tizens had recourse to the system of delegation. A certain number of representatives were then chosen out of each Ward, who, being added to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, constituted the Court of Common Council. At first the number returned for each Ward was only two; but the Citizens, afterwards considering that the collective assembly thus chosen was insufficient to represent their numerous body, it was determined, in the year 1347, that each Ward should elect Common Councilmen according to its relative extent, but that not fewer than six, nor more than twelve, should be returned from either. Since then the numbers have been increased so as to form the present aggregate of two hundred and thirty-six.

The Common Councilmen are chosen after the same manner as the Aldermen, with this difference only, that as the Lord Mayor presides in the Ward-mote, and is judge of the poll at the election of an Alderman, so the Alderman of each Ward is judge of the poll at the election of a Common Councilman. No act can be executed in their name without the concurrence of a majority of

the

of degradation on the accused Aldermen, and to declare that they were dismissed from their Bailiwicks [i. e. Aldermanries], never to be restored, without the Royal permission.' The King afterwards permitted the Commonalty to re-elect such of the Aldermen (who, according to Fabian, paid large sums for this favour) as they thought proper, with the exception of six of them, who had been most resolute in demanding trial. A new Mayor and one new Sheriff were also chosen, and the Inquiry was continued for some time, till at length the King, " to put an end to all these troubles,” commanded another Folk-mote to assemble at St. Paul's Cross, and there, in the presence of his Council and Chief Justice, he restored Arnold Thedman, one of the disgraced Aldermen, to his favour and Bailiwick, “being certified of his innocence." He also promised the Citizens to preserve all their liberties entire, and further granted them the valuable privilege, that, “for the future, every Citizen should have the liberty to plead his own cause, without being obliged to employ a Lawyer (except in pleas that might concern the Crown), that the wisdom of the Court being certified of the truth of the affair, without any colouring, they might decree equal and just judgment to the pa ties concerned." In the same Folk-mote the King announced his intention to cross the seas to his foreign dominions.

the Court; but they cannot assemble without a summons from the Lord Mayor: it is his duty, however, to call a meeting of the Common Council whenever it shall be demanded on extraordinary occasions. The Common Councilmen are chosen annually, on St. Thomas's Day.

The RECORDER is appointed by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and holds his situation during life. This officer is always a learned and skilful fawyer, and particularly versed in the customs and privileges of the City. He is the principal assistant and counsellor to the City Magistracy; and takes precedence in the Courts before all men who have not passed the Civic Chair. He is also one of the Justices of Oyer and Terminer, and a Justice of Peace for the City; he speaks on the behalf of the City on all extraordinary occasions; reads and presents the Addresses to the King; and when seated on the Bench, delivers the sentences of the whole Court. The pay of the Recorder in the time of Edward the First was ten pounds annually, with an allowance of twenty-pence for every charter written,' and each testament enrolled' in the Court of Hustings. Through successive augmentations at various periods, his salary is now 2,500l. per annum, an additional 1000l. to commence from Christmas last, having been voted to him in a Court of Common Council, held ou the 2d of May, 1811; but he is not allowed to practice, except in the concerns of the City: he usually sits at the Lord Mayor's table.

The Chamberlain is an office of great trust and honour. He is the City Treasurer, and receives all the money belonging to the Corporation, for which he accounts annually to the proper Auditors. All the bonds and securities taken by the City, with the counterparts of leases, &c. are in his custody; and he has the keeping of the monies, lands, and goods of the City Orphans: for these reasons he is obliged to give a very extensive security on entering upon his office. The Town Clerk, or City Registrar, as he may not be improperly styled, has the custody of the original Charters, Rolls, Records, &c. of the City, together with the books wherein the acts and proceedings of the Corporation are narrated. He attends the Courts of the Lord Mayor

and Aldermen, to note down any extraordinary proceedings that may occur. Both the Chamberlain and this officer have several clerks and other assistants. The Common Serjeant has to attend the Lord Mayor and Aldermen on Court days, and must be in council with them on all occasions: he has also the letting and selling of Orphans' estates, and the general management of them before their passing the Court of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, The City Remembrancer attends daily at Westminster, during the sitting of Parliament, to report any proceeding of the House that may affect the interests of the City. He also attends the Lord Mayor on certain days, and likewise informs him of the times for going out with the Aldermen on City business. The three last officers are all appointed by the Court of Common Council.

