courts of common law; and any offence committed on the high seas may, the purpose of being tried in them, be alleged to have been committed in any county of England.

Besides these courts, which have a general jurisdiction throughout the kingdom, the Cinque Ports and some other places have courts of a limited jurisdiction of their own. The Vice-Admiralty Courts are confined to the colonies.

CHAPTER V.-MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.

A CORPORATION generally is a collection of individuals united in one body by special act, either of the Crown or of the legislature, having the means of continued identity as such, with the capability of holding property and contracting liabilities in common; and having further the right of suing and being sued in their joint name, of binding themselves by their common seal, and being considered in law for the purposes of its institution as a single person.

A municipal corporation, of which we now treat, is an aggregate body, established for the purposes of municipal government, within certain limits, usually those of a pre-existing borough, being, in fact, the successor appointed by charter, to exercise or enjoy the municipal franchises anciently vested by charter or prescription, in the burgesses or borough officers. Hence a short view of the history and constitu

tion of boroughs is a proper, and, in some respects, necessary introduc tion to the subject of municipal corporations.

The word borough is most commonly derived from the Saxon borg, signifying an enclosure. Others, however, derive it from a Saxon word similar in sound to the former, signifying a pledge, applied to the associations for mutual responsibility required by the Saxon law; in which sense it is used in the words head-borough and free-borough. Apart from its derivation, the term has been, and still is, employed to signify a town of sufficient importance to have obtained, either by charter or by prescription, which implies a grant, a separate existence as a community; i. e., having within itself, in a greater degree than the ordinary rural divisions, the power of self-government, and possessing, or being subject to, a special jurisdiction, whether constituted or not by its own appointment.

The

Communities of this sort must have arisen in this country, and, indeed, in every other, so soon as the distinction was well established between the agricultural and trading parts of the population. Our historical knowledge of them begins with the Romans, who introduced their municipal system into some of the larger towns of this kingdom, whether of Roman or British origin, such as York, Verulam, London, and Chester. These, however, were for the most part either destroyed or remodelled by the Saxons, who substituted in their stead their own burgh, the root, as well in constitution as in name, of the modern English borough. These again, particularly in the north and some of the midland counties, were subjected to great changes by the Danish invaders, who having laid waste many considerable towns, and dispersed their inhabitants, founded in their stead only five boroughs, viz. Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, and Stamford. Danish population of these towns was in its turn dispersed by the Saxons, though traces were left in them, and in some others, of Danish innovations, the most remarkable being the substitution of an hereditary for an elective magistracy. Little, however, is to be found concerning the internal state of boroughs in the historical remains of the times preceding the Conquest; and though charters were granted to some boroughs by the later Saxon kings, Domesday Book is the first authentic record from which, with the aid of contemporary and subsequent documents, any coherent account of their general condition can be derived. From these it would appear that under the name of boroughs, of which 82 are mentioned in Domesday Book, there existed, at the period of the Conquest, a variety of communities, differing greatly in extent of power and in their degree of dependence on the general government; being, however, upon the whole, sufficiently similar in their character and constitution to fall within the same general description. To speak, then, only of their common features, a borough, in these early times, was a community which supplied the neighbourhood with the common articles of manufacture or commerce, being endowed with the necessary franchise or license of holding a fair or market within its precincts, and with that degree of jurisdiction within itself which was requisite for the maintenance of internal tranquillity, and which, also, exempted it from the burthen of attendance upon the court of the hundred, and from the duties and liabilities incident to the other inha

bitants of the hundred as such. This latter exemption seems to have constituted the distinguishing feature of a borough, for the franchise of a fair or market was common to boroughs with many other townships. Every borough took rank as a hundred, and had within itself the same court leet which belonged to all hundreds; that is, a court for the trial of petty offences and the presentment of nuisances. Such jurisdiction, though exercised for the convenience and with the assistance of the burgesses, was vested in the officer of the king, called portreeve or borough-reeve, or in the deputy of the lord of the leet, under the name of bailiff. In each case the fines and perquisites of the jurisdiction (which led to the administration of justice being considered as a property) belonged to the king or lord on whose behalf they were levied. In some boroughs, which, even in those early times, were of sufficient size to be subdivided into wards, the alderman of each ward exercised, in conjunction with the reeve, the jurisdiction of the leet.

A borough also was subject, as part of a manor, or as being itself a manor, to the baronial jurisdiction of the lord of the manor; and, if the borough comprised, wholly or in part, several manors, then to the jurisdiction of the lords of such several manors. But whatever privileges the inhabitants of boroughs might enjoy at and immediately after the Conquest, a municipal administration by magistrates of their own choice was not certainly included in the number.-(Hallam, Middle Ages, iii., 30.)

The incidents of tenure in borough lands were originally the same as in other lands; but, whether from the smallness of their subdivisions, or from the nature of the employments in which their occupiers were engaged, they escaped the imposition of military service, and burgage tenure retained, as stated in our law books, the character of the ancient tenure in common socage; that is, tenure by rent or service certain.

The revenue arising from a borough, and consequently the outgoings to which the burgesses were liable, consisted (as enumerated by Maddox in his treatise Firma Burgi) of the rent or custom payable for each tenement singly, and of that levied from the borough at large under the name of gabel; which is not to be confounded with the taxes occasionally imposed, the tolls of fairs and markets, the profits of aldermanries, and the fees and perquisites of courts. These were generally levied by a bailiff, acting on behalf of the king or other lord of the borough or franchise.

