Thus, in ten reigns, and through a period of no less than four centuries, the navies of the Cinque Ports continued to sustain and support the naval glory of the realms, which they contributed essentially to establish and confirm .
Having thus given a detail of the more material services rendered to the crown, at various periods of our history, by the Cinque Ports, we may next proceed to notice more fully, than in the slight mention we have hitherto made of them , the nature and extent of the liberties and privileges they enjoyed under their several charters, and which they are held, in the recital of every charter, to have had " time out of mind, and by prescription." They were confirmed to them by Magna Charta, by the names of the Barons of the Cinque Ports ; and again by one general charter by Edward I., receiving, not only confirmation, but sometimes additions, from most of the succeeding sovereigns.
The last charter granted them was by Charles II., in the 20th year of his reign, who, in reciting all those of his predecessors, not only confirmed them , but granted that they should enjoy all such privileges and exemptions as their predecessors had, from the first charter of King Edward the Confessor, and through all preceding reigns to his own. Under this charter, and which received a confirmation , also , in the 4th year of his unfortunate successor, James II. the Cinque Ports have since continued to be governed to the present time. From this Charter, therefore, we may most properly enumerate the several more important privileges and immunities which the Cinque Ports enjoy. The preamble of this, as of all preceding ones, establishes a full and entire confirmation of their rights and privileges by " inspeximus;" that is,that the King has seen and approved them, and which may be deemed equivalent, in meaning and import, to the " Le Roi le veut," a term originally introduced by the Norman laws, and still used in all our parliamentary proceedings, to signify and express the King's assent to the enactments of his parliaments.
The period when the two ancient towns of Winchelsea and Rye participated in the immunities enjoyed by the Cin-
