the City), to have knowledge there in a case of
Treason or Felony, hath ever from time that no
mind is, sitten in the gate of the said sanctuary.
And the person appeached or indicted of Treason
and Felony, hath been kept by the officers on
the further side of the street afore him, to the
intent that he come not of the other side of the
Channel, towards the Sanctuary there, to claim
the liberty and Franchises of the same."

And now for the condensed remonstrance of
the unhappy citizens against this hornets' nest,
as it had become in the very heart of the City,
and within the shadow of the frown of Guildhall
itself. The petition ran to the following effect:
"That divers persons of divers estates, apprentices
and servants, dwelling in the City of London
and its suburbs, as well as other people of
the realm, repairing to the City, some in the
absence of their Masters, day by day, flee with
the goods and chattels of their masters to the
College of St. Martin le Grant in London," to
live at their pleasure on these goods and chattels,
without execution of the temporal law, and that
they are received and sheltered there, and that
these same goods and chattels are seized and
taken as forfeit by the servants of the said
college. Debtors of all sorts also take refuge
there. Forgeries of bonds, indentures,
acquittances, and other muniments are perpetrated
by many of its inhabitants, who there enseal
them with the names, as well of many merchants
and people dwelling in the said City, as well as
others of the said realm, to their disinheritment
and final destruction. Merchants and victuallers
are defrauded of their wares, mercery,
merchandise and victuals: for when these
merchandises are once received in the sanctuary,
the sellers can neither get them back, nor the
payment for them. " And in which College
from time to time are received murderers,
traitors, as well as clippers of money of the
King's coin, thieves, robbers, and other sorts of
felons, evil doers, and disturbers of the King's
peace, skulking thro' the day, and at night
issuing to commit their murders, treasons,
larcenies, robberies, and felonies, both within and
without the franchise of the City." The law is
stopped of its course by the privileges of the
college. And, therefore, for the better keeping
of the king's peace within the City and the
kingdom, a gracious remedy is prayed, and that
conviction and punishment may follow the crime:
before the king's justices, notwithstanding any
privilege claimed, saving the liberties of the
holy universal Church of England. Take,
however, as a taste of the style, this last paragraph
of the prayer: " Que please a vostre haute
Regalie, considerantz les meschiefs & malfaitz
avantditz & que pees & tranquillite deinz la
dite Cite & aillours deinz votre dit Roialme le
mielx puissent estre gardez, per assent des toutz
Estatz d'icest present parlement, & per auctorite
d'icell ordagner gracious remedie, per ensi que
ley & execution d'icell de cy en avaunt soit fait
sur les ditz meffaisours en la dit College habitantz,
ou en apres a ycell fuantz, devant les juges
temporelx du dite Citee, come le cas requiert
eslieux as tieux cases purveux & ordeignez,
nounobstantz ascuns maniers privileges ou Libertees
per le dit College claymez. Salvez tant soule
ment les Libertees de Seinte Esglise universele
d'Engleterre." The answer is, that " they are
to show their privileges before the king's
council, and a reasonable remedy shall be made."

OUR EYE-WITNESS AT GLOUCESTER.

"HIM as gives most shall have my vote."

This was the ever-reiterated burden of the
song sung by many mouths in the Shire Hall at
Gloucester. This the chorus which rose in the
court all day long. This the sordid screech
which echoed to the very rafters of its roof.

For your Eye-witness has (of course) been
present at the Election Inquiry instituted by
the Commission at Gloucester; that inquiry of
which the reader has heard so much, and in the
course of which so many strange and disheartening
particulars have been disclosed to the
public. He takes Gloucester as a case in point.
It happens to be the case readiest to his hand.
He might, for the demerits of the case, have
taken Wakefield, or other places quite as bad.

The Eye-witness is sorry for Gloucester, and
mourns over its corruption very sincerely.
Its inhabitants are, as far as he saw, a polite
race, though a venal, and the town itself is a
fine old place, and has an old-fashioned,
comfortable look, very pleasant to those who still
enjoy the sight of a stage-coach (the E.-W. saw
one with four horses) or an old post-chaise
painted yellow.

Truly Gloucester is a wonderful and misleading
city, a city which you walk about and
examine carefully, and dispose of in your own
mind as a combination of an ordinary agricultural
capital, and a cathedral town, till you
happen to see a man in complete maritime
costume turning down an obscure lane which
apparently ends in the county gaol. You follow
this mariner, saying to yourself, " And why a
sou'-wester hat, why a blue flannel Jersey, why
these canvas trousers in Gloucester?" Why?
Follow the seaman but a little bit further and
you will see. You will see, suddenly appearing
as in a dream, long ranges of warehouses with
cranes attached, endless intricacies of dock, miles
of tram-road, wildernesses of timber in stacks,
and huge three-masted ships wedged into little
canals, floating through flood-gates with no
apparent means of propulsion, and without a sail
to bless themselves with. And it is this
extraordinary inland port which you had disposed of
so easily as a quiet cathedral town, and you are
surprised that a city capable of such a piece of
deception should lend itself to bribery and
corruption.

Let the reader beware of another deception.
The E.-W., arriving in the evening, fell into an
excess of rapture at what he took to be the
tower of the cathedral, but which turned out to
be four gigantic poplars planted close to the
railway station, evidently with a view to
mislead the public.