ssignats_!

In 1857 the Prefect of the Nord reported that the Masurel fund might be
safely devoted anew to the purposes of its founder. It then amounted to
249,644 fr. By an imperial decree of 1860, all that remained of the
property of the 'Lombards' was amalgamated with the Masurel fund, and
the institution was put under the direction of the official
Mont-de-Piete of Lille, but with a separate system of accounts, and
began its operations again on the lines laid down by its founder in
1607. It has since worked so well that the maximum of the loans
reimbursable, without interest, has risen from 30 francs in 1860 to 200
francs.

In 1869, the maximum being 100 francs, the number of engagements and
renewals was 10,933--the money loaned amounted to 75,460 fr. 50 c., in
loans averaging 9fr. 14 c., and the capital of the fund to 257,231 fr.
27 c. In 1888, the maximum being 200 fr., there were 16,000 engagements
and renewals, the loans amounted to 136,663 francs in average loans of
8 fr. 54 c., and the capital of the fund to 334,726 fr. 57 c.

Of the 'similar foundations in other towns' which moved the pious
emulation of Bartholomew Masurel nearly three centuries ago, how many, I
wonder, still exist!

And with them how many other monuments of the Christian civilisation of
Flanders and of France were 'improved' off the face of the earth by the
'regenerators' of 1792?

It was not by accident that I learned of the Masurel Mont-de-Piete; but
when I went to the Municipal Secretary to ask him for some official
account of its condition and its operation, that courteous functionary
looked at me for a moment with astonishment and then said, 'I am
delighted to give you what you want, and I assure you that, with one
exception, you are the only foreigner who has ever asked for this
information in the last seven years! The other was the English
Protestant clergyman here in Lille, who happens to live or has his
chapel, I am not sure which, just opposite the Mont-de-Piete!'

I ought not to speak however of the Masurel foundation as 'unique.' I
hope there may be many more men like the good Bartholomew Masurel in our
time, and in other countries besides France, than we wot of. But the
only modern institution of a kindred spirit with this of which I have
any present cognisance began its career in England only fifteen years
ago, and was founded curiously enough like the Masurel fund by men of
the Low Countries. This is the 'Koning Willem's