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The Annals of Bristol in the Seventeenth Century
The Annals of Bristol in the Seventeenth Century Author:John Latimer General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1900 Original Publisher: William George's sons Subjects: Bristol (England) History / Europe / Great Britain Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of... more » this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: The freemen of Bristol did not submit to their dis- franchisement without a protest. At a meeting of the Common Council in October, a petition was presented oil behalf of " a great number of free burgesses," requesting that their body might be permitted to vote for representatives "in conformity with statutes." The Council, however, fell back upon the ordinance of 1625 (see p. 93), which they alleged was founded on usage, and it was. ordered that all future elections should be conducted on the same narrow basis. Though nothing is to be found in the Journals of the Long Parliament, which are notoriously very imperfect, it may be inferred that the freemen represented their grievances and obtained redress, for their right to the franchise was never again disputed after 1640. Even whilst the Short Parliament was sitting, the Government pursued its unconstitutional policy. On the dismissal of the Houses the patentees of monopolies exercised great oppression, and many people were prosecuted and ruined for alleged evasions. Ship-money was also rigorously exacted, seizures of goods and imprisonments for default being of constant occurrence. Towards the end of April, the King addressed a letter to the civic authorities, requiring 200 men to be raised and equipped at the city's expense for service in the army. The troopers were to be paid eightpence per head daily from the time of their embodiment. The Council assented to the royal mandate, but the Town Clerk was despatched to London to seek relief from the b...« less