legal Citizens, at their Appointment, or Death, and others admitted, contrary to a pofitive Act of Parlement.

I HAVE fet forth, when, and by what Means, thefe Aldermen have ufurped all the Powers and Privileges of the CITIZENS; how the chief of their Ufurpations were confirmed by the Government, in the NEW-RULES, made by thofe Creatures of the Minifiry, the Privy-Council, under the fpecious Color and Form, but not the juft Sanction, of Law. I have added, a fhort History and an Expla nation of the New-Rules; and fhewed, the Effects they produced in the City, whenever they were fully exercised by a corrupt Adminifiration, which alfo fhews, what Ufes they may be always put to, on the like Occafions. And fhewed, how the Aldermen enforce the repealed and exploded New-Rules of Berkeley, where they tend to inflave the Commons, and abrogate or fufpend the New-Rules of Essex, though in full Force, where they tend to abridge or restrain the Power of the Board: That the general Frame of the Conftitution of this City, is, contrary to pofitive Grants in our Charters, contrary to every juft Principle of Common and Statute Law, particularly that, by which our Charters are confirmed, changed and reduced to a prepofterous Anarchy, as remote from the original Inftitution, as Slavery from Liberty: That all this Evil was brought upon the Corporation of the City, by the Aldermen, who gradually and unaccountably ufurped all the Powers and Privileges of the Commons and Citizens; fo, as to have the facred Properties and Rights of many Thousands, now vested in twenty-five Men, fome of whom, by the By, never were lawful Citizens, and confequently, could not, by Law, or by Right, be Aldermen: That the present Aldermen, though they have lefs of the Plunder of the City, to fhare, than their Predeceffors, are equally guilty of their Crimes; because, they, to their utmoft Might, follow the Example of the worst of them, and remit or enforce Laws, as they judge them moft for their Purposes, without any Regard to the Interest of the City. I have fhewn, the Abuse of Committees, particularly, with Regard to the Hofpital, and how one factious Leader of the Aldermen, may carry any one Point in the AfJembly, though ever so destructive of the City.

I AM forced, from the Shortnefs of Time before the Election, to over-look for the prefent, the eafy Manner, by which Aldermen and their Minions get City Leafes into their Hands, and conceal and alienate the Eftate: How they get Money into the Funds of the City, when it is not wanted, on Pretence of reducing the Intereft of the City Debt, and after getting fome other Perfons payed off, with their Money, by which Exchange, they increase the Treafurer's Poundage, they again get the Interest raised: How our Court is neglected fo far, that it is fometimes impoffible to get a Quorum, to hold, or even to adjourn it: How the Perfon of an Alderman is fo facred, that it is hardly poffible for any poor Perfon to get any legal Procefs executed against one of them, and morally impoffible to bring one of them to Justice, by a Lord Mayor's

Warrant,

Warrant, like an ordinary Citizen: How many of the Justices of the Board, refuse to act, and those, that act for Hire, frequently refuse to execute their Offices, against Rioters, Robbers, and even Murderers; for which, no Satisfaction can be obtained in the City Courts, as appears, by a Memorial, prefented to the Assembly, against the very worshipful Alderman Henry Burrows, the prefent renowned Father of the City, by the Directors of the Watch of the Parish of St. Michan, in the Year 1743, depofited by me, in the Tholfel-Office, on which, the Aldermen prevented any Procedings. I fay, thefe, and many fuch-like unpardonable Offences, both of Omiffion and Commiffion, chargeable on the Board of Aldermen, of this unhappy City, I muft pafs over, untill I have an Opportunity of bringing them to public Justice and condign Punishment, and shall haften on to the recommending fome adequate Remedies for the principal Diseases; but firft, let me beg of You, to confider, how like our Situation and Circumstances are, to those of Judah and Jerufalem, against which, the terrible Judgements of the ALMIGHTY, were denounced by the Prophet, and soon after, for their obftinate Perfeverance in Iniquity, dreadfully executed upon the Unrighteous.

