admitted as were of good talents, and whose schooling was paid by the nobility and the richer citizens; the latter are the benevolent foundations of pious persons, who took care that a competent maintenance should be settled on the various preceptors, " on condition to teach such a number of the children of the parish where they are built, freely, without taking any salary or reward from their parents and friends.”

A circumstance occurred about this time, which caused great agitation in the city. The clergy of London having obtained a grant from the Pope, in the year 1453, to levy certain rates or offerings on the laity, it gave rise to many disputes between them and their respective parishioners: but, in the year 1457, these disputes were finally adjusted, by the laity agreeing to pay, and the clergy to accept, the following composition:

The Composition of all Offerings within the City of London, and Suburbs of the same.

"First, that every person, dweller and inhabitant in any house in London, or its suburbs, who hireth and occupieth the same at ten shillings per annum, shall offer to God, and to the church in whose parish such house standeth, one farthing on each of the first days hereafter mentioned, viz. on every Sunday in the year, and principal saints days: to be kept for all the churches in London from henceforward, on the third of October yearly, and also on the patron's day of each church in London and its suburbs. And if such inhabited houses be let for twenty shillings, to pay two farthings or a halfpenny; or if for thirty shillings, to pay three farthings; if for forty shillings, to pay one penny; if for fifty shillings, to pay one penny farthing. And so every sum, ascending and descending by ten shillings, into what sum soever, shall always offer one farthing, after the rate of ten shillings, at the foresaid feasts. And he who rents houses in divers parishes within London and its suburbs, shall pay or offer the same, for each house, to the church in which parish it stands. Provided that should it happen two of the said feasts fall on one day, the offering shall be only for one day. That a

house

house rented at six shillings and eight-pence, shall offer only four times in the year, on the four principal feasts of the church, of which he is a parishioner. parishioner. And all above six shillings and eight pence, and under ten shillings, to pay one penny farthing once a year. Provided always, that if the said dweller go before the curate, and there declare, upon his faith and truth, that he may not pay his said money according to the ordinance aforesaid, being within ten shillings, that the said curate shall not holden him, aught or naught, and the dweller thereupon shall be quit. Also, if the rent of the house exceeds ten shillings, and does not amount to thirty shillings, and so to any sum being between ten and thirty shillings, the inhabitant shall pay to the curate five farthings for every shilling of the said sum that shall be between ten and thirty. Where a house is taken together, and afterwards laid out into apartments for divers people, then the person who took the whole house, and inhabiteth the principal part thereof, shall pay an offering to his parish church for the whole rent, if the said house be inhabited and occupied as dwelling-places. But if the person, who rents the whole house, does not dwell in any part thereof, and lets it out again, then he that dwelleth in the principal part shall offer all, and the rest four-pence by the year. Also every warehouse, shop, cellar, wharf, stable, crane, ground, garden, or place, shall pay, for every pound they be let for, sixpence, offering to the curate of the church, in which they shall stand, without any other offering; and threepence for ten shillings per annum rent; and more or less as they shall be let for more or less than ten shillings per annum. It was also provided, that all apprentices and servants, and hired men within the said city, not charged with such rent and houses, which shall be housholder at Easter, or about Easter, shall four times in the year, at the four principal feasts, offer to God and to the church. Also as for personal tythes, the parishioners are neither charged nor discharged; saving that hereafter no curate shall vex, trouble, sue, or deny sacraments or service for non-payment of the same; but leave them to the piety and conscience of

the

the parishioners. Also all proceedings or suits, hitherto carried on for tythes or offerings before this day, shall stop and never be brought into controversy any more; but all such things, done before this day, shall be remitted and forgiven by both parties."

The above curious particular, displays the value of houses, as well as the mode of rating at the above period.

The turbulent reign of the imbecile Henry, and that of his rival Edward IV. contain matter too inconsistent with the peaceful pursuits of improvement; and to behold the feet of a good man, though a weak king, tied under a horse's belly, and dragged in derision through the streets of London, to the Tower, where he was afterwards murdered, cannot be gratifying to the polished and humane consideration of a more enlightened period.

In 1473, the present mode of electing the chief magistrate and sheriffs took place, and respectability, virtue, and wisdom, seem to have resumed their power; the police was improved, and Sir William Hampton, the lord mayor, finding that, from the incsease of offenders, the stocks erected in the place now occupied by the Mansion House, were not sufficient, ordered addititional ones to be erected in every ward.

About this period, the valuable and important art of printing was introduced by Mr. William Caxton, citizen and mercer, who is justly ranked among the most eminent benefactors of his country *.

