Richard II's fair young queen, Anne of Bohemia, all wore red and black liveries. On the red of their dresses they had bars of silver-work and silver trefoils, and on the black part wore fine knots of gold and silk, and on their heads red hats powdered with silver trefoils. In Edward IV their taste changed, and the livery men adopted violet and scarlet gowns. In Henry VII they were conspicuous in violet gowns and black hoods. In Henry VIII their hoods were again violet and scarlet.

Goldsmiths' Hall is the most magnificent of all the London Guilds, and their plate is of considerable grandeur, comprising a chandelier of chased gold weighing 1,000 ounces, two superb old gold plates bearing the arms of France quartered with those of England, and a gold cup (attributed to Cellini) out of which Queen Elizabeth is said to have drank at her coronation, and bequeathed to the company by Sir Martin Bowes. At the great exhibition of 1851, this spirited company awarded £1,000 to the best artist in gold and silver plate, and spent £5,000 on plate of British manufacture. They have also recently made a grant of £1,000 for researches in the new diphtheritic treatment.

The eminently commercial race of the Jews were the first English bankers and usurers. To them, in immediate succession, followed the enterprising Lombards, a term including the merchants and goldsmiths of Genoa, Florence and Venice. Blind to all sense of true liberty and justice, the strong-handed king resolved to squeeze and crush them as he had treated their unfortunate predecessors. They were rich, and they were strangerswhich was enough for a king who wanted money badly, and so Edward seized the Lombards' property and estates, their debtors naturally approving of such summary

measures.

The Lombards, however, grew and flourished, and in the 15th century advanced a loan to the state on the security of the Customs. The Steelyard Merchants further advanced money, and were always found to be available for national emergencies, as also were the Merchants of the Staple, the Mercers, and the Merchant Adventurers and Traders of Flanders. Up to a late period in the reign of Charles I, merchants usually deposited their surplus cash at the mint, the business of which was carried on in the Tower. But when Charles I, in an agony of impecuniosity, took the £200,000 there deposited, calling it a loan, the Goldsmiths, who since 1386 had been more or less bankers, began to monopolize the banking business. Many, distrustful of the Goldsmiths in such stormy times, entrusted their money to clerks and apprentices, who, too often, quickly left to join Rupert and his pillaging Cavaliers. About 1645 the citizens returned almost entirely to the Goldsmiths, who gave interest for money placed in their care, bought coins and sold plate. Parliament, out of plate and gold, had coined gold and seven millions of half-crowns, but the Goldsmiths culled out the heavier pieces and melted them down for export. The merchants' clerks, to whom their masters ready cash was sometimes entrusted, had frequently the impudence to lend money to the Goldsmiths at fourpence per cent., per day. The merchants, therefore, were often actually lent their own money, and had to pay for the use of it. The Goldsmiths also began to receive rent and allow interest for it. They gave receipts for such monies, and these became marketable as bank notes. Growing rich, they were able to help Cromwell with money as an advance on the revenues, a patriotic act for which they took care not to suffer. When the national disgrace occurred of the Dutch sailing up the Medway and burning some ships,

there was a run upon them, but they stood firm, and met all demands. The seizure by Charles II of £1,300,000 deposited by the Goldsmiths in the Exchequer, all but ruined them, but clamour and pressure compelled the royal embezzler to pay six per cent. on the sum appropriated. In William's reign, interest was granted on the whole sum at three per cent., and the debt still remains undischarged.

Enough historical evidence has probably been adduced to justify the broad assertion that, whereas bona fide apprenticeship, as opposed to colourable servitude, has become extremely limited, the available records of all the more important Craft Guilds conclusively show they were mainly brought into existence for the regulation and government of trade. It is further clear that they were enriched exceedingly by their members, so that they might efficiently instruct apprentices, train artizans, admit to the freedom all persons practising a trade in any capacity, and benefit and assist such as might require it. It is, moreover, apparent that during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, having become extremely wealthy corporations, their industrial, commercial, civic and national power had grown to an equal extent. Although, in the nineteenth century, these influences have considerably abated or become obsolete, what is their position and prospect? The report of the City of London Livery Companies' Commission, issued in 1884, clearly demonstrates that during the past few years they have again become thoroughly alive to the necessity of inaugurating and supporting new schemes of industrial and commercial instruction. In the aggregate the London Companies are now spending £75,000 yearly upon educational work. Of this amount, £50,000 goes in general instruction in their own thirty to forty schools, which they have built and

endowed in various parts of England. In this connection the Cloth-makers, Grocers, Drapers and Merchant Taylors are conspicuous benefactors. Their endowments for both sexes at the Universities and the London Board Schools also form a praiseworthy part of the sum named. A certain number of the Companies further contribute £25,000 annually to support the City and Guilds of London Institute, brought into existence to provide adequate technical training, which is very efficiently undertaken at the Finsbury College and the Central Institute. Towards the latter, £100,000 was freely subscribed for the new building at South Kensington. To the Royal College of Music £13,000 has been given, while the Merchant Taylors of recent years have provided £140,000 for their highly organised middle class schools at London and Great Crosby. Then again, the Companies jointly appropriate as much as £90,000 every year to other benevolent and public objects, not of a strictly educational, but very useful, character. To the Technical Colleges of Huddersfield, Bradford, Keighley, and Leeds, the Clothworkers' Company have generously devoted large sums of money to encourage the woollen trade, of which they have proved such worthy representatives.

It is fully evident, therefore, that the enormous accumulated wealth of Trade Guilds is, to a considerable extent, being wisely used at length to resuscitate and sustain afresh the crafts and commerce of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. That it is slowly, but rightly, flowing back again to those channels for which it was early intended, cannot be seriously doubted. Although hope too often tells a flattering tale, the increased financial help of the London companies, with respect to the better training of the hand and eye in conjunction with the brain of the artizan, bids fair to be a prominent and advantageous feature of the fast approaching twentieth century.