serving on juries out of the borough. The most interesting charter granted by succeeding monarchs for insuring these privileges, was that of Charles II., who, in the 17th year of his reign, ratified the ancient privileges of the borough, and confirmed the high steward, the twelve portmen, the 24 chief-constables, the recorder, and town clerk for the time being, by thair names, and directed, that upon the death or removal of any of the portmen, or twenty-four chief constables, the vacancies should be filled up by the rest of those respective bodies. Though the burgesses, towards the close of the same reign, surrendered their charter, and received another, by which the number of chief constables (or council-men) was reduced to eighteen; yet, as neither the surrender was enrolled, nor any judgment entered upon record, the officers who had acted under the former charter, resumed their functions, on the proclamation of James II., who, in 1688, confirmed all the privileges of the borough granted by the charters of Edward IV., Henry VIII., and Charles II., which were considered as governing charters till the passing of the Municipal Reform Act, in 1835. According to these charters, the corporate body consisted of two bailiffs, a high-steward, a recorder, twelve portmen, of whom four were justices of the peace; and twenty-four chief-constables, two of whom were coroners, and the twelve seniors were head-boroughs. The officers comprised a town-clerk, treasurer, two chamberlains, a water bailiff, four serjeants-at-mace, &c. Besides the privileges already named, the bailiffs were port admirals, and claimed all waifs, estrays, and goods cast on shore within their admiralty jurisdiction, which extended down the Orwell to the sea, below Harwich and Languard Fort. By a solemn decision in their favour in the 14th of Edward III., the bailiffs and burgesses had confirmed to them the right of taking custom-duties for goods entering the port of Harwich; and in a trial with the city of London, they established their claim to exemption from tolls and duties in all the ports of the kingdom.

The Municipal Commissioner, who enquired into the state of the Ipswich Corporation, in 1834, says, at the close of his voluminous and elaborate Report, "It is a constitution which still presents the appearance of a popular government, but it is in reality no such thing. Considered with reference to the corporate body only, it is an ill-regulated republic:-considered with reference to the local community, it is an oligarchy of the worst description. It is a government which excludes from municipal rights the most considerable portion of the inhabitants, whether considered with reference to number, property, or taxation; and which disqualifies for municipal office the most respectable, interligent, and independent classes of the community. Nor has it even secured the subordinate end of its existence-self-preservation; for, in consequence of the party feuds of the two self-elected bodies which share its official power, the Corporation is now fast approaching to a legal dissolution." The Commissioner also found that the police was very inefficient; that the bailiffs were sometimes insulted by freemen, even when sitting on the magisterial bench; that the Corporation monopolised the right of supplying the town with water, but that the supply was greatly inadequate to the wants of the inhabitants; that the Corporation property was charged with a debt of £14,300; that various alienations of property had been made, and the proceeds applied

to the general purposes of the Corporation; and that the corporate revenues amounted to upwards of £2000 per annum, of which about £700 arose from the water-works, and about £250 from a duty of 2d. per chaldron on all coals, coke, cinders, and culm, imported by non-freemen. This duty was originally granted to the Corporation, as conservators of the river Orwell, but they so shamefully neglected the navigation, that in 1805 it was taken out of their hands by an Act of Parliament, which placed it under the control of a body of gentlemen, called the River Commissioners, who, in their turn, gave place, in 1837, to the Dock Commissioners, as will be seen at a subsequent page.

Under the Act for the regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and Wales, passed in 1835, the borough of Ipswich is divided into fwé wards, and is governed by a mayor, ten aldermen, and thirty councillors, with a commission of the peace, a recorder, quarter sessions, &c. Charities to the amount of more than £2000 per annum were vested with the old Corporation; but, under this Act, they are now vested with 21 trustees. The Income of the Corporation, or as it is now called, the Town Council, amounted to about £4800 in 1839, of which £2414 arose from borough rates; £1783 from land, buildings and water rents; and £415 from tolls and dues. Their expenditure, in the same year, amounted to nearly £4600, of which the principal items were, salaries and allowances to officers, £772; police and constables, £885; prosecutions, &c., £358; gaol and maintenance of prisoners, £699, coroner, £83; public works, repairs, &c., £387; charities, £235; debts paid off and interest, &c., £883; municipal elections, £43; and law expenses, £39.

