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trade and manage the guild. In England this right does not seem to have been ever seriously questioned or restricted. Provision is generally made in the charters and ordinances for exercising this power, as in the case of the tailors'-guild at Exeter, where they are authorised to elect, or choose a master and four wardens." In the case of the fraternity of the porters of London-constituted in 1646-however, it appears that the governor must be an alderman, and his appointment was vested in the court of aldermen; but generally, almost universally, the right of election remained with the guild. On the Continent, however, the right of appointing the warden of the craftguild varied according to the nature or origin of the guild, or the degree of independence which the particular handicraft enjoyed at the time when its guild was recognised by law. In the craft-guilds formed by the free handicraftsmen among themselves, there was absolute independence, as for instance, in the weavers'-guild at Cologne, and in the craft-guilds in Flanders. At Bâle, on the contrary, where the craft-guilds sprang from the companies of bondmen, the bishop appointed the warden. The tailors, however, who were at the same time cloth merchants, elected their own warden in 1260. In 1157 Archbishop Wichmann, of Magdeburg, granted to the shoemakers the right of free election of their warden; but instances of similar concessions are rare. In Paris, in the thirteenth century, the provost appointed and deposed, as he pleased, the wardens of the ropemakers and the poulterers, but the bath-keepers elected freely and independently the wardens for regulating their trade. Subsequently the right of free election became the rule in all trades, until Charles IV. of France-1321-1328-deprived the Parisian craftsmen of this right of electing their own wardens. It is related of Charles VI. that, in the year 1408, whilst confirming the statutes of a craft-guild, he actually appointed one of his valets to the wardenship. In other countries, even as early as the thirteenth century, it became general for the craftguilds to elect their own wardens; it was only in the German and Belgian towns, during the contests between the craftsmen and the ruling families, that the craft-guild had to acquiesce in the appointment of the warden by the patricians.

§ 16. After long, and in some cases very severe and obstinate struggles, the handicraftsmen of the towns triumphed over the old burghers; the right of electing their own masters and wardens was no longer a matter of dispute. This victory of the craft-guilds was effected mainly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in some towns sooner, in others later, according to circumstances, and to the degree of organisation in the merchants' or citizens' guilds, which varied in proportion to the completeness, or otherwise, of the severance of the two conflicting factions, into distinct and powerful classes, each contending for the mastery in the several townships. In London the craft-guilds appear to have obtained full possession of their liberties in the reign of Edward III., by whom the privileges which they had hitherto exercised only on sufferance, or on payment of firmes—a kind of rent due to the Crown-were now for the first time generally confirmed to them, by charter. The authorities of the city of London, who in former times had contended with all their might against the craft-guilds, now approved of their statutes. In the fourteenth century a large majority of the trade-guilds appeared before the mayor and aldermen to get their ordinances enrolled; and about the same time they adopted a particular livery for each craft; from which time forward they were called the livery companies of London. So popular had they now become that Edward III. was himself enrolled as a member of the linen-armourers, an example which since his time has found many imitators amongst his successors, and also among the nobility of the kingdom. In recent times these livery companies have, with one or two exceptions, been filled with men, good, bad, and indifferent, who know nothing of the particular crafts, and who have not the most remote connection with them; it is a distinction and an honour conferred upon political and public men, from the Heir Apparent to the Throne, to the Lord Mayor's coachman, the occasion of their enrolment being often an excuse for squandering the money of the guild in feasting by means of expensive banquets, and in the presentation of elaborate and costly caskets, containing the "freedom" of the guild to which such persons are admitted.

