metimes an elected burgess
absolutely refused to go to parliament, and drove his constituents to a
fresh choice. 3 Prynne, p. 277.

[273] 3 Prynne, p. 252.

[274] 3 Prynne, p. 257, de assensu totius communitatis praedictae
elegerunt R. W.; so in several other instances quoted in the ensuing
pages.

[275] Brady on Boroughs, p. 132, &c. Mr. Allen, than whom no one of
equal learning was ever less inclined to depreciate popular rights,
inclines more than we should expect to the school of Brady in this
point. "There is reason to believe that originally the right of election
in boroughs was vested in the governing part of these communities, or in
a select portion of the burgesses; and that, in the progress of the
house of commons to power and importance, the tendency has been in
general to render the elections more popular. It is certain that for
many years burgesses were elected in the county courts, and apparently
by delegates from the boroughs, who were authorised by their
fellow-burgesses to elect representatives for them in parliament. In the
reigns of James I. and Charles I., when popular principles were in their
greatest vigour, there was a strong disposition in the house of commons
to extend the right of suffrage in boroughs, and in many instances these
efforts were crowned with success." Edin. Rev. xxviii. 145. But an
election by delegates chosen for that purpose by the burgesses at large
is very different from one by the governing part of the community. Even
in the latter case, however, this part had generally been chosen, at a
greater or less interval of time, by the entire body. Sometimes, indeed,
corporations fell into self-election and became close.

[276] Willis, Notitia Parliamentaria, vol. iii. p. 96, &c.; 3 Prynne, p.
224, &c.

[277] In 4 Edw. II. the sheriff of Rutland made this return: Eligi feci
in pleno comitatu, loco duorum militum, eo quod milites non sunt in hoc
comitatu commorantes, duos homines de comitatu Rutland, de
discretioribus et ad laborandum potentioribus, &c. 3 Prynne, p. 170. But
this deficiency of actual knights soon became very common. In 19 E. II.
there were twenty-eight members returned from shires who were not
knights, and but twenty-seven who were such. The former had at this time
only two shillings or three shillings a day for their wages, while the
real knights had four shillings. 4 Prynne, p. 53. 74. But in the next
reign their wages were put on a level.

[278] Rot. Parl.