OF MODERN CORPORATIONS. 67 
and invested the Rathhaus. The burgermeisters 
assembled the council, and some of the mem- 
bers went among the insurgents, who treated 
them with great courtesy and appointed ‘six of 
their number to negotiate with them. Their 
demands were that the old families should give 
up the administration to the companies, and 
transfer to them immediately the seal and regis- 
ter of the city, and the keys of the alarm bell, 
the Rathhaus and the treasury. With the latter 
demands the council complied; in respect to 
the administration, it succeeded in convincing 
the delegates of the companies, that before 
adopting such an extensive change, it would be 
prudent to obtain more exact accounts of the 
‘working’ of the constitution in other cities, in 
which the companies had obtained the ascen- 
dancy. This was agreed to; twelve assessors 
from the artizans were admitted ad interim to 
to the council, and after two months the dele- 
gates returned, with the information which they 
had collected, that no where had the artizans 
the whole government in their own hands, with- 
out any participation of the old families. Their 
number was at that time fifty-one; that of the 
companies seventeen; it was agreed that the 
twelve assessors of the artizans should remain 
in the council, and one for each company be 
E | 
