Chapter 40

That is the best Government which gives the greatest possible liberty to its people: only that people can be happy which is capable of using their freedom aright. You have seen how your personal freedom from violence, robbery, and molestation in your work is secured for you: how you are enabled to live in comfort and cleanliness--by a vast machinery of Government whose growth has been gradual and which must always be ready to meet changes so as to suit the needs of the people. One point you must carefully remember, that your greatest liberty is liberty of speech and of thought and of the Press. It is not so very long since martyrs--Catholic as well as Protestant--were executed for their religious belief: Catholics and Jews until quite recently were excluded from Parliament. A hundred years ago the debates of Parliament could not be reported: one had to weigh his words very carefully in speaking of the Sovereign or the Ministers: certain forms of opinion were not allowed to be published. All that is altered. You can believe what you like and advocate what you like, so long as it is not against Divine Law or the Law of the Land. Thus, if one were to preach the duty of Murder he would be very properly stopped. Therefore, when you buy a daily paper: whenever you enter a church or chapel: whenever you hear an address or a lecture remember that you are enjoying the freedom won for you by the obstinacy and the tenacity of your ancestors.

We have spoken of the City Companies. They still exist and though their former powers are gone and they no longer control the trades after which they are named, their power is still very great on account of the revenues which they possess and their administration of charities, institutions, &c., under their care. There were 109 in all, but many have been dissolved. There are still, however, 76. About half of these possess Halls which are now the Great Houses of the City. The number of livery men, i.e. members of the Companies, is 8,765. The Companies vary greatly in numbers: there are 448 Haberdashers, for instance: 380 Fishmongers: and 356 Spectacle Makers: while there are only 16 Fletchers, i.e. makers of arrows. Many of the trades are now extinct, such as the Fletchers above named, the Bowyers, the Girdlers, the Bowstring Makers and the Armourers.

Some of these Companies are now very rich. One of them possesses an income, including Trust money, of 83,000_l._ a year. It must be acknowledged that the Companies carry on a great deal of good work with their money. Many of them, however, have little or nothing: the Basket Makers have only 102_l._ a year: the Glass Sellers only 21_l._ a year: the Tinplate Workers 7_l._ 7_s._ a year. If, therefore, you hear of the great riches of the City Companies remember (1) that 25 of them have less than 500_l._ a year each: and (2) that the rich Companies support Technical Colleges and Schools, grant scholarships, encourage trade, hold exhibitions, maintain almshouses, and make large grants to objects worthy of support. It is not likely that the privilege of electing the Lord Mayor will long continue to be in the hands of the Companies. It is not, indeed, worthy of a great City that its Chief Magistrate should be elected by so small a minority as 8,765 out of the hundreds of thousands who have their offices and transact their business in the City: but while this privilege will cease, the Companies may remain and continue to exercise a central influence, at the least in London, over the Crafts and Arts which they represent. Let us never destroy what has been useful: let us, on the other hand, preserve it, altered to meet changed circumstances. For an institution is not like a tree which grows and decays. If it is a good institution, built upon the needs and adapted to the circumstances of human nature, it will never decay but, like the Saxon form of popular election, live and develop and change as the people themselves change from age to age.

63. LONDON.

GREATER LONDON.

It has been a great misfortune for London that, when its Wall ceased to be the true boundary of the town, and when the people began to spread in all directions outside the walls, no statesman arose with vision clear enough to perceive that the old system must be enlarged or abolished: that the City must cease to mean the City of the Edwards, and must include these new suburbs, from Richmond on the West to Poplar on the East, and from Hampstead on the North to Balham on the South. It is true that something was done: there are the Wards of Bridge Without, which is Southwark: and of Farringdon Without. There should have been provision for the creation of new Wards whenever the growth of a suburb warranted its addition. That, however, has not been done. The Old London remains as it was, and as we now see it, surrounded by another, and an immense City, or aggregate of cities, all placed under the rule of a Council.

