distinct from the court and council of the borough, the portmote or burhmote; a gildsman is not necessarily a burgess, a burgess is not necessarily a gildsman. Some of the most important boroughs never have merchant gilds. There is no proof whatever that there ever was a gild merchant in London. The conmtna of London which John recooaised was no gild merchant. The argument from a gild hall to a gild merchant is idle. The famous passage in Glanvill, which some have regarded as establishing the identity of the comn, tna with the lilda, may be a gloss, and, at any rate, does not prove the proposition in support of which it is commonly adduced. There is no proof of a gild merchant having existed in such important towns as Norwich (Mr. Hudson, in his admirable paper on the history of Norwich, has recently confirmed this), Northampton, or Exeter. Indeed, it is in the Sllall roeshe oroughs that the importance of the gild lnerqhant reches its highest point. In such boroughs the court is still under seioaaorial influence the 1ord's steward still presides over it; and so the burgesses attempt to make their gild a general organ of self-government. It is a mistake, therefore, to make the municipal corporation of later days the outcome of a gild merchant. it is a mistake to make the grant of a gild merchant an act of incorporation, though, under the influence of the narrow theor 3, put forward by Merewether and Stephens, English writers are now in the habit of assigning too late a date even for the definite and technical incorporation of the boroughs. But though we may not identify the gild merchant with the corporation or wit.h the governing body, still we cannot regard it as a mere voluntary associa- tion of merchants. It is an organ of the borough, whose primary function is to maintain and protect that ilnlnunity from toll which is conceded by the borough charters. None but a gildsman may enjoy this ilnlnunity; within the borough those who are not gildsmen are excluded from trade or subjected to differential duties. Starting froin this point, the gild clailns to regulate trade. It further makes itself a board of arbitration, and in some cases it even assumes to act as a court of law, though in general it remains quite distinct from the regular borough courts. Then as to its subsequent history: the popular doc- trine which tells of a prolonged struggle between the merchant gilds and the craft gilds, and the victory of the latter, is just the outcone of Dr. Brentano's imagination he has read foreign history into English history. Certainly there is often enough a struggle between rich and poor, between the najores and the ni,ores; but hardly is there any trace of a struggle between various gilds, between merchants and craftsllen. Certainly it is no general truth that the government of the boroughs gradually beconles more democratic; on the contrary the general rule is that it steadily becomes more aristocratic.
In three very interesting appendixes the Scottish Gild Merchalt, the Continental Gild Merchant, and the Affiliation of Medieval Boroughs are discussed. Upon the last of these three topics Dr. Gross has spent a mawellous amount of industry to very good purpose.
His theories, if they be accepted—and for my own part I am inclined
