We have seen how the Franciscans became pedlars,

"Thai dele with purses, pynnes and knyves,
With girdles, gloves for wenches, and wyves."

In

The hawker of London was not exactly the same as the hawker of the country. the first place, it is evident that the City disliked his setting up a stall outside the markets or the streets where special things were sold; the companies still exercised the power of regulating trade; there was still the old jealousy which would not allow one trader to sell things belonging to another company. But the object of hawkers was to sell everything wanted for the daily life; like the Franciscan, he would not only sell mercery but also cutlery. This kind of hawker was effectually

banished from the City, even though shopkeepers had now begun to mix up various companies and crafts in the same counter. The London hawker was reduced to selling one thing, and one thing only. In all the pictures of the street cries we find the hawker engaged in crying one thing for sale; he offered to catch rats, or sold sand, small coal, boot laces, door-mats, baskets, sausages, and so on, whatever was wanted for everyday use and could not be found in the shops.

The hawkers of 1695, since they could not set up stalls or sell in the streets, tried to force an entrance into the markets. Upon which the Council laid down the law that the markets were not to be used as a place of sale for goods sold in the shops or warehouses of Freemen of the City. This important Act, which continued in force until the nineteenth century, should be quoted :-

"Whereas by the Laws, Customs, and antient Usages of the City of London, confirmed by Parliament, every shop and warehouse within the said City, and Liberties of the same, having open shew into any Streets and Lanes thereof, have, Time-out-of-Mind, been known and accustomed to be, and in very deed is an open and Publick Market Place for Persons free of the said City, for every Day of the Week, except Sundays, for Shew and Sale of Wares and Merchandizes, within the said City and Liberties thereof:

And whereas all other publick Markets within this City, and the Liberties of the same, that is to say, Leadenhall-Market, the Green-Yard or Herb-Market, Stocks-Market, Honey-Lane-Market, NewgateMarket, and all other such like Markets, were and are appointed and ordained. by the Laws and Constitutions of this City, to be held and used upon particular and certain Days only in the Week, and on certain Hours of such Days, as open Markets for all Foreigners and Freemen and Women to use and resort unto for Sale of Flesh, Fish, Butter, Cheese, Eggs, Fruit, Herbs, Roots, and such like Victuals and Food, for the Support and Sustenance of the Citizens and other Inhabitants of the said City and Liberties of the same; and were not appointed for any other Use or Purpose whatsoever, save for the Sale of Raw Hides, Tanned Leather, Tallow and Wool, as appears by the Laws and Orders of the Court of Alderinen and Common Council, for regulating the same:

But nevertheless, for Want of due Encouragement, in the Execution thereof, several Hawkers, Pedlars, and Petty Chapmen and others, contrary to the said Constitution and proper Use and Intention of the said Markets, do now come to the said Markets, and there sell and expose to Sale Mercery Wares, Lace, Linen, Grocery Wares, Confectionery Wares, Drapery Wares, Millinery Wares, Glass and Earthen Wares, Ironmongers' Wares, Braziers' Wares, Turners' Wares, Hosiers' Wares, Cutlers' Wares, Tin Wares, Toys, and other Wares and Merchandizes, and such like Commodities, which, by the Usage and Customs of this City ought only to be sold in the Shops and Warehouses of the Freemen of this City, and Liberties of the same; by Reason whereof the publick Markets and Market-places appointed only for the sale of Victuals, Food, Herbs, Roots, Raw Hides, Tanned Leather, Tallow and Wool, as before-mentioned, are become incumbered and made inconvenient for the exposing the same to sale, and the Prices of Victuals much enhanced thereby, and the Trades used to be exercised in the Shops and Warehouses in the said. City and Liberties thereof are much hindered and decayed, to the great Prejudice and Damage of the Citizens of the City:

Now, for the effectual preventing and suppressing the said Mischiefs for the Time to come, be it enacted and ordained, by the Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council assembled, and it is hereby enacted by the said Court, and by the Authority of the same, That from and after the twenty-fifth Day of December, now next ensuing, no Person or Persons whatsoever, whether free or not free of this City, shall sell or expose to Sale in the said publick Markets called Leadenhall-Market, the Green-Yard or Herb-Market, Stocks-Market, Honey-Lane-Market, Newgate-Market, or in any other such like Market or Market-Grounds thereunto belonging, within this City and Liberties of the same, any Mercery Wares, Lace and Linen, Grocery or Confectionery Wares, Ironmongers' Wares, Braziers' Wares, Hosiers' Wares, Cutlers' Wares, Tin Wares, Drapery Wares, Millinery Wares, Glass or Earthen Wares, Toys, or any such like Commodities or Merchandizes, which are sold in the open Shops or Warehouses of the Freemen of this City, and Liberties thereof, upon Pain to forfeit and pay for every such Offence (by him, her, or them committed or done to the contrary), the Sum of three Pounds of lawful Money of England, to be sued for and recovered, with reasonable Costs of Suit, by Action or Actions of Debt, to be brought and prosecuted within fourteen Days after such Offence or Offences shall be committed, in the name of the Chamberlain of this City for the Time being, in the open Court holden before the Lord-Mayor and Aldermen of the said City.