This was done by the Act of 1888, which created a County whose boundaries were the same as those of the former Metropolitan Board of Works; in other words, it embraces all the suburbs of London properly so called. This County extends from Putney and Hammersmith on the West to Plumstead on the East: on the North are Hampstead and Highgate; on the South are Tooting, Streatham, Lewisham and Eltham. There are 138 Councillors, of whom 19 are Aldermen and one a Chairman. The conservative tendency of our people is shown in their retention of the old division of aldermen. It is, once more, Kings, Lords, and Commons. But the functions of the Aldermen do not differ from those of the Councillor. The Councillors are elected by the ratepayers for three years, the Aldermen for six; but there is a rule as to retiring by rotation.

The powers of the County Council are enormous. It regulates the building of houses and streets: the drainage: places of amusement: it can close streets and pull down houses: it administers and makes regulations concerning parks, bridges, tunnels, subways, dairies, cattle diseases, explosives, lunatic asylums, reformatory schools, weights and measures. It grants licenses for music and dancing: it carries on, in fact, the whole administration of the greatest City in the world, and, in some respects, the best managed City.

In order to carry out these works the Council expend about 600,000_l._ a year. It has a debt of 30,000,000_l._, against which are various assets, so that the real debt is no more than 18,000,000_l._ The rating outside the City was last year 121/2_d._ in the pound. The first Chairman was Lord Rosebery. He has been succeeded by Sir John Lubbock and Mr. John Hutton. The list of County Councillors contains men of every rank and every opinion. Dukes, Earls and Barons, sit upon the Council beside plain working men--an excellent promise for the future.

Such is the government of London. Within the City what was intended to be democratic has become oligarchic. The election by the whole people has become the election by 8,000 only. Without the City a great democratic Parliament attracts men whose historic names and titles belong to the aristocracy. In the London County Council the Peers may, if they are elected, sit beside the Commons.

Lastly, what is the chief lesson for you to learn out of this history? It is short, and may be summed up in a few sentences.

1. Consider how your liberties have grown silently and steadily out of the original free institutions of your Saxon ancestors. They have grown as the trunk, the tree, the leaves, the flower, the fruit, grow from the single seed. The Folk Mote, the 'Law worthiness' of every man, the absence of any Over Lord but the King, have kept London always free and ready for every expansion of her liberties. Respect, therefore, the ancient things which have made the City--and the country--what it is. Trust that the further natural growth of the old tree--still vigorous--will be safer for us than to cut it down and plant a sapling, which may prove a poison tree. And with the old institutions respect the old places. Never, if you can help it, suffer an old monument to be pulled down and destroyed. Keep before your eyes the things which remind you of the past. When you look on London Stone, remember that Henry of London Stone was one of the first Mayors. When you go up College Hill, remember Whittington who gave it that name. When you pass the Royal Exchange think of Gresham: when you go up Walbrook remember the stream beneath your feet, the Roman Fortress on your right, and the British town on your left. London is crammed full of associations for those who read and know and think. You will be better citizens of the present for knowing about the citizens of the past.

2. The next lesson is your duty to your country. What does it mean, the right of the Folk Mote? The Mote has now become a House of Commons, a County Council, a School Board. You have the same rights that your ancestor had. He was jealous over them: he fought to the death to preserve them and to strengthen them. Be as jealous, for they are far more important to you than ever they were to him. You have a hundred times as much to defend: you have dangers which he did not know or fear. Show your jealousy by exercising your right as the most sacred duty you have to fulfil. Your vote is an inheritance and a trust. You have inherited it direct from the Angles and the Jutes: as you exercise that vote so it will be ill or well with you and your children. Be very jealous of the man you put in power: learn to distinguish the man who wants place from the man who wants justice: vote only for the right man: and do your best to find out the right man. It is difficult at all times. You may make it less difficult by sending to the various Parliaments of the country a man you know, who has lived among you, whose life, whose private character, whose previous record you know instead of the stranger who comes to court your vote. Above all things _vote always_ and let the first duty in your mind always be to protect your rights and your liberties.

