the establishment of the ‘Communa’ of the citizens of London, which is recorded by the historians to have been specially confirmed by the Barons and Justiciar on the occasion of Longchamp’s deposition from the Justiciarship is a matter of some difficulty, as the word ‘Communa’ is not found in English town charters, and no formal record of the act of confirmation is now preserved. Interpreted, however, by foreign usage, and by the later meaning of the word ‘communitas,’ it must be understood to signify a corporate identity of the municipality, which it may have claimed before, and which may even have been occasionally recognised, but was now firmly established; a sort of consolidation into a single organized body of the variety of franchises, guilds, and other departments of local jurisdiction. It was probably connected with and perhaps implied by the nomination of a _Mayor_, who now appears for the first time. It cannot, however, be defined with certainty (p. 257). And in his ‘Constitutional History’ he holds that it practically “gave completeness to a municipal constitution which had long been struggling for recognition.” These comments, on the whole, suggest rather a development of existing conditions than the introduction of a foreign institution. Mr. Coote, the next to approach the subject, contended that Dr. Stubbs’ “view falls very far short of the reality.” In his able paper “A Lost Charter,”[473] he insisted that a charter was actually granted in 1191 to the Londoners empowering them to elect a Mayor, and that this is what the chroniclers meant when they spoke of the grant of “Commune,” for the citizens, he urged, had possessed all the rights of a “Commune” from the days of the Conqueror. With Mr. Loftie’s work came the inevitable reaction. Wholly ignoring the definite and contemporary statement as to the grant of a “Commune,” he deemed it “far safer to adopt the received and old-fashioned opinion,” and to date the Mayoralty from 1189, while, as for the “Commune,” he deemed it to have been of gradual growth, and to have been practically recognised by the charter of Henry I.