why the City are enjoined by this Act of Parliament to proceed to a new Election of Lord Mayor Sheriffs Chamberlain and Common-Council at the times therein particularly specified and appointed Answ It was certainly besides the illegality of the former Choice that they did not like the Persons chosen otherwise it would have been very irrational not to confirm them till the usual times of Election of such Officers but on the contrary to put so great a Body into a Ferment and Contrast within it self just at the time when the King was going upon his Irish Expedition but that they designed to put he Government of the City in his absence into better and safer hands and that indeed was a very good reason Quest 2. What was the reason that if there had been no Election of the Officers aforesaid at the times appointed it was provided that the old ones should continue till the usual times of Electâ—on and no longer that were in possession of their respective Charges at the time of the Judgment given Answ The reason was very plain there was a Faction in the City that had been strangely bâ—ffled notwithstanding their boasted Numbers in the Election of Members to serve in this present Parliament which the Persons that wâ—â—e to manage the Poli at the new Elections for the Officers appointed to be chosen being deeply sensible of and upon the point of despair that ever they should succeed in any new competition it was suspected by the Parliament that the Persons in possession would have insisted upon that and would have declined a Choice but this if it were not a probable yet it was at least a possible thing and a possibility of such consequence as deserved a Clause purposely to be inserted to obviate and prevent the possible Inconveniencies that might arise from it and this was a further indication how deeply in Love that great Assembly was with the present Managers and management of the City Affairs Quest 3. A third Question to be started is since in case of new Elections the old Officers before the Judgment given were to continue out the remainder of their time that time which they served afterwards not b ing reckoned in Law as any part of their Year what was the reason they were to continue no longer notwithstanding in case of a new Election they were to go on through the whole next Year Answ The Answer to this is very easie also they did not think fit to continue them another Year who had already to all intents and purposes of Action Trouble and Charge served one whole Year and about four Months already Let the World judge now if this be a good Answer whether they intended that the present pretended Mayor should continue for three Years successively together Or whether there were not a plain innuendo in such a Provisoe as this by which he is tacitly barr'd from holding any longer And now from all this I think there is nothing more evident than these two things First The Aldermen so called since the avoidance of the Charter are made no Aldermen by the restitution of it Secondly That Sir T. P. upon these Principles is no Aldermâ—n and that by consequence he is no Lord Mayor which two things are so plain by the express Letter and by the Latent but yet notwithstanding clear and undeniable intention of the Act of Parliament that nothing can be more But tho nothing can be more plain than this is and tho one Demonstration be as good as a thousand yet to summ up all and that the Gentlemen concerned may not complain they have not their Measure tho they have their Weight I will add one Argument farther and it shall be taken from a Paragraph pag. 106. of this Act which I will here transcribe And be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that all Charters Letters Patents and Grants for incorporating the Citizens and Commonalty of the said City or any of them and all Charters Grants Letters Patents and Commissions touching or concerning any of their Liberties or Franchises or the Liberties Privileges Franchises Immunities c. Of the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London Made or Granted to any Person or Persons whatsoever by the Late King Charles II. since the late Iudgment given or by the Late King James II. be and are hereby declared and adjudged null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever The plain and clear Inference to be made from which is this if those Gentlemen that have assumed to themselves the Stile and Dignity of Aldermen since the avoidance of the City Charter do hold by virtue of the aforesaid Letters Patents c. For Incorporating the Citizens and Commonalty of the said City then their Authority is null and void because the Letters Patents under which they hold are declared and adjudged to be so unless they can shew some particular Provisoe that may secure them from this general Clause which I think I have sufficiently proved they cannot do or if there be any Authority they can pretend for themselves let them shew it and keep their Gowns on as long as they please but if they do not shew it off they go and shall be on again when the Law and a new Choice pleaseth not before But some may object and say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what shall we do for a Lord Mayor if Sir T. P. be none I answer Sir J. R. is certainly the Man for he was presented together with the other to the Court of Aldermen and though