These are the two lessons that this book should teach you--the respect that is due to the past and the duty that is owed to the present.

NOTES

1. THE FOUNDATION OF LONDON. PART I.

~AEneas~: a Trojan prince who escaped from Troy when it was destroyed by the Greeks.

~Venus~, the Roman Goddess of Love and Beauty, was the mother of AEneas.

~Troy~: a famous city in the north-west corner of Asia Minor. It was destroyed by Greek invaders about 1,000 years before Christ, and the stories connected with it form one of the chief subjects of Greek and Latin poets.

~Troynovant~ means New Troy.

~Constantine the Great~ was Emperor of Rome, that is, of all the then known world from 305 to 337 A.D. He was the first Roman Emperor to adopt and favour Christianity. Constantinople is named after him, and was made by him the capital of the Empire.

~Geoffrey of Monmouth~ was a British historian of the twelfth century. He was made Bishop of St. Asaph in 1152. His 'histories' are largely made up of stories, such as that about Brutus, which nobody believes now.

~historical document~: a piece of writing that can be used to prove some event in the history of past times.

~architecture~: the art of building; the style in which houses are built.

~Cornhill~: a street in the City of London running west to east from the Royal Exchange into Leadenhall Street. It was probably named after a family of that name, and not from any corn market on the site.

~bastion~: a strong turret or tower at the corner of a fortified building.

~Walbrook~: a small stream that crossed the City from north to south. It flowed near where the Mansion House now stands (Walbrook is a street at the side of the Mansion House), and fell into the Thames at Dowgate, near where Cannon Street Railway Station now stands.

~Fleet River~: a small stream which fell into the Thames near where Blackfriars Railway Station now stands.

~Moorfields~ was a piece of moor land lying to the north of the City, outside the walls. The City gate which led to this district was the Moorgate, a name which still survives in Moorgate Street.

~Ken Wood~, in Hampstead, ~Hainault Forest~, a small piece of wood in Essex, about eight miles north-east of London, and ~Epping Forest~, a larger portion, also in Essex, to the west of Hainault Forest, are all remaining portions of a great forest that once stretched away from London far into the country.

~Chelsea, Bermondsey~: in all such words _ea_ or _ey_ is an old word for island. In this way are formed Winchelsea, Battersea, &c.; ~Thorney~ (where Westminster is now) is the Island of Thorns; and ~Jersey~, Caesar's Island.

~Southwark~: a district of London opposite the City, on the south side of the Thames. It was the South work, or fort, and is spoken of as a village as late as 1327, the accession of Edward III.

2. THE FOUNDATION OF LONDON. PART II.

~Malarious~: causing the air to be bad, and so giving rise to fevers; unhealthy. (Latin _malus_, bad; _aer_, air.)

~Weybridge~, in Surrey, near where the river Wey, after flowing past Godalming and Guildford, falls into the Thames.

~entrenching~: making a trench or ditch. The earth dug out was formed into a mound. The mound and ditch, together with the stockade, protected the place.

~stockade~: a barrier made of _stakes_ stuck in the ground.

~Gaul~: the old name for the country now called France--the land of the Galli, or Celts. _Gaelic_ is the language still spoken by the Celts in Scotland.

~Thanet~: a district in the north-east of Kent, containing Ramsgate, Margate, and Broadstairs. The river Stour parts it from the rest of Kent, so that it is still an 'island,' though the channel was formerly much wider and deeper.

~Captain Cook~: a famous sailor born 1728, murdered in the Sandwich Islands 1779. He was among the first to visit Australia and New Zealand, and made many discoveries in the Pacific.

~Polynesians~: the natives of Polynesia, or the smaller islands in the South Pacific. They are brown-skinned, and akin in race to the Maories of New Zealand and the Malays.

