SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
(Notice in this cola= does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.]
The Assembly Books of Southampton. Edited by J. W. Horroeks. Vol. I., 1602.8. (Southampton : Cox and Sharland. 15s. 9d. net.)— Students of local administration will find this new publication of the energetic Southampton Record Society highly instructive. Southampton received a charter of incorporation in 1445 and was made a separate county in 1447, but the records of its Assembly or governing body, which are now being printed, were not regularly kept before the seventeenth century. Dr. Horrooks's introductory essay on the work of the Assembly is of great interest. Apart from local matters, such as the regulation of " tippling houses " and the exclusion of strangers who could not support themselves at their trades, the Assembly was concerned with the defence of Southamp- ton's interests against London trading monopolies, such as that of the Levant Company, and with the suppression of piracy. One curious case here related was that of a Southampton skipper who attacked and pillaged a Venetian ship in the Mediterranean and brought home the booty. The Republic protested, and in due course the pirates were tried at Southampton and six out of seven of them were hanged. The Venetians said that they were attacked because Englishmen thi.ught that all Venetian ships were fully insured, and that the underwriters would not trouble to prosecute.
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