In the year 1407, another peftilential vifitation prevailed in the metropolis, which is faid to have wept away thirty thousand of its inhabitants: indeed, for the reafons that we have already ftated, it is much to be doubted whether the city was over-free from miafma, before the fire of London.

Having now in order opened a view to a more brilliant profpect of the metropolis, endeavoured to clear, as far as description could clear, the gloomy and black clouds emanating from fcarcity and difcafe, with which it was fo free quently enveloped, we fhall now flightly advert to fome other difaftrous events that checked and impeded the rifing profperity of a city which has truggled through almot every calamity, and by the energy of her fons furmounted many; and then, purfuing the pleafing theme which we promifed in the beginning of this Chapter, endeavour to detail thofe circumftances which, in our opinions, produced the opulence that in the middle ages fince the conqueft was apparent, and which has, like a conftant ftream, enlarging as well as refining in its course, fpread to the prefent.

Thofe calamities to which we have alluded were, the infurrection of Wat Tyler and his affociates, and the civil wars betwixt the Houfes of York and Lancafter. The infurrection of Jack Cade we confider as a branch from

the "trunk of York;" or, more correctly speaking, an experiment upon the temper of the people of London, which, probably, had all the fuccefs that the adherents of the family of York defired, or rather expected.

With refpect to the former rebellion, which feems to have arisen from the momentary impulfe of parental paffion, and to have fired a train of other paffions, which had probably been long engendering, and only wanted fuch a ftimulus to their explosion, though its effects were exceedingly to be deplored, as, like the fiery eruptions of Vesuvius and Etna, they fpread alarm and devaftation through the country, which finally centered in London: yet as, in confequence of the magnanimity of the Monarch, (then only fourteen,) they happily fubfided, they are not, perhaps, fo deplorable as the latter; though it must be allowed, that these exceffes certainly left impreffed upon the minds of the people an idea of the weak nefs of government, when called upon for prompt exertion to

The infurgents, whofe force is faid to have confifted of a hundred thoufand men, entered London by the Bridge; whence they proceeded to the Temple, whofe magnificent buildings, at that time in the occupation of the students of the law, they deftroyed by fire; they then fet open all the prifons, poffeffed themfelves of the Tower of London, and, previous to their affembling in Smithfield, burned the magnificent priory of St. John of Jerufalem, Clerkenwell. This manfion, with its appendages, was at this period the most fplendid of thofe belonging to any religious eftablishment in London. The state and grandeur of the Prior, who is faid, in these refpects, to have vied with the Monarch, and the indolent voluptuoufnels and imperious conduct of the Knights, had long made them in the first inftance objects of the envy, and in the fecond of the hatred, of the common people, who therefore heartily joined with the infurgents in the demolition and destruction of buildings which, in their external and interior decorations, are faid to have contained fpecimens of the arts both of Afia and of Europe, and a library, or rather collec tion, of books and curicfities, which would, in a lefs turbulent age, have rendered its lofs an object of national lamentation.

oppofe

oppofe the fudden outrages of an inflamed multitude.

This idea, it is probable, was the mental foundation upon which the ufurpation that fucceeded was erected; the civil wars that followed were the confequence. But however deplorable the effects of this long fuccellion of hoftilities might be to the country in general (and that thofe effects were felt long after the caufes that produced them had vanished, we can affert, upon the authority of the history and the detailed experience of fucceeding ages), yet these effects, grievous as they certainly were, were lefs felt in London than in many other cities and towns. The reason for this is obvious: The citizens of the metropolis, engaged in manufactures and in commercial adventures, their stimulus and concomitants, feem, in thofe ages, to have turned their minds very little toward politics, but, with refpect to the operations of government and the clash of parties, to have maintained a kind of neutrality, from which it has been seen that, previous to the acceffion of Richard the IIId, neither the eloquence of Dr. Shaw, nor finally that of the Duke of Buckingham, could thoroughly roufe them. That in thofe times the citizens, who were by their fituations as commoners of England, fhut out from that extenfive political participation which they afterward enjoyed, minded commercial more than conftitutional affairs, we have an inftance in the ftatutes of Edward the IVth; which, as it alfo informs us what fpecies of manufactures, &c. were then in request, by which we may pretty accurately guefs at the habits and manners of the people, we shall infert, on the authority of the author of that truly valuable work, the Annals of Commerce, who, it must be obferved,