HEAR, O Heavens! and give Ear, O Earth; for the LORD bath Spoken, I have nourished and brought up Children, and they have rebelled against me. The Ox knoweth his Owner, and the Ass, his Mafter's Crib; but Ifrael doth not know; my People doth not confider. Ah! finful Nation! Ah! People laden with Iniquity! Ah! Seed of evil Doers! Children that are Corrupters! They have forfaken the LORD; they have provoked the HOLY ONE of Ifrael, to Anger; they are gone arvay backward. Why Should You be ftricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole Head is fick, and the whole Heart faint. From the Sole of the Foot, even unto the Head, there is no Soundness in it, but Wounds and Bruises, and putrifying Sores: They have not been closed, neither bound up, nor mollified with Ointment. Your Country is defolate; your Cities are burned with Fire; your Land, Strangers devoured it in your Prefence, and it is defolate, as overthrown by Strangers. And the Daughter of Zion, is left, as a Cottage in a Vineyard, as a Lodge in a Garden of Cucumbers, as a befieged City. Unless the LORD of Hofts had left unto Us a very fmall Remnant, We should have been as Sodom, and We should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the Word of the LORD, Ye Rulers of Sodom; give Ear unto the Law of our GOD, Ye People of Gomorrah. To what Purpose, is the Multitude of your Sacrifices unto me? fayeth the LORD: When Ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your Hands, to tread Courts? Bring no more vane Oblations; your Incenfe is an Abomination unto me; the new Moons and Sabbaths, the calling of Affemblies, I can not away with, it is Iniquity, even the folemn Affembly. Therefore, when You ftretch forth your Hands, I will hide mine Eyes from You; yea, when Ye make many Prayers, I will not

my

bear

hear them: Your Hands are full of Blood. Wafb Ye, make You clean; put away the Evil of your Doings from before mine Eyes; ceafe to do Evil; learn to do Good; feek Judgement; relieve the Opprefed; judge the Fatherlefs; plead for the Widow. Come now, and let Us reafon together, fayeth the LORD: Though your Sins be as Scarlet, they shall be as white as Snow; though they be red, like Crimson, they shall be as Wool. If Ye be willing and obedient, Ye Shall eat the Good of the Land; but, if Ye refuse and rebel, Ye shall be deftroyed by the Sword: For, the Mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. How is the once faithful City become an Harlot! It was full of Judgement, Righteousness lodged in it; but now Murderers! Thy Silver is become Drofs; thy Wine mixed with Water. Thy Rulers are rebellious, and Companions of Thieves: Every one loveth Gifts, and followeth after Rewards: They judge not the Fatherlefs, neither doth the Caufe of the Widow come unto them. Therefore, Sayeth the LORD, the LORD of Hofts, the MIGHTY ONE of Israel, Ah! 1 will eafe me of mine Adverfaries, and avenge me of mine Enemies. And I will turn mine Hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy Drofs; and I will reftore thy Judges, as at the firft, and thy Coun fellors, as at the beginning. Afterwards, thou shalt be called, the City of Righteousness, the faithful City. Zion fhall be redeemed with Judgement, and her Converts with Righteoufnefs, And the Deftruction of the Tranfgreffors, and of the Sinners, fhall be together, and they that forfake the LORD, fhall be confumed.

FROM this, I leave You to draw moral Inferences, and to make proper Applications, and shall procede to the purposed

Point.

THERE are two Means, whereby, I apprehend, You may have the City reclamed and reformed. The one is, by preventing it's being made worse than it is, which is to be done, by the fair and free Election of your Commons; the other, by your choofing Men thoroughly qualified to reprefent You in Parlement.

THE former is more immediately in your Power. And therefore, You ought instantly to fet about it, whether You have a Profpect of fucceding in the later or not.

Ir is a melancholy and juft Confideration, that had the Com mons been always fenfible and virtuous, the Aldermen, notwithstanding the Influence and Authority they obtained from the Miniftry, could never have gained the Afcendant over the Citizens, or the Commons, they have done. And it is as certain, that if the Corporations of this City, become wife and virtuous, that is, fenfible of their true Intereft and Duty, and juft and publicspirited enough to observe and fupport the one, and to discharge and fulfill the other; though You may not, thus, be able to regain what You have loffed, yet, You may be able to preserve the Remnant, that is left You, of your Rights and Privileges, in fpight to all the illicit Power and artful Machinations of your Enemies.