they pitched by Majority upon the former yet since one of these two must of necessity be returned back again to the Common Hall let them chuse who they will the incapacity of the one implies and infers the choice of the other the Common Hall presented Sir T. P. as an Alderman in competition and the Aldermen by such another mistake accepted him as such if they had protested against the Presentation of an unqualified Person which a Court of Aldermen so Modelled were not like to do the Commons must have presented another in order to a Choice but not having made any such exception and having but one whom they could legally chuse the error on both hands as well of the Commons as the Court of Aldermen devolves and fixes the unquestionable Right upon the only Legal pretender of the two Neither doth it signifie any thing in this case that many of the Court of Aldermen themselves had in Law no right to fit there for if they had been never so legally qualify'd yet an unqualify'd Person being presented to them they could not chuse him and the choice would of course have devolved upon the other POST-SCRIPT Concerning the HOSPITALS THE confirming Clause for Officers running thus all Officers and Ministers of the said City c. or in the Borough of Southwark c. it hath been argued from thence that the ejected Officers of the Hospital of St. Thomas are
by this Clause restored but these Men do not consider that it was the design of this Act to restore the Ancient Privileges and Immunities of the City not to abridge any thing of that undoubted Right of Visitation which the King had by Act of Parliament and by the grant of King Edward VI. while the Charter stood neither are they Charter Officers of whom this whole Paragraph is meant but Officers and Servants at pleasure that may be turned out as well without a reason as with one by the Power that placed them there only if the King be the Supreme Visitor as the Sun is not more bright than it is clear that he is then the Officers of his placing cannot be ejected by a Subordinate Power much less can they replace those whom he hath ejected which would render his Power and Right of Visitation contemptible and vain besides that tho the King be the Judge of the Causes of Visitation otherwise he shall not visit but when others please yet the Reasons are notorious for which he did it one had justify'd the Murther of his Father and all of them as well Officers as Governors generally speaking were Dissenters from the Church of England Enemies to Monarchy Persons disaffected both to Church and State and I hope these were sufficient grounds for a King not to suffer such to be fed and maintained in his own House A Papist whether Governor or Officer I suppose it will be granted may be lawfully ejected out of that Trust and Station and why should then a Dissenter or a Favourer and Abetter of that Interest be permitted when they are both Enemies to the establish'd Church and the Dissenter is likewise an Enemy to the Monarchy of England to which the Papist to give the Devil his due is a Friend as well as to the Episcopal Form of Government in the Church though he loads and clogs both with such dangerous Innovations that we cannot accept of those blessings upon his terms Again p. 109. of the said Act it is provided that all Leases and Grants of any Lands c. made by or upon pretence of any Grant or Commission by their Late Majesties being made for just and valuable considerations and whereupon the old accustomed yearly rent or more hath been reserved payable into the Chamber or Bridg-house or any of the Hospitals of the said City c. shall be as good and valid as if the same had been made by the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the said City under their Common Seal c. by which it may seem to be implyed that the Hospitals are so closely and inseparably united to the City and its Charter that the said Charter being illegally seized into the Kings Hands as this Act declares all Leases made and other Acts done by the Commission under the Broad-Seal were Illegal and consequently the tenant had no sufficient security by any such Grant or Lease To which I answer that this was really and is still the Opinion of a great many that this was the case and therefore since Indemnities can never be too full or ample the scruples of such Men and the inconveniences in the Administration of the Hospital that might arise from them were provided for ex abundanti by this Clause where there was no absolute necessity Secondly though as to the Commission there was no question but that the Acts done by it so far as concerned the Hospitals in which the King had Right of visiting under the Broad-Seal being otherwise materially Legal in themselves were likewise so as to the Authority from whence they sprung yet the case was altered upon the Dissolution of the Commission by the ejected Aldermen and Governors being restored without the restitution of the City Charter so that there was now no Legal Authority at all and therefore this Provisoe was necessary with reference to those Leases or Grants which had been made during that time FINIS
