THE EARLY HISTORY OF LONDON.

XXXI

immunities, he enlarged the limits of the civic jurisdiction by comprising within it the districts of Duke's place, Great and Little St. Bartholomews, Blackfriars', Whitefriars', and Cold Harbour, with a proviso (which they still claim) that the inhabitants of Blackfriars' and Whitefriars' shall be exempt from particular contributions of scot, and watch, and ward, and from the particular offices of constable and scavenger.

In the year 1609 the king assigned the whole province of Ulster in Ireland to the citizens of London, on condition of their establishing an English colony in that country, under the government of a committee of aldermen and common councilmen, which is still continued under the title of the Irish Society of London.

In this reign Sir Hugh Middleton formed that useful undertaking called the New River, which was begun in 1608 and completed in 1613; and in 1611 Sir Thomas Sutton founded the establishment called the Charterhouse, in the ancient convent of Carthusian monks, called the Chartreuse. In the twelfth year of his reign James granted the citizens his third and last charter, which confirmed the admeasurement of coals in the port of London from Yantlet Creek to Staines Bridge. In 1616 the citizens colonized the town of Derry, to which they gave the name of Londonderry, and built the town of Coleraine. In the same year they sent the first civic deputation to Ireland, and presented each of the above named corporations with a rich sword of State.

The lord mayor and citizens took such umbrage at the king's "Book of Sports," which tolerated certain sports on the Sabbath day, that, to show their contempt for his majesty's orders, they stopped one of the royal carriages as it was driving through the city in the time of divine service. This gave great offence to the king, but after some concessions it was passed over.

A resolution having been made of repairing the cathedral of St. Paul, the king, the prince of Wales, and many of the chief nobility went in great state from Whitehall to the city, on Sunday March 26th, 1620. The royal party was met at Temple Bar by the lord mayor, the aldermen, the sheriffs, and the rest of the corporation, and attended the cathedral, where divine service was performed, and measures were concerted for the execution of this great work, which was afterwards so splendidly executed by that able architect, the celebrated Inigo Jones.

In the year 1624, an act of parliament was passed to make the river Thames navigable for barges, lighters and boats from London to Oxford; and on the 27th of March 1625 king James died at his favourite residence at Theobalds, near Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. This circumstance being known, the lord mayor, aldermen, sheriffs and common council repaired to Ludgate, where they met the privy council and the young king, whom they proclaimed with the usual ceremonies.

22

The coronation and public entry of the king and his bride, to whom he had been married but a few days, was postponed as in the former reign on account of the plague, which again ravaged the metropolis. Charles had scarcely began to reign, when dissensions arose between him and the citizens, twenty of the principal of whom he imprisoned for refusing a loan of money. The disputes between the king and the citizens continued during the whole of his unhappy reign, and the levying of ship-money was a fruitful source of continual warfare between his ministers and the In 1636 an order was sent from the privy council commanding the lord mayor and aldermen to shut up all the shops in Goldsmith's Row, namely, the south side of Cheapside and Lombard Street, that were not occupied by goldsmiths. This order not being complied with, it was backed by a decree of the court of star-chamber. The citizens paid no regard to either of these orders, and the king sent farther orders and farther threats, which were equally disregarded.

Notwithstanding these disputes, the corporation received a charter from the king, for which they paid a large sum. It recites and confirms all the preceding charters from William the Conqueror to his own time, and grants the citizens farther immunities. This charter was not long respected; for in 1639 the ministry commenced a suit in the court of starchamber against the lord mayor and citizens, which took from them all their dearly purchased possessions in Ulster, and they also amerced them in a fine of £50,000. The parliament however interfered, and obliged the king to annul the decree and to confirm the grant of his father to the citizens. The city being called on in the year following to raise a large body of men, to serve against the Scots, a rising of the city apprentices took place, who marched to Lambeth in order to murder the archbishop of Canterbury, and, being afterwards joined by above 2000 of the populace, they rushed into St. Paul's, drove out the high court of commissioners, and tore up all the benches, exclaiming no bishops! no high commission. Such like turbulent scenes, between the king and the citizens, were of constant recurrence. The court amerced the corporation and imprisoned some of its aldermen for refusing compliance to its arbitrary commands. At last the differences between them arose to such a height that the king forbade the citizens from presenting any petition to him concerning redress of grievances.

On the king's return from Scotland, he was received by the lord mayor and corporation, with great distinction. After dining with them at Guildhall, the king embraced the lord mayor at parting, and invited him and the rest of the aldermen to his palace at Whitehall the ensuing day; where he made the lord mayor a baronet, and knighted all the aldermen who attended.

Notwithstanding this apparent cordiality, the king almost immediately

THE EARLY HISTORY OF LONDON.

XXXIII

afterwards deprived the citizens of their command over the Tower, and appointed one of his own officers to govern it. On the dispute between the king and the house of commons, when he attempted to seize five of its members in person, they fled to the city for protection. The citizens armed themselves in their defence. The king came into the city and demanded the impeached members of the common council, who with great firmness refused to deliver them up. The citizens delivered this refusal by way of remonstrance, directed to the king, from the lord mayor, aldermen, and common council.

The grand committee appointed by the house of commons, to deliberate on the state of the nation, assembled for safety in Guildhall, and afterwards accompanied the five accused members in great state to Westminster, where they were received by the city trained bands, who were publicly thanked for their services, and ordered to attend the house daily. After Charles's departure from the metropolis, the parliament demanded large supplies of men and money from the corporation, and on its refusal they committed the lord mayor, Sir Richard Gurney, to the Tower.

