Welsh Journals

seignorial influence. They had no revenue and no municipal franchises. The mayor, chosen by the lord, had no magisterial function, no salary and no fees, except a small sum at the swearing in of burgesses. Almost everything in and belonging to the borough was the lord's-burgage rents, tolls, prise-ale, pitchings, reliefs, mortuaries, and profits of the courts. The lord too was patron of the church. Thus it was at the beginning of its history and so, too, it was when the commissioners on municipal Corporations in 1835 and 1880 made their reports. No develop- ment towards an autonomous municipal corporation took place at any stage in its history nor was it ever fortified by a royal charter. An important factor which hindered the growth of any kind of independence and corporate power was the poverty of the town, its lack of economic and commercial prosperity, and its small population. But the lord of the manor continues to appoint the mayor according to the ancient custom, burgesses are still elected, and the Court of the borough, which has jurisdiction over common lands, meets periodically. Newport is nomin- ally still a borough-a quaint survival from medieval times. B. G. CHARLES.