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nevertheless, with some hesitation, rejected; but the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, with the cordial sanction of the Court of Court of Common Council, deputed one of the members to represent their complaints to the King. The Alderman executed his trust so emphatically in the presence of the Protector himself, that he was fain to yield to the powerful combination against him, and was soon after committed by his opponents to the Tower; to which place he was conducted by the citizens in a manner savouring very much of triumph.

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"Several of the City Corporations being possessed of lands given by Papists to superstitious uses, they were now by Act of Parliament suppressed and appropriated to the King's use, to the amount of one thousand pounds per annum, which were purchased by the several Companies of London at the dear rate of twenty years' purchase; and for the payment thereof some of the said Corporations, to their great loss, were obliged to dispose of other lands at fourteen and sixteen years' purchase + (almost tantamount to making them purchase their own estates)."

This ingenious device of robbing the Companies, shows pretty plainly the nature of some of the men who were our leaders at the Reformation. Had the advice attributed to Cranmer of * Norton, p. 197. + Maitland, p. 241.

appropriating the forfeited ecclesiastical property to the purposes of national education been followed, it is difficult to overestimate the public good that might have resulted-the grasping avarice of the King and his courtiers defeated this beneficent project.

"The King having borrowed a large sum of money of Anthony Fugger and Co., Bankers, in Antwerp, the Lord Mayor and citizens of London were jointly bound with His Majesty for the payment thereof; and Edward granted to Sir Andrew Judd, the Mayor, a Recognizance to indemnify him and the Commonalty of the City."*

MARY.

1553 TO 1558.

Ar the Coronation of Mary, the Mayor and twelve Aldermen officiated as butlers, and the Mayor, as usual, received a golden cup and ewer as his fee.

"In the progress of Wyatt's rebellion, Queen Mary had great reason to apprehend the entire defection of the City. This occasioned her such alarm, that, on the news of Wyatt's approach, she * Maitland, p. 247.

suddenly repaired to the Guildhall, where she was met by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and chief of the City Companies. She then addressed the citizens in a very conciliatory harangue, which had the good effect of preserving their allegiance ; on which, at this crisis, it appeared very evident that the stability of her throne altogether depended."

The Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas White, Merchant Taylor, (a connexion of Sir Oliver Cromwell, of Hinchinbrook) in 1553, founded St. John's College, Oxford; erected schools at Bristol, Reading, and Higham Ferrers, and left extensive charities to benefit about twenty of the largest towns.

ELIZABETH.

1558 TO 1602.

IN allusion to the popularity of Queen Elizabeth, Mr. Mark Lemon has written: "The church bells were rung on the anniversary of Elizabeth's birthday as late as the time of Charles II.—a compliment paid to no other sovereign." It may be added that the number of inscriptions in the London churches to her memory is equally without example.

*Norton, p. 198.

In Cheap Ward alone we find there were one placed in St. Pancras, Soper Lane; one in St. Mildred, Poultry; and one in St. Lawrence, Jewry.

"The unlimited authority which Henry VIII. had on so many important occasions exercised was fresh in the recollection of Elizabeth and of her submissive people; and she possessed too haughty a nature to resign more of it than the circumstances of the times were calculated to wrest gradually from her hands. Throughout her reign she laboured to rule rather by prerogatives than by law and was notoriously disinclined to Parliaments.

"The prerogatives which throughout this reign were most hostile to the just liberty of the subject may be shortly summed up. Elizabeth had continual recourse to the jurisdiction of the Star Chamber a jurisdiction altogether unlimited and undefined in its extent, its process, its mode of trial, and its judgments.* The Court of High Commissions, established on her sole authority, for the trial of all offences in matters of religion, that is, all aberrations in faith from one arbitrary standard as well as many moral transgressions deemed of ecclesiastical cognizance, was an inquisition in its worst sense. It was discretionary in all its powers both of investigation and punishment. Martial law

*Not without some resemblance to certain 'Select' Committees, that have been heard of in the nineteenth century.

was frequently ordered to be put in force upon all offenders whom the Queen determined to consider as promoting disorders or mutiny in the government. But of all the privileges assumed by the Crown in this age, none were more prejudicial to the national interests, or more offensive to the body of the people, than the power of dispensing with, and even indirectly enacting, laws by royal proclamations, and that of granting exclusive monopolies to favourites and purchasers by royal patents.

"Under such a dynasty, it is apparent that the condition of the people must have depended altogether on the accidental qualities of the ruler; and these it must be acknowledged were, in regard to Elizabeth, of a description eminently successful in promoting her own prosperity and that of her subjects. Frugal in the highest degree in her expenditure, both public and private, and cautiously abstaining from all unnecessary wars, she avoided that common stumbling-block to the authority of monarchs occasioned by burthensome taxation.* Sagacious in the choice of wise ministers, she maintained through their agency that just equilibrium between popular concession and coercive

*It was a saying of Queen Elizabeth, that "her purse was the pockets of her people: " but on one occasion she sold many of her private demesnes, and even her crown jewels, to support a necessary war.

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