We find in the same report letters patent from the successors of Louis XI. which acknowledge this new constitution, while they still further restrict the power of the people. We learn that in 1485 the letters patent issued to this effect by Charles VIII. were attacked before the parliament by the inhabitants of Angers, just as in England a lawsuit, arising out of the charter of a town, would have been brought before a court of justice. In 1601 a decision of the parliament determined the political rights created by the Royal Charter. From that time forward nothing appears but the _conseil du Roi_. We gather from the same report that, not only for the office of mayor, but for all other offices belonging to the corporation of the town, the General Assembly proposed three candidates, from amongst whom the King selects one, in virtue of a decree of the council of 22nd June, 1708. It appears, moreover, that in virtue of decisions of the council of 1733 and 1741, the merchants had the right of claiming one place of _échevin_ or _conseiller_ (the perpetual échevins). Lastly, we find that at that period the corporation of the town was entrusted with the distribution of the sums levied for the capitation, the _ustensile_, the barracks, the support of the poor, the soldiery, coast-guard, and foundlings. There follows a long enumeration of the labours to be undergone by the municipal officers, which fully justified, in their opinion, the privileges and the perpetual tenure of office, which they were evidently greatly afraid of losing. Many of the reasons which they assign for their exertions are curious; amongst others, the following: ‘Their most important avocations,’ they say, ‘consist in the examination of financial affairs, which continually increased, owing to the constant extension of the _droits d’aides_, the _gabelle_, the _contrôle_, the _insinuation des actes_, _perception illicite des droits d’enrégistrement et de francs fiefs_. The opposition which was incessantly offered by the financial companies to these various taxes compelled them to defend actions in behalf of the town before the various jurisdictions, either the parliament or the _conseil du Roi_, in order to resist the oppression under which they suffered. The experience and practice of thirty years had taught them that the term of a man’s life scarcely suffices to guard against all the snares and pitfalls which the clerks of all the departments of the _fermes_ continually set for the citizens in order to keep their own commissions.’