other small stagnant waters it seldoms attains any great size: but in rivers and estuaries, and especially in such waters as are subject to the rising tide, although without current, they grow quickly, and become very fat. In large stagnant waters, if there be plenty of insect food, and the young fry of other fish, they multiply rapidly. In rivers they prefer the sides of the stream rather than the rapid parts of the current, and feed indiscriminately upon insects, worms, and small fishes. "They delight to lie about bridges and mill-pools; in and near locks; about shipping, barges, and floats of timber; in navigable rivers, canals, and in wet docks, also in the still parts of rivers, and in the back-water of mill-streams, as well as in deep gentle eddies, in ponds about sluices, and the mouth of outlets and flood-gates, commonly affecting the gravel, or sandy parts of the pond." They spawn in April or May, according to the season or climate, and deposit their eggs usually among aquatic plants, such as the stems of reeds and rushes. The eggs are enveloped in a kind of glutinous reticular band. In less than a fortnight the eggs burst, and the young fry appear. Perch will breed in small vases of water, if properly fed. A perch, of only half a pound weight, has been found to contain 280,000 ova. The weight of three pounds is considered large for this fish. Donovan speaks of one of five pounds. Montague took one from the Avon, in Wiltshire, of eight pounds; and Pennant says that one was caught in the Serpentine River, Hyde Park, of nine pounds. Most predatory animals are solitary, but the perch is a remarkable exception to the rule. This fish is gregarious; a number of them will herd together, as if by a sort of compact. In fine, tranquil weather, they may be observed in troops in a lake, river, or even in a large ditch, near the surface of the water, quite motionless. But their perceptions being very acute, they are disturbed by the smallest unaccustomed sound, and will disappear with great celerity into some hole which is the common dwelling of the troop. "And, as one has wittily observed," says Walton, "if there be twenty or forty in a hole, they may be, at one standing, all catched one after another; they being, as he says, like the wicked of the world, not afraid, though their fellows and companions perish in their sight." The perch is very voracious. It devours with avidity the young and weak of most animals of its class, as also water lizards, frogs, small snakes, aquatic insects, worms, naked mollusca, &c. The perch may be noticed in summer, springing from the surface of the water in pursuit of gnats and flies; and it will even fasten on animals whose means of defence are too effectual for it. Thus, it sometimes swallows the stickleback, the strongest spines of which fasten in the gullet, so that the perch can neither get it up or down, and consequently it is starved to death. It is also in its turn subject to the attacks of powerful enemies, notwithstanding the formidable character of its dorsal spines: it frequently falls a prey to pike, large eels, and trout, as well as to the webfooted and wading birds. The pike, however, is frequently wounded by the dorsal spines of the perch, and has been seen to shake its prey out of its mouth, apparently in great pain. Walton says that the pike will not attack the perch unless excited by extreme hunger; "for to affright the pike, and save himself, the perch will set up his fins, much as a Turkey-cock will sometimes set up his tail." The perch is also subject to the attacks of a small animal, appropriately named by Dr. Nordmann, Actheres Percarum, or Pest of the Perch. It is found in fresh water, and attaches itself to the common, and another species of the perch genus, and takes its station usually within the mouth, fixing itself by means of a sucker, with which it is provided, in the cellular membrane so deeply, that it cannot disengage itself, or be extracted by external force, without rupturing what are called the arms attached to the sucker, and leaving the animal behind. This animal often fixes itself to the palate, and even to the tongue. When we consider, (says Mr. Kirby,) that these predaceous fishes often gorge their prey, swallowing it entire, we see how necessary it was that our parasite should be thus fitted to fix itself firmly, and root itself, as it were, that it may be enabled to withstand the pressure and violent action of the bodies that pass over it, for the palate and tongue of further aided by a quantity of saliva, usually formed around a perch must be a perilous station. This purpose seems it. These pests of the perch are themselves subject to the incursions and annoyance of animals still more minute than themselves. A small species of mite makes them its prey, and when the saliva just mentioned is removed, they are often found quite covered by a species of Infusory, belonging to the genus Vorticella. The perch is tenacious of life, and will live for some hours out of the water. It will even bear a journey of forty or fifty miles, if carried steadily, and watered occasionally. Perch are constantly exposed for sale in the markets of Catholic countries, and if not sold they are taken back to the ponds from which they were removed in the morning, to be reproduced another day. As an article of food, this fish is firm, white, delicate, and well tasted. It is not common in the London market, although it is taken of good quality in the Thames. The Ruffe, or Pope, is a fresh water fish, closely allied to the perch. The term ruffe (rough) is well applied, on account of the harsh feel of its denticulated scales. A MAN will often call it acting according to his conscience, when he acts according to his present persuasion, without through wrong education, custom, or example; or whether ever examining how he came by that persuasion; whether from some secret lust, pride, or prejudice, rather than from the rule of God's written word, or from a principle of right reason. This cannot justly be called keeping a good conscience; for, we ought not to take up false persuasions at all life, instead of that rule which God hath given us to walk adventures, and then to make those persuasions our rule of by.