The Merchant Taylors have for their armorial ensigns-Argent, a tent royal between two parliament robes; gules, lined ermine, on a chief azure, a lion of England. Crest-a Holy Lamb, in glory proper. Supporters-two camels, or. Motto -"Concordia parvæ res crescunt."

The stained glass windows of the old St. Martin Outwich, as engraven in Wilkinson's history of that church, contain a representation of the original arms, granted by Clarencieux in 1480. They differ from the present (granted in 1586), the latter having a lion instead of the Holy Lamb (which is in the body of the first arms), and which latter is now their crest.

One of the most splendid sights at this hall in the earlier times would have been (says Herbert), of course, when the Company received the high honour of enrolling King Henry VII. amongst their members; and subsequently to which, "he sat openly among them in a gown of crimson velvet on his shoulders," says Strype, "à la mode de Londres, upon their solemn feast day, in the hall of the said Company."

The modern Merchant Taylors' Hall (says Her- needful, with tables on tressels, covered on feast bert) is a spacious but irregular edifice of brick. days with splendid table linen, and glittering with The front exhibits an arched portal, consisting of plate. an arched pediment, supported on columns of the Composite order, with an ornamental niche above; in the pediment are the Company's arms. The hall itself is a spacious and handsome apartment, having at the lower end a stately screen of the Corinthian order, and in the upper part a very large mahogany table thirty feet long. The sides of the hall have numerous emblazoned shields of masters' arms, and behind the master's seat are inscribed in golden letters the names of the different sovereigns, dukes, earls, lords spiritual and temporal, &c., who have been free of this community. In the drawing-room are full-length portraits of King William and Queen Mary, and other sovereigns; and in the court and other rooms are half-lengths of Henry VIII. and Charles II., of tolerable execution, besides various other portraits, amongst which are those of Sir Thomas White, Lord Mayor in 1553, the estimable founder of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Sir Thomas Rowe, Lord Mayor in 1568, and Mr. Clarkson's picture of Henry VII. presenting the Company with their incorporation charter. In this painting the king is represented seated on his throne, and delivering the charter to the Master, Wardens, and Court of Assistants of the Company. His attendants are Archbishop Warham, the Chancellor, and Fox, Bishop of Winchester, Lord Privy Seal, on his right hand; and on his left, Robert Willoughby, Lord Broke, then Lord Steward of the Household. In niches are shown the statues of Edward III. and John of Gaunt, the king's ancestors. In the foreground the clerk of the Company is exhibiting the roll with the names of the kings, &c., who were free of this Company. In the background are represented the banners of the Company and of the City of London. The Yeomen of the Guard, at the en-in Threadneedle Street, was begun in 1830 by Mr. trance of the palace, close the view. On the staircase are likewise pictures of the following Lord Mayors, Merchant Taylors :-Sir William Turner, 1669; Sir P. Ward, 1681; Sir William Pritchard, 1683; and Sir John Salter, 1741.

From Merchant Taylors' Hall began the famous cavalcade of the archers, under their leader, as "Duke of Shoreditch," in 1530, consisting of 3,000 archers, sumptuously apparelled, 942 whereof wore chains of gold about their necks. This splendid company was guarded by whifflers and billmen, to the number of 4,000, besides pages and footmen, who marched through Broad Street, the residence of the duke, their captain. They continued their march through Moorfields, by Finsbury, to Smithfield, where, after having performed their several evolutions, they shot at the target for glory.

The Hall of Commerce, existing some years ago

Edward Moxhay, a speculative biscuit-baker, on the site of the old French church. Mr. Moxhay had been a shoemaker, but he suddenly started as a rival to the celebrated Leman, in Gracechurch Street. He was an amateur architect of talent, and The interior of the "New Hall, or Taylors' Inne," it was said at the time, probably unjustly, that the was adorned with costly tapestry, or arras, repre- building originated in Moxhay's vexation at the senting the history of St. John the Baptist. It had Gresham committee rejecting his design for a new a screen, supporting a silver image of that saint in Royal Exchange. He opened his great coma tabernacle, or, according to an entry of 1512, mercial news-room two years before the Exchange an ymage of St. John gilt, in a tabernacle gilt." was finished, and while merchants were fretting at The hall windows were painted with armorial bear- the delay, intending to make the hall a mercantile ings; the floor was regularly strewed with clean centre, to the annihilation of Lloyd's, the Baltic, rushes; from the ceiling hung silk flags and Garraway's, the Jerusalem, and the North and South streamers; and the hall itself was furnished, when | American Coffee-houses. £70,000 were laid out.

in few words. I went to school, forsooth, both at Polle's and also at St. Antonie's; (was) in the fifth forme, past Esop's Fables, readd Terence, Vos isthac intro auferte; and began with my Virgil, Tityre tu patula. I could say my rules, could construe and pars with the best of them," &c.