Ipswich has sent two members to Parliament since the 25th of Henry VI., and in the court books of the borough are many curious memoranda, respecting the wages paid at different periods to its representatives. In 1462, they each had from 12d. to 20d. a day; in 1472, from 3s. 4d. to 5s. per week, and in the reigns of Charles 1st and 2nd, they had in some years from £20 to upwards of £100. The right of election previous to the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832, was in the freemen not receiving alms, of whom 1003 voted in 1826, but only about 400 of them were resident in the borough. The number of electors registered in 1837 was 1418, of whom 368 were freemen, and 1058 occupiers of houses of the yearly value of £10 or upwards. The representatives returned by the borough, at the general election in July, 1841, being petitioned against, a new writ was issued in August, 1842, and the poll was taken on the 16th of that month, when the five candidates and the number of votes received by each were as follows:Capt. John N. Gladstone, 651; Sackville Lane Fox, Esq., 641; D. Thornbory, Esq., 548; Mr. Henry Vincent, (sent by the Sturgites,) 473; and J. Nicholson, Esq., 2. The Ipswich elections have often been severely contested, and the candidates returned have several times been unseated on the petition of the opposing party, or have resigned rather than undergo the ordeal of a scrutiny.

As will be seen in the accounts of the churches, parishes, and charities of Ipswich, at subsequent pages, the town had formerly twenty-one churches, five priories and several hospitals, guilds, and other religious fraternities. The priories were large and richly endowed, and were founded in the 12th and 13th centuries. Two of them belonged

to Black canons, and the other three to Black, Grey, and White friars. From the year 1390 to 1515, several religious houses in various parts of the kingdom were dissolved, and their revenues settled on different colleges in Oxford and Cambridge. In 1525, Cardinal Wolsey, by license of the King and Pope, dissolved above thirty religious houses for the founding and endowing of his colleges at Oxford and Ipswich. About the same time, a papal bull was granted to Wolsey, to suppress monasteries, in which there were not above six monks, to the value of 8000 ducats a year, for endowing Windsor and King's colleges, in Cambridge. The erection of WOLSEY'S COLLEGE, at Ipswich, (his native town,) was commenced on the 15th of June, 1528, upon the site of the Priory of St. Peter and St. Paul, the last prior of which, Wm. Brown, surrendered to the Cardinal, on the 6th of March, 1527. The building rapidly progressed, and to augment its endowment the Corporation gave the property which Richard Felaw had bequeathed to them for the support of a free school and hospital. Wolsey intended this collegiate academy as a nursery for his new college at Oxford. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and was endowed with the possessions of the monasteries of Snape, Dodnash, Wykes, Felixstow, Rumburgh, Montjoy, Bromhill, Bliburgh, Horkesley, and Tiptree, as well as with St. Peter's and Trinity priories, in Ipswich. The establishment consisted of a dean, eight clerks, twelve secular canons, eight choristers, fourteen bedesmen, and a considerable number of scholars. From its munificent endowment, and the extent and grandeur of the building, it is evident that Wolsey intended this college to be a lasting monument of his greatness, but it was scarcely completed, when he fell into disgrace, and died in 1530; and Henry VIII. revenged himself by seizing both it and the college, which the Cardinal had founded at Oxford. The latter was re-established after a lapse of three years, but Ipswich College was granted to Thomas Alverde, and its possessions to various other persons in royal favour; and all that now remains of it is a Gateway of decorated brick-work, flanked by octagonal turrets, and having over the entrance a stone tablet, bearing the arms of Henry VIII. This gate adjoins St. Peter's church-yard, and is supposed to have been an outlet from one of the college wings. The site of the college comprises about six acres, and now belongs to the Alexander family.

THOMAS WOLSEY, the haughty cardinal of the reign of that lascivious monarch Henry VIII., was born in 1471, at Ipswich, where his father (Robert Wolsey or Wuley) is supposed to have been in easy circumstances, and not a butcher, as has been stated by many writers. He was related to the Daundy family, who ranked among the most respectable inhabitants of the town. By his distinguished abilities and a fortunate concurrence of circumstances, Wolsey raised himself to the highest offices in church and state. After being some time at school in Ipswich, he was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow. Having embraced the ecclesiastical profession, he was presented, in 1500, to the rectory of Lymington, by the Marquis of Dorset, whose three sons were under his tuition. Probably through the recommendation of this nobleman, he was sent by Henry VII. on a mission to the Emperor Maximilian, and acquitted himself so much to the satisfaction of the king, that, on his return, he was re

son.