I HAVE already layed before You, the many Incroachments, made upon your Conftitution, by the Aldermen. And, I believe, You must be fenfible, that the Commons, fince the New-Rules were enforced, have feldom, if ever, been any Stay or Balance against the Weight of the Board. And the Reason is very obvious: In moft of the Corporations, the Aldermen, by fome Means or other, acquired an Influence, fometimes fufficient to direct the Election and Return of Officers, as well, as Commons, with fome; and at other Times, they were able to biafs, perhaps, but half the Return of Numbers, with others; either of which, could not fail of ferving the finifter Purposes of the Inflavers. If they were Masters of the whole Return, they were able to make fecurer Cullings; but otherwife, they contented them felves with taking in those, who were moft devoted to the Purposes of the Aldermen, and have often been known to prefcribe a Test, and to procure Sponsors and Bail, for the Security of the fervile Complacency of the vane, perfidious Slaves, they have admitted, or infrared, for share of a Mess of Potage, to fell their Inheritance.

WE formerly had an Alderman of every incorporated Trade in Town; but, fince the whole Corps have been able fo far to worm them felves into Favor with the Guild of Merchants, as to get the Return of the Numbers for that Corporation, made by the Council of the House, and got them felves and their Creatures appointed of that Council, they have flighted all the other Corporations, in this Inftance, and by bending their whole united Force against this Corporation, which has thirty one Commons, they have generally been able to fecure that Number of Men, of greater Ability and Weight, than any of the other Corporations returned, and fo, have, for the moft Part, had a confiderable Afcendant over the whole Commons, by this Means.

I AM affifted in a Calculation of the State of the Influence of the Aldermen, on the Commons, by a worthy Fellow-Citizen of the Guild, who communicated his Help to me, in this Respect, being more converfant in Numbers, than I am.

THE Power of the Corporation of this City, as it has, for fome Time paffed, been exercised, is vested in, or rather affumed by, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and the Sherifs and Commons: For, they seem to have totally cut off the Citizens Right, in the Affembly, in the Court of Darein Hundred, or D'OyerHundred.

THE modern Affembly then, confifts of the Lord Mayor and Board of Aldermen, twenty-four in Number, who fit apart, and comfortably, and cafily, and cheerfully, tranfact the Business of the City, that is, of the Board, over a flowing Bowl, or, a Bottle of Wine; for, Abundance of that, is found requifite in every Affembly.

SUM total of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, apart,

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25

THE

THE Sherifs, who, though often made Aldermen, out of pure Humility and good Conduct, condefcend to fit at the Head of the Commons, not always having Clerks, or SubSherifs, that are qualified to take their Places there: These Gentlemen, being created by the Aldermen, and dependent on them, for further Promotion, may be reasonably fuppofed, for the moft Part, in the Intereft of the Board, THE SHERIFS PEERS, for the most Part, of the same Mould, not exceeding in Number,

THE Commons, chofen by, or under, the Influence of Aldermen, in the feveral Corporations, and, afterwards culled out of a double Return, made to, and perhaps, by, the Board,

}

2

48

96

In all 146

Now, fee how the City is, or may, as it often, no Doubt, has been, ruled. And, fee the Proportion of Power and Influence, the Aldermen must neceffarily have, in the Conduct and Government of the City. If thirteen of these Gentlemen unite in a Fac tion, they rule the whole Board, and the Board, the whole City, by gaining and fecuring the following Majority in their Favor, in the Commons.

FIRST, the Sherifs,

SECONDLY, half the Sherifs Peers, which, though not always fourty-eight, may fometimes amount to that Number, if the Aldermen do not cut short their own Days, in toiling at City Banquets,

THIRDLY, the whole Number of the Commons of the Guild, which, it is great Odds, if they mifs them, as they pass through a double Culling, by the Board,

FOURTHLY, half the Numbers of the feveral other Corporations, which may generally be allowed, upon a moderate Computation,

THE Number under the Influence of the ruling Faction of the Aldermen, must then be the Sum total, which is, So that, upon the most moderate Computation, You I have but a bare Chance of having more free and uninfluenced in the Commons, than,

WHICH Completes your Number,

MAJORITY for the Aldermen,