ough—its government, revenues, and trade—was granted, in return for a fixed annual rent, into the hands of its burgesses. Then the freedom of the borough, or of the city, was indeed great. The burgesses elected their own officers and council—mayor, bailiffs, and chief bur gesses—and elected coroners to see that the bailiffs dealt justly with rich and poor; and through those officers they governed their community and its political and com mercial affairs. Though the serf class had diminished, there was yet a great number of inhabitants in each borough or city who were not bur gesses. There were foreigners, strangers, women, minors, apprentices, menial ser vants, and those who either could not, or desired not, to contribute towards ob taining the charter, or to pay fees for "suing out their freedom, as it was termed. The body of enfranchised burgesses became smaller and smaller in comparison with the general inhabitants. Then the gov erning council came more and more to exer cise all the powers of the body of burgesses, among which was the power to admit new burgesses. Later, charters were often granted to certain burgesses, as officers and council, empowering them to admit such as they chose to be freemen of the borough. The custom of summoning representa tives of a borough to Parliament, and the rise of the House of Commons, gave to membership in the body of burgesses a great political value; for the burgesses, or their select body, elected those representa tives. Now residence in the borough was
never definitely required for burgess-ship; and the practice of admitting non-residents soon became quite general, sometimes as an honor, sometimes to control the elections. So honorary and non-resident freemen be came numerous in English boroughs and cities. In the municipal reform of 1835, Parliament enacted that honorary freemen should not have a freeman's vote. Since that time the freedom of a borough or city has often been bestowed upon distinguished persons, especially guests, solely as an honor. The customs and organization of English municipalities were transplanted to the American colonies. In the early charters of New York it is provided that the "Mayor Recorder and Alderman for the time being shall from time to time and at all times hereafter have full Power and Authority under the Common Scale to make ffree Cittizens of the said Citty and Libertyes thereof," etc. A similar provision is in the charter of Penn to Philadelphia, 1701, and in the charters of other colonial cities. The General Court of the Colony of Plymouth ordered "that henceforth such as are ad mitted to bee freemen of this Corporation; the deputies of such Townes wher such per sons live shall propound them to the Court being such as have been alsoe approved by the freemen in that towne wher such per sons live." Ultimately, in America, residence took the place of formal admission; but the ancient ceremony of conferring the freedom of the city, though it has lost its old sig nificance, is continued, as it is in England, as an honor to distinguished persons.