-WATERLAND. No chains bind so hard, no fetters are so heavy, as those which fasten the corrupted heart to this treacherous world; no dependence is more contemptible than that under which the voluptuous, the covetous, or the ambitious man lies, to the means of pleasure, gain, or power. Yet this is the boasted liberty which vice promises, as the recompense of setting us free from the salutary restraints of virtue.-BLAIR LONDON: JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS, PRICE SIXPENCE. Sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in the Kingdom. Man in society is like a flower For dissolution, hurtsome to the main. I. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. THE reader is probably aware that during the early centuries of the Christian era, nearly all Europe was included under the term "Roman Empire:"-the various provinces of Italy, Greece, portions of what is now called Turkey, Spain, Portugal, France, England, and parts of Germany, all fell under the dominion of the Roman emperors; the parts VOL. XVIII. which were not so included being inhabited by tribes scarcely if at all removed from barbarism. But the diversity of materials of which this empire was formed, its gigantic extent, the distance of some of the provinces from the centre of government, and above all, the luxurious effeminacy into which the Romans had fallen in the fourth and fifth centuries, all conspired to lead to a dismemberment of the empire. It is probable that even if no irruption of barbarians had taken place, internal dissensions would have ruined the empire; for the Romans had become altogether unworthy of the high name which they had attained before and at the time of Julius Cæsar. But it was the influx of barbarians of various tribes,-Goths, Huns, Vandals, Franks, &c.,-into all the provinces of the empire, which brought it so suddenly to ruin. These barbarians appear to have come from all the countries which are now included under the names of Hungary, Germany, Russia, Poland, Denmark, &c.; and the cause of their irruption seems to have been not so much an enmity towards the Romans, as a search for the means of subsistence. They lived chiefly by hunting and fishing, manufactures were scarcely known among them, and agriculture was in a very rude state. Under such circumstances love of country scarcely existed amongst them: their numbers increased faster than the means of subsistence; and when they had exhausted one territory, they went to another. They acknowledged few laws but those of physical force; and that which they were strong enough to seize, they appropriated to their own use without compunction. The horror which we feel at the details of barbarian warfare arises from our judging it by a civilized standard: we censure uncivilized men for the want of that sense of 577 250 justice and right which, from the very rudeness of their One army of barbarians succeeded another in their inroads attack followed, each vassal and serf being bound by oath might be, and thus all became involved in a petty but to follow the plans of his lord, however iniquitous they ferocious war. that suffered from the lawless usages of the times: the But it was not only the domains of neighbouring barons cities and towns experienced the evil likewise; and we here begin to have a glimpse of the necessity for some such institution as the Hanseatic League. Whatever wealth resulted from the possession of large estates belonged to the barons, but all that which resulted from manufacturing and commercial industry belonged to the cities and towns, which were generally favourable towards the monarchs, to be benefited by a regular government which could and the monarchs towards the citizens. Each was likely preserve order and redress grievances; and each felt a dispoint in the history of charters of incorporation, munitrust of the power of the barons. cipal privileges, &c. When a sovereign wanted his treaThis is the chief sury replenished, it was the citizens, and not the barons, to whom he looked, and his authority as a sovereign was generally more readily acknowledged by the former than by the latter. vileges to the citizens, allowing them to choose from among As a return and encouragement for this favourable feeling, the monarch granted certain prithemselves the municipal officers, to govern the financial matters relating to the city, to establish tolls, dues, &c., and many more of a similar kind. This was the mode in which a certain degree of mutual support was established between monarchs and cities, and the time had arrived when that support was needed. The barons frequently had their those who were least restrained by principles of honour and castles in the immediate vicinity of populous towns, and justice, or who were possessed of most power, made frequent hours, and, when attacked in turn, intrenching themselves depredations on the townsmen, attacking them at unguarded in their castles. About the