In Elizabeth's reign "the Anthony's pigs," as the "Paul's pigeons" used to call the Threadneedle boys, used to have an annual breaking-up day procession, with streamers, flags, and beating drums, from Mile End to Austin Friars. The French or Walloon church established here by Edward VI. seems, in 1652, to have been the scene of constant

A describer of Threadneedle Street in 1845 particularly mentions amongst the few beggars the Creole flower-girls, the decayed ticket-porters, and cripples on go-carts who haunted the neighbour-wrangling among the pastors, as to whether their hood, a poor, shrivelled old woman, who sold fruit on a stall at a corner of one of the courts. She was the wife of Daniel Good, the murderer.

disputes about celebrating holidays should be settled by" colloquies" of the foreign churches in London, or the French churches of all England. At this school were educated the great Sir Thomas More, and that excellent Archbishop of Canterbury, the zealous Whitgift (the friend of Beza, the Reformer), whose only fault seems to have been his persecutions of the Genevese clergy whom Elizabeth disliked.

The Baltic Coffee House, in Threadneedle Street, used to be the rendezvous of tallow, oil, hemp, and seed merchants; indeed, of all merchants and brokers connected with the Russian trade. There was a time when there was as much gambling in tallow as in Consols, but the breaking down of the Russian monopoly by the increased introduc- Next in importance to Lloyd's for the general tion of South American and Australian tallow has information afforded to the public, was certainly the done away with this. Mr. Richard Thornton and North and South American Coffee House (formerly Mr. Jeremiah Harman were the two monarchs of situated in Threadneedle Street), fronting the the Russian trade forty years ago. The public sale- thoroughfare leading to the entrance of the Royal room was in the upper part of the house. The Exchange. This establishment was the complete Baltic was superintended by a committee of centre for American intelligence. There was in management.

this, as in the whole of the leading City coffee

That famous free school of the City, St. An-houses, a subscription room devoted to the use of thony's, stood in Threadneedle Street, where the French church afterwards stood, and where the Bank of London now stands. It was originally a Jewish synagogue, granted by Henry V. to the brotherhood of St. Anthony of Vienna. A hospital was afterwards built there for a master, two priests, a schoolmaster, and twelve poor men. The Free School seems to have been built in the reign of Henry VI., who gave five presentations to Eton and five Oxford scholarships, at the rate of ten francs a week each, to the institution. Henry VIII., that arch spoliator, annexed the school to the collegiate church of St. George's, Windsor. The proctors of St. Anthony's used to wander about London collecting "the benevolence of charitable persons towards the building." The school had great credit in Elizabeth's reign, and was a rival of St. Paul's. That inimitable coxcomb, Laneham, in his description of the great visit of Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Leicester, at Kenilworth Castle, 1575, a book which Sir Walter Scott has largely availed himself of, says " Yee mervail perchance," saith he, "to see me so bookish. Let me tel you

merchants and others frequenting the house, who,
by paying an annual sum, had the right of attend-
ance to read the general news of the day, and
make reference to the several files of papers, which
were from every quarter of the globe. It was here
also that first information could be obtained of the
arrival and departure of the fleet of steamers,
packets, and masters engaged in the commerce of
America, whether in relation to the minor ports of
Montreal and Quebec, or the larger ones of Boston,
Halifax, and New York. The room which the sub-
scribers occupied had a separate entrance to that
which was common to the frequenters of the eating
and drinking part of the house, and was most com-
fortably and neatly kept, being well and in some
degree elegantly furnished. The heads of the chief
American and Continental firms were on the sub-
scription list; and the representatives of Baring's,
Rothschild's, and the other large establishments
celebrated for their wealth and extensive mercan-
tile operations, attended the rooms as regularly as
'Change, to see and hear what was going on, and
gossip over points of business.