warded with the deanery of Lincoln, and a prebend in that cathedral. His introduction to the court of Henry VIII. he owed to Fox, bishop of Winchester, whom he soon supplanted in royal favour, and became himself sole and absolute minister. He successively rose to the offices of bishop of Tournay in Flanders, (which city the king had just taken,) bishop of Bath and Wells, bishop of Lincoln, Durham, and Winchester; archbishop of York, and cardinal and lord-high-chancellor of England. The revenues derived from his various offices equalled those of the sovereign, and he expended them in a manner not less magnificent; having in his retinue 800 persons, many of whom were knights and gentlemen. He built the palace of Hampton-Court; and York-place in London, which afterwards received the name of Whitehall. Naturally ambitious, Wolsey aspired even to the papal tiara, and being disappointed in his hopes of attaining that honour by the emperor Charles V., who had promised to support him, he revenged himself by promoting the divorce of Henry VIII. from Catharine of Arragon, aunt to his imperial majesty. This affair, however, proved the occasion of the cardinal's downfal. The obstacles to the accomplishment of Henry's wishes being too powerful for even Wolsey to remove so speedily as the king desired, he incurred Henry's displeasure, and being at the same time undermined by his enemies, he was suddenly stripped of all his employments, banished from the court, and arrested for high treaHe was taken at Cawood, near York, and from thence escorted to Sheffield Manor, where he remained sixteen days in the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Though he was here seized with a violent dysentery which his physician predicted would terminate in death in a few days, he was hurried towards London, to take his trial, mounted upon a mule, but he could proceed no further than Leicester Abbey, where he said, on his arrival, to the head of the convent-"Father Abbot, I am come to leave my bones among you." He died Nov. 30th, 1530, the second day after his arrival at Leicester, and was thus saved from farther humiliation. He was a man of extraordinary talent and industry; but his good qualities were overshadowed by the poison of ambition, and the arrogance of pride. He governed England for the space of twenty years, during which time he knew all the cabals of foreign courts, and had spies on every prince in Europe, by which he rendered himself truly formidable. He was courted, bribed, and caressed by the greatest potentates in Christendom. In virtue of his authority as pope's legate, he instituted an inquisitorial court, in which he exercised a power not known before in England. He so absolutely governed the king "that he turned him which way he pleased; but managed so artfully, that the king always fancied he took his own course." On many occasions of the utmost importance, he displayed his contempt of the laws and constitution of his country, when they stood between him and his ambition. He was charged with great immoralities and a lascivious life, though in public he kept up much show of solemnity and religion. Cavendish, his gentleman usher, said, in all his proceedings, he was the haughtiest man alive, and had more respect to the honour of his own person than he had to his spiritual profession. He was capricious, haughty, and insolent, even to the ancient nobles of the land, who could ill brook such conduct from one who, by his talent and learning, had raised himself from a humble sphere to be se

cond only to his sovereign in splendour and authority; and they therefore used all their influence to bring about his humuliation. With his last breath, he said-" Had I but served my God as diligently as I served the king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs." The general Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Reformation of the Church, did not commence till after the death of Wolsey, in whose time Henry VIII. had written a work in favour of the Romish church, which so pleased the Pope that he conferred on him the title of " Defender of the Faith," which has ever since been attached to the crowned head of England. In 1533, an act of parliament was passed requiring the Lord's prayer, the creed, &c., to be read in English; and in the following year, Henry VIII. sanctioned the Protestants,a name which originated in the Diet of Spiers, (in 1529,) in Germany, where Martin Luther began that great reform which Wickliffe, nearly a centery and a half before, had laboured to effect in England. An act for the suppression of the lesser monasteries was passed in 1535; another for the suppression of the larger abbeys, priories, &c., in 1540; and one for the dissolving all colleges, free chapels, hospitals, chantries, &c., in 1545. The latter act was further enforced by one of the 1st of Edward VI. The number of monastic institutions suppressed in England by these acts amounted to about 3200, and their total clear yearly revenue to upwards of £150,000, which was immense, as the value of money at that period was at least six times as much as at present. The suppression of these houses and the consequent dispersion of many thousand monks and nuns, occasioned much discontent, which in many parts of the kingdom broke out into open rebellion, in which, however, Ipswich does not appear to have been concerned, though it was greatly affected by the change, which transferred the revenues of its monasteries to the coffers of the king, or to the use of those who pandered to his lasciviousness and extravagance. In the time of Wolsey, Henry VIII. persecuted the Protestants with as much cruelty as he afterwards did the adherents to the Romish faith. Thomas Bilney, one of the earliest promulgators of the doctrines of Wickliffe and Luther, in Norfolk and Suffolk, often preached here in St. George's chapel, which stood near St. Matthew's church, where Cardinal Wolsey set spies upon him, and after being twice dragged from his pulpit by the monks, he was taken to London, where, after undergoing much privation, he was induced by his friends to recant; but this so troubled his conscience that shortly after his return, he boldly offered himself as a martyr to the reformed religion, and suffered at the stake, in Norwich. In 1548, there were three printers in Ipswich, though the typographical art was then in its infancy. In the reign of Mary, the Roman Catholic religion was again established, and this town became the scene of several burnings and sacrifices, for the rights of conscience, and many of the protestants were obliged to leave the town or "lurk in secret places.' Among those burnt at the stake, in Ipswich, were the Rev. Robt. Samuel, of East Bergholt, in 1555; Nicholas Peke, of Earl Stonham; and Ann Potter and Joan Trunchfield, in or about the same year; one Kerby, in 1556; and Alexander Gooch and Alice Driver, in 1558. In the latter part of the latter year, the cruelties of Mary ended in her death, and the protestant Elizabeth commenced her long and glorious reign. When the faggots were blazing about