year A.D. 1000 sovereign power was hollow and unreal in Europe; baronial in municipal rights, but were troubled by the exactions and dually in manufacturing and commercial enterprise, and and overbearing; citizens were advancing slowly and grapower was vast depredations of the barons, and also by Scandinavian pirates, who at that time infested all the ports of the Baltic and German Seas; and lastly, the Romish Church,-almost the The state of Europe then, from the seventh to the tenth and demoralized to improve the minds of conduct of men. only one then acknowledged in Europe, was too corrupt century, (for it was not till the seventh century that the irruptions of fresh hordes of barbarians ceased,) was this:-mercial towns in the north of Germany began to combine It was in such a state of things that the cities and comThe land was possessed chiefly by Feudal Barons, who had together for mutual protection. under them a large number of vassals and serfs, whose lives and properties had become almost solely at the disposal of their lords; the baron decided the disputes of his vassals in his own baronial hall: he called them out whenever he went But it was only in the open country that these Barons exercised their peculiar sway: in cities and towns their influence was much smaller. The circumstances which distinguish town from country life are sufficiently marked to show the origin of all civic communities. are manufactured, a number of persons must be congreWhere articles gated together, and if their city be on the sea-coast, or on the banks of a river, shipping and boats would resort to it, for the conveyance of the manufactured goods to other parts of the country. to war; and was, to all practical purposes, their sovereign. The monarch of the country had a general sovereignty over the whole but it was more in name than in reality. In England the contests between the Danes and Saxons and afterwards the Normans, made many changes in the sovereignty; but throughout these changes the nobles were more powerful than the monarch or the people. land the spirit of clan-ship prevailed down to a recent In Scotperiod. In France, the barons were more powerful than in any other country of Europe, and left to the reigning monarch only the shadow of authority. In Germany there were certain great lords who assumed sovereign authority within their own petty dominions; and Charlemagne was almost the only emperor during this period who had a real supremacy. In Italy, the country was broken up into a number of little independent states, some monarchical, some aristocratic, and others democratic. In Spain, there was a continual strife between the Moors and the Christians for the possession of the country; and when a military chief succeeded in wresting a portion of territory from the Moors, he immediately made himself sovereign over it; and thus Spain became broken up in to a number of petty principalities. The consequences of this state of things were many and important. National laws scarcely existed, for a baron adopted on his own domain those laws which suited him best. If one feudal lord had a quarrel with another he took the law into his own hands, and revenged himself by force of arms. Again, if one baron made depredations on the domain of a neighbouring baron, captured his castle, and plundered his adherents, the sovereign had seldom power sufficient to see justice rendered, but a scene of reprisal and mutual II. FORMATION OF THE HANSEATIC* LEAGUE. north of Germany, was originally a military fort, built by The city of Hamburg, situated on the river Elbe, in the the Emperor Charlemagne, for the defence of his empire from the pirates who infested the Baltic. As this fort was situated at the northern part of the empire it was generally the first to suffer from the incursions of the lawless bands of Scandinavians, and it was more than once sacked and burned by them. For four centuries it underwent various vicissiand in population. The inhabitants therefore formed allitudes, but continued on the whole to increase in importance of the first of these alliances of which the nature has been ances with various towns, for mutual protection. One recorded, was made with the city of Lübeck, in the year 1241. Lübeck was a considerable commercial city, a short distance north-east of Hamburg, and the treaty of alliance declared that the two towns should jointly clear the country between Hamburg and the river Trave of robbers, and preshould be borne equally by them, that everything which vent pirates from cruising on the Elbe,-that the expenses might tend to the benefit of the two cities should be concerted in common, and that their forces should always be united to maintain their liberties and privileges. The alliance of 1241 was probably a separate proceeding According to one, this term is derived from two German words, am see, twelve towns on the Baltic shore, for mutual defence against pirates: these towns were Lübeck, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, Grypeswald, Anclam, Stettin, Colberg, Stolpe, Dantzie, Elbing, and Königsberg. It appears to have been a standing rule of this first confederacy that no town should belong to it but such as was either situated on the sea or on some navigable river commodious for maritime commerce. Another rule was, not to admit any towns which did not keep the keys of their own gates, and did not moreover exercise civil jurisdiction within themselves; it was at the same time permitted that the towns should in other respects acknowledge some superior lord or prince. The advantages of this confederacy