At the north-east extremity of Threadneedle Sea Company offered to melt every kind of stock Street is the once famous South Sea House. The into a single security. The debt amounted to back, formerly the Excise Office, afterwards the £30,981,712 at five per cent. for seven years, and South Sea Company's office, thence called the Old afterwards at four per cent, for which they would South Sea House, was consumed by fire in 1826. The pay £3,500,000. The Government approved of building in Threadneedle Street, in which the Com- the scheme, but the Bank of England opposed pany's affairs were formerly transacted, is a magnifi- it, and offered £5,000,000 for the privilege. The cent structure of brick and stone, about a quadrangle, South Sea shareholders were not to be outdone, supported by stone pillars of the Tuscan order, and ultimately increased their terms to £7,500,000. which form a fine piazza. The front looks into In the end they remained the sole bidders; Threadneedle Street, the walls being well built and though some idea prevailed of sharing the advantage of great thickness. The several offices were ad- between the two companies, till Sir John Blount mirably disposed; the great hall for sales, the exclaimed, "No, sirs, we'll never divide the child!” dining-room, galleries, and chambers, were equally The preference thus given excited a positive frenzy beautiful and convenient. Under these were capa- in town and country. On the 2nd of June their cious arched vaults, to guard what was valuable stock rose to 890; it quickly reached 1,000, and from the chances of fire. several of the principal managers were dubbed baronets for their "great services." Mysterious rumours of vast treasures to be acquired in the South Seas got abroad, and 50 per cent. was boldly promised.

The South Sea Company was originated by Swift's friend, Harley, Earl of Oxford, in the year 1711. The new Tory Government was less popular than the Whig one it had displaced, and public credit had fallen. Harley wishing to provide for the discharge of ten millions of the floating debt, guaranteed six per cent. to a company who agreed to take it on themselves. The £600,000 due for the annual interest was raised by duties on wines, silks, tobacco, &c.; and the monopoly of the trade to the South Seas granted to the ambitious new Company, which was incorporated by Act of Parliament.

"The scheme," says Smollett, "was first projected by Sir John Blount, who had been bred a scrivener, and was possessed of all the cunning, plausibility, and boldness requisite for such an undertaking. He communicated his plan to Mr. Aislebie, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a Secretary of State. He answered every objection, and the project was adopted."

Sir Robert Walpole alone opposed the bill in the House, and with clear-sighted sense (though the stock had risen from 130 to 300 in one day) denounced "the dangerous practice of stock-jobbing, and the general infatuation, which must," he said,

To the enthusiastic Company the gold of Mexico and the silver of Peru seemed now obtainable by the ship-load. It was reported that Spain was willing to open four ports in Chili and Peru. The negotiations, however, with Philip V. of Spain led"end in general ruin." Rumours of free trade to little. The Company obtained only the privilege of supplying the Spanish colonies with negro slaves for thirty years, and sending an annual vessel to trade; but even of this vessel the Spanish king was to have one-fourth of the profits, and a tax of five per cent. on the residue. The first vessel did not sail till 1717, and the year after a rupture with Spain closed the trade.

In 1717, the King alluding to his wish to reduce the National Debt, the South Sea Company at once petitioned Parliament (in rivalry with the Bank) that their capital stock might be increased from ten millions to twelve, and offered to accept five, instead of six per cent. upon the whole amount. Their proposals were accepted.

The success of Law's Mississippi scheme, in 1720, roused the South Sea directory to emulation. They proposed to liquidate the public debt by reducing the various funds into one. January 22, 1720, a committee met on the subject. The South

with Spain pushed the shares up to 400, and the bill passed the Commons by a majority of 172 against 55. In the other House, 17 peers were against it, and 83 for it. Then the madness fairly began. Stars and garters mingled with squabbling Jews, and great ladies pawned their jewels in order to gamble in the Alley. The shares sinking a little, they were revived by lying rumours that Gibraltar and Port Mahon were going to be exchanged for Peruvian sea-ports, so that the Company would be allowed to send out whole fleets of ships.

