Part 12 (2/2)

without making any agreement or composition for soe doing, contrary to the said antient usage and custome, tending to the utter undoeing of the freemen ... and decay of the same City.” Everywhere the records of the companies detail little else than summonses to intruders to take up their freedom and notices of actions at law against them for refusing to do so.

General demoralisation prevailed, and the existence of a cla.s.s holding such an equivocal position as that of the unfree tradesmen did not help to mend matters. The case of John Bromhall which has been mentioned above ill.u.s.trates the general looseness which prevailed in all departments of munic.i.p.al administration. A ludicrous incident which happened at Shrewsbury in connection with the tensers in later years is recorded by Gough in his _Antiquities of Myddle_, published in 1834. ”This Richard Muckleston was of a bold and daring spirit, and could not brook an injury offered to him. He commenced a suit against the town of Shrewsbury for exacting an imposition on him which they call tentors.h.i.+pp, and did endeavor to make void their charter, but they gave him his burgess-s.h.i.+p to be quiet.”

The companies were preserved from repet.i.tions of this strange indignity by the pa.s.sing of the Munic.i.p.al Corporations Act of 1835, in consequence of which there could no longer be any invidious distinction between freemen and non-freemen, hansarii and custumarii, gildsmen and tensers.

APPENDIX II.

AUTHORITIES CITED.

Abram, W. A.--Memorials of the Preston Guilds.

An Account of the Poll for Members of Parliament for the Borough of Shrewsbury etc. (1747).

Boeckh, A.--Public Economy of Athens, translated by George Cornewall Lewis (1842).

Brentano, Lujo--On the history and development of Gilds and Origin of Trade-Unions.

”Britannia Languens, or a discourse of trade.” (1680.)

Bryce, J.--The Holy Roman Empire (1887).

Cowell--A Law Dictionary: or the Interpreter etc. (1727).

Cunningham, W.--The Growth of English Industry and Commerce (1885).

Dugdale, W.--Antiquities of Warwicks.h.i.+re.

Ebner, Dr Adalbert--Die klosterlichen Gebets-Verbruderungen bis zum Ausgange des Karolingischen Zeitalters (1891).

Eden, Sir F. M.--The State of the Poor.

Eyton, W.--Antiquities of Shrops.h.i.+re.

Farquhar--The Recruiting Officer.

Foucart--Les a.s.sociations religieuses chez les Grecs.

Foxwell, H. S.--Irregularity of Employment and Fluctuations of Prices (1886).

Froude, J. A.--History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth (12 vols., 1862-70).

Gneist--Geschichte des Self-Government in England.

Gneist--Das heutige Englische Verfa.s.sungs- und Verwaltungsrecht.

Gough--The Antiquities of Myddle (1834).

Green, J. R.--A Short History of the English People (1886).

Gross, Charles--The Gild Merchant (1891).

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