In the election of City Officers in Common Halls, which are the general assemblies of the Livery in Guildhall, the business is carried on in conformity with the enactments of an Act of Parliament (already mentioned) passed in 1725. On the day of meeting, the Lord Mayor, attended by the Aldermen and Sheriffs, appears on the Hustings, and a Proclamation is made by the Common Crier for the Liverymen to draw near and give attention, according to their summons, and for all others to depart the Hall on pain of imprisonment. The Recorder or the Common Serjeant then declares to the Livery the purport of their assembling, and the Lord Mayor and Aldermen retire, leaving the interme diate proceedings to the Sheriffs only. The candidates are then proposed by the Common Serjeant, and the will of the Livery being taken by a shew of hands, the Sheriffs determine as to whom the choice has fallen on; and if a poll be demanded, it is taken under their direction. They afterwards make a declaration of the majority to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, who then return to the Hustings, and the Recorder or Common Serjeant informs the Common Hall who are the persons elected, and by his Lordship's order the meeting is dissolved.

Among the many valuable privileges that appertain to the City of London by prescriptive right, confirmed indeed by numerous Charters, the JUDICIAL FRANCHISE must be regarded as one

of

of the most important. The powers of the City Courts, however, for the recovery of debts, or of compensations for injury, by action or writ, according to the course of Common Law,' are far from being generally known.

The City Courts of ordinary jurisdiction are four in number, namely, the Court of Hustings, the Lord Mayor's Court, and the two Sheriffs' Courts. These Courts differ materially in the objects of their respective cognizance, as well as in the mode of holding pleas; which in one or more of those Courts is given by the Kings writ issuing out of Chancery, but in the others is derived from an original inherent right.

The COURT of HUSTINGS is the most ancient of the whole, and many circumstances concur to prove, that for a considerable length of time after its institution, it was the only Court of Law existing in the City of London; and that its powers during that period were analogous to those originally exercised by the County Courts; and that the principal Officers of the City, by whatever name distinguished, were then, as at present, the sole Judges in this Court.

In a fragment of a Statute of Edward the Confessor, preserved in Arnold's Chronicle, and in which the City of London is declared to be the head City of the Kingdom and of the Laws,' it is asserted, that the Court of Hustings was founded and built of old, after the manner, and fashion, and in memory of the ancient City of Troy; that it contains within itself the laws, rights, dignities, liberties, and customs royal of that great City; and that the most intricate accounts, and pleas of the Crown, and of the whole Kingdom are handled in it.' Its name is compounded of the Saxon words Hus, a house, and ding, or dhing, a cause or plea; that is, Domus Causarum, or the House of Causes, or Pleas: and that part of Guildhall where this Court is now held has the name of the Hustings.*

In the Hist. of Ramsey Abbey, (vide Gale's Quin-Dec. Scriptores,) Chap. xxviii. is the copy of a Grant, in which the Countess Æthelgive

The Court of Hustings is the supreme court of law belonging to the City, and is also a Court of Record from immemorial usage. It seems probable, that when the increase of commerce and population rendered it inconvenient to transact the whole judicial business arising in the City, in one Court, that the least important part thereof, as it was then considered, viz. personal actions, was separated from its jurisdiction, and transferred to the Mayor's and Sheriffs' Courts, which were established for that purpose; but at what period it is impossible to tell, as the oldest records belonging to this Court, now extant, bear date in the reign of Edward the Second, at which time, in respect to matters cognizable therein, its jurisdiction was the same as at present.*

This Court is held before the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs, assisted by the Recorder; but it is not requisite that all those Magistrates should be present: a Court may be held by the Lord Mayor and the two Sheriffs, or by six Aldermen, and every proceeding had at a Court so held, is completely effectual and legal. The general dies juridici of this Court are Tuesdays; yet the proceedings, by a fiction springing from an alteration made to suit the convenience of its Judges, are still entitled to be had on Mondays; on which day, by the Charter of Edward the Confessor, this Court was to be held. There are, however, several par

ticular

gives for the service of the Brethren in the Refectory 'two Silver Cups of twelve marks to the pound (weight) of the Hustings of London.' This, in the same sense as Troy weight is now used, was probably the standard weight for the Kingdom, and called the Hustings from the weights being kept under the controul of the Court of Hustings. Long after the Saxon times, namely, in the reign of Richard the First, anno 1198, the Sheriffs of London were commanded to provide measures, gallons, iron rods, and weights, for standards, to be sent to the several Counties of England. Mad. Hist. of Exch.

Enerson's Treatise on the Courts of Law of the City of London,' p. 6. Probably the change was made in imitation of the division of the Au'a Regis, into different judicatures, in the reign of King John; or other. wise in the time of Edward the First, when the entire judicial polity of the country was newly modelled,