fare that broke the power of
the Caesars in the plain of the Po.

Much indeed that Italy or France had to win by the sword was already the
heritage of every English freeman within walls or without. The common
assembly in which their own public affairs were discussed and decided,
the borough-mote to which every burgher was summoned by the town-bell
swinging out of the town-tower, had descended by traditional usage from
the customs of the first English settlers in Britain. The close
association of the burghers in the sworn brotherhood of the guild was a
Teutonic custom of immemorial antiquity. Gathered at the guild supper
round the common fire, sharing the common meal, and draining the guild
cup, the burghers added to the tie of mere neighbourhood that of loyal
association, of mutual counsel, of mutual aid. The regulation of
internal trade, all lesser forms of civil jurisdiction, fell quietly
and without a struggle into the hands of the merchant guild. The rest
of their freedom was bought with honest cash. The sale of charters
brought money to the royal treasury, exhausted by Norman wars, by the
herd of mercenaries, by Crusades, by the struggle with France. The towns
bought first the commutation of the uncertain charges to which they were
subject at the royal will for a fixed annual rent. Their purchase of the
right of internal justice followed. Last came the privilege of electing
their own magistrates, of enjoying complete self-government. Oxford had
already passed through the earlier steps of this emancipation before the
conquest of the Norman. Her citizens assembled in their Portmannimote,
their free self-ruling assembly. Their merchant-guild leagued with that
of London. Their dues to the Crown are assessed in Domesday at a fixed
sum of honey and coin. The charter of Henry II. marks the acquisition by
Oxford, probably at a far earlier date, of judicial and commercial
freedom. Liberty of external commerce was given by the exception of its
citizens from toll on the king's lands; the decision of either political
or judicial affairs was left to their borough-mote. The highest point of
municipal independence was reached when the Charter of John substituted
a mayor of their own choosing for the mere bailiff of the Crown.

It is hard in dry constitutional details such as these to realize the
quick pulse of popular life that stirred such a community as Oxford.
Only a few names, of street and lane, a few hints gathered from obs