Excerpt from The History of the Boroughs and Municipal Corporations of the United Kingdom, From the Earliest to the Present Time, Vol. 2 of 3: With an Examination of Records, Charters, and Other Documents, Illustrative of Their Constitution and Powers But this assumption seems to be without proof, for there is nothing to establish by evidence this great revolution, - it is not apparent upon any of the documents or charters, relative to London, or any other place, many of which we have carefully investigated from the earliest periods. Indeed these articles seem to import that they were founded upon the ancient usages of the city, rather than that they were introductory of any new system. And so far from the leets or ward-motes being in any de gree superseded, they have continued in uninterrupted exercise of their functions down to the present day - the truth is, that Mr. Norton overlooked the connection which existed from the earliest periods of our history, between trade, and the laws connected with free condition. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.