were so great that other towns gladly entered into it; indeed, so rapidly did the influence of the confederation increase, that neighbouring princes and barons were often glad to cultivate the good opinion of the confederated powers, and even referred their disputes to them for arbitration. When this extension of the confederation took place, something akin to a general government became necessary, since the united efforts of a body composed of many parts are valueless unless some system is observed by the whole. It appears that when the inland towns of the north of Germany swelled the numbers of the confederates, the whole were divided into four classes, over which a certain city presided. At the head of the first class, and also of the whole league, was Lübeck, the rich and potent leader in the confederacy: this class contained the towns of Pomerania; and to the custody of Lübeck were committed the common stock and records of the confederacy. The second class comprised the towns in Westphalia, Cleves, Overyssel, Guelderland, and Mark, with Cologne at its head. The third class, with Brunswick as the chief town, comprehended the towns of Saxony. The fourth and last class, at the head of which was Dantzic, included the Prussian and Livonian towns. The general assemblies, for the management of the affairs of the confederacy, were held at Lübeck; and an extraordinary general assembly was held every ten years, at which they solemnly renewed their union, admitted new members, excluded old ones if refractory, &c. The confederacy also chose a protector or president, in order to give dignity to their proceedings; and the choice of their protector had a marked influence on the welfare of the league; we must briefly explain the position of the persons who, for the long period of three centuries, were the chosen protectors of the league. The country which we now call Prussia, was very little removed from barbarism at the end of the twelfth century; and in order to protect Poland (which was then a considerable kingdom,) from invasion, the King of Poland granted a strip of country on the shore of the Baltic to the Teutonic Knights, or Knights of the Cross, on condition that they would subdue, and, as far as they could, civilise the rude inhabitants. These warlike knights not only succeeded in this attempt, but established towns of much importance on the Baltic coast, which, under the names of Dantzic, Thorn, &c., afterwards became well known to Western Europe. The knights formed this territory into a republic, of which the grand master of the order was president. Now the rise and progress of this republic were nearly coeval with the Hanseatic league; and there were many reasons why the two should be on good terms. The knights owed most of their influence to the maritime towns on their coast; and the commerce of those towns could not be better promoted than by joining the commercial league. Again, the constitution of the league was essentially republican, and therefore more nearly allied to the dominion of the knights than to that of an emperor or king. These were some of the causes which led the confederacy to choose as its protector the grand master of the Teutonic Knights; a custom which continued more than three centuries. By this good understanding with the knights, the Hanse Towns became possessed of all the commerce of the south shores of the Baltic, from Denmark to the bottom of the Gulf of Finland, containing countries intersected by many large rivers flowing into the Baltic, and producing many of the necessaries of life in great abundance. III. COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES OF THE LEAGUE. About the year 1252, the Hanse Towns had commenced a brisk commerce with the various towns of Flanders; but the duties and exactions laid on them in that country rendered the dealings vexatious. Hamburg therefore represented the state of Flemish commerce to a general assembly of the league at Lübeck; and it was resolved to send a deputation from Hamburg, to Margaret, countess of Flanders, to treat of more moderate duties, and of other commercial matters. Their wishes were acceded to; and shortly afterwards a similar deputation to Albert, duke of Saxony, led to similar results. These points illustrate the mode in which the league gradually acquired its power: the complaints of a single town might not have been attended to; but the associated merchants of many towns gave a weight to the representations, which, from that time forwards, monarchs and princes listened to respectfully. The opening of a commerce with Flanders was productive of important results. The league fixed upon the city of Bruges, as a comptoir, counting-house, or factory, for forwarding the commercial transactions of the league; and this proved of incalculable advantage by opening a communication between Northern and Southern Europe. The inhabitants of Italy, Spain, and Turkey knew but little of the countries near the Baltic, and were ignorant of the productions of those regions; but the spread of commerce under the league brought the two ends of Europe together, as it were, in a circle. The naval stores, the iron, copper, corn, flax, hemp, timber, &c., of the Baltic regions became objects of desire to Southern Europe; while the taste for the luxuries of Southern Europe began to spread in the North, as barbarism gradually wore away. Overland carriage was at that time rude in the extreme; and the conveyance of commodities from Northern to Southern Europe was by shipping belonging to the Hanse Towns; which proceeded from the Baltic into the