[Sidenote:  Oligarchical abuses in English cities (cir. 1500-1835).] If we look at the later history of English cities and boroughs, it appears that, in spite of the splendid work which they did for the English people at large, they did not always succeed in preserving their own liberties unimpaired.  London, indeed, has always maintained its character as a truly representative republic.  But in many English cities, during the Tudor and Stuart periods, the mayor and aldermen contrived to dispense with popular election, and thus to become close corporations or self-perpetuating oligarchical bodies.  There was a notable tendency toward this sort of irresponsible government in the reign of James I., and the Puritans who came to the shores of Massachusetts Bay were inspired with a feeling of revolt against such methods.  This doubtless lent an emphasis to the mood in which they proceeded to organize themselves into free self-governing townships.  The oligarchical abuses in English cities and boroughs remained until they were swept away by the great Municipal Reform Act of 1835.

[Sidenote:  Government of the city of New York (1686-1821).] The first city governments established in America were framed in conscious imitation of the corresponding institutions in England.  The oldest city government in the United States is that of New York.  Shortly after the town was taken from the Dutch in 1664, the new governor, Colonel Nichols, put an end to its Dutch form of government, and appointed a mayor, five aldermen, and a sheriff.  These officers appointed inferior officers, such as constables, and little or nothing was left to popular election.  But in 1686, under Governor Dongan, New York was regularly incorporated and chartered as a city.  Its constitution bore an especially close resemblance to that of Norwich, then the third city in England in size and importance.  The city of New York was divided into six wards.  The governing corporation consisted of the mayor, the recorder, the town-clerk, six aldermen, and six assistants.  All the land not taken up by individual owners was granted as public land to the corporation, which in return paid into the British exchequer one beaver-skin yearly.  This was a survival of the old quit-rent or firma burgi.[8] The city was made a county, and thus had its court, its sheriff and coroner, and its high constable.  Other officers were the chamberlain or treasurer, seven inferior constables, a sergeant-at-arms, and a clerk of the market, who inspected weights and measures, and punished delinquencies in the use of them.  The principal judge was the recorder, who, as we have just seen, was one of the corporation.  The aldermen, assistants, and constables were elected annually by the people; but the mayor and sheriff were appointed by the governor.  The recorder, town-clerk, and clerk of the market were to be appointed by the king, but in case the king neglected to act, these appointments also were made by the governor.  The high constable was appointed by the mayor, the treasurer by the mayor, aldermen, and assistants, who seem to have answered to the ordinary common council.  The mayor, recorder, and aldermen, without the assistants, were a judicial body, and held a weekly court of common pleas.  When the assistants were added, the whole became a legislative body empowered to enact by-laws.