~Brythonic~: that portion of the Celts whose descendants are now the Welsh, Bretons: (in Bretagne, on the west coast of France), and Cornishmen.

~Basques~: the natives of a part of northern Spain, near the Pyrenees. Their language is unconnected with any other, except perhaps that of the Finns. The Province and Bay of Biscay is named after them.

~Finns~: the natives of Finland in Russia. Like the Basques, they are the remains of a nation which once spread over all Europe, and has now nearly disappeared.

~barrow~: a mound raised over a grave.

~Verulam~: an old British, and then a Roman town, on the site of which is now St. Albans, in Hertfordshire.

3. ROMAN LONDON. PART I.

~Stationary camp~: a fixed or permanent camp; a fort. A Roman army on the march constructed a camp if it only spent one night in a place. Such camps were not stationary.

~Porchester~: a small town on the north side of Portsmouth Harbour. Chester is the Latin _castra_, a camp, and occurs in Leicester, Colchester, Chester, Silchester, &c.

~rubble~: small rough stones often used inside piles of masonry.

~Silchester~: a place near Reading at which remains of old Roman buildings have been dug out.

~Mincing Lane~: a narrow street in the east part of the City.

~tribunal~: the place where judges sit to administer justice.

~Exchange~: the place where merchants meet and carry on their business.

~stevedores~: those engaged in the work of loading and unloading ships.

4. ROMAN LONDON. PART II.

~Tesselated~: formed of small pieces of stone or tile of various colours arranged to form a pattern, like mosaic work.

~Diana~: the Roman Goddess of Hunting; also of the Moon.

~Apollo~: the Roman God of Poetry, Music, and Prophecy.

~Guildhall~: the hall of the Guild or Corporation of the City of London, near Cheapside.

~usurper~: one who by force seizes and holds a position which does not belong to him.

~Picts~: wild savages from the country which we call Scotland; ~Scots~, also savage men, who, though they afterwards gave their name to Scotland, at that time came from Ireland.

~Hong Kong~: an island off the coast of China; ~Singapore~, a large British seaport on an island of the same name off the south end of the Malay Peninsula; ~West Indies~, a number of islands to the east of Central America in the Atlantic: of those belonging to Great Britain Jamaica is the largest.

5. AFTER THE ROMANS. PART I.

~East Saxons~ were those who dwelt in Essex, the county named after them.

~Crayford~: on the river Cray in north Kent. Here the Saxons under Hengist totally defeated the Britons under Vortimer in 457 A.D.

~Canterbury~ is the burgh, borough, or fortified place of the men of Kent.

~Pulborough~, in Sussex, gives us another form of the suffix.

~chronicler~: a historian, particularly one living in early times.

~Saxons~: German tribes from the district by the mouth of the Elbe; ~Jutes~, from a part of Denmark which still preserves their name, Jutland; ~Angles~, from what is now Schleswig and Holstein.

~Count of the Saxon Shore~: the Roman admiral set to defend the southern parts of the English coast, which were called 'Saxon Shore,' because most liable to attack from the Saxons.

~mercenaries~: soldiers who do not fight for the safety and glory of their own country, but for hire.

6. AFTER THE ROMANS. PART II.

~Blackfriars~, at the eastern end of the Thames Embankment, derives its name from a monastery or house of Black Friars which stood there.

~Watling Street~, ~Ermyn Street~, ~Vicinal Way~: made by the Romans, who were famous makers of high roads, many of which are still in use. (See map on p. 15.)

~Newgate~ was a gate on the west of the walls which enclosed the City; ~Bishopsgate~, on the north-east.

~victualling~: providing food for.

~emergencies~: times of difficulty and danger.

~Isle of Thanet~: it must be remembered that the Stour, at the back of Thanet, was once much wider and deeper than it is now. In fact, it was the general route for vessels coming up the Thames.