The

His fifty-sixth year had elapsed before he applied to the printing business; but such was his zeal, application, and perseverance, that he acquired, at grete charge and dispense," to use his own words, so complete a knowledge of the new and admired art of typography, that he actually printed, A. D. 1471, at Cologn, a book which he had translated from French into English, entitled, The Recule of the Histories of Troye. He came over to England the year after, and brought with him this and other printed books, as specimens of his skill in the Under the patronage of Thomas Milling, abbot of Westminster, he set a press to work, A. D. 1473, in the Almonry of Westminster Abbey, where he produced, in March 1474, a little book, which he translated from the French, called "The Game at Chess:" and this is

art.

the

The year 1476 was productive of an additional improvement in the city, through the patriotic endeavour of Sir Ralph Joceline, lord mayor. This public spirited magistrate obtained an act of common council for repairing the city walls with brick, made of earth, tempered and burnt in Moorfields; the expence to be defrayed by a weekly asses ment of six-pence per head on the inhabitants of the several parishes. Knowing the powerful influence of example, he prevailed with his own company, the Drapers, to undertake and finish the portion between Bishopsgate and Allhallows on the Wall, as far as Moorgate; the Skinners undertook the portion between Aldgate and Bevies Marks; the executors of Sir John Crosby repaired a fourth part; and the other companies completed the wall as far as Cripplegate and Aldersgate: Sir Ralph also in his mayoralty corrected the bakers and victuallers. Indeed, this seems to have been a year of benefactions; for we find that Richard Rawson, one of the sheriffs," bequeathed considerable sums to the prisons, lazar-houses, and hospitals, for the relief of the poor, and for the preservation of the highways and water-conduits, besides three hundred and forty pounds to portion out a certain number of poor maidens in marriage."

Edward's government, towards its conclusion, was stained with the gro sest enormities and excesses. The reign of Edward V. or rather the tyranny of his depraved uncle Richard, whose crimes were without remorse, and whose cruelty was unaccompanied by pity, is scarcely a subject for the historian of London; except to relate the conduct of

the first book ever printed in England. His second production was a translation by the earl of Rivers, of a collection of the Dicta Philosophorum, a fair copy of which translation, is said to be preserved in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, embellished with an illuminated drawing, which represents the Earl introducing Caxton to Edward IV. his queen, and the prince; an engraved copy of which, the late Earl of Oxford, prefixed as a frontispiece to his Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors. From this period to that of his death in 1491, Caxton applied himself fọ indefatigably to the work of translating and printing, that he published about fifty books, some of them very large volumes, and many of them his own productions. BIOG. BRIT. ART. CAXTON.

VOL. I. No. 5.

a chief

a chief magistrate, Sir Edmund Shaw, who proselyted himself on the side of usurpation; and was base enough to engage his brother, an eminent clergyman at that time, to delude the public by his sermon at Paul's Cross, with the opinion that the late king and his brothers were the illegitimate offspring of the Duke of York, and that the present uncle and protector of the young king and his brother, was the only true and legitimate heir of the house of York. This harangue, however, was received by the populace with the contempt it deserved. But Richard had proceeded too far in the road of blood to recede from his villainous purpose: what could not be accomplished at St. Paul's Cross by preaching, was contrived at Guildhall, by the Duke of Buckingham; and in consequence of some of the rabble crying out, "God save king Richard," a solemn farce was succeeded by one of the bloodiest tragedies which stains the page of history, and excites the wonder of posterity. The salutary laws which Richard passed after his assumption of the crown, are not to be attributed to any innate principle of humanity or justice; they were the effect of fear and apprehension; for the tyrant, on examining his exchequer, found it exhausted; the consolation afforded by his conscience was very slender; and all that he beheld inspired doubt and suspicion. Under such circumstances, to resort to a tax, under the denomination of a benevolence, which proved oppressive, and the employment of persons to exact it, who executed their commission despotically, sufficiently cooled the wavering minds of the citizens; and as they ever had considered his advancement to the throne with horror, they more readily countenanced his rival Henry, Earl of Richmond. The death of Richard in Bosworth Field was not lamented; and the Earl of Richmond was joyfully received by the citizens, as their future monarch, by the title of Henry VII.

This king, was not of a conciliatory disposition, and the city of London did not gain much by his selfish and narrowminded government; we must not, however, pass over one act of his prudent liberality; he re-built the royal mansion of Baynard's Castle, which had suffered in the civil wars, and

2

embellished