pears more probable to me than it did that some of the greater
towns, but almost unquestionably London, did enjoy the right of electing
magistrates with a certain jurisdiction before the Conquest. The notion
which I found prevailing among the writers of the last century, that the
municipal privileges of towns on the continent were merely derived from
charters of the twelfth century, though I was aware of some degree of
limitation which it required, swayed me too much in estimating the
condition of our own burgesses. And I must fairly admit that I have laid
too much stress on the silence of Domesday Book; which, as has been
justly pointed out, does not relate to matters of internal government,
unless when they involve some rights of property.

I do not conceive, nevertheless, that the municipal government of
Anglo-Saxon boroughs was analogous to that generally established in our
corporations from the reign of Henry II. and his successors. The real
presumption has been acutely indicated by Sir F. Palgrave, arising from
the universal institution of the court-leet, which gave to an alderman,
or otherwise denominated officer, chosen by the suitors, a jurisdiction,
in conjunction with themselves as a jury, over the greater part of civil
disputes and criminal accusations, as well as general police, that might
arise within the hundred. Wherever the town or borough was too large to
be included within a hundred, this would imply a distinct jurisdiction,
which may of course be called municipal. It would be similar to that
which, till lately, existed in some towns--an elective high bailiff or
principal magistrate, without a representative body of aldermen and
councillors. But this is more distinctly proved with respect to London,
which, as is well known, does not appear in Domesday, than as to any
other town. It was divided into wards, answering to hundreds in the
county; each having its own wardmote, or leet, under its elected
alderman. "The city of London, as well within the walls, as its
liberties without the walls, has been divided from time immemorial into
wards, bearing nearly the same relation to the city that the hundred
anciently did to the shire. Each ward is, for certain purposes, a
distinct jurisdiction. The organisation of the existing municipal
constitution of the city is, and always has been, as far as can be
traced, entirely founded upon the ward system." (Introduction to the
French Chronicle of London.--Camden Socie