Which said Sum or Sums of Money, so forfeited and recovered from Time to Time (the necessary Charges for the Recovery thereof being first deducted), shall be to the Uses, and disposed of as followeth : That is to say, one Moiety thereof to be paid and delivered to the Treasurer of St. Thomas's Hospital, to be employed towards the Relief of the Poor, Sick and Maimed, provided for and maintained in the said Hospital: And the other Moiety to him or them that shall and doth prosecute and sue for the same (in . Manner as aforesaid) from Time to Time: Any Law, Custom or Usage contrary thereof notwithstanding."

In 1695 we hear of the first indications that the Jacobite party was still strong in the City as elsewhere. It was on the 10th of June, the birthday of the Prince of Wales, that a number of Jacobites assembled in a tavern of Drury Lane, where they proceeded to drink the health of the Prince. Thence they went out into the streets with drums and flags and insisted upon everybody's drinking the same toast. It was a time when the people could not wait for the interference of the police, because there were none; they were obliged to act for themselves, and often acted in a more efficient manner than any police. On this occasion they poured out into the streets, armed, and with one consent set upon the Jacobites, put them to flight, took one prisoner, and sacked the tavern. In the same year we read of another Jacobite ebullition when, the King being abroad carrying on the war with France, a man rode through the streets crying aloud that King William was dead: an adventure which might have done great mischief. The King, who was not dead after all, returned in October. Then occurred the assassination plot. He was to be murdered after hunting in Richmond Park. Fortunately the plot was discovered and the ringleaders arrested. The trained bands were called out and an address of loyalty was drawn up by the Corporation.

In 1697 the King returned to London on the Treaty of Ryswick. He consented to make a public entry. It was made the occasion of a procession of great magnificence, though falling very far short of the old pageants.

The following notes from the letters of Richard Lapthorme to Richard Coffin

cover the greater part of King William's reign:

1688. Sir C. Pym, dining at a tavern in Old Fish Street, quarrelled with a stranger-went out into the street, drew-Sir C. died.

1688. July 21st. Fireworks on Thames cost £20,000. Present 100,000 people.

Judge Rotherham, Oxford Circuit, took with him Burgess N. Comminuta; asked him to pass a short tract for instructions and admonitions of criminals condemned.

Captain tossed the Mayor of Scarboro' in blanket. Came up to complain to King.

Nov. Two rich aldermen died, one Alderman Jefferys, Tobacconist, £300,000, no children.
Alderman Lacy very rich, 1 daughter.

1688. 29th Dec. Lord Jefferies confined in chamber of one Bulle, a warder. Pen, ink, and paper. Town church very full in hopes of seeing him. Did not come.

1689. 20th Dec. Anniversary of King's arrival in London. Representation in effigies.

Procession 1000

torches to Temple Bar. All King James's ministers: all hung on gallows-bonfire -- gallows fall in with pillory. Whipping posts and everything.

20th Sep. People shut shops for monthly fast, but clergy will not open church. . . . preached everywhere.

1690. 22nd Nov.

Two ladies of fortune abducted.

18th Dec. 22 condemned to be hanged, including the Golden Farmer, a highwayman, and Sir John Jepson for abducting Mrs. Coherton.

28th Feb. In Duke Street, Covent Garden, a gentlewoman bewitched. A voice speaks within her blasphemously-- tho' lips and teeth are shut; sometimes she is visibly lifted up, chair and all, no one touching the chair.

4th July.

Fray between Alsateans and gentlemen of the Temple. A fight; one of the sheriff's posse killed several wounded. 70 Alsateans sent to the various prisons.

15th Aug.

22nd

2 grenadiers shot in Hyde Park for mutiny. Murders nearly every day. Dr. Clench sent for to a patient-strangled in coach.

1692. 18th Aug. Packet from Holland blew up-60 perished. 40 picked up.

The Lord of Banbury fought with his brother-in-law, Capt. Laurie, and killed him. Young, clerk, fought Graham, clerk, and killed him. Lord Mohun killed Montfort the player. Reprieves used to be sent after the prisoners on their way to Tyburn. They were brought back on Sheriff's horse, yet after all executed.

Miracle of the lame F. Girl.

A long succession of cold and rainy seasons caused many bad harvests, in so much that for some years there was a great dearth of corn, wheat being sold at as high as three pounds eight shillings a quarter. Considering the value of money then -it was almost twice as much as at present-we may understand the cost of wheat bread. But the working classes did never eat wheat bread except as a luxury. They lived on oaten bread.

In the year 1699 occurred another scare about the wicked Papists. The Mayor and Aldermen were summoned before the Privy Council, when the King informed them that he had heard of a great increase of Papists in the City; that they openly attended Mass-houses in spite of the law; that he had commanded all Jesuits and Popish priests to leave the country; that he had recalled all those English students who were educated abroad, and that he looked to the Lord Mayor for vigilance in searching out Papists, especially those who had arms concealed, destroying Papistical books, shutting up Mass-houses and Catholic schools, and administering the oaths to suspected Papists.

Almost the last act of the City of London in this reign was to send a loyal address to the King when James the Second died and Louis XIV. acknowledged as his successor the young Prince of Wales.

On the 8th of March 1702 William III. died.

CHAPTER IX

QUEEN ANNE

THERE is nothing picturesque and very little that is important in the history of London during the reign of Queen Anne. An address to the new Queen, a public reception of Her Majesty by the City, several days of Thanksgiving for successes

over the enemy, quarrels about elections, High Church riots, mainly exhaust the annals of this reign.

On Friday, November 26, 1703, the greatest hurricane of wind and rain ever known in this country "o'er pale Britannia passed." This really belongs chrono