Stranica 119 [119]
OCR
THE CITY GOVERNMENT 97 sound argument. To give an example: one of the writers on the subject mentions, I know not on what erounds, that before the Romans withdrew they (1) nominated a comes civi~~ wey bo SP Lee |.) tatis, or count of the city ; that (2) William the Conqueror found a " portgrave ” ő , a " ; ee a , at | in London; and that (3) ‘‘orave” is the German g7a/, ENTRANCE TO THE RECORD OFFICE and signifies a count. To which the only objections are that (1) we do not know that the Romans nominated a count of the city; (2) William I did not find a portgrave there; and (3) the English word is reeve, not grave, and the portreeve in his duties answers exactly to the shire-reeve in a county. When therefore we trace back the mayor to a reeve we trace him to an ordinary English officer, who neither in name nor in duty resembled a Roman comes, but was one of a number of similar reeves who among them answered to the king for all parts of his dominion. William calls him a eportreeve, not a “portgrave — the