Government, at last alarmed, began too late to act. On July 18 the King published a proclamation denouncing eighteen petitions for letters patent and eighty-six bubble companies, of which the fol lowing are samples :

For sinking pits and smelting lead ore in Derbyshire.
For making glass bottles and other glass.
For a wheel for perpetual motion. Capital £1,000,000.
For improving of gardens.

For improving the wrought iron and steel manufactures of this kingdom. Capital £4,000,000.

For dealing in lace, Hollands, cambrics, lawns, &c. Capital £2,000,000.

of the "Globe Permits," as they were called. They were nothing more than square pieces of playing cards, on which was the impression of a seal, in wax, bearing the sign of the "Globe Tavern," in the neighbourhood of Exchange Alley, with the inscription of "Sail-cloth Permits." The possessors enjoyed no other advantage from them than permission to subscribe at some future time to a new sail-cloth manufactory, projected by one who was then known to be a man of fortune, but who was afterwards involved in the peculation and punish

For trading in and improving certain commodities of the ment of the South Sea directors. These permits produce of this kingdom, &c. Capital £3,000,000.

For supplying the London markets with cattle. For making looking-glasses, coach-glasses, &c. £2,000,000.

For taking up ballast.

Capital

For buying and fitting out ships to suppress pirates.
For the importation of timber from Wales. Capital

£2,000,000.

For rock-salt.

sold for as much as sixty guineas in the Alley. During the infatuation (says Smollett), luxury, vice, and profligacy increased to a shocking degree; the adventurers, intoxicated by their imaginary wealth, pampered themselves with the rarest dainties and the most costly wines. They purchased the most sumptuous furniture, equipage, and apparel,

For the transmutation of quicksilver into a malleable, fine though with no taste or discernment. Their

metal.

criminal passions were indulged to a scandalous excess, and their discourse evinced the most disgusting pride, insolence, and ostentation. They affected to scoff at religion and morality, and even to set Heaven at defiance.

A journalist of the time writes: "Our South Sea equipages increase daily; the City ladies buy South Sea jewels, hire South Sea maids, take new country South Sea houses; the gentlemen set up South Sea coaches, and buy South Sea estates. They neither examine the situation, the nature or quality of the soil, or price of the purchase, only the annual rent and title; for the rest, they take all by the lump, and pay forty or fifty years' purchase!"

One of the most famous bubbles was "Puckle's Machine Company," for discharging round and square cannon-balls and bullets, and making a total revolution in the art of war. "But the most absurd and preposterous of all," says Charles Mackay, in his "History of the Delusion," "and which showed more completely than any other the utter madness of the people, was one started by an unknown adventurer, entitled, 'A Company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is. Were not the fact stated by scores of credible witnesses, it would be impossible to believe that any person could have been duped by such a project. The man of genius who essayed this bold and successful inroad upon public credulity merely stated in his prospectus that the required capital was £500,000, in 5,000 shares of £100 each, deposit £2 per share. Each subscriber paying his deposit would be entitled to £100 per annum per share. How this immense profit was to be obtained he did not condescend to inform them at the time, but promised that in a month full particulars should be duly announced, and a call made for the remaining £98 of the subscription. Next morning, at nine o'clock, this great man opened an office in Cornhill. Crowds of people beset his door; and when he shut up at The reaction soon commenced. Many governthree o'clock he found that no less than 1,000 shares ment annuitants complained of the directors' parhad been subscribed for, and the deposits paid. tiality in making out the subscription lists. It was He was thus in five hours the winner of £2,000. soon reported that Sir John Blount, the chairman, He was philosopher enough to be contented with and several directors had sold out. The stock fell his venture, and set off the same evening for the all through August, and on September 2nd was Continent. He was never heard of again." quoted at 700 only. Things grew alarming. The Another fraud that was very successful was that directors, to restore confidence, summoned a meet

By the end of May, the whole stock had risen. to 550. It then, in four days, made a tremendous leap, and rose to 890. It was now thought impossible that it could rise higher, and many prudent persons sold out to make sure of their spoil. Many of these were noblemen about to accompany the king to Hanover. The buyers were so few on June 3rd, that stock fell at once, like a plummet, from 890 to 640. The directors ordering their agents to still buy, confidence was restored, and the stock rose to 750. By August, the stock culminated at 1,000 per cent., or, as Dr. Mackay observes, "the bubble was then full blown."