England, or before taking tolls and fines at inland markets under the plea of regulating trade. Tallages also were exigible at discretion from aliens and Jews, from tenants of demesne, from London and other chartered towns. (5) The limited scope of this restriction on prerogative is further illustrated by the method provided for taking “the common consent.” The assembly to be convened for that purpose was a narrow body, representative neither of the several ranks and classes of the community, nor of the separate national interests, nor yet of the various districts of England. On the contrary, its composition was extremely homogeneous, an aristocratic council of the military tenants of the Crown, convened in such a way that only the greater among them were likely to attend.[477] ----- Footnote 476: See _infra_, under c. 25. Footnote 477: Even when an honour escheated to the Crown, the tenants of that honour “were not suitors of the _Curia Regis_.” See _Report on Dignity of a Peer_, I. 60. ----- These facts serve as a warning not to read into Magna Carta modern conceptions which its own words will not warrant. This famous clause was far from formulating any national doctrine of self-taxation; it was primarily intended to protect Crown tenants from impositions levied by John, not _qua_ sovereign but _qua_ feudal lord. Such as it was, it was totally omitted, along with its corollary (chapter 14), in 1216. The provision substituted for both, in the Charter of 1217, referred only to scutages, saying nothing about aids, and cannot possibly be read as a general prohibition of all arbitrary taxation by the Crown.[478] ----- Footnote 478: Cf. _supra_, pp. 173-4 and _infra_, under c. 14. ----- CHAPTER THIRTEEN. Et civitas Londonie habeat omnes antiquas libertates et liberas consuetudines suas, tam per terras, quam per aquas. Preterea volumus et concedimus quod omnes alie civitates, et burgi, et ville, et portus, habeant omnes libertates et liberas consuetudines suas. And the citizens of London shall have all their ancient liberties and free customs, as well by land as by water; furthermore, we decree and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall have all their liberties and free customs. A full list of the liberties and customs of London would be a long one; and an account of how each of these grew up and was confirmed by the Crown need not be given here. The most cherished of the privileges enjoyed in John’s day were the right to appoint a civic chief, who bore the name of mayor, and the right to choose sheriffs of their own who should collect the city’s _firma_[479] (or annual rent payable to the exchequer), so as to obviate the intrusion of royal bailiffs. Only a brief account of the way in which the metropolis obtained these two privileges need be here attempted. ----- Footnote 479: _Firma_ is explained _infra_, c. 25. -----