10 ON THE INFLUENCE OF FEUDALISM. 



contributed to their own eradication, and the burgesses^under the care 

 of the sovereign, were enabled to take some share in the legislation 

 of their country. 



Still more firmly to attach them to the interests of the crown 

 against the aristocratical presumption/ Charters of Incorporation 

 were granted to the principal boroughs vesting the election of the 

 municipal body in the burgesses themselves ; a stroke of policy, 

 admirably adapted at that time to aid the royal design, which might 

 more readily be supported by the corporations, who, by their influ- 

 ence, might secure the return of such members for the borough as 

 would be required. We are proud to remember that Kingston-upon- 

 Hull was the first chosen spot for this new element of regeneration ; 

 its charter by Henry VI. separating it completely from the county 

 of York, and giving it privileges utterly incompatible with the feudal 

 subjection. By the effect of this charter and prior charters (not of 

 incoiporation) the barons' court could no longer affect its burgesses, 

 and the right of pleading and being impleaded in their own jurisdic- 

 tion, created the Court of Record of our Mayor and Sheriff, which 

 still exists with advantage to our townsmen. 



One curious badge of feudalism yet remains in the privilege 

 granted by the carta deforesta in the reign of Henry III. in favour 

 of every lord spiritual and temporal summoned to parliament, who 

 passing through the king's forests " may both in going and returning 

 kill one or two of the king's deer, without warrant, in view of the 

 forester, if he be present, or on blowing a horn if he be absent, that 

 he may not seem to take the king's venison by stealth." Absurd as 

 such a privilege may now seem, yet on its reservation, when the 

 forest laws of the Normans were so rigorously and oppressively 

 maintained, such license was considered as a high mark of favour. 



The mode in which the royal assent is given to any bill in parlia- 

 ment also exhibits an instance of feudal usage ; in the words of 

 Blackstone, " The king's answer is declared by the clerk of the par- 

 liament in Norman French, a badge it must be owned (now the only 

 one remaining) of conquest, and which one would wdsh to see fall 

 into total oblivion, unless it be reserved as a solemn memento to 

 remind us that our liberties are mortal, having once been destroyed 

 by a foreign force. If the king consents to a public bill the clerk 

 usually declares " le ray le veut," (the king wills it) : if to a private 