"The male and female artificers of London, and other cities and towns of England and Wales, having reprefented that they were grievously injured by the importation of foreign articles of quality inferior to thofe made by them, the Parliament, in confequence, prohibited, for a time to be limited by the King's pleafure, the importation and fale of woollen caps, woollen cloths, laces, corfes, ribands, fringes of filk or thread, laces of thread, filk twined, filk embroidered, laces of gold, tires of filk or gold, fad dles, harnels belor ging to faddies, ipurs,

mot judiciously flates, that "this application to Parliament gives us reafon to fufpect that the foreign goods were

boffes of bridles, andirons, gridirons, locks, hammers, pincers, fire-tongs, dripping-pans, dice, tennis-bails, points, purfes, gloves, girdles, harness for girdies of iron, latten, feel, tin, or alkmine, articles made of tawed leather, tawed furs, bufcans (probably buskins), thoes, galoches, or corks, knives, daggers, woodknives, fheers for tailors, fciflors, razors, fheaths, playing-cards *, pins, pattens, pack-needles, any painted ware, forcers, cafkets, rings of copper or of latten gilt, chafing-dishes, hanging-candlesticks, chating-beils, facring-bells, rings for curtains, ladles, fcummers, counterfeit bafins, ewers, hats, bruthes, cards for wool, and blanch iron wire, commonly called white wire. The manufactures of Ireland and Wales might be fold in England as freely as before, and alfo goods taken from enemies, or found in wrecked veffels. The tenants of the precinct of the Chapel of St. Martin's le Grand "were exempted from the operation of this act." (Acts 3 Edw. IV, c. 4.)-" This exemption is repeated in all the acts containing restraint upon trade about this time. We think it was claimed as a privilege annexed to the church of St. Peter, Weftminster, to the Abbot or Dean and Chapter, of which the inhabitants of St. Martin's le Grand were and are tenants. Under these circumftances, it appears that in those ages these were the only free traders."

Playing cards were invented in Germany before the end of the fourteenth century. At first they were used only for amufement; they were afterwards made fubfervient to fuperftition, by stamping on them, by the means of wooden blocks, the figures of faints, with appropriate infcriptions. Some of thefe, executed fo early as the year 1423, may be regarded as the firit fpecimens of printing. (Idée generale d'une Collection d'Estampes, pp. 239-250.)-This feems

to take the honour of the invention of engraving upon wood from Albert Durer, who was born near half a century after, i. e. 1471, and who at least carried the art to fuch an exalted pitch, that his cuts are efteemed as fuperior to thofe of the prefent day; we mean in correctness of outline, for they are certainly more than rivalled in elegance of defign.

of

of fuperior quality, and thence that the home made goods required the protection of a monopoly against the foreign manufacturer and the English confumer."

Another reason why, during thefe commotions, London enjoyed a comparative hate of repofe, is, that it was equally the intereft of the leaders of each of the contending parties, and confequently of their adherents, as much as poffible to preferve it, becaufe they occafionally drew from it their fupplies of money, arms, accoutrements, &c., neceffary to carry on a fuccefsful warfare. They alto, it may be fuppofed, refpected it as the centre of religious exabiithments, the feat of government, and were still further interefted in its profperity, becaule it not only contained their principal refidences, thofe mansions to which their wives and families flew as afylums from the turbulence of the times, and the infecurity of their calles, but allo was, almoft the whole of it, portioned out among them, and was, in fact, their property.

For thefe reafons, and probably for fome others, which, i neceffary, might be adduce, of which the vicinity of the metropolis to the Tower of London is a most important one, it is obvious, that although the nobility of each party frequently entered the city with nume rous trains of armed followers, it was their with rather to reprefs than to excite tumults; and therefore we do not find, except upon fome occational ebul. litions of paflion among their domeftics, that the citizens were ever incommoded in their lawful purfuits, or that the nobility, however military their ideas might then be, however they might keep aloof from mercantile connexions, from which, it must be obferved, fome of them had arifen *, had

* There is, perhaps, no circumftance in our civic annals that does greater honour to the country, than that of the number of perfons who have in former times, (for we do not purpofe as yet to peak of the prefent,) by purfuing with unremitting industry the fpirit of commercial adventure, raised themselves even to the peerage. Of thefe many have, by writers upon this fubject, been mentioned: of which William de la Pole, a great merchant, whofe houfe ftood in Birchin-lane, who was created a Knight

ever a wish to impede, ftill lefs to deftroy, that commerce which they well knew rendered the metropolis the most valuable appendage to, and the most brilliant jewel of that crown which was the object of the furious contention of their leaders.

Purfuing, therefore, their feveral avocations, and exerting their ingenuity and industry in the midst of contention and hottility, we are to view the citizens of London as, fometimes by flow and regular, fometimes by more rapid, but always by certain degrees, approaching toward the goal of profperity: therefore we shall now confider, how far they were aflifted in this pursuit by circumstances and caufes at first feemingly remote, and the effect which thofe had upon their moral habits.

