His career as a party writer, which began after the Restoration, attained its highest point at the period we have reached; and as a reward for his services to the cause of despotism, he obtained from his Royal master the honour of knighthood, an honour more than counterbalanced by the almost universal execration of posterity.[105] [Sidenote: ROYAL DESPOTISM.] Charles, in playing the despot, went on from bad to worse. Municipal corporations, whose freedom is always of primary importance to the interests of this country, were then still more intimately connected with our national liberties than at present--for not only was the administration of justice in cities and boroughs lodged in their hands, not only were juries in Middlesex returned by the City Sheriffs, but the right of election for members of Parliament rested, in a number of cases, not with the citizens and burgesses generally, but with those who were mayors, aldermen, and common councilmen. In many large places, especially London, the Corporation opposed the Court; and therefore no representatives subservient to the Crown could be expected to come from such a quarter. The King, relying upon legal advisers, who preferred cunning to equity, determined to try whether he could not deprive his subjects of their municipal rights by the process of _quo warranto_.[106] The attempt, made in the Metropolis first, so far succeeded, that the Court of King’s Bench gave judgment against the Corporation; and,--although it allowed the Corporation to retain its privileges, under certain restrictions,--from that time the capital of the kingdom remained powerless in the hands of the sovereign. [Sidenote: 1683.] [Sidenote: LORD W. RUSSELL.]