Mr. Round, in a notable passage, describes the scene. "When, in the crisis of October, 1191, the administration found itself paralysed by the conflict between John, as the king’s brother, and Longchamp, as the king’s representative, London, finding that she held the scales, promptly named the 'Commune’ as the price of her support. The chronicles of the day enable us to picture to ourselves the scene, as the excited citizens, who had poured forth overnight, with lanterns and torches to welcome John to the capital, streamed together on the morning of the eventful 8th October at the well-known sound of the great bell, swinging out from its campanile in St. Paul’s Churchyard. There they heard John take the oath to the ‘Commune,’ like a French king or lord; and then London, for the first time, had a municipality of her own."[485] ----- Footnote 485: _Commune of London_, 224. ----- For any accurate definition of a commune we look in vain to contemporary writers, who are usually carried away by their political bias. Richard of Devizes[486] quotes with approval, “_Communia est tumor plebis, timor regni, tepor sacerdotii_.” Some insight has been gained in recent years, however, into its exact nature. A Commune was a town which had obtained recognition as a corporate entity, as a link in the feudal chain, becoming the free vassal of the king or other lord, and itself capable of having sub-vassals of its own.[487] Its chief institutions were a mayor and an elective council, generally composed of twenty-four members, some or all of whom were known as _échevins_ or _skivini_, a word which in its modern form of “scavengers” has fallen on evil days, no longer denoting the city fathers, but men who perform civic duties of a useful but less dignified nature. Perhaps the chief peculiarity of the commune was the method of its formation, namely, by popular association or conspiracy, involving the taking of an oath of a more or less revolutionary nature by the citizens and its subsequent ratification by those in authority. It is generally admitted that these communes, though revolutionary in their origin, were not necessarily democratic in their sympathies. Under the new constitution of London, the grievous taxation of Richard’s reign was made to fall more heavily on the poor of London than on any other class. The commune thus set up in 1191, tolerated at first rather than encouraged by the Crown, formed thenceforth the municipal government of the capital; the citizens chose not only their own sheriffs, but also their own mayor, although the latter, when once appointed, held office for life. ----- Footnote 486: _Select Charters_, p. 252. Footnote 487: M. Luchaire, _Communes Françaises_, p. 97, defines it as “_seigneurie collective populaire_.” -----