cke said he came
by this City in a desire to see it and the fortifications of it, which,
if they pleased to give him leave to do, he should take it as a favour.
They said, that even now the Senate had ordered Monsieur Bilderbeck and
the commander of their forces to wait upon Whitelocke at such time as he
should appoint, to view the city, with their fortifications and
magazines, and whatsoever here should be thought by him worthy of his
sight. Whitelocke thanked them, and discoursed touching the government of
the City, and what laws they used, to which the Syndic answered, that
their government was chiefly and generally by the municipal laws and
customs of the city.

[SN: The franchises of Luebeck.]

Of these gentlemen and others Whitelocke learned this city is the chief
and most ancient of the Hanse Towns of Germany, and a kind of free State;
that they have power to send Commissioners as public ministers to any
foreign prince or State, to treat and conclude with them about any
matters relating to their city, and that without the leave or knowledge
of the Emperor.

The people of the city chiefly are the merchants and artificers, most of
them tradesmen; and both they who are masters, and their servants, being
constantly employed in trades and personal businesses, they are the less
troublesome in the government of them; as to the criminal part, idleness,
being the mother of mischief, causeth quarrels and debaucheries, from
whence pilferings, robberies, fightings, and murders do arise; but where
people are kept to occupations, traffic, and employments, as they are
here, it breeds civility, peaceableness of disposition, desire of rest
and quiet, and a plentiful subsistence, and gives less occasion of
proceedings in criminal offences. But as to suits upon bargains and
contracts, they are the more, because there be so many contracts as
merchants and tradesmen must make; yet those suits are here brought to a
speedy determination within themselves by their ordinary judges, which
are three, and usually assisted with a doctor or licentiate in the laws,
who are in great esteem in this country. These judges commonly sit thrice
a week, to determine civil controversies, which they do by their own laws
and customs, which also have much affinity to the civil law, especially
as to the forms and manners of their proceedings; and where the matter
contended for exceeds the value of a thousand rix-dollars, there the
party grieved may, if