Source: Bell's Weekly Messenger, No.1786, Sunday, June 20, 1830
One of the subjects which most particularly engross the attention of the Corporation of London is the attempt now making to restore the resident freemen in London to those elective rights which are exercised by every other freeman living in cities represented in Parliament. The advocates for the restoration of the privilege state, that by custom, confirmed by charters, these rights once belonged to the citizens of London, but through the influence of the livery companies, together with a petition from the major part of the Aldermen of London, the Act of 11th of George I. was procured, which deprived the resident citizens in London of their elective rights, and gave those rights to the liverymen (of the different companies), who may be living in any part of the world. The committee have made a report adverse to the claim of the freemen. They state that no evidence has been produced showing that at any period there was a settled rule or custom that the freemen resident in London should elect the representatives of the city in Parliament, the Lord Mayor, the sheriffs, the chamberlain, or the auditors of the city accounts; but, on the contrary, it appeared that until the reign of Edward IV. such officers were elected from time to time by different persons; and from the period when the general political rights of the people became settled and defined, until the passing of the statute of 11th Geo. I., the right of election was exercised, with a few exceptions, by the Livery of London. The advocates of the freemen are in possession of a record which they say distinctly proves that the right of electing the sheriffs was confirmed to the citizens by charter of Hen. I. (1000), which says that the citizens of London shall place as sheriffs whom they will of themselves; and which must have continued the right of the citizens until the 7th of Edward IV. (1476), at which time the first mention is made of the liverymen: thus settling it in the citizens by charter 367 years, while the charter of John grants to the barons who were the freemen that they may choose unto themselves every year a mayor of themselves. The record also shows that from the 7th of Richard II. (1384) to the 7th of Edward IV. the elective right continued undisturbed for eighty-three years in the resident freemen in scot and lot. Several influential members of the corporation are decidedly in favour of the claim of the freemen.