But I am now certain that if I
could have executed it that it would not have been altogether
unsuccessful.
29. It is difficult to account for the origin of charter and
corporation towns, unless we suppose them to have arisen out of, or
been connected with, some species of garrison service. The times in
which they began justify this idea. The generality of those towns have
been garrisons, and the corporations were charged with the care of the
gates of the towns, when no military garrison was present. Their
refusing or granting admission to strangers, which has produced the
custom of giving, selling, and buying freedom, has more of the
nature of garrison authority than civil government. Soldiers are
free of all corporations throughout the nation, by the same
propriety that every soldier is free of every garrison, and no other
persons are. He can follow any employment, with the permission of
his officers, in any corporation towns throughout the nation.
30. See Sir John Sinclair's History of the Revenue. The land-tax
in 1646 was L2,473,499.
31. Several of the court newspapers have of late made frequent
mention of Wat Tyler. That his memory should be traduced by court
sycophants and an those who live on the spoil of a public is not to be
wondered at.
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