~appointments~: furniture, fittings.

~mimics~: actors who played in farces, like our panto_mimes_.

~scribes~: among the Romans, clerks in public offices.

7. AFTER THE ROMANS. PART III.

~Alaric~, king of a German tribe called the Visigoths (West Goths) invaded Greece and Italy, and after several defeats finally took and sacked Rome in 410 A.D. It was this state of thing which compelled the Romans to withdraw their troops from Britain.

~The West where the Britons still held their own~: Wales and Cornwall were never occupied by the invading Saxons: Welsh and Cornishmen are Celts, with a language of their own in Wales, while the Cornish language has only disappeared during the last hundred years.

~Wessex~: the land of the West Saxons corresponds roughly to England south of the Thames.

~oblivion~: being forgotten.

~The river Lea~ rises in Bedfordshire, near Luton, passes Hertford and Ware, forms the boundary between Middlesex and Essex, and falls into the Thames at Blackwall, after a course of forty miles.

~quagmires~: marshy, boggy ground that _quakes_ under the feet (quake, mire).

8. THE FIRST SAXON SETTLEMENT.

~Ecclesiastic~: connected with the Church. For many centuries Rome was the centre of Christian influence, and is so still to all Roman Catholics.

~ritual~: the customs and ceremonies employed in performing service in a church.

~Gregory I.~ or ~the Great~ was Pope from 590-604 A.D. He it was who sent Augustine to attempt the conversion of the English in the year 597.

~kinglet~: a petty king. England was then divided among many kings, so that the realm of each was necessarily very small.

~crucifix~: a figure of Christ fixed to the cross.

~Bede~: a monk and Church historian who lived and died at Jarrow in county Durham in 735 A.D.

~Lindesfarne~, or Holy Island, off the coast of Northumberland.

~Northumbrians~: the men of Northumbria--that is, Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland.

~Mercians~: the men of Mercia, or land of the Middle English.

~supremacy~: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, were separate kingdoms which were successively, in the order in which they are given, strong enough to overawe or exercise supremacy over the others. The king of Wessex eventually became king of England.

~Witan~, or in its fuller form ~wit-an-a-ge-mote~, the 'meeting of wise men,' was the national council which afterwards grew up into our modern parliament.

9. THE SECOND SAXON SETTLEMENT.

~Pagan~: heathen, not yet converted to Christianity.

~King Alfred~, called the Great, was king of England from 871-901 A.D.

~Alderman~ in early England meant the ruler of a large district, such as a shire or kingdom. When Mercia became subject to Wessex it was ruled by an alderman.

~Benfleet~: a place in Essex, on the north bank of the Thames, not far from Southend.

~Brunanburgh~ was the scene of a defeat of the Danes by Athelstan in 937 A.D.; the place cannot now be identified.

~Sweyn~, King of Denmark, invaded England with his son Canute in 1013 A.D.

~Redriff~ is now called Rotherhithe, south of the Thames.

~King Ethelred II.~, called the Unredig, or lacking in counsel, reigned 979-1013 A.D.

~Olave~ or ~Olaf~ and ~Magnus~ are Scandinavian names: there were early kings of Norway so called.

~The Portreeve~: the reeve or governor of London was a chief magistrate or mayor of the City.

~The 'Staller'~ or ~Marshal~ led the men of London to battle.

~The Knighten Guild~ was the ruling council of London: they were not chosen by election, but were the chief owners of property, and, like their land, the office was handed down from father to son.

~mote~: meeting.

~hustings~: a general meeting of the citizens held every week; later on the word came to mean the platform whence candidates for parliament addressed their constituents.

10. THE ANGLO-SAXON CITIZEN.

~Athelstan~ (925-940), the grandson of Alfred the Great, and ~Etheldred II.~ (979-1013) were kings of England.

~earl~ or ~eorl~ was what we should now call a gentleman of good family; ~thanes~: nobles who for the most part acquired their titles from the king as rewards for services.

