Page:The English Reports v1 1900.pdf/966

be dismissed, after the account should be taken, and the money due thereon paid, and possession delivered, as before directed. (Jour. vol. 23. p. 77.)

In Michaelmas term 1720, the defendant commenced his action against the plaintiff, complaining against a false return made by the plaintiff to a writ of Mandamus, which issued out of the Court of King's Bench and declared, that the borough of Truro, in the county of Cornwall, by letters patent dated the twentieth of June, 31st Eliz. was incorporated by the name of Mayor and Burgesses of the borough of Truro, in the county of Cornwall; and that the said Queen, by the letters patent, appointed twenty-four of the most discreet inhabitants to be assisting to the Mayor, and four of the said twenty-four, called capital Burgesses, to be Aldermen; that the Mayor and capital Burgesses should have a council-house; that the Mayor and capital Burgesses and Common Council, or major part of them, yearly, on the 9th day of October, should name one of the Aldermen to be Mayor for the year ensuing, who was to hold the office for a year, and until another was chosen into his place; and that the defendant being an Alderman of the said borough, was on the 9th of October 1720, duly elected and sworn Mayor of the said borough.—The declaration further stated, that the plaintiff being a capital Burgess, and formerly Mayor of the borough, had in his custody the regalia belonging to the borough, which the defendant requested him to deliver, but he refused; that thereupon the defendant in Michaelmas term, Anno 7° Georgii Regis, brought his writ of Mandamus, directed to the plaintiff; which writ (suggesting that the defendant was duly elected and sworn Mayor, and thereby entitled to the regalia of the borough, for the use and benefit of the said borough) commanded the plaintiff to deliver the regalia to the said defendant, for the use and benefit of the said borough, or shew cause to the contrary the then next Hilary term:—and that, to this writ of [290] Mandamus the plaintiff falsely returned, that the defendant was not duly elected, nor duly sworn into the office of Mayor of the said borough, etc.

To this declaration Prowse pleaded not guilty; and issue being joined, the Court of King's Bench directed a trial at bar accordingly, the cause came on to be tried in Trinity term following, and upon the trial, Foot gave in evidence the letters patent of the 20th of June, 31st Eliz.

By those letters patent, the Queen, after reciting that the Burgesses and inhabitants of the said borough of Truro had, time out of mind, several franchises, liberties, and privileges, as well by prescription as by divers charters and grants, incorporated the said borough by the name of Mayor and Burgesses of the said borough of Truro, in the county of Cornwall; and thereby appointed that there should be twenty-four of the most discreet inhabitants, who should be always aiding and assisting to the Mayor, in all matters and causes relating to the good government of the borough; and that the Mayor and Common Council, or major part of them (of whom the Mayor and two Aldermen were always to be three), should have power to make bye-laws