BOROUGH (Ang.-Sax. byrig, burg. bunk; It. borgo; Fr. bourg; Scot. burgh). The original meaning of this word, by which we now designate a corporate township, seems to have been a hill, rising-ground, or heap of earth; and it was probably from the elevated positions on which places of defense were erected. that it afterwards came to signify a fortification or castle, and latterly the aggregate of houses, churches, and other structures, which, iu unsettled times, usually gathered under the walls of a castle; together with their inhabitants, and the arrangements which were made for their government. The questions whether we owe our municipal corporations to Roman, or to Saxon and other Teutonic influences, or to both; and if to both, then to what extent they have severally contributed to their formation, have been keenly discussed by constitutional historians. In so far as etymology goes, its authority is pretty equally divided, the term municipal, from the Latin 9nunicipailq, and city, from deltas, favoring the Roman view; whilst B. from the root above indicated, and town, from the Saxon tun or dun, a fortified hill, support the Teutonic. But the discussion forms a branch of a very wide subject, which has divided recent writers into two opposite and of which we can here only indicate the existence. On the Roman side, sir Francis Palgrave is the most uncompromising, and Mr. Allen, as it seems to us, the more judicious champion. The Teutonic side is espoused by most of the Anglo-Saxon scholars of England, and in general by German writers. But from whatever source derived, that the boroughs of England existed, not as aggregates of houses merely, but as corporate bodies, in the Saxon time, is now generally admitted. The B. system of Scotland is also of great antiquity. " A Bann, or confederation of boroughs for mutual defense and the protection of trade, existed in Scotland, and was known by this name in the reign of David I., about a century before the formation of the Hanseatic league of the continental cities; and the famous burgh laws date from about the same period.
This code of Scotch burghs] regulation," in Mr. Innes's opinion, "though collected in the reign of David, and sanctioned by him, was the result of the experience of the towns of England and Scotland ;" and he goes on to show the very close resemblance between these laws and the burg,hal usages of Newcastle, and even of which seems to suggest their common Saxon origin. Mr., lanes speaks favorably of the B. life of our ancestors: and lie considers the burgh domestic architecture, of which monuments remain sufficient to show that " the burgess of the reformation period lived in greater decency and comfort than the laird. though without the numerous _following, which no doubt gave dignity if it diminished food. I am not sure that this class has gone on progressively, either in outward signs of comfort, or in education and accomplishment, equal to their neighbors. The reason, I suppose, is obvious. The Scotch burgher, when successful, does not set himself to better his condition and his family within the sphere of his success, but leaves it, and seeks what he deems a higher." In confirmation of this view, Mr. Innes elsewhere mentions that " many of the old citizen-merchants of Edinburgh had studied at the university, and appear in the list of graduates." Borough, in England, is properly a city or other town that sends burgesses to parlia ment—a privilege, the nature and extent of which will be explained under parliament (q.v.); and in this sense it is also called a parliaNPntary borough. But in the interpreta tion clause of the municipal reform act, 5 and 0 Will. c. 76, s. 142, the word borough is declared, for the purposes of the act, to mean a city, borough, port, cinque port, or town corporate, and whether sending representatives to parliament or not. See MumcirArxrv.