Note 783 — PART IV. From the Reformation to the present time. (continued 3)

The number, if we mistake not, is eight; the recorder, three aldermen, and four common-council-men. What blame is imputable to them, may not be easy to say. We are willing to suppose it may not be very much; at least, not so much as what belongs to their resident brethren, who have it in their power to strike off their names from the list of members: and though it may not be of any material consequence to the community at large if they be still continued on the list of members, or if eight, or even eighteen more were to become absentees and retain their respective memberships; yet in point of good policy it may not be quite the thing, lest the unprivileged part of the townsmen should by decrees take it into their heads, that it would be no very serious cause of alarm if the whole corporation, except the mayor, recorder, and town clerk, were to set out in a body to make the tour of Europe, or to perform a voyage round the world.