in every sense, public property. In another place Mr. Smith says it was 'a case of pure wholesale robbery and plunder, done by an unscrupulous faction, to satisfy their personal greed under cover of law.' No more gross case of wanton plunder is to be found in the history of all Europe, no page so black in English History."

§ 25. In Denmark these religious guilds continued after the Reformation; but the meetings were no longer held monthly, but once, or a few times yearly. In some of these gatherings the same abuses existed, and extravagances occurred, as those to which references were made by Hincmar in the ninth century. Modifications were from time to time made; but after the meals the priests "sometimes quarrelled scandalously, and made a great uproar." When the early zeal with regard to the Reformation had somewhat cooled down, the want of those old convivial and social gatherings began to be again felt, and guilds were to some extent re-established, but for social purposes only, for the essential nature of the earlier guilds was lost in the new conditions of religious life brought about by the Reformation. It is extremely probable that the earlier clubs and benefit societies originated out of the later phases of these religious guilds, for we find certain analogies between the religious and social guilds, and the first attempts to establish the friendly society. The village club, with its processions, its march to the parish church, its feast, the bell-ringing, and general conviviality, together with its rustic rules and its ruder forms of association, all combine to render the resemblance striking, and point to an early origin, although changed by circumstances and by time.

§ 26. The great analogy between the modern friendly societies and the old religious and social guilds has been often pointed out. Sir Frederick Eden, in his work on the "State of the Poor," says: "Notwithstanding the unjustifiable confiscation of the property of the guilds under Hen. VIII. and Ed. VI., there is every reason to suppose that private associations, on a more contracted scale than the ancient guilds, continued to exist in various parts of England, and that it is extremely probable that many of these societies (that is, guilds), even after

the confiscation of their lands at the dissolution, continued their stated meetings in the common room, or hall, for the purpose either of charity or of conviviality."

$27. Mr. J. M. Ludlow has instituted a comparison between these two forms of association, and has established the analogy subsisting between the later guilds and the earlier and cruder forms of benefit clubs, which were the forerunners of the friendly societies of the present century. It is well known that usage and custom will outlive law, and after the sanction of law is withdrawn, custom will frequently retain sufficient power to justify its being called unwritten law. Many traces of these old associations still exist, the origin of which is to a great extent unknown, or imperfectly recognised, in the new conditions under which they are now seen; some of these are preserved in the obscure customs of the poorer classes, and often only in those villages which until recently were remote from the great centres of industry and trade. The earlier village clubs long continued to practise some of those ancient customs, and thereby furnish evidence of their lineage and descent.

PART III.-THE MERCHANT-GUILDS AND TOWN-GUILDS.

§ 1. The sworn fraternities for the mutual protection of rights, and the preservation of liberty, in the shape of Frithguilds, arose quite independently of the township, or indeed of locality. When the town grew into importance, there existed a similar necessity for the mutual protection of liberty, property, and trade against the violence of neighbouring nobles, ecclesiastical aggressions, or bands of plundering marauders, and the onslaughts of barbarian settlers. The feeling of insecurity within the town itself, at this early period, must have led the small freemen to the determination to form societies for mutual aid and protection, and in support of liberty, law, and order.

§ 2. The early inhabitants of towns were free landed proprietors, some having property in the neighbouring estates,

and residing in the town for security or convenience; others, and those chiefly, who held land within the territory of the township. The possession of town land was the distinguishing mark of these earlier burghers. This ownership of land alone carried with it the privileges of full citizenship, as it existed in the ruder forms of civic life. In addition, however, to the possession of land, many of these freemen carried on trade, and some also what, in later times, were called handicrafts. Common dangers, similarity of occupation, community of interests, and close vicinity of residence, were conducive to the conclusion of such alliances for mutual protection and aid.

§ 3. Hence we find the whole body of the full citizens, or freemen, uniting into guilds; the citizens and the guilds in time became identical, and guild-law became the law of the town. Such guilds, as before seen, existed in England in Anglo-Saxon times, and evidence abounds in proof of the recognition of their laws and ordinances, and of their confirmation by grants and charters, similar to those found in later times. The guild-charter granted to the townsmen of Beverley is not unlike the grants of civic liberties or constitutions to German towns, nor indeed altogether dissimilar to earlier civic incorporations in England; this charter decreed to the men of Beverley "all liberties, with the same laws that the men of York have in their city." This was confirmed by Thurston, Archbishop of York, and also King Henry I.; it is even stated that it was confirmed by the Pope.

