sale or use; and not for any fishmonger to sell again, under penalty of 201. for each offence; one moiety to the poor of the parish, the other to the prosecutor."

This was the last public act for the benefit of the city, in King William's reign. This monarch died on the 8th of March 1702, in consequence of a fall from his horse. His character has been variously represented; but it cannot be unjust to allow him great vigour of mind, firmness of temper, and intrepidity of spirit. The days of party respecting the pretensions of William and James are now past; and though posterity may justly blame the nephew and son-in-law for dethroning his predecessor, England was certainly under the greatest obligation to William, for his assistance in her struggle for civil and religious liberty, as well as for establishing on her throne a Protestant succession of princes.

The Princess of Denmark, only surviving daughter of James II. being the next Protestant heir to the crown, succeeded William, by the title of Queen Anne. During the last reign she had suffered many persecutions from the king, her brother-in-law, who, it must be confessed, was of a morose, selfish disposition; so much so, as even to treat this princess with personal incivility. Had Anne been urged by a similar disposition she would have deviated from the measures he had pursued against the intrigues of Louis XIV; but possessing a magnanimity to which most of her family were strangers, she repelled her own feelings; and consider. ing only the good of her people, resolved to fulfil William's engagements with her allies; she, however, thought it pru, dent to employ the Earl of Marlborough, who, in conse quence of the late king's jealousy, had been imprisoned on a suspicion of Jacobitism, as her general in prosecuting the campaigns she meditated against the enemy of her kingdoms and of Europe. That her choice was prudent, the event fully declared; for though no advantages were gained to finance, the British name was gloriously resounded to every quarter of the globe.

In the second year of her reign, November 16, 1703, a most dreadful storm of wind made great havock in the city

and suburbs. It began about ten o'clock at night, and continued to rage with the greatest violence till about seven in the morning, when it gradually abated. Upwards of two thousand stacks of chimnies were blown down; the lead on the tops of several churches was rolled up like skins of parchment; at Westminster Abbey, Christ's Hospital, St. Andrew's, Holborn, and many other places, it was carried off from the buildings. The roof of the guard room at Whitehall was carried entirely away. Two new built turrets on the church of St. Mary Aldermary, one of the spires of St. Saviour's, Southwark, and the four pinnacles at St. Michael's, Crooked Lane, were entirely blown down; the vanes and spindles of weathercocks in many other places were bent; several houses near Moorfields were levelled with the ground; as were about twenty other whole houses in the out-parts, with a great number of brick walls, and the gable ends of houses out of number. Twenty-one persons were killed by the fall of the buildings; and about two hundred greatly maimed in the ruins, besides those drowned in the river. The loss sustained by the city of London alone, was estimated at two millions. The damage at sea, however, far exceeded that by land; for, in that dreadful night, twelve men of war were lost, and upwards of eighteen hundred men perished; besides the loss of a great number of merchant ships, computed at a much greater value. All the ships in the river (four excepted) were driven from their moorings, and thrown on shore, between Shadwell and Limehouse, in the greatest confusion. Upwards of four hundred wherries were entirely dashed to pieces; above sixty barges were found driven foul of London Bridge; and as many more sunk or staved between the bridge and Hammersmith. The prospect on the river, as well as on land, afforded a sight equally dismal; and had not the heighth of the storm happened at full flood of a spring tide, the damage might have been much more considerable.

In consequence of the great destruction made among the buildings by this storm, the price of tiles was advanced from

one

one guinea to six pounds per thousand, and pantiles from fifty shillings to ten pounds. Bricklayer's labour was not to be procured for less than five shillings per day. The expences of repairs were so exorbitant, as to cause a general neglect both in landlords and tenants, and a great number of houses were for a considerable time exposed to the inclemency of the weather. Those who found it absolutely necessary to cover in their houses, made use of sail-cloth, tarpaulins or wood, as temporary expedients, till the time for making tiles came round, and the extravagant price of them was abated.

The parliament being at this time sitting, the House of Commons addressed the queen on the melancholy occasion, and promised to assist her in repairing the losses of the navy, by building such a number of other capital ships as her majesty should think necessary; and, in a few days after, she issued a proclamation for a general fast, which was properly observed throughout England on the 19th of January 1704.