Considerations upon the Act of Parliament for reversing the Judgment in a Quo Warranto against the City of London and for restoring the City of London to its Ancient Rights and Privileges 1. THE said Judgment and the Proceedings thereupon are declared to be Arbitrary and Illegal p. 104. and in pursuance of this Declaration that Judgment is reversed and the City restored to all its Ancient Rights Liberties and Franchises whatsoever and all Charters Letters Patents Grants and Commissions during the time of the avoidance of the Charter in the two last Reigns for incorporating the Citizens and Commonalty of the said City or touching or concerning any of their Liberties and Franchises c. are declared and adjudged to be null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever p. 104 to 107. 2. Notwithstanding this it was not reasonable that the City which was no way consenting to its own disfranchisement but was wholly Passive in it should suffer or be prejudiced as to its main concerns but that all Proceedings in Law or Equity all Leases made or granted with the Cautions and Provisoes limited in the Act all Judgments Decrees and Sentences had and obtained by any Person or Persons taking upon them to be Trustees for or concerning any Lands c. all Freedoms to which any Persons being natural Born Subjects or Denizons had been admitted since the said Judgment given that all these should stand and remain in full Force and Effect so far as all or any of the said Proceedings were or would have been had the Charter not been voided materially Legal being transacted and done according to the usual Methods and with the usual Forms of Law and Justice respectively belonging and appertaining to them because though all these things for want of a Charter were now transacted by Commission from the King yet if all the Proceedings upon the said Commission for the space of so many Years had been declared null and void the Restitution of the Charter would have been a far greater mischief than the avoidance of it and the inconveniences would have been unspeakable which the City must have suffered by the nullity of so many reasonable and just as well as weighty and important Proceedings and accordingly it is wisely provided by this Act that all the Proceedings aforesaid though Illegal in themselves consideâ—ing the root of Authority from whence they sprang yet shall be deemed and adjudged to be firm and valid as if the Charter had been standing and the same Affairs had been transacted in the old and usual course under the Authority and influence of the same 3. When it is said in general terms that the Judgment given against the Charter and the Proceedings thereupon is and were Illegal and Arbitrary and that all Charters Letters Pattents Grants Commissions c. For Incorporating the Citizens and Commonalty of the said City or any of them or touching or concerning any of their Liberties and Franchises c. are declared and adjudged to be null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever And when it is then further added for the reason that hath been given viz. to prevent many and great mischiefs and inconveniences that would otherwise accrue that notwithstanding any thing contained in the said general Clauses yet in some particular cases mentioned in the Act that the Proceedings upon and after the said Judgment shall be and are confirmed as to their effect though in their cause that is to say the Authority from whence they were derived they are declared and adjudged to have been Arbitrary and Illegal from these two things considered and reflected upon there are these ten very natural Corollaries or deductions to be made First That the general Clauses would have been in vain whereby the Judgment against the Charter and the Proceedings thereupon are declared to be Illegal and the said Proceedings to be null and void nay they would have been absurd and ludicrous unbecoming the wisdom and gravity of that great Assembly by which with the Royal Assent they were enacted if after this either expresly or by any reasonable innuendoes or intimations of such a design all the Proceedings upon the said Judgment had been intended or implyed to be by the same Legislators in the same Act Authorized and Confirmed Secondly The Provisoes themselves would have been equally incongruous and absurd if all those Acts and Proceedings upon or after the said Judgment which were not confirmed by any such Provisoes were notwithstanding to stand good and remain in full Force and Effect Thirdly Thus much therefore is certain and almost self-evident to every Person of common understanding that where there is a general clause of nullity and avoidance of all the Acts of an Illegal Power to which there are subjoined some particular exceptions by particular Provisoes made in that behalf that all those Acts which neither come within the Letter of the said Provisoes nor so much as within the reason and intention of them are by the general Clauses evacuated and annull'd and the general Rule in cases not excepted is fortify'd and strengthen'd by the exceptions from it according to that old Maxim which is grounded upon the highest and the plainest reason exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis Fourthly The word Alderman not being so much as named thoroughout this whole Act of Parliament it is of necessity to be granted that all those Aldermen that were admitted into that Honourable Court after Judgment given against the City Charter till the date of this Act of Parliament for the reversing of that Judgment that is to say till the