to bring in a bill" for raising a fund for an annual payment to be made in lieu of the debts to the orphans." Leave be ing given, and the bill presented and read, it was ordered to lie on the table; and after being delayed from Friday to Wednesday, and vice versa, till the ensuing February, was finally disposed of. The progress and disappointment were similar in 1692; but the next year exhibited a species of finesse that plainly unravelled the mystery. The bill had passed on in its usual dull routine, from November to January, when the city took an effectual method to obtain this object, by appointing a committee; this committee ordered the chamberlain to issue and pay out such sums as were required, and necessary for promoting their suit. But the city ways and means not keeping pace with those of their superiors, the bill was put off from Saturday till Friday, Tuesday, and thence till the ensuing Saturday; but when another petition of the distressed orphans was presented on Monday, "praying that some expedient might be found for their relief," the Speaker with unusual alacrity, after at least an hundred disappointments, on the following Thursday, moved a committee of the WHOLE HOUSE, to take into consideration the petition of the lord mayor, &c. The motion and report were made in forty-eight hours, and in less than four weeks from the first application, the prayer of the petition was granted, and the bill was passed *.

The magistracy were fortunately no otherwise sufferers in this transaction; the act passed, and could not with propriety be annulled; it was provided, that "all the estates of the city (except those belonging to the hospitals and London Bridge) were charged with raising the annual sum of eight thousand pounds, clear of all deductions, for settling a perpetual fund for paying four pounds per annum interest, for every one hundred pounds due from the city to the said creditors. It was also enacted, that the profits arising from the several aqueducts belonging to the city, should be applied to

The expedient mentioned above, was contained in the Chamberlain's memorandum, as before stated.

wards

wards the payment of the said interest: that the lord mayor, aldermen, and common council might raise two thousand pounds per annum by equal assessments upon the personal estates of the citizens: that the six thousand pounds per annum, paid by the lighters of the convex lamps, should be applied in the same manner: that every apprentice, at his binding, should pay two shillings and six pence; and every person made free, five shillings, towards the said fund: that five shillings be paid for every ton of wine, and four pence extraordinary metage for every chaldron of coals in the port of London, to the said fund: and that after the 29th of September, 1700, the said four pence per chaldron should be raised to six pence, or, if weighable, to six pence per ton, for the term of fifty years."

About this time, the hawkers and pedlars interfered with the retail trade of the city, and the corporation thought the suppression of them a matter deserving attention; the consequence was, an act of common council, by which it was ordained, "That no person should presume to sell any goods or merchandize in any public place within the city, or liberties thereof, except in open markets and fairs, on the penalty of forty shillings. That all citizens buying goods of such persons, should forfeit the like sum: and that every citizen who should suffer hawkers or pedlars to expose their goods to sale in their respective houses, should forfeit the sum of forty shillings for each offence."

The hawkers and pedlars, in order to evade this act, carried their goods to the public markets; which occasioned another act of common council, which declared, "That no person or persons whatever, whether free or not free of the eity, shall sell or expose to sale in the public markets, or any ground belonging to them, within the city or liberties, any mercery wares, lace or linen, grocery or confectionary wares, glass or earthen wares, toys or any such like commodities, or merchandizes, which are sold in open shops or warehouses of the freemen of this city, and liberties thereof, upon pain to forfeit and pay, for every such offence, the sum of three pounds, with costs of suit, if prosecuted within fourteen

5

fourteen days, in the name of the chamberlain, in the ford mayor's court; one moiety of which to be converted to the use of Saint Thomas's Hospital, and the other to the prosecutor."

This year is memorable for the establishment of the bank of England.

In the year 1695, the apothecaries of the city of London were exempted from the offices of constable, scavenger, overseer of the poor, and from other parish, ward, and leet offices, and of and from serving upon any juries or inquests.

The discontent of the citizens concerning the mode of election, not having subsided, it was necessary to resort to some legal provisions, by which future inconveniences might be avoided; for this purpose, by an act of common council, on the twenty-first of June, it was declared, "That the right for assembling common halls for the election of lord mayor, sheriffs, and other public officers for the city, is and ought to be in the lord mayor for the time being; that the right of taking a poll and scrutiny, and of adjourning the hall from time to time, till the same shall be concluded, shall be in the sheriffs: but that if the sheriffs disagree, so as to impede the completing of a poll or scrutiny, and refuse to observe the orders sent to them on that occasion by the lord mayor, to put an end to the difference, his lordship may proceed himself in granting and taking the poll and scrutiny, and in adjourning the hall, until the election shall be finally determined.

