City

[L. Fr, cite; L. Lat. civitas.] In English law. A town [or borough, Co, Litt. 109 a, b,] incorporated, [and usually of principal note or importance, 1 Steph. Cam. 1 16,1 which either is, or has been the see of a bishop. 1 Bl, Com. 114. Termesde la ley^ This definition has been made the subject of considerable criticism. The qualities of being incorporated, and pf being or having been the see of a bishop, do not appear to have been invariably attached to cities in England; Westminster being a city, though not incorporated, and Thetford and several other places being but towns, though once the seats of bishops. Co. Litt. 109 b. Hargr. note ibid. P. Cyclopedia, Dr. Woodlieson remarks as to the latter feature, that whatever distinction in very early times prevailed between cities and towns in England, it certainly was not this: for in the great council of bishops and abbots, held in the year 1072, by command of Pope Alexander II., by the consent, and in the presence of the king, for settling the disputed superiority between the archbishops, it was decreed that bishops' sees should be trans/erred from towns to cities. This decree, he thinks, probably gave rise to the opinion that a bishop's see constituted a city, in the case also of the new foundations. 1 Wooddes. Lect, 180, citing Ligulph. Hist 92, 93. Spelman alludes to the same decree and its consequences, in confining the title of city to the towns or boroughs in which such sees were located; {civitatis titultis apud cathedrarios tantum burgos remanehat.) Spelman, voc.

Burgus.

See Borough, Burgus. As to the modern distinction, in England, between a city and any other incorporated town or borough, it seems to be little more than nominal. Both cities and boroughs have the same form of local government, and both send special representatives to parliament, the only difiterence being that in the one case these representatives are or have been called citizens, and in the other burgesses. Spelman, voc.

Burgus. Municipal Corporation Act, cited 3 Stepk. Com. 193, et seq.

In Brands' s Dictumary it is said that a city differs in no respect but that of superior dignity from another borough. See P.

Cyclopaedia

And thi distinction between citizen and burgess seems now to be disregarded.

See 1 Man. d: Gr. \, note (a).