~municipal~: having to do with the municipality or city.

~French~: Norman-French was the language spoken by the Normans.

~the meat and fish were salted~: in the absence of root-crops it was found difficult to keep animals through the winter. Hence much salt meat and fish were stored up.

~embroidery~: the art of working designs on cloth in needlework.

~spinster~: an unmarried woman; so called because unmarried daughters worked at spinning and weaving for the household, making 'homespun' cloth for them.

~marauding~: roving about for plunder.

~solar~: in early houses the chamber over the hall, used as the bedroom for the master and mistress of the house. (See picture on p. 73.)

~tapestry~: thick hangings or curtains with figures worked on them.

~mead~: a fermented drink made of honey: metheglin is another form of the word.

~wattle~: flexible twigs, withies, or osier rods: ~daub~, mud.

~turbulent~: disorderly, riotous.

~Thames Street~: a very narrow street running along the bank of the Thames between Blackfriars and the Tower.

~ward~: a division of the City. The ~ward mote~ or ward meeting still exists, and elects the alderman or representative of the ward on the City Council.

11. THE WALL OF LONDON.

The ~White Tower~ is the 'keep' or central part of the Tower of London, begun by William the Conqueror and finished by the Red King. It is 92 feet high and the walls are 17 feet thick.

~Dowgate~: the site of one of the gates of Old London Wall is near where Cannon Street Railway Station now stands: here the Walbrook fell into the Thames.

~Queen Hithe~: 'The Queen's Landing Place.' Merchants were compelled to land their goods here so that the dues paid should go to the Queen.

~confluence~: a flowing together, the place where two rivers meet. The Fleet fell into the Thames at Blackfriars. (Latin _cum_, with, together; _fluo_, to flow. Compare, _fluid_, _fluent_.)

~Montfichet's Tower~ was near Baynard's Castle, at the south-west corner of the old walls in Blackfriars. Both were named after the Norman tenants who occupied them.

~Houndsditch~ is now a cross street joining Bishopgate Street and Aldgate, with a Church of St. Botolph at each end of it. It adjoined the moat or ditch round the City wall.

~Allhallows~: the same as All Saints--all the saints to whom churches were often dedicated, and whose memory is celebrated on November 1, which is All Saints' Day.

~St. Giles, Cripplegate~, contains in its churchyard part of London Wall. Milton was buried here in 1674.

12. NORMAN LONDON.

~Bishop and Portreeve~: the two chief officers of the City, one ruling for the Church, the other a civil ruler.

~charter~: a writing confirming or granting privileges.

~burghers~ or burgesses: citizens of a borough.

~Guildhall~ contains the necessary offices and accommodation for the guild or corporation, town clerk, &c., the City library, museum and law courts, and a great hall that will hold 7,000 persons.

~feudal claims~: demands made on their tenants by owners under the feudal system. Such demands were usually for military service or something equivalent.

~Matilda~, daughter of Henry I., and mother of Henry II., and widow of the Emperor Henry V. of Germany, was the opponent of Stephen (1100-1135) in the civil war of his reign. She gave London as 'a demesne' to the Earl of Essex, with the Tower as his castle.

~Danegeld~, or Dane money: a tax raised to buy off the Danes.

~Sheriff~, or shire-reeve, governor of a shire, was the king's representative in each shire: he collected the revenue, called out and led the soldiers, and administered justice.

~Justiciar~: judge. It was one of the privileges of the City to have a judge of its own to try cases within its own limits.

~stipulated~: bargained for.

~constitution~: form of government.

~priory~: a house for monks or nuns under the rule of a prior or prioress.

~St. Katherine Cree~: this church is in Leadenhall Street, near Aldgate. Cree in this name is for Christ.

~Portsoken~ is one of the City wards near Aldgate and the Minories.

13. FITZSTEPHEN'S ACCOUNT OF THE CITY.