"These members of the House of Commons are elected either by
freeholders of counties, or the freemen of the corporations; and I
have already showed how king James wrested these out of the hands
of Protestants, and put them into Popish hands in the new
constitution of corporations, by which the freemen and freeholders
of cities or boroughs, to whom the election of burgesses originally
belongs, are excluded, and the election put into the hands of a
small number of men named by the king, and removable at his
pleasure. The Protestant freeholders, if they had been in the
kingdom, were much more than the papist freeholders, but now being
gone, though many counties could not make a jury, as appeared at
the intended trial of Mr. Price and other Protestants at Wicklow,
who could not be tried for want of freeholders--yet, notwithstanding
the paucity of these, they made a shift to return knights of the
shire. The common way of election was thus:--The Earl of
Tyrconnell, together with the writ for election, commonly sent a
letter, recommending the persons he designed should be chosen; the
sheriff or mayor being his creature, on receipt of this, called so
many of the freeholders of a county or burgesses of a corporation
together, as he thought fit, and without making any noise, made the
return. It was easier to do this in boroughs--because, by their new
charters, the electors were not above twelve or thirteen, and in
the greatest cities but twenty-four; and commonly, not half of
these in the place. The method of the Sheriff's proceeding was the
same; the number of Popish freeholders being very small, sometimes
not a dozen in a county, it was easier to give notice to them to
appear, so that the Protestants either did not know of the election
or durst not appear at it."

First let us see about the boroughs. King, in his section on the
corporations, states in terms that "they" (the Protestants) "thought it
reasonable to keep these (corporate towns) in their own hands, as being
the foundation of the legislative power, and therefore secluded
papists," etc. The purport, therefore, of King's objection to the new
constitution under King James's charters was the admission of Roman
Catholics. Religious equality was sinful in his eyes.

The means used by James to change the corporations, namely bringing
_quo warrantos_ in the Excheq