* * * * * PRESTON, LANCASTER. Preston is a market-town, borough, and parish; situated on the river Ribble, in the hundred of Amounderness, county palatine of Lancaster. It was incorporated by Henry II., in 1160; and the privileges and free customs granted by this and subsequent royal grants were confirmed by Charter of 36th Charles II. The body corporate consists of a mayor, recorder, seven aldermen, and seventeen capital burgesses, who, together, form the common council of the borough. The mayor, two town-bailiffs, and two sergeants are elected annually, upon the Friday preceding the festival of St. Wilfrid, who was formerly lord of this town; and they are invested, on the 12th of October following, by a jury of twenty-four guild burgesses. The members of the council, with the exception of the mayor, retain their seats for life, or during the pleasure of a majority, and vacancies are supplied by the remaining members. The town sends two representatives to parliament, and affords the nearest practical example of universal suffrage in the kingdom--every male inhabitant, whether housekeeper or lodger, who has resided six months in the town, and who has not, during the last twelve months, been chargeable to any township as a pauper, having a right to vote for two candidates at elections. This principle was established by a decision of the House of Commons, on an appeal, in the year 1766, and has ever since been acted upon. The burgesses are entitled, by the charter of Henry II., to have a GUILD MERCHANT, with the usual franchises annexed, of safe transit through the kingdom, exemption from toll, pontage, and stallage; liberty to buy and sell peaceably; and power to hold a guild for the renewal of freedom to the burgesses, the confirming of by-laws, and other purposes. This privilege is still made the occasion of great festivity. For a long time after their first institution, the guilds were held at irregular periods, but they have now, for more than a century, been uniformly celebrated every twentieth year, commencing on the Monday next after the Decollation of St. John, which generally happens in the last week of August; the last was held in 1822, and commenced on the 22nd of September. The amusements, which are of great variety, continue for a fortnight; but, for civic purposes, the guild books are open for one entire month. The corporation are obliged to hold this carnival, on pain of forfeiting their elective franchises, and their rights as burgesses. The _guild_ appears to be of the nature of the ancient frank-pledge: it is of Saxon origin, and derived from the word _gile_, signifying money, by which certain fraternities enter into an association, and stipulate with each other to punish crimes, make losses good, and acts of restitution proportioned to offences;--for which purposes, they raised sums of money among themselves, forming a common stock; they likewise endowed chantries for priests to perform