The year 1696 was remarkable for the redress against farmers of markets.

The market people having exhibited a complaint to the lord mayor and common council against the farmers of the city markets for various abuses committed by them, a committee appointed to enquire into the cause of that complaint did on the 29th of July report, "that the farmers of Leadenhall, Stocks, Honey Lane, and Newgate markets, were guilty of arbitrary and extravagant proceedings, whereby they had extorted an annual rent of 10,896l. 9s. 10d. per ann. for stalls and fines, amounting to 21947. ls. 6d.

from

from the present tenants, and thereby had forfeited their leases. And divers suits being, by virtue of this report, commenced against the farmers, the court of King's Bench awarded the case to the arbitration of Sir Nathan Wright and Sir Bartholomew Shower, serjeants at law, who awarded, "that the said farmers should return the several sums of money unjustly extorted by them, and that for the future every thing to remain according to the regulation made by the common council."

A measure very beneficial to the city occurred in the year 1697. From time immemorial it had been customary to grant the privilege of sanctuary to religious foundations, by which it was held sacrilegious to seize any one who had sought refuge in these monastic precincts; those however who applied for this refuge usually gave up their goods and chattels into the possession of the abbot or other superior, to whom they likewise confessed that their intentions were not fraudulent, and that the steps then taken were only to gain time with their creditors, &c. that such means should be used as might be advantageous to all parties. However humane this privilege might have been in the first instance, it had become a subterfuge for those whose intentions were dishonest, and whose practices consisted in fraud; the places which had been considered merely as protections for the necessitous, became receptacles for lawless debtors, who, to the great prejudice of the community, took refuge, and defended themselves against all justice and public authority. These inconveniencies were become so enormous as to attract the attention of government; to accomplish reformation against such nuisances, the parliament passed an act," For the more effectual relief of creditors in cases of escapes, and for preventing abuses in prisons and pretended privileged places."

By this act the following places of supposed privilege were suppressed, viz. that in the Minories; those in and near Fleet Street, as Salisbury Court, White Friars, Ram Alley, and Mitre Court ;-in Holborn, Fullwood's Rents, and Baldwin's Gardens in Gray's Inn Lane ;---the Savoy in VOL. I. No. 13. Rr

the

the Strand ;--in Southwark, Montague Close, Deadman's Place, the Clink, and the Mint. The last place, however, (the Mint) was afterwards suffered to spring up again in a more violent manner than before the passing of this act; nor was it finally suppressed till the reign of king George the First.

A very useful regulation also paffed, respecting the Cloth market at Blackwell Hall; by which it was enacted, "That the public market of Blackwell Hall shall be held every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, from eight to twelve in the forenoon, and from two to five in the afternoon, except on days of humiliation and thanksgiving; and the keepers not to admit buying or selling of any woollen cloth at the said hall upon any other days or hours than aforesaid, upon the penalty of 100%."

On the 5th of January 1698, through the carelessness of a laundress, the greatest part of Whitehall Palace was destroyed by fire; the whole body of the principal fabric, the council chamber, and several adjoining offices, were entirely consumed; and it was with the greatest difficulty that the Banqueting House escaped the conflagration.

The public were benefited in the ensuing year by an act of parliament, which had constituted the market at Billingsgate to be an open and free place of sale for fish, six days in the week, and on Sundays for mackarel, to be sold before and after divine service. It was also enacted,

"That all persons buying any fish in the said market, may sell the same again in any other market or place within London, or elsewhere, by retail, being sound and wholesome fish: except that none but fishmongers shall sell in public or fixed shops or houses.

"And that no person shall employ or be employed by any other person, in buying at Billingsgate, any quantity of fish to be divided by lots or in shares, amongst any fishmongers or others, to be afterwards sold by retail or otherwise; nor shall any fishmonger engross, or buy in the said market any quantity of fish but what shall be for his own

sale