One of the caufes of the advancement of the City of London towards the goal of opulence, we have in a former Chapter noted, namely, the Crufades. Another we have in this adverted to, in

Banneret by Edward the IIId, and the history of whofe family, rendered confpicuous by their titles, their talents, and their misfortunes, is well known,

John Coventry, the ion of William Coventry, of the City of that name, was an opulent mercer of London. He was Mayor in the year 1425. He appears, from his interference in the dreadful quarrel betwixt the good Humphrey Duke of Gloucefter and Cardinal Beaufort, which he fucceeded in quelling, to have been a moft fpirited Magistrate. From him is faid to be defcended the prefent Earl of Coventry.

The family of Rich, Earls of Warwick and Holland, arofe from Richard Rich, an opulent mercer, who was Sheriff in the year 1441. His defcendant Richard was diftinguished by his knowledge of the law; he became Solicitor General in the reign of Henry the ViIIth. He was created a Baron in the reign of Edward the VIth, and by the favour of this Mnarch became Lord Chancellor.

The Hollises, Earls of Clare, and finally Dukes of Newcale, defcended from Sir William Hollis, Mayor in 1540, fon to William Hollis, citizen and baker.

There are many other initances; but as they moitly arofe in the fixteenth century, and extended to the prefent, they are referved for the concluding part of this work.

fpeaking of the triumphs of Edward the IIId in France, difplayed in the battles of Creffy, Poitiers, and the poffeffion of Calais; alfo the naval victory, and the difmemberment of various provinces in confequence of the treaty of Bretigny, which, by opening the way into the heart of that country, and caufing the English arms to be come the dread of the furrounding nations, not only produced riches, fuch as, if we compare the value of the money of those times with its infignificance at prefent, might be fuppofed to accrue from a feries of Oriental conquests. The fuccefsful wars of Henry the Vth in France, the battle of Agincourt, and the peace that fuc ceeded, were attended with the fame confequences; riches poured into the nation †, luxury advanced another

That increafing luxury is, in a great kingdom, a proof of increafing wealth, and that its consequence is, at least for a time, the increase of commerce and traffic, few, we apprehend, will be fo fceptical as to difbelieve. In luxury the French at this period certainly exceeded the English, as much as they did in arts, manufaczures, and commerce; of which, with refrect to manufactures, we have a convincing proof, in the retraining ftatutes that were from time to time promuigated. In Paris it appears, that during the reigns of John and Charles the Wife, a far greater corruption of manners prevailed than in London, yet even in the former vice was not yet obferved to triumph in her exceffes; the tradefman was not yet fo far intoxicated with his wealth as to difplay that infolent pride which leads to the affumption of pomp and magnificence, generally the appendages of fuperior rank. But although the French, or, rather, the citizens of Paris, had not, in those days, attempted in every respect to vie with the Nobility, ftill the lumptuary laws (one of which prohibited the ufe of cars, another attempted to regulate the price of stuffs by the rank of the wearer, and another to encourage the

VOL. L. JULY 1806.

ftep, and the advancement of its concomitant, commerce, was the confe quence. Another circumstance that had a confiderable influence upon Europe in general, and the metropolis of England in particular, was the fcientific difcoveries that during the courfe of, and from the thirteenth century were made. In thofe times the powers of the human mind, which for a long feries of ages had lain dormant, or had been wafted in trifling researches, unmeaning difputes, idle ceremonies, and fuperftitious obfervances, feem to have burit forth, and gradually to have expanded. The rays of truth, gleaming from the torch of philofophy, began to pervade and pierce through the thick gloom of ignorance in which this weftern hemifphere had long been enveloped.

Foremost on the lift of those benefactors to mankind, who endeavoured by experiment to reduce philofophy to which he made to the only purpose practice, and to apply thofe difcoveries which renders fcientific attainments va

luable, namely, the promotion of the happiness of the people, was Roger Bacon, a Franciscan Friar of Öx

national manufactories,) tend to prove, that they diffipated their riches in fuperAuities, and that their ambition rather

wanted toleration than inclination. With the majority of the citizens of London in thofe ages the cafe was far different; for although it was, in the inftances that have been already fhown, found necessary to reftrain the younger part of them, and of the nation in general, by fumptuary laws and proclamations, calculated alfo to reprefs the occafional turbulence of their triumphant ebullitions, to punish thofe vices they had gathered, and to prohibit thofe fafhions of "fool and feather" that they had acquired in France, which brought in their train licentious gallantry and exceffive gaming, yet the noble acts of the charity, and monuments of the piety, of the citizens of London in thofe ages, show that they better underfood the true ufe of riches, and that, as thefe increased, their benevo lence, which expanded with their expanfion, became at length fo extenfive, as mentally to connect the idea of dignified liberality with the appellation of an English merchant in every part of Europe.

D

ford;