17. Although by these contests the craft-guilds won political power, as well as their trade privileges, the full exercise of this power did not long continue in the hands of the craftsmen. Nevertheless, they retained for a long period, and everywhere, the independent government and jurisdiction over their trade, the fundamental principle of their trade policy being the right to live freely and independently by their own industry, representing both capital and labour, and the protection of their liberties and interests as a handicraft class. That this was so in England is shown by 37 Ed. III. c. 5, in the year 1363, which decreed "that all artificers and people of mysteries shall each choose his own mystery before the next Candlemas; and that having so chosen it, he shall henceforth use no other." The origin of this Act appears to have been as follows: In the 19th of Ed. III, 1345, twenty-two persons carrying on the business of pepperers separated themselves from their old guild and formed a society of their own. They agreed to meet together at a dinner, for which each had to pay twelve pence, and commit the particulars of their formation into a trading society to writing, and immediately after the feast to elect their warden and decide on their periodical contributions. These twenty-two pepperers were the richest men in that trade, and it is probable that they had formerly belonged to the old burgher class, but had been obliged, like most other trading citizens in the reign of Edward II., to join the trade-guild. These seceding pepperers having formed themselves into a separate society, and possessing the power to exercise the freedom of trade which had formerly belonged to them as full citizens, now threatened to crush, by their riches, the numerous other trade-guilds of the time. In a petition brought against them, in the 36th of Ed. III., it is alleged "that great mischiefs had newly arisen, as well to the King as to the great men and commons, from the merchants called grocers, who engrossed all manner of merchandize vendible, and who suddenly raised the prices of such merchandize within the realm; putting to sale by covin, and by ordinances made amongst themselves, in their own society, which they call 'the fraternity and guild of merchants,' such merchandizes as were most dear, and keeping in stores the

others until times of dearth and scarcity." This was the old principle of the "freedom of trade," so persistently and so long advocated by the rich, and it still maintains its ground, although in different ways and under altered circumstances, as the rings and corners of to-day testify.

§ 18. The same policy and principles which actuated the craft-guilds in England were equally prevalent on the Continent; the object was to enable each guild-brother to earn his daily bread, by his own trade, fully and independently; these are formulated with special clearness in the Emperor Sigismund's "Secular Reformation," dated 1434. After much complaining "that one person carries on more trades than belong to him," it is said in chapter v., "Will you hear, however, what is ordained by imperial law? Our forefathers have not been fools. The crafts have been devised for this purpose, that everybody by them should earn his daily bread, and nobody shall interfere with the craft of another. By this the world gets rid of its misery, and every one may find his livelihood. If there be one who is a wineman, he shall have to do with the wine trade, and shall not practice another thing besides. Is he a bread-baker, the same, etc., no craft excepted. And it is to be prevented on imperial command, and to be fined with forty marks of gold, where it is heard that the imperial towns do not attend to this, that nobody of any trade whatever shall interfere with the craft of another." We here find something of the origin of the prejudice, still existing in the present day, against one man performing the work of another, or interfering with a trade which does. not belong to him; it is sometimes carried to extremes, but it is not altogether without its use-if governed by reason. This principle is embodied in the maxim: "Let the cobbler stick to his last."

§ 19. These objects embodied the wants and requirements of the craftsmen; the constitution of craft-guilds was the means by and through which they were to be accomplished. The fundamental principle upon which they were based was the same as that of the Frith-guilds-that is, the artificial unions which in earlier times had sprung up to replace the compact of the family circle, and to secure that protection which it had

formerly afforded to each member of the family. Like those Frith-guilds, the object of the early craft-guilds was to create relationships as if among brothers; and above all things to grant to their members that assistance which a member of a family might expect from that family. But as men's wants had become different, as the Frith-guilds were now recognised as a legitimate authority, which provided for the protection of life, limb, and property-the principal object of the craftguilds was to secure to their members the independent, unimpaired, and regular earnings to which they were entitled by the exercise of their craft, as the means of obtaining their daily bread. When the craft-guilds were legally recognised as a constituent element in the organism of the State, and as special associations for the regulation of their trade, new duties devolved upon them in the sense of being made a kind of police authority for the purpose of carrying out their own regulations, and enforcing their own laws. There was thus added a new element, in addition to those which were common to all guilds, and they appear to have been general in all countries; in fact, their development was so similar, even in details, that by knowing the guild-statutes of one country we know those of all. The deviations were only in certain local regulations, they scarcely ever touched a fundamental principle.

§ 20. The life and soul of the craft-guild was its meetings, which brought all the guild-brothers together every week, month, or quarter. For the sake of greater solemnity, these were opened with certain ceremonies; the craft-box, containing the charters of the guild, the statutes, the money, and other valuable articles, having several locks, the keys of which were kept by different officers, was opened on such occasions with much solemnity, all present having to uncover their heads. Some remnant of this custom is still to be found in the modern trade unions; but it is preserved more distinctly in some of the "Secret Orders" of Friendly Societies. These meetings possessed all the rights which the guild-members had not seen fit to delegate to their officers. They elected their presidents, originally called aldermen, and afterwards masters and wardens, and other officials, except in those cases where the master was appointed