It has been justly stated by Mr. Hallam that the conversion of these individual tributes into a perpetual rent from the whole borough was not only one of the earliest, but also one of the most important, changes in the condition of the burgesses. The town was then said to be affermed, or let in fee-farm to the burgesses and their successors for ever. Previously to such grant the town was a portion of the lord's demesne; but henceforth he only retained the superiority and inheritance of the annual rent.

From the time of William Rufus charters began to be granted to towns conveying various privileges, such as an exemption from tolls on rivers and at markets, an immunity from ordinary jurisdictions, a power of internal regulation, &c. Exemptions from certain rules of common law were also, in some cases, granted by these early charters,

as, for example, the right of devising property within the borough ; but it is proper to observe that the descent of land to the youngest son, to the exclusion of the elder, which prevails in certain boroughs, was not founded on charter, but on the peculiar custom called Borough-English. The civil jurisdiction exercised by municipal officers in a court of record originates from these early charters, and many extensions also of their criminal jurisdiction; though it was not till the reign of Richard II. that a commission of the peace, and the right of holding general and petty sessions, were granted to any borough. A city differed from a borough only in being the seat of a bishop, who, in the Saxon times, possessed an extensive civil and criminal jurisdiction, and assisted the earl, or sometimes supplied his place, in presiding over the county court. Some cities, and even a few boroughs, were, from time to time, raised to the rank of counties; that is, were in all points of jurisdiction, entirely exempted and made distinct from the county in which they were situated, and had within themselves a court in the nature of a county court, held by their own sheriffs.

There is reason to believe that all persons of free condition, possessing a tenement within the borough, residing within its limits, and contributing to its common charges, were originally (according at least to Saxon usage) entitled to be placed on the roll of burgesses at the court leet of the borough. But the disproportion between the number of houses and that of burgesses in the same places, as recorded in Domesday Book, is too great to allow us to suppose that such right was at that time generally acted on. It is probable that the right may have been impaired by neglect on one side, and usurpation on the other, considering that the advantages and burthens incident to burgesship may have been, in such boroughs as had little traffic, nearly balanced. The right may also have been, even at that early period, restricted, either to the tenants of houses within the ancient limits of the borough (which might be very different from its subsequent limits), or to the tenants of houses built upon the foundations of those possessed by the original burgesses, to whom and to whose heirs the franchise had been granted. It may also, not improbably, have been confined to the sons of burgesses. It appears, however, that free persons, residing or coming to reside within the borough (and villains having dwelt in the borough for a year and a day, unclaimed by their lords, stood upon the same footing), were frequently admitted, if not to the full burgesship, at any rate to a considerable share of the borough franchises, subject to the condition of inhabitancy and contribution to the common charges, and usually also upon payment of some fine.

The guilds, which early existed in most boroughs of any importance, consisted of associations of those carrying on different trades (similar in some respects to the colleges of workmen among the ancient Romans), formed for the purpose of watching over their common interests, and of managing their common property. The spirit of monopoly and exclusion gave strength and consistency to these institutions. Their members gradually acquired various privileges; and having also, in certain matters, a separate jurisdiction exercised by their own officers in their own guildhalls, they generally succeeded, in no long time, in engrossing the privileges and jurisdiction that origi

nally belonged to the burgesses at large; so that the borough itself was sometimes merged in the guild-merchant, or combination of the separate guilds. The substitution of the title of freeman for that of burgess, which took place in many boroughs, appears to have been a consequence of this change, and no doubt originated in the custom of admitting certain persons, either through apprenticeship or purchase, to the freedom of the guilds or subsidiary corporations. This is particularly seen in the city of London, where the rights of burgesses have long been in the exclusive possession of the liverymen or freemen of the different trading companies, though the old division into wards, and the mode of election according to wards, still subsists.

The freedom of the borough, being thus engrafted upon what were originally trading rights, whether belonging to the members of separate guilds, or to those of the guild merchant, was, like those prior rights, transmissible by descent, though with various modifications: thus the freedom in some places was confined to children born within the borough, in others, to those born since the acquisition of freedom by the father, while in others the right was restricted to the eldest son only. The acquisition of freedom by marriage with the daughter of a freeman, which was very commonly allowed, grew out of the right by descent.

The charters granted previously to the reign of Henry VI. rarely, if ever, intermeddled with the internal constitution of the boroughs. They were simply grants of the franchises previously noticed to the inhabitants and burgesses, and to their successors or heirs; leaving it to the grantees to settle among themselves the distribution and administration of these franchises. In consequence of thus leaving matters to their natural course, select, and, in many cases, self-elected bodies, under various shapes and designations, gradually assumed or usurped the administration, if not the exclusive enjoyment, of the immunities and property bestowed on the community.

The right of returning members to parliament, which was certainly exercised in the reign of Henry III., if not earlier, became also, in many cases, and with corresponding variations in the mode and extent of restriction, the subject of similar monopolies, the usurpation in this instance being effected with the greater ease, that the privilege was at first viewed with indifference or contempt. Seventy-five boroughs were originally summoned by Edward I., but he afterwards extended the franchise to thirty-three others.

Previously to the reign of Henry VI. boroughs virtually enjoyed the two distinctive privileges of a corporation, viz., the holding land in succession, and the right of suing and being sued in a common name; but, with the progress of jurisprudence, and the introduction of greater strictness in the discussion of legal rights, it probably became inconvenient to trust to usage and prescription for the enjoyment of such privileges. Hence the great, and, in some cases, the sole purport of the charters of this and the subsequent reign, was the constituting corporations, with the use of a common seal, enabling them to hold property in succession, and to sue and be sued in their corporate name. Such charters generally included the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses, with the addition, in many cases, of the "inhabitants; "without speci

VOL. II.