nd, an event which
may be rightly deemed of national importance be here omitted, it is
because the citizens were little affected thereby, and the City's records
are almost, if not altogether, silent on the subject.

The work does not affect to be a critical history so much as a _chronique
pour servir_, to which the historical student may have recourse in order
to learn what was the attitude taken up by the citizens of London at
important crises in the nation's history. He will there see how, in the
contest between Stephen and the Empress Matilda, the City of London held
as it were the balance; how it helped to overthrow the tyranny of
Longchamp, and to wrest from the reluctant John the Great Charter of our
liberties; how it was with men and money supplied by the City that Edward
III and Henry V were enabled to conquer France, and how in after years the
London trained bands raised the siege of Gloucester and turned the tide of
the Civil War in favour of Parliament. He will not fail to note the
significant fact that before Monk put into execution his plan for
restoring Charles II to the Crown, the taciturn general--little given to
opening his mind to anyone--deemed it advisable to take up his abode in the
City in order to first test the feelings of the inhabitants as to whether
the Restoration would be acceptable to them or not. He will see that the
citizens of London have at times been bold of speech even in the presence
of their sovereign when the cause of justice and the liberty of the
subject were at stake, and that they did not hesitate to suffer for their
opinions; that, "at many of the most critical periods of our history, the
influence of London and its Lord Mayors has turned the scale in favour of
those liberties of which we are so justly proud"; and that had the
entreaties of the City been listened to by the King and his ministers, the
American Colonies would never have been lost to England.

There are two Appendices to the work; one comprising copies from the
City's Records of letters, early proclamations and documents of special
interest to which reference is made in the text; the other consisting of a
more complete list of the City's representatives in Parliament from the
earliest times than has yet been printed, supplemented as it has been by
returns to writs recorded in the City's archives and (apparently) no where
else. The returns for the City in the Blue Books published in 1878 and
1879 are very imperfec