twentieth day of May 1690 were illegally admitted that Judgment and the Proceedings thereupon or thereafter till the time of restitution being declared to have been Arbitrary and Illegal Fifthly The said Admissions being Arbitrary and Illegal in themselves and not being confirmed by any Special Provisoe nor contained within the true reason of all or any of the said Provisoes they are by this Act of Parliament made null and void that is to say those Gentlemen so unduly and illegally admitted have no Right to wear their Gowns or to Sit and Act as Aldermen any longer in virtue of any such Illegal Admission not confirmed by this Act. That they do not come within the Letter of any of the Provisoes is plain because they are not so much as mentioned or named in any of them so that it cannot be said there is any express Provision made in their behalf That they are not included within the reason or intention of any of them tho this would hardly be sufficient to give them a Title at Common Law will be plain to any Man that shall duly weigh and consider the reason of the Provisoes which is twofold First that the Publick or the City in common and those with whom they transacted might not suffer for want of a just and reasonable Confirmation of all those materially Legal Acts and Proceedings which were had or done
from the avoidance of the Charter to the restitution of it Secondly That private Persons who had bought Offices within the Mayor or Sheriffs or in any wise in the Cities gift and who were competently qualify'd for their employments and capable of them had the Charter stood might not be turned out of them to the great loss if not ruin of themselves and Families only for want of a Just and Legal Title a defect which the Parliament by their Authority was very well able to supply as accordingly it hath done and as in strict equity it was obliged to do but of this a little more shall be said in its proper place Now as to the First of these reasons of the said Provisoes it is manifest the Aldermen are not included in it nor in the second neither for it could be no disadvantage to the City in general nor to themselves in particular for them to resign their Seats in the Court of Aldermen and put themselves upon a new Choice in their respective Wards any more than it was in the Case of Common Council-men of whom a new Choice was expresly enjoined nay the Majority have agreed that it was for the City's Interest to chuse a new Common Council because they have chosen other Members for reasons that do as nearly concern some of the present pretended Court of Aldermen as they did some of the late Common Council It could be no disadvantage to themselves to be dismist from their Station of Aldermen of the City any more than for others to be dismist from the Common Council for neither the one nor the other gets any thing by the Bargain only the trouble of an Alderman is so much the greater as Courts of Aldermen are more frequent than Common Councils and there is a charge of congruity though not of absolute necessity attending it they being obliged for the Honor of the City to live in some greater port and equipage than they did before and for these two reasons because they could not well spare so much time from their private Affairs and because of a Charge accompanying that Station which cannot without dishonor be avoided there are multitudes that have chosen from time to time rather to pay a considerable Fine to the Chamber of London than undergo the unprofitable fatigue and trouble of that dignity bâ—sides the expence and charge that usually goes along with it Sixthly Which is the sixth Corollary deducible from the premises He that is no Alderman within the meaning of this Act by which all those Acts and Proceedings during the avoidance of the Charter are expresly declared and adjudged to be null and void which are not by some especial Provisoe particularly confirmed I say such a Person let him be who he will can be no Lord Mayor because the Lord Mayor according to the Ancient Customs and Usages of the City is to be chosen out of the Court of Aldermen and all those Ancient Usages and Customs are by this Act of Parliament restored and confirmed Seventhly Sir T. P. who laid down his Gown while the City Charter was still standing and took it up again without any Legal Warrant after the date of the Judgment and before that of this Act of Parliament is no Legal Alderman and by consequence he cannot make a Legal Lord Mayor Eighthly Those Gentlemen who have continued and sat as Aldermen during all this interval of the avoidance of the Charter and were so by a due and lawful Election and Designation thereto before the Judgment given have still a right to continue Sit and Act in that capacity now the said Charter is restored and the said Judgment reversed because the declared End and Scope of the Act of Parliament made upon this occasion was to settle and confirm the Ancient Constitution as it stood when the Charter was seized into the King's Hands of which Constitution they themselves were an unquestionable Part and if the Aldermen since the Judgment do pretend a Right yet they cannot but confess at the same mite that those that were made so before it have if not a greater for an absolute Right will admit of no comparisons yet a much more plain and manifest Right than they Ninthly Those of the