OF MODERN CORPORATIONS. 75 
event, the strength of the crown was augment- 
ed in more than an equal degree, and those 
enormous abuses, which drove the inhabitants 
of the cities to rebellion, were prevented by the 
existence of an authority which would at least 
tolerate no tyranny but its own. The wealth of 
the cities of England had not been so great as 
to form a body of patrician families to monopo- 
lize municipal office, and the landed gentry, 
secure in the possession of their property and 
afterwards admitted as an order to political 
power, were not driven as in Lombardy to seek 
refuge in the cities, and there constitute a mu- 
nicipal aristocracy. The barones* of London 
and of the Cinqueports were probably only the 
wealthier citizens on whom expensive and res- 
ponsible offices naturally devolve. 
- At the time of the Conquest it is doubtful 
whether any town or city in England possessed 
the right of electing its own judges or had ad- 
vanced further towards the dignity of a corpo- 
ration, than by possessing land and tenements 
in common, for the administration of which 
property some smaller body probably existed 
with some rule of election. The charter of 
William the Conqueror to the city of London 
* Matt. Paris 744. + Brady, p. 16. 