§ 4. The same relationship between the guild and the town existed in France, especially in the eleventh and twelfth centuries under the name of the commune, the charters being ratified by the French kings. The numerous grants of communal rights to French towns from the eleventh to the thirteenth century are but the recognition of the Frith-guilds which had for a long time been in existence, exercising an influence, and exerting a power. In Flanders, the towns of the Netherlands, Sleswig, and Flensburg, the same recognition appears to have been extended to them; even if the kings did not like the power of the guilds themselves, they favoured their

existence within the demesnes of the nobility, as a check to the latter's ascendency.

§ 5. In Germany, during the tenth and eleventh centuries, the records as to the existence of the guilds are scarce in consequence of the measures taken against them by princes and bishops; but from those of later times we learn that here, too, the guild was the germ of the town constitution.

§ 6. Such was the power of the town-guild of Sleswig that, in 1130, when King Nicholas, whose son had slain Duke Canute, the alderman of the guild, entered the town, the gates were closed at the sound of the guild bell, the citizens thereupon mustered and seized upon the king and slew him and all those who tried to defend him. The king had been warned, but he despised the tanners and shoemakers, and heeded not their vengeance; they, however, had their revenge for the murder of their alderman.

§ 7. As the status and wealth of the people became more positive and diversified there arose questions of precedence; when the old guild was closed to new comers, other guilds were instituted. Then came the higher and the highest guild; restrictions were introduced as to membership, sons became the natural inheritors of the freedom and rights of the old guilds. The old guild, as originally established, was no longer equivalent to the whole town, or full body of the citizens, and in time the oldest, or "old burghers' guild," became the aristocratic guild, assumed the government of the town, and filled the municipal offices of the township.

§ 8. By the end of the twelfth century the patricians, or earlier aristocracy, began to exercise an oppressive sway; they had grown insolent, and looked upon power as a lucrative monopoly. This led, in the thirteenth century, to violent revolts on the part of the craftsmen, especially by the weavers of Cologne, who were at that time a thriving body. These craftsmen were no longer willing to bear alone the burdens of the Commonwealth; they desired to share in the administration of affairs, and particularly in what concerned the management of the city household, especially as the old burghers contributed the least in payment of taxes. Sometimes these

weavers of Cologne allied themselves with the bishops against the ruling families, just as the French communes united with their kings against the nobles, and as in recent times there have been alliances between the classes and the masses.

§ 9. Contests between the patricians and the craftsmen continued until the fourteenth century, when the weavers of Cologne ultimately won the victory. Frequent attempts were made by Charlemagne and others to annihilate those guilds, but they proved abortive, inasmuch as they were more or less adapted to the circumstances of the time.

§ 10. In England, even in Anglo-Saxon times, these guilds were far in advance of those in any other country; here the landed proprietors exercised great influence, and constituted the aristocracy. In Canterbury the condition of becoming an alderman was the possession of an inalienable estate, the possessors of which were united with other proprietors into the old guild of the Thanes, having precedence over the other two guilds then. and there existing.

§ 11. The highest degree of development of these guilds was probably attained in London, which was perhaps their cradle, if not their actual birthplace. The constitution of the City was based upon the guild, and it served as the model for other English towns. Even in the time of Athelstan the Frith-guilds of London united to form one guild in order that they might the better carry out their designs, and prosecute more vigorously their objects. This united guild governed the whole town, its regulations being held to be binding even upon non-members. This union was probably caused by the rivalries of the older and the newer guilds, which had prejudiced the attainment of their general aims, namely, the protection of their freedom, and the maintenance of their rights. The knighten-guild was probably the original one, for the aldermen of this guild were the aldermen of the merchant-guild of the city, and it had jurisdiction both within and without the city boundaries.

§ 12. In the years 1283-4 the townsmen of Berwick agreed upon a set of statutes for a single united guild: "All separate guilds heretofore existing in the borough shall be brought to an end." All the possessions of all the previously existing guilds.