Court of Aldermen that lay'd down their Gowns and desisted from any further attendance upon that Court at any time between the Judgment given and the Restitution of the Charter by the Act of Parliament for reversing of it being Legal Aldermen while the Charter was standing and at the time of its avoidance may as many of them as are now surviving take up their Gowns again and Act in the same capacity that they did before they not making a voluntary surrender but conceiving themselves under a Moral incapacity to Act by reason of the Illegality of the Commission it self or not liking the Company that was obtruded upon them whom they might not look upon as Legal Assessors in that Honourable Court or fearing to be questioned in Parliament for what they did as this very Parliament hath declared the Seizure of the Charter and the Proceedings consequent upon it to have been Arbitrary and Illegal and therefore they resigned not because they would not Act but because they thought they could not being morally disabled for any further Service for id solum possumus quod possumuus de jure but the Charter being restored the capacity of acting returned together with it and the surrender being an involuntary thing created by scruples which they did not make and which they could not get over the Right of acting still remained whenever the Legal capacity should return as a Lawyer lays by his Gown and appears at no Bar in the time of the Vacation reserving still to himself a Right of doing both when ever the Term shall return However this is spoken and the Author humbly desires it may be so interpreted without any reflection upon those honest and worthy Gentlemen who continued still to act during all the time of the avoidance of the Charter which as it must be confessed to have been a signal Service rendred to the City and the Nation by influencing in some measure the Proceedings of the Court and by hindering of worse Men from Sitting in their Places so was it an undoubted Argument of courage and a publick Spirit and no sign of want either of Integrity or Judgment for the Judges and the Lawyers themselves were not agreed as to the Legality of the Seizure of the Charter and its Franchises into the Kings Hands and much more then might those who do not profess the Law but depend wholly upon others for their Sentiments in these cases be divided in their Opinions concerning it and now in God's Name let them unite together for the behoof and service of their Country in the general and of this Famous and Renowned City in particular since they both confess the Restitution to be Legal whatever disputes or controversies may arise concerning the
meaning of this Provisoe which was to restore and confirm such Offices and Rights as were of advantage and benefit to the Possessors And in consideration of the great trouble charge and expence they are at Royal Charter of Confirmation p. 64. by taking the Stile and Character of Aldermen of the City upon them it is expresly ordained in one of the Royal Charters which is confirmed by and contained in the great Royal Charter of K. Charles II. that as long as they shall continue Aldermen there and shall bear the charge of Aldermen proper and also those which before had been Aldermen and have also with their great costs and expences Born the Offices of Mayoralty shall not be put in any Assizes Juries or Attaints Recognizances or Inquisitions out of the said City and that without that City neither they nor any of them be made Collectors or Collector Assessor Taxer Overseer or Comptroler of the Tenths Fifteenths Taxes Tallages Subsidies or other charges or impositions whatsoever c. So that it seems not only the Aldermen but the Mayor himself notwithstanding any contigent advantages which may or may not happen have been always reckoned to be in Stations of great expence and trouble and though it be a privilege and advantage to the City to be governed by such Persons of their own chusing and of their own Body yet that to the Persons themselves it was and was looked upon as an inconvenience and a Burthen and for this reason neither the Mayor nor Aldermen come within the meaning and design of this Clause and the same may be said likewise of the Sheriffs who are at a very great charge in the discharge of that weighty and important Trust without any prospect but what is very remote and very contingent of any thing like an equivalent advantage in the time of their Mayoralty when it shall come which depends wholly upon the uncertain lives as well of themselves as others of themselves because they know not whether they shall live so long of others because they know not whether they will dye then or no the great advantage of the Lord Mayor consisting in the disposal of those Offices by Sale that fall by decease of the several Officers that fill'd them during the time of his Government and Administration Thirdly Furthermore the said Offices hereby confirmed to the respective Officiaries of the same are in this Provisoe called not only Offices but also Places and Employments now if a Man should ask the Question what Place such an one was possessed of or was invested in It would be absurd in this case to say he was an Alderman because he gets nothing by it but if you say he is Commissioner of the Custom-house or he is Post-master General these indeed are Places in the