A double pretext was soon invented. It was stated that nine years
before, the Common Council had levied a new scale of tolls on the
public markets rebuilt after the great fire, and at a more recent
period had printed a libellous petition impugning the king's justice.
On these slender pleas a writ of quo warranto was taken out against
the City, and the judges, under the undoubted influence of the Court,
pronounced sentence of forfeiture, although a charter of the 7th
Richard II. expressly provides against any forfeiture of the City's
liberties notwithstanding any abuse of them whatsoever. This
exhibition of violence so terrified the other corporations of the
kingdom, that most of them at once tendered the surrender of their
franchises, with the ignominious hope of obtaining better terms for
themselves. James II. walked in the steps of his brother, and showed
even greater determination to destroy the liberties of the nation.
The disaffection of his subjects and the landing of the Prince of Orange
warned him, when too late, that he had gone too far. Anxious to make
friends in his hour of extremest peril, he despatched the infamous
Jefferies to Guildhall to announce the restoration of the ancient
privileges of the City. But the citizens were not thus to be cajoled.
No sooner had the king set out to join his forces, than the Court of
Aldermen declared themselves in favour of the Prince of Orange, as the
champion of civil and religious freedom. The Lord Mayor, the aldermen,
and fifty common councillors, had a seat and voice in the convention
which pronounced the deposition of James, and the elevation to the
throne of William and Mary. The first act of the nation was to
establish and perpetuate a constitutional form of government, and this
was accomplished by passing the famous statute known as the Bill of
Rights. Experience had proved the vital importance of placing the
privileges of the City of London beyond the caprice of the sovereign
and the possibility of a coup d'etat. It was therefore declared by