one must trade in the
City who was not free of the City. But the freedom of the City was
easily obtained. The craftsman and the clerk remained in their own
places: they were taught to know their places: they were taught, which
was a very fine thing, to think much of their own places and to take
pride in the station to which they were called: to respect those in
higher station and to receive respect from those lower than
themselves. Though merchants had not, and have not, any rank assigned to
them by the Court officials, there was as much difference of rank and
place in the City as without. And in no time was there greater personal
dignity than in this age when rank and station were so much regarded.
But between the nobility and the City there was little intercourse and
no sympathy. The manners, the morals, the dignity of the City ill
assorted with those of the aristocracy at a time when drinking and
gambling were ruining the old families and destroying the noblest names.
There has always belonged to the London merchant a great respect for
personal character and conduct. We are accustomed to regard this as a
survival of Puritanism. This is not so: it existed before the arrival of
Puritanism: it arose in the time when the men in the wards knew each
other and when the master of many servants set the example, because his
life was visible to all, of order, honour, and self-respect.

[Illustration: A COACH OF THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

(_From an engraving by John Dunstall._)]

56. UNDER GEORGE THE SECOND.

PART II.

After the Great Fire, the number of City churches was reduced from 126
to 87. Those that were rebuilt were for the most part much larger and
more capacious than their predecessors. In many cases, Wren, the great
architect, who rebuilt St. Paul's Cathedral and all the churches, in
order to get a larger church took in a part of the churchyard, which
accounts for the fact that many of the City churchyards are now so
small. Again, as the old churches had been built mainly for the purpose
of saying and singing mass, the new churches were built mainly for the
purpose of hearing sermons. They were therefore provided with pews for
the accommodation of the hearers, and resembled, in their original
design, a convenient square room, where the preacher might be seen and
heard by all, rather than a cruciform church. Some of Wren's churches,
however, though they may be described as square rooms, are e