English Language because there is profit and business mixt together a Place being generally understood by an elliptical or curtailed way of speech among us of a place of profit or advantage it cannot be denyed that this is the most usual and the most natural acceptation of the Word but whatever becomes of Place Employment is certainly a Man's livelyhood and business that by which he gets his subsistence in the World and if the Question were asked what Employment such a one is of it would be ridiculous to answer he is an Alderman a Mayor or Sheriff because by Employment is meant that which is a Man 's own proper business for the acquitting an Estate or for the support of himself and Family whether it be any Craft or Mystery in the way of Trade or any Place or Office with salary or perquisites or both whether the income or gain be more or less so it be that in which a Man 's particular business consists and by which he endeavours either to get an Estate by honest and lawful means or at least to provide a subsistence for himself or those for whom he is obliged by Nature Custom or Law to make the best provision he can but if to be an Alderman a Mayor and Sheriff be not in the English Language an Employment then in an English Act of Parliament nothing is more certain than that they cannot come within the meaning of this Provisoe Fourthly But now if by Office Place and Employment in this Paragraph we understand all those Offices in the City gift and service from the Recorder to the meanest Officer belonging to the Lord Mayor or Sheriffs or to either of the Compters receiving wages and perquisites for the same and having a Legal tenure or possession therein then the sense of this Paragraph is very easie and that is manifestly the only true sâ—nse when all is done that whereas by another Provisoe in this Act care is taken that all the Legal Proceedings that passed from and after the Judgment given against the City Charter that is to say all those Proceedings either in Law or Equity that wanted nothing to make them Legal but only a Legal Authority and Jurisdiction should be ratify'd and confirmed as in Reason and Justice they ought to be to prevent the disorder and confusion that would otherwise ensue upon their nulling and avoidance so as to private Persons who were legally possessed of Offices and Employments in the City Gift while the Charter and its Authority were yet standing and in full force and effect which Offices and Employments were for the most part their livelyhood and subsistence which they had purchased with their Penny and which they had still continued to the great Service and Benefit of the City and its Government to exercise and administer during all the time that the Charter stood null and void by virtue of the Judgment upon the Quo Warranto it would have been the greatest hardship in the World to reward all these Services with an ejectment out of their respective Places or to put them upon the trouble or hazard of a new Choice when they had already purchased and pay'd for their Employments and when the Charter being restored they were so naturally and rightfully restored together with it by having formerly belonged to it and acted by and under its influence and virtue Again as to those who were admitted or chosen into any such Offices after the date of the Judgment or between that and the time of the reversing of it coming in upon decease or upon voluntary surrender or upon ejectment for a just and lawful cause they also are by this Provisoe confirmed as in equity they ought to be their employments being for the most part their livelyhood and subsistence they having generally purchased them with their Money being duely qualify'd for them and having served the City many of them for several Years with diligence and faithfulness in them For which reasons taken all of them together they had a great deal of equity on their side and to eject them or put them upon a new risque a new purchase or a new choice in these circumstances would have
been the greatest and the plainest hardship in the World But now nothing of all this concerns those Aldermen that have been chosen or admitted since the avoidance of the Charter they have nothing of equity to plead for themselves neither can they complain of any hardship in being ejected or put upon a new choice in the vacant Wards neither have they any thing to plead for themselves but only a Possession which in its root according to this very Act is Arbitrary and Illegal and the Parliament not designing to confirm Arbitrary things for no reason but only where the things though defective in their Authority were materially just and where there would be cruelty and hardship in making them null and void it is manifest that they as they do not come within the letter of this Paragraph where the word Alderman is not so much as mentioned so neither have they any share or Portion in the true meaning and intention of it which was to shew mercy in some cases where equitable reasons did so plainly and so loudly require it not to confirm Illegal and Arbitrary things in all which would have been to confirm and justifie the Judgment given instead of disallowing or condemning it which was the first and greatest intention of this Act and bating the little underwood of equitable Provisoes is the main timber of which it is built and consists