From the date of his re-entering the House Hume became the self-elected guardian of the public purse, by challenging and bringing to a direct vote every single item of public expenditure.
This charter was surrendered to Charles in 1680 and a new one granted by his brother under which the corporation became a self-elected body.
These persons were either self-elected, or elected for life, or both, and therefore in no degree responsible to the ratepayers.
The younger men of letters regarded Castilho as the self-elected pontiff of a mutual-praise school, who, ignorant of the literary movement abroad, claimed to direct them in the old paths, and would not tolerate criticism.
