ty, 1844.)

Sir F. Palgrave extends this much further:--"There were certain
districts locally included within the hundreds, which nevertheless
constituted independent bodies politic. The burgesses, the tenants, the
resiants of the king's burghs and manors in ancient demesne, owed
neither suit nor service to the hundred leet. They attended at their own
leet, which differed in no essential respect from the leet of the
hundred. The principle of frank-pledge required that each friborg
should appear by its head as its representative; and consequently, the
jurymen of the leet of the burgh or manor are usually described under
the style of the twelve chief pledges. The legislative and remedial
assembly of the burgh or manor was constituted by the meeting of the
heads of its component parts. The portreeve, constable, headborough,
bailiff, or other the chief executive magistrate, was elected or
presented by the leet jury. Offences against the law were repressed by
their summary presentments. They who were answerable to the community
for the breach of the peace punished the crime. Responsibility and
authority were conjoined. In their legislative capacity they bound their
fellow-townsmen by making by-laws." (Edin. Rev. xxxvi. 309.) "Domesday
Book," he says afterwards, "does not notice the hundred court, or the
county-court; because it was unnecessary to inform the king or his
justiciaries of the existence of the tribunals which were in constant
action throughout all the land. It was equally unnecessary to make a
return of the leets which they knew to be inherent in every burgh. Where
any special municipal jurisdiction existed, as in Chester, Stamford, and
Lincoln, then it became necessary that the franchise should be recorded.
The twelve lagemen in the two latter burghs were probably hereditary
aldermen. In London and in Canterbury aldermen occasionally held their
sokes by inheritance.[464] The negative evidence extorted out of
Domesday has, therefore, little weight." (p. 313.)

It seems, however, not unquestionable whether this representation of an
Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman municipality is not urged rather beyond the
truth. The portreeve of London, their principal magistrate, appears to
have been appointed by the crown. It was not till 1188 that Henry
Fitzalwyn, ancestor of the present Lord Beaumont,[465] became the first
mayor of London. But he also was nominated by the crown, and remained
twenty-four years in office. In the