Subsequently to the annihilation of the royal authority, or between that and the Protectorate, the city became the grand focus of the parliamentary government, as is abundantly testified by the numerous tracts and other records of the period. Guildhall was a second House of Commons, an auxiliary senate, and the companies' halls the meeting-places of those branches of it denominated committees. All the "Mercuries" or newspapers of the day abound with notices of the occupation of the companies' premises by these committees. Goldsmiths' hall was their bank, haberdashers' hall their court for adjustment of claims, clothworkers' hall for sequestration, and all the other halls of the great companies were offices for the transaction of other government business. Weavers' hall might properly be denominated their Exchequer. From this place parliament was accustomed to issue bills, about and before 1652, in the nature of our exchequer bills, and which were commonly known under the name of "weavers' hall bills."

The newspaper entitled "Severall Proceedings in Parliament," under the date 16 Dec. 1652, speaks of reports being made to the House touching these weavers' hall bills, when it was determined to have an act for regulating their dates of payment. A few days afterwards the form of this act is printed, from which it appears that 400,000l. was secured to several advancers by ordinance of parliament, in 1647, to be repaid out of the Grand Excise; and when measures were also taken for repaying the sum with 87. per cent. interest. Mr. Heath, in his excellent Account of the Grocers' Company, to which we have been so much indebted, adds, from the records of that influential fraternity, the following notices under this particular year, and which most importantly connect themselves with the history and constitution of the companies at the period we are speaking of.

"1652. A special committee, entitled 'the Committee of Corporations,' was appointed by the parliament." It is not easy to determine with precision the object of this appointment, but it appears they were instructed to ascertain the validity of the charters of the different corporate bodies existing; as we find that, Dec. 1, that year, the grocers' charter was called for by them. The wardens were directed by the court to proceed with caution, to take the original and a copy

with them, and to endeavour to leave the latter, "but not the originall, unless peremptorily required." A proposal for confirming and renewing the charter appears to have followed this interview; for, on the 15th of the same month, it was ordered that the business concerning the renewing of this company's charter be left entirely to the discretion of the wardens, to propound such alterations and additions therein for the future privilege and advantage of this company, if they shall see occasion.' Cromwell, who assumed the protectorate in 1653, is stated to have granted the company (grocers) the charter by which they were empowered to make bye-laws for their own government; and amongst other privileges, it conferred upon them the power of levying a fine of 301. on a member at his admission.

The companies took a conspicuous part in the rejoicings and festivities to celebrate the Restoration. The grand display made by the city on the coronation procession of the exiled monarch, and in which these societies so importantly contributed to the splendour of the scene, will be found minutely described in Ogilvy's "Arches of Triumph." All the trade societies which could afford it, on this glad event, bespoke the favour of the monarch by rich gifts, and, where less able, by affectionate congratulations. The king condescended to visit several of their halls, and feast with them; and that he might not be behindhand with his predecessors, Edward III. and Henry VII., he enrolled himself a brother of the Grocers' Company, in conjunction with the Duke of York. We shall see that this loyalty was thrown away. Charles was scarcely established on the throne, when he cast the same longing eyes at the wealth of the companies, (fleeced although they had been,) which produced so much unconstitutional interference in his sire and grandsire, James and Charles. Nor did he rest till, more successful than they, he brought the whole of them under complete subjection to the crown, through the operation of the quo-warranto. His first attempt was by passing an act, in his second year, "for well-governing and regulating corporations," and under pretence of which all freedom of action was soon destroyed. The grocers' books contain the following entry, as to its effects; and similar ones are to be found in those of the other companies.

"Agreed that Mr. John Owen, one of the late wardens of the company of grocers, Sir Stephen White, Richard Waring, esq., Thomas Gowar, esq., and Matthew Sheppard, esq., late assistants of the said company, being lately displaced by the said company of and from the said places, and all other places of trust or other employments relating to or concerning the government of the city of London, shall not henceforth sit in the said court of assistants in any affairs of the said company for time to come; and the master and wardens of this company are to see this order accordingly performed.' These persons had in some way rendered themselves inimical to the crown, and, being members of the company, they were thus obliged to expel them.

