Our body corporate at the period of which we are treating, and long after, entertained very different ideas on some points from those of their successors of the present day: and that difference was not, perhaps, more remarkable on any point than on the course to be taken with such of their own members, or brethren, who _ceased to be residents_ in the town, or became _absentees_. Formerly the _non-residence_ of members was on no account allowed, or connived at. _Aldermen_, _common-council-men_, and even the _recorder_, as well as town-clerk and chamberlain, were required to be all residents: and whenever they ceased to be so, or happened to become absentees, they were always forthwith discharged, or cut off, as rotten and useless members. The necessity of this our corporation used formerly to insist upon, as what a due regard for the good government and prosperity of the town, as well as the very nature of their respective oaths and offices rendered indispensible. In short, it seemed to be their unanimous and invariable opinion that the nonresidence of any one of their fraternity was insufferable, and inconsistent with both honour and honesty, and of course with the character of a _gentleman_. Their successors of the present time view the subject in another and a very different light. Our absentees are now very numerous, and seem to be daily on the increase. They consist already of several _aldermen_ and _common council men_, with the _recorder_ himself at their head—{783} all _honourable men_, no doubt: though we cannot help suspecting that their predecessors, of other times, would have bestowed upon them another and a somewhat more degrading appellation, and especially upon _the rest of the brotherhood_ who quietly suffer their nonresidence, or allow them to retain their membership while they remain absentees. It is now a common complaint, that, owing to these absentees, the corporation business is much obstructed, so that it is often very difficult, and sometimes impossible to get what is called _a Hall_: yet no one, it seems, has the honesty, or the courage to move for the expulsion of those worse than useless members, as would always have been the case heretofore. This obvious symptom of declension and depravity in this corporation, may serve, perhaps, to illustrate what is said to be also actually the case on our great national theatre, or throughout the empire.