hments throughout France of the headlong and reckless
administration of public affairs by the successive 'governments' of the
First Republic.

In the year 1607, on September 27, a worthy Catholic citizen,
Bartholomew Masurel, _bourgeois et manant_ of the city of Lille, came
before two notaries, and declared 'that to succour the poor people of
Lille in their necessities, and also for the salvation of his own soul
and the souls of his predecessors and successors, he wished to establish
a _Mont-de-Piete_, where money loans should be made without usury or
interest, and not as they were made by the Lombards.'

To this end Bartholomew Masurel gave, by a donation between living
persons, and irrevocable, to take effect after his death, all his lands,
fiefs, and houses which he owned at Lille, and in his country place, and
the value of which might be estimated at a hundred and fifty thousand
_livres parisis_, or in money of our day nominally 300,000 francs. In
fact, the gift, I am told, represented about half a million francs of
our days.

But the good '_bourgeois et manant_' could not hold out till his death
against the appeal which the sight of 'the poor people of Lille in their
necessities' daily made to his kindly heart. So in 1609 he agreed with
the Mayor, that he would turn over all these possessions at once to the
magistrates to be applied to the purpose he meant to effect, the
magistrates agreeing to secure to him an annuity out of the funds of the
city of 1,200 florins, or about 1,562 francs of our time. Thereupon he
went to work with the authorities to found his charity. From his
statutes we learn that foundations of this kind were then common in
French Flanders. He models them, as he says, upon 'those of similar
foundations in our neighbouring towns and elsewhere.'

No loans were to be made except to '_manants et habitants de la Ville
Taille et Banlieue de Lille_,' and only to 'poor and necessitous persons
who, not being able to gain their livelihood, were forced to borrow
money;' nor were loans to be made to 'persons prodigal, of evil life,
and accustomed to squander their goods.' For this due order was to be
taken by the magistrates. At first the loans were limited to 24 florins
(30 francs) to one person; the lowest sum loaned being 20 patars, or 1
fr. 25 c. of our times. So well had Bartholomew Masurel organised his
charity, and so many good Christian souls swelled its funds by gifts and
bequests, that within a