German Ocean, through the English Channel, across the Bay of Biscay, and so round the coast of Portugal and Spain into the Mediterranean. But as the mariners' compass was not yet in use, the voyage was difficult and dangerous; and the passage from the Baltic to the Mediterranean and back again, was deemed too much for one summer. It became, therefore, desirable to have a half-way station, port, factory, or store-house, to which traders from both seas should bring their respective merchandise in summer. Now there were no towns so favourably situated for this purpose as those of Flanders, from their central situation, and from the circumstance that the long established manufactures of woollen and linen were at that time very flourishing in Flanders. To Bruges, therefore, most European nations sent their merchandise, and brought from thence the produce of other nations, of which they had need; so that this city soon became the general magazine of merchandise for all Europe; and from this circumstance, Flanders generally acquired a great increase of wealth and prosperity. About the year 1260 a great accession of power accrued to the league, by the formation of the "steel-yard" in London. London was never a Hanse Town, properly so called; but the merchants belonging to those towns had certain important privileges granted to them for conducting business in London; and hence London became considered as a sort of ally of the league, though not itself included among the Hanse Towns. The German merchants settled in London, who may be deemed as a colony or college of Hanseatics, had their place of business in a building called the "Steel-yard;" and hence they acquired the name of the "Steel-yard Company." This company, by reason of their wealth and connexion with the Hanseatic Towns, were of frequent service to the Kings of England; and Edward the First gave them a diploma, which exempted them from any additional toll, custom, or tribute whatsoever; which diploma was acted on by the succeeding monarchs for a long period. The general warehouse of the company was in Thames Street; and the name of "Steel-yard," was applied to it, as some allege, on account of iron and steel being among the principal articles of their commerce; but, as others think, from a gradual corruption of the word "staple," (stapel, stafel, stael, steel,) "stapel" implying a general warehouse for keeping merchandise. As a return from the privileges which the Steelyard company received from the English kings, they were bound, if at any time London should be besieged by a foreign enemy, to bear one third part of the expense of guarding and defending Bishopsgate, then one of the gates of the city; and were also bound, to keep that gate in repair. In the year 1280, we find the Hanseatics showing the extent of their power by a remarkably bold proceeding against the King of Norway. That monarch, influenced either by interested counsel, or by a belief that the interests of his kingdom demanded it, suspended the great privileges which the Hanse Towns had obtained from former Kings of Norway. No sooner was this resolution made known to them, than they blockaded with their fleets all the ports in the kingdom, so that nothing could be imported into the country by sea. The Norwegians, accustomed to the corn and other produce of Germany, in exchange for their own dried fish, threatened a general insurrection if the blockade were not discontinued. The king was forced to yield back to the Hanse Towns the privileges which they had acquired, and also to pay them a considerable sum of money. This, it must be owned, looks very much like a stretch of power; for it is not easy to perceive what right, except that of the strongest, the Hanseatics had to proceed to such measures. The year 1300 witnessed the leaguers growing in power and influence. The city of Hamburg obtained from the Earl of Holstein a great increase of privileges; and, in several contests which the towns had with the feudal barons, the united strength of the former generally enabled them to conquer. But power, wherever it exists, is liable to abuse unless checked. We find Edward the Second complaining to the King of Norway for having suffered several English merchants to be imprisoned and their goods seized, at the instigation of the Hanse merchants, "who," says the king, "by all possible ways, strive to obstruct the advantages of the English merchants." Indeed it seems pretty clear, that the IIanseatics acted on the Baltic as if none but themselves had a right to the adjacent countries of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Another contest shortly afterwards ensued between the Hanseatics and the Danes. Denmark, although wholly separated from Sweden, is at one part divided from it only by a narrow channel called the Sound, on whose western bank are the cities of Copenhagen and Elsineur; and through this Sound all vessels have to proceed to and from the Baltic and the German Ocean. Now it appears, that, in 1348, the Danish fleet in the Sound, having interrupted the navigation of the Hanseatics by demanding toll, was attacked and defeated by the combined fleet of the Hanse Towns; most of the Danish ships were destroyed; and the king was forced to assign to the Hanseatics the fine province of Schonen, for the space of sixteen years, as an indemnification for the expenses which they had incurred. This is the first mention which we have met with, of a toll being demanded by the Danes for the passage of ships to and from the Baltic: it has been adhered to, more or less, to the present day; and has been