and if a possession should be pronounced firm for no other reason but because it was a possession without regard whether it were legal or no this would overthrow and confound all property in the World and make it impossible for any Man to be ejected out of an Arbitrary Possession otherwise than by Force of Arms which is not the legal way and which would introduce a State of War and Hostility in all times and places Fifthly Further yet all those above mentioned are City Officers properly so called that is they all Act by an Authority derived from the whole Corporation considered as one intire Body they are the constant Servants of the City belonging to the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs for the time being and it is of such only that this Paragraph speaks they are the very words And be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that all Officers and Ministers of the said City that rightfully held c. now an Alderman though in a very large sense of that word he may be called an Officer yet is he not a City but a Ward Officer representing in the Court of Aldermen and acting in the behalf of that particular Ward for which he serves An Alderman is not properly an Alderman of the City or of the whole Corporation but he is Alderman of the Ward Foreman or Chair-man of the Wardmote in a particular District or Region of the City and from thence is sent as a Deputy or Delegate into that Superior Court at Guildhall and the Case is the same with the Common Council-Men they serve also such a number of them in the Common Council for every particular Ward and are not City but Ward Officers who all taken together in both these Courts make up a Court representative of the whole Corporation and do transact in their stead and on their behalf but taken singly they are no more City Officers then a Parliament Man is Knight or Burgess for the whole Nation but a Clerk of the Parliament and a Speaker of the Parliament are Servants to the whole Nation because they are Servants to the whole Representative Body and the difference between these things is still further clear by this that there are distinct Clauses in this Act of Parliament relating to the Restitution of the City Charter and the respective Charters and Franchises of particular Companies and there are also distinct Provisoes for confirming the legal and necessary Proceedings in the one and in the other which is as much as to say what is clear enough in it self that the whole and part are not the same and that one part is distinct from another that the Charter or the Officers of the City are distinct from those of the Companies of which it consists that the City Charter or Officer is not the Charter or Officer of a certain Company nor Vice versâ and the Charter or Officer of one Company is not the Charter or Officer of another and by the same way of reasoning a City Officer and a Ward Officer are distinct things a Ward Officer is not a City Officer nor a City Officer as such the Officer of a Ward or to reduce the whole matter into plainer terms that an Alderman is not an Officer of the City properly so called and by consequence doth not come within the meaning of this Clause Sixthly I have made this comparison between an Alderman and a Parliament Man the rather not only because it is very natural because of the Representation of a certain place or district and the Inhabitants thereunto belonging in both cases but because H. 3. in the 49th of whose Reign some of our greatest Antiquaries will needs have it that the House of Commons at least had its first beginning was also the First Founder of this Institution of Governing each Ward of the City of London by its respective Alderman thereunto belonging they are the words of Stow Survey of Lond. p. 696. 1. King John changed their Bayliffs into a Mayor and two Sheriffs to these H. 3. added Aldermen at the first eligible yearly but afterwards by King Edward III. made perpetual Magistrates and Justices of the Peace within their Wards though Mr. Cambden seems to be of another mind and tells us that the Wittena Gemot or Council of Wise Men among the Saxons was much the same with what we call a Parliament now-a-days and in this he is followed by the Lord Chief Baron Atkins in his Learned Discourse of the Antiquity of the House of Commons but however that be we do not only read that Hen. III. was the Person that set Aldermen over every Ward but in his time we find mention also of the Folkmtoe which was the same with our Present Common-Council who were used then upon Emergent occasions to meet at Paul's Cross See Holinsh in the Reign of Hen. III. p. 262 263 264. as they do now at Guildhall where sometimes the King himself sometimes his Chief Counsellors and Ministers of State and sometimes even Foreign Ambassadors and Foreign Kings too with the Prime of our Nobility and Clergy were present so great and venerable an Assembly was the Common Council of London reckoned in those days Seventhly If Common Council Men as Representatives of their respective Wards are not Officers within the meaning of this Provisoe then neither are Aldermen because they both represent and both of them represent the very same Persons and Places though the one do it in a Superior Orb and Station to the other and therefore this representation if it do not make an Officer within the meaning of