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had been more nominal than real, and the new charter gave as a rule two
councils of considerable size. These councils bore a heavy burden of
taxation in meeting royal loans and benevolences, paying _per capita_
like the magnates of the 12th century, and for a time there is on the
whole little evidence of friction between the governors and the
governed. Throughout, popular opinion in the closest of corporations had
a means of expression, though none of execution, in the presentments of
the leet juries and sessions juries. By means of their "verdicts" they
could use threats against the governing body, express their resentment
against acts of the council which benefited the governing body rather
than the town, and call in the aid of the justices of assize where the
members of the governing body were suspected of fraud. Elizabeth
repeatedly declared her dislike of incorporations "because of the
abuses committed by their head rulers," but in her reign they were
fairly easily controlled by the privy council, which directed their
choice of members of parliament and secured supporters of the government
policy to fill vacancies on the borough bench. The practice in Tudor and
Stuart charters of specifying by name the members of the governing body
and holders of special offices opened the way to a "purging" of the
hostile spirits when new charters were required. There were also rather
vaguely worded clauses authorizing the dismissal of officers for
misconduct, though as a rule the appointments were for life. When under
the Stuarts and under the Commonwealth political and religious feeling
ran high in the boroughs, use was made of these clauses both by the
majority on the council and by the central government to mould the
character of the council by a drastic "purging." Another means of
control first used under the Commonwealth was afforded by the various
acts of parliament, which subjected all holders of municipal office to
the test of an oath. Under the Commonwealth there was no improvement in
the methods used by the central government to control the boroughs. All
opponents of the ruling policy were disfranchised and disqualified for
office by act of parliament in 1652. Cases arising out of the act were
to be tried by commissioners, and the commissions of the major-generals
gave them opportunity to control the borough policy. Few Commonwealth
charters have been preserved, though several were issued in response to
the requests of