Pursuant to this enactment the mayor received a written request from fifteen members of the council for a court to meet at three o’clock of the afternoon of the 14th June, 1650. The court assembled, but neither mayor nor any alderman appeared until a message was sent to the Court of Aldermen then sitting requesting their attendance in the Common Council.(935) After prayers(936) his lordship declared that he had not summoned the court inasmuch as the members who came to him on the matter had refused to acquaint him with the reasons for which it was to be summoned, and he moved that the subscribers to the request for a court should state why the court was summoned before any other business was taken in hand. This proposal met with great opposition, and a debate arose on the question whether the mayor’s motion should take precedence of the reading of the minutes of the last court or not, and lasted until nine o’clock at night. At length the mayor’s motion was negatived and the minutes of the last court were read. It then became known that the reason for the court being summoned was to hear a committee’s report read. But the mayor at this point declared himself tired with sitting so long and rose to go, promising to call a court the next morning or any time most convenient. Upon certain members insisting upon the report being read then and there, his lordship and all the aldermen except one left the court. Nevertheless the report was read, and the members themselves fixed a day for another court for taking it into consideration unless the mayor himself should summon one in the meantime. His lordship was informed of this resolution by a deputation sent for the purpose.(937) (M479)