wavering partisan. Young "honourables" and other needy scions of the
governing classes have little ambition to undertake civic duties,
while they are only onerous and expensive. Let the wedge be first
applied. Let "reform" worm its way into the constitution of the
Corporation, and then by degrees the whole edifice may gradually be
subverted. Stipendiary magistracies and paid offices of any kind,
if not too laborious, are always acceptable for sons, nephews, cousins,
and influential supporters. The danger from this quarter is in truth
greater than when Norman William had the island prostrate at his feet,
and when the liberties of the City hung upon his word. That word went
forth to save and to preserve. The stern warrior respected the rights
of the industrious burgesses, and by his wisdom paved the way for the
future greatness of the metropolis. But theoretical and doctrinaire
statesmen are willing to risk all for the sake of consistency to
certain arbitrary first principles, which do not apply to the spirit
of the British people.

The charter of William the Conqueror, the reader will have remarked,
alludes in a very general manner to the liberties and privileges
enjoyed by the City. The first detailed and specific notice of their
character occurs in the charter of Henry I. In the early part of his
reign, being anxious to fix himself securely in his seat, the usurper
conveyed, or confirmed, a grant to the citizens to hold Middlesex to
farm for the yearly rental of 300 pounds; to appoint their own sheriff
and their own justiciar; to be exempt from various burdensome and
vexatious taxes in force in other parts of the kingdom; to be free
from all denominations of tolls, customs, passage, and lestage,
throughout the kingdom and along the seaboard; and to possess many
other equally important privileges. This valuable charter was renewed
by King Stephen, during whose stormy and troubled reign the metropolis