The Corporation of Lynn was established in the reign of king John, which is not mentioned here as a circumstance redounding to its honour, or yet to its dishonour. Our corporations might be very proper and useful in those feudal and barbarous times, as a check to the despotism and tyranny of the barons and feudal lords; but in the present state of the nation their propriety and utility are very far from being obvious; seeing such places as Birmingham, Manchester, and Sheffield, appear to have done full as well, and thrived quite as much, without any chartered immunities, or such a privileged order of men, as our most famous or favoured corporations. It is not however to be expected that these dignified bodies will readily descend from their elevated situations, and place themselves by the side of their unprivileged neighbours. The Lynn Corporation is generally considered as consisting of a Mayor, Recorder, Lord High Steward, twelve Aldermen, eighteen Common-councilmen, town Clerk, Chamberlain, two Coroners, and several inferior officers. {1150} The power, privileges, and possessions of this body are very considerable, so that their dignity and consequence seem not a little superior to those of some others of our corporate bodies in different parts of the kingdom. Their various immunities are distinctly specified in their numerous charters, which they obtained of different sovereigns, from John to Charles the second. But as it seems to be intended shortly to publish those Charters, it may be needless to say any more here about their contents. There has been a pretty general wish for some time to have these documents published in English, that the freemen might know the full meaning and extent of the oaths tendered to them in taking up their freedom, of which not one in twenty of them are supposed to have at present any adequate idea: and as there is known to exist now in the town a fair translation of them, it is hoped and expected that it will ere long be made public. In that case the dignity, power, and prerogatives of this privileged body will be sufficiently explained, and our future freemen will be enabled to discover the nature and extent of the obligation imposed upon them by their burgess oaths.