Shortly after the battle of Edgehill, the common council passed an act for fortifying the city, which was done with such despatch, that a rampart, with bastions, redoubts and other bulwarks, was shortly erected round the cities of London and Westminster, and the borough of Southwark. The citizens took such a decided part in the civil war between Charles and his parliament, that, on hearing of a proposed reconciliation, the lord mayor convened a court of common council, who presented a petition to the house of commons against any accommodation. They also in 1644 sent two well provided regiments to the assistance of Sir William Waller, the parliamentary general.

After the decisive battle of Naseby had secured the triumph of the parliamentary army, both houses of parliament attended a thanksgiving sermon at Christ Church, Newgate Street, and were afterwards entertained by the corporation. The victorious party kept up the best possible terms with the citizens, who aided them by loans and contributions. When the house of commons had become openly a tool of Cromwell, and threw off the mask, violent quarrels took place between the leaders of the parliamentary faction and the corporation. At the trial of the king, several of the leading citizens were appointed among the number of the king's judges, but, after his condemnation and death, many of the aldermen absolutely refused to proclaim a commonwealth.

On this overthrow of our ancient monarchy, the house of commons usurped the supreme power, and commanded the lord mayor to proclaim an act for the abolition of monarchy. This was peremptorily refused, and the house immediately committed the refractory mayor to the Tower, fined him £2000, and degraded him from his office. Cromwell however, finding

XXXIV

A BRIEF VIEW OF

it to his interest, became reconciled with the citizens, and borrowed a large sum of money from them to defray the expenses of his expedition to Ireland. On the installation of the usurper, at Whitehall, the lord mayor and entire corporation attended the ceremony, and invited the protector to a grand entertainment, who in gratitude returned thanks to his faithful citizens, and conferred the kingly honour of knighthood on the lord mayor.

Cromwell and the citizens remained on fair terms till the protector's death, on the 3rd of September, 1658, when the lord mayor and the privy council proclaimed his son Richard lord protector of the kingdom. Disputes between the new protector and the citizens soon began, and the city was forthwith put into a posture of defence. The council of state ordered general Monk to take possession of the city with his army, who, however, after a slight attempt at destroying the gates, endeavoured to keep on good terms with the citizens, who, in return, elected him major general of their forces.

Monk and his party, finding all things ripe for the restoration of the exiled monarch, sent him an invitation to return to his dominions. The king sent grateful answers to the parliament and his friends, and a letter to the lord mayor, aldermen, and common council, who immediately sent fourteen of their body, with a present of £10,000, and an order that Richmond Park, which had been given to them by Cromwell, should be presented to his majesty. The day following he was proclaimed in the city by the lord mayor and corporation amidst the universal and joyful acclamations of the citizens. The king received the civic deputies with unfeigned joy and conferred upon them the honours of knighthood. He also confirmed to the city their estates in Ireland, of which they had been illegally deprived by his father, by which tenure the corporation and the twelve chief livery companies still hold them; and conferred upon them that which Mr. Norton emphatically calls a grand inspeximus charter. This charter is usually appealed to as the text of the city charters, and is generally called by pre-eminence the inspeximus charter. In the same year the Royal Society was established, which has ever since retained its original high rank in science.

In the beginning of May, 1665, London was again visited by the most dreadful of those periodical maladies called the plague, which had so often ravaged this city. This mortality, which swept away upwards of 90,000 persons, has been admirably narrated by Daniel Defoe, to whose interesting pages our readers are referred for the particulars of its melancholy details.

In the following year occurred that dreadful visitation the great fire of London, which, although it was at the time a great calamity and public loss, may be truly considered as a benefit to all who have succeeded that

THE EARLY HISTORY OF LONDON.

XXXV

calamitous period. By its means the city was purified from its narrow and incommodious streets and infectious timber houses, and it occasioned a more noble city to rise upon its ruins. The city of Charles II. and of Wren, however it may be surpassed in point of private buildings and magnificent streets, by the improvements of George IV. and the able architects of our day, as the pages and illustrations of this work show, yet exhibits in its beautiful cathedral, and other works of that great architect, buildings of admirable beauty and proportion.

Charles immediately assembled both houses of parliament, who passed an act for erecting a court of judicature to settle all the differences between landlords and tenants; and shortly after, another for rebuilding the city, which contained rules and directions for all persons concerned therein. The court of common council also passed an act for regulating the widths and other details of the proposed new streets and thoroughfares, which was so approved, by the king and privy council, that it was confirmed and directed to be enforced by an order of council on the 8th of May. Many of these orders of council, printed for the only time from a manuscript book of orders, in the life of Sir Christopher Wren by the author of this work, and formerly in his possession, but now the property of professor Soane of the Royal Academy, prove the great zeal of the king and all his court to rebuild the city with splendour; but it was counteracted by private interests and cabals. Many other public acts and edicts, both of parliament and of the common council, were passed for accomplishing this great undertaking; and on the 29th of October 1675, when Sir Robert Viner commenced his mayoralty, the king dined with the corporation at Guildhall, and accepted the freedom of the city from the hands of Sir Thomas Player, the chamberlain.

In 1676 a great part of the borough of Southwark was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt under the direction of commissioners in a similar style of improvement with those going on in the city of London; which was attempted to be burned a second time in 1679.

After Charles II. found himself secure upon his throne, he began like his predecessors to fleece and punish the citizens, who in return opposed his oppressive measures with great firmness. Party dissensions ran high, particularly against the Duke of York on account of his religion. The king, disliking the proceedings of the corporation, proceeded to still more arbitrary measures, and issued a writ of Quo Warranto against the city to try the validity of its charter, asserting that its liberties and privileges were usurped. In the Trinity term following (1683), chief justice Jones pronounced the charter to be forfeited. Eight of the aldermen were degraded, and also the lord mayor, a new one being appointed by the king, to continue during his pleasure. The recorder was displaced by one of the king's partizans, and in fact the city was arbitrarily deprived of all