a fruitful source of disagreement among the Northern nations. In the year 1361, a naval contest of a more extensive character occurred on the Baltic, in which the Hanseatics played a conspicuous part. Waldemar the Third, King of Denmark, attacked the city of Wisburg, in the isle of Gothland, an extensive commercial emporium at that time, and carried off a large booty. As Wisburg was a Hanse Town, or was at least closely connected with them, the Hanseatics were greatly excited: they seized on the Danish ships and merchandise everywhere; declared war against Denmark; and, having made an alliance with the King of Norway, the Duke of Mecklenburg, and the Earl of Holstein, they attacked Copenhagen. The Lübeck squadron was under a commander, appointed by the citizens; and all the rest of the fleet was commanded by the Earl of Holstein. The allies succeeded in capturing the castle, and destroying the town of Copenhagen; but they failed in an attempt on Helsinburg. The Danes, in their turn, sent a fleet to Lübeck, and defeated its squadron, taking six of their ships, burning others, and forcing the rest to take refuge in the harbour of Travemund. The contest ended without any satisfactory termination of the difficulties for which it commenced; and this circumstance seems to have led to a frequent renewal of hostilities between them, in most of which the fleets of the confederacy were victorious. In 1364, three years after the last contest, the Danes received a total overthrow in or near the haven of Wismar, where their whole fleet was destroyed, and their admiral made prisoner, by the Hanseatic fleet, usually stationed at that once famous haven. Four years afterwards we find the confederacy in alliance with Albert, king of Sweden, against the Danish monarch: the allies attacked him on the coast of Schonen, and took several Danish towns. As Denmark was at the same time attacked, on distinct grounds, by the people of Holstein and Jutland, he found it necessary to make peace with the Hanse Towns, by granting them new and great privileges all over Denmark. But even the concession seems to have been insufficient to allay the hostile feeling between the parties; for, in the following year, the confederates attacked Denmark with such vigour as to drive the king out of his dominions; they took the castle of Copenhagen, as well as many other castles, and made prisoners of many of the nobility. But besides these, which were all Hanse Towns in the proper acceptation of the term, there were numerous others,― comprising, indeed, nearly all the principal cities in Europe,-which were allied to them, for the mutual protection of commerce and navigation: among these were Amsterdam, Utrecht, Stockholm, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bruges, Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais, Rouen, St. Malo, Bourdeux, Bayonne, Marseilles, Seville, Cadiz, Barcelona, Lisbon, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, and London. These towns were merely related to the confederacy for the convenience and safety of commerce; but the real Hanseatics subscribed to a common fund, out of which the salaries of officers, the expenses of meetings, &c., were defrayed. Lübeck and Cologne, as being the chiefs of the league, paid the largest quota towards this common fund; and the other towns paid according to their rank or size. The fleets were not maintained out of this fund; but each town furnished its own whenever wanted. We have before observed that the confederacy, for convenience of business, was divided into four districts, at the head of which were the towns of Lübeck, Cologne, Brunswick, and Dantzic. All business occurring in each respective district, which was not of great and immediate importance, was usually left to be determined at the general assemblies of the whole confederacy, annually held at the head city of that district, where the records and documents of the district were deposited. But if the matter happened to be of great importance to their commerce, freedom, &c., it was reserved for the triennial meeting of the whole representatives of the Hanseatic League, usually held at Lübeck, where the journals, archives, and records of the whole community were kept. Bruges has been spoken of as a place where the league established a comptoir, or general warehouse, for the reception and sale of commodities belonging to all the cities of the league. Various causes led to the removal of this comptoir from Bruges to Antwerp, where the Hanse merchants had a magnificent old house, resembling a college, surrounded by shops and warehouses. The next comptoir established was that at London, to which we have before alluded, under the name of the "Steel-yard," or the "German Guildhall." Another comptoir was established at Great Novogorod, anciently a famous commercial city and republic, tributary to Russia. A fourth comptoir was at Bergen, in Norway. Each of these comptoirs was governed by a corporate power, which superintended all the commercial arrangements of the league in the country where the comptoir was situated. At Bergen, the comptoir consisted of twenty-one large buildings; at the head of each of which was an overseer, who gave judgment on the different causes which came before him: above him was a council of merchants, consisting of one or two aldermen, and eighteen counsellors; the aldermen being chosen at Lübeck, and sent out for five years. The comptoir at Bruges, from its central situation, was more important. It included, at one time, three hundred merchants, who lived at different parts of the Low |