An act of common council was passed this year, on the 16th of June, for better regulating the nightly watch. After repealing all former acts it was provided, "That each ward should provide a number of strong, able-bodied men ; and that the deputy and common council of every ward should have power to oblige every person occupying any house, shop, or warehouse, either to watch in person, or to pay for an able-bodied man, to be appointed thereto by the said deputy and common councilmen; and that the said watchmen should be provided with lanthorns and candles, and be well and sufficiently armed with halberts. That one constable in each ward, and the aforesaid number of watchmen so provided and armed, should watch every night in each ward respectively, from nine in the evening till seven in the morning, from Michaelmas to the first of April; and from ten till five from the first of April to Michaelmas." The total number of watchmen appointed, by this act, in different wards amounted to five hundred and eighty-three.

4

The

The years 1705 and 1706 were distinguished by the glorious achievements of the great Duke of Marlborough, against the French; on these, as well as on former occasions, the royal family attended thanksgiving services at St. Paul's cathedral; the colours taken by the duke at the battle of Ramillies were presented by the queen to the city; and the victorious duke, with a great number of the principal nobility, were entertained in a magnificent manner by the lord mayor and aldermen at Vintner's Hall.

On the first of May 1707 the articles of Union with Scotland were confirmed. The events of this year was also productive of a public act, which has extended its force to the present period.

The city had suffered so much by fires, occasioned, as supposed, by the carelessness of servants, that the common council ordered the following resolution to be sent to every house within the city and liberties of London.

"Punishment of Servants occasioning Fires.

"Whereas divers fires often happen by the negligence and carelessness of servants; be it therefore enacted, that if any menial or other servant or servants, through negligence or carelessness, shall fire or cause to be fired any dwelling house, or outhouse or houses, such servant or servants, being therefore lawfully convicted by the oath of one or more credible witness or witnesses, made before two or more of her majesty's justices of the peace, shall forfeit and pay the sum of 100l. unto the churchwardens where the fire shall happen, to be distributed amongst the sufferers by such fire, in such proportions as to the said churchwardens shall seem just; and in default of payment of the said 100l. to be sent to the house of correction, to be kept eighteen months to hard labour.

"And it was at the same time enacted by parliament, that the churchwardens of each parish within the bills of mortality should be empowered, at the charge of their respective parishes, to fix upon the several main water pipes in the streets stop blocks, or fire cocks, and to provide a large

large and a hand engine, with a leathern pipe, and socket to screw upon the fire cock: and that all party walls for the future should be entirely of brick or stone, except the houses on London Bridge."

But this year was also a season of grief to the whole nation, occasioned by the loss of George, Prince of Denmark, the queen's husband. This prince had been created Duke of Cumberland, lord high admiral of Great Britain and Ireland, generalissimo of all her majesty's forces both by sea and land, and warden of the Cinque Ports: he interfered but little in business; lived respected; and died lamented. His corpse was brought from Kensington to the Painted Chamber at Westminster, where it lay in state till the thirteenth of November, when it was privately interred in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, in Westminster Abbey.

A mark of peculiar benevolence distinguishes the year 1709. The malevolence of French persecution having pursued the Protestants of the Palantinate, they were stripped of all the conveniences of life by these marauding planderers of Germany. Twelve thousand of that distressed people found their way to England, and arrived in the month of June in the neighbourhood of London, where they were at first subsisted by her majesty's benevolence; then by the private charity of the nobility, &c. and, finally, the sum of 22,0381. was collected for them upon a brief issued to all parts of the kingdom. With this relief three thousand and upwards were sent to Ireland, six hundred to North and South Carolina, and three thousand five hundred to New York; where they were engaged in the cultivation of that vast continent of America.

London was involved in civil commotion this year, in consequence of the irritation of opposite parties, occasioned by a complaint laid before the house of commons, the result of two sermons* preached and published by the fa

mous

The first of these was preached before the judges at the fummet assizes at Derby, on the 15th of August; and the other before the lord mayor and aldermen, at St. Paul's, on the 5th of November. In the

last