General History of Bath. 75 



ment were horrible. If a vacancy occurred in the Council 

 the remaining members elected one of the freemen to fill it. 

 The finances were entrusted almost unreservedly to the 

 Chamberlain. This person was a member of the Council, 

 and always made a profit out of his office. It was one of 

 his duties to entertain the councillors, who alone had even 

 a nominal supervision over his accounts. The Council also 

 annually elected two of their body to be Justices, and these 

 administered the laws they had helped to make. But the 

 most lucrative office was that of the Bailiffs, who discharged 

 all the functions of the executive, and made large profits 

 out of the administration of the prisons and markets. 

 These also were members of the Council. 



No one outside this charmed circle had any voice in the 

 government or taxation of the town. But there was an 

 imperium in imperio. The mayor and justices formed an 

 inner Cabinet who could vote money and levy taxes, without 

 even the sanction of the Council. Indeed, the Council 

 minutes relate principally to the management of the houses 

 and land belonging to the Corporation, the election of 

 officers, and the choice of members to represent the city 

 in Parliament. 



We have mentioned the freemen, the select body who, 

 by a perversion of right, were the representatives of the free 

 inhabitants of the city. These men formed a ring almost 

 as close as the Council itself. No one who was not a free- 

 man could keep open a shop in the city, and the freedom 

 could be obtained only by election by the Council, by pur- 

 chase, or by a seven years' apprenticeship to a freeman. 



A resolution passed by the Council in 1697 is instructive: 



" Whereas there hath become a custom in this City that the mayor 

 should have power with the consent of the Corporation to make 