The London Gazette of November 18, 1665, has the following notice of a fine new ship, which the corporation and companies, notwithstanding these infringements of their liberties, built and furnished, for the purpose of presenting to government. "This Saturday my lord major and the rest of the remanent aldermen went to Deptford to see their new ship the 'LOYAL LONDON,' and in what fitness she is; their care having been to provide and pay money from time to time to satisfie her workmen, and found her so forward, that she seems only to want anchors and some of her last furniture." A scheme for compelling each of the great companies to fit out a vessel, not for war, like this, but trading, had been many years before suggested to the government, but did not take effect. An account of it will be found in the note.*

The FIRE OF LONDON, which took place the following

• One Thomas Barnaby, merchant, in King Edward VIth's days, urged to some great lord of the court the vast usefulness of shipping to this island, of which at that time there was a great deficiency. And, for the promoting of shipping, he advised this way-that every company of the City should provide and send out one ship at least, laden with the commodities proper to their own trade or manufacture, which might considerably advance navigation in this realm, and the riches also of such society. "There be, said he, so many rich halls, that may spend 8007., some 6007., some less, and some more, yearly. And great revenues come to them yearly for quarterages and forfeits, which rise to no small sum; and nothing done withal, but making great feasts every month or six weeks at their halls, and causing victuals to be dear; but it might be turned to a more honourable use; also, it would be a great maintaining to the king's subjects, for every craft to have a ship to carry their merchandizes to and fro, to the great advancement of the king's honour, and to their own commodities. And, if chance should fall, which God forbid, that a ship should be lost, the halls might easily bear the smarts thereof."-Strype's Stow, 11, 292.

year, appears to have particularly directed its fury against the halls of the companies, which, it must be admitted, were favorably situated for the purpose, being mostly in the very heart of the City. Those of the leathersellers, pinners, and a few others, without the range of the conflagration, escaped, but all the rest, constituting the most numerous and elegant class of public buildings then in the metropolis, perished. All the books of all the companies abound with details of this calamity. It melted their plate, burnt their records, and laid their City premises, from which they chiefly drew their income, in ashes; and, to crown their calamities, they found themselves overwhelmed with a load of debt, (the consequence of the compulsory loans they had been subjected to,) and which they had now no means left of paying.

The merchant tailors' books point out the course pursued by that and most of the other companies under this infliction. The first object was to secure their melted plate, of which the greater societies had possessed vast quantities; and next, to take an account of their losses and capabilities. As early as the 20th of September, (1666,) only seventeen days after the commencement of the fire, it was ordered, at a court of that company, specially summoned for the occasion, that "the master and wardens, Messrs. Newel, Church, Mellish, Wallis, and White, or any three of them, do view the company's plate that is melted in the late dreadful fire, and do treat with Mr. Taylor, at the Tower, or any other person, about the refining of the same to the best advantage. They at the same time took into consideration the loss they had sustained by the fire; and ordered, "on account of the company's house being burned," that all persons who received 6s. 8d. and 2s. 6d. quarterly, and were chosen by the wardens' substitutes, and paid from the stock of the society, should be no longer paid their pensions, except those that were in great want." The grocers, on the 9th of November, the same year, received the particulars from their wardens" of the company's plate melted in the hall, in the late violent and destructive fire, and of the melted parcels taken up and put together, with the company's urgent occasions for a supply of money;" when it was ordered "that the same plate (amounting to 200lb. weight of metal) should be sold and disposed of to the best advantage and

benefit of the company." They had also a schedule of the company's houses and rents, as they existed before the fire, read to them; and "in regard of the shortness of the days, the distance of divers persons abodes, and the danger and troublesomeness of going in the dark amongst the ruins, not then allowing them time for debate and determination," agreed to meet weekly. Both companies seem to have possessed an equal desire to re-erect their destroyed premises. The committee of the grocers, for this purpose, continued their sittings till the November of 1667, passing that interval in "considering the interests of the company's tenants, and their applications for new leases." The merchant tailors, in like manner, ordered their committees "to agree with the company's tenants whose houses were burned, either by addition of years or otherwise, as they should think fit, for rebuilding their several houses, and to continue a committee to meet weekly on the same day and hour, for better dispatch; and what such committee should do the court would approve of."

By the like sort of extraordinary exertion, by subscriptions and collections amongst themselves, and by the donations of their wealthier members, some of them to great amount, the whole of the companies, notwithstanding this accumulation of misfortunes, had their halls rebuilt in two or three years, and, generally, in a superior manner to what they were before; their houses and premises also, by granting advantageous leases to the tenants, in conformity with the resolutions mentioned, arose every where again with the new metropolis. As early as 1670, we find the old order of things quite restored, and the companies started on a new course of prosperity.-In the pursuit of this we shall awhile leave them, to continue our review of their general state, under the altered circumstances in which time had now placed them.

The manners of the companies, it scarcely need be observed, must have much changed during the lapse of nearly two centuries. By the new charters of James, the ancient mode of election by the commonalty was superseded; and in all instances where such charters were obtained, the courts were thenceforward made self-elective. They ordain that, out of those fraternities, there shall be constituted a certain number of persons, to be named assistants, who shall be aiding and