GUIGNES 



453 



CilliglH'S, JOSEPH in:, born at Pontoise, 19th 

 ( )ct.. IMT 1721, acquired a great reputation as an 

 orientalist, and, chiefly on account of bin thorough 

 knowledge of Chinese, was appointed interpreter 

 of oriental languages in the Blbliotheqne du Roi. 

 He died in Paris, 19th March 1800. His great 

 wi.iU. U Histoire GtnArale < /< * ///<*, Turcs, Mogols, 

 it niifrt-x Tiirtnirs m-cnli ntnn.r( 1756-58), is a rare 

 example of industry and research. His son, 

 CHKKTIKN Lor is- JOSEPH (1759-1845), was also a 

 M iv distinguished oriental scholar, and published 

 a Chinese Dictionary (1813). 



4.iiil:imliii:i. a genus of shrubs of the natural 

 order Legominosse, sub-order Ciesalpinete. G. 

 liuilit<- and <;. Ixunliicella are the best-known spe- 

 -i. -. Both are natives of the warm parts of the 

 K.i-t Indies, Arabia, Africa, and South America. 

 K-:> Ptian mothers string the seeds of both species 

 and lianf them round the necks of their children, 

 to guard them from evil influences and sorcery. 

 The latter species is also called Nicker Tree and 

 Small Bonduc. Being about the size and shape of 

 marbles, the seeds are often used as such by boys. 

 The shell is remarkable for its flinty hardness. 

 The kernel is very bitter. Ground to powder and 

 mixed with black pepper, it is administered in 

 India in ague ; mixed also with castor-oil it is 

 applied externally in hydrocele. The roots in 

 Amboyna are considered to be a good tonic. The 

 seeds are often thrown ashore on the coasts of 

 Scotland and Ireland, and are sometimes called 



Gllildford, the county town of Surrey, lies in 

 a break of the chalk ridge of the North Downs, 



consists of one street, running up the steep east 

 side of the river, which here is crossed by an old 

 five-arch bridge. Its houses are still rich in quaint 

 gables, projecting fronts, and long latticed windows. 

 The square Norman keep of its royal castle ( circa 

 1150) is "0 feet high with walls 10 feet thick; on 



t Catharine's Hill is a ruined chapel (1313); 

 Trinity Hospital, founded in 1619 by Archbishop 

 Abbot (q.v.) for twelve brethren and eight sisters, 

 is a picturesque red-brick pile ; and other buildings 

 are the churches of St Nicholas, St Mary, and the 

 Holy Trinity, the guildhall (1687), county hall 



862), county hospital (1868), and grammar-school 

 ( 1609-60). A railway junction of some importance, 

 Cuildford now is chiefly famous for its grain 

 market, the 'Surrey wheats' being celebrated. 

 From Edward I.'s reign till 1867 it returned two 

 members to parliament, then till 1885 one. Since 

 1874 it has been the seat of a bishopric suffragan 

 to Winchester. Pop. ( 1881 ) 10,858 ; ( 1891 ) 14,319. 

 Bequeathed in 901 by Alfred the Great to his 

 nephew Kthelwald, Goildford in 1036 was the 

 scene of the decimation by King Harold's men of 

 the Norman followers of Alfred the Atheling a 

 crime that led up to the Norman conquest of Eng- 

 land. Th> Dauphin Louis took the castle in 1216 ; 

 and in 1685 Monmouth was temporarily confined in 

 Trinity Hospital. 



Guildhall, a building in London, the place of 

 wembly of several courts, and the scene of the 

 civic banquets of the city corporation, was originally 

 built in 1411, but almost wholly destroyed by the 

 great fire of 1666. It was rebuilt in 1789 in its 

 modern form. See LONDON. 



Ciuilds were associations which grew up and 

 nourished chiefly among the commercial and 

 industrial classes during the middle ages The 

 word is derived from A.S. gild (Dutch gild, Ger. 

 ytlc\ 'a payment;' the idea of payment may 

 tnereiore be assumed to be the prominent original 



feature of the association. The letter u in the 

 KM -I Mi spelling of the word, it may be added, is 

 Hii|erfluouH, gild being the correct form. The full 

 meaning of the word wax unfolded only in the 

 course of the history of the institution.. 



It is one of the many debateable point* connected 

 with the guilds, whether and how tar the medieval 

 institution wjis preceded and influenced by similar 

 societies in Greek and Koman time-. In the 

 eranoi and thiasoi of the Greeks, and still more in 

 the collegia ojnficum of the Romans, many writers 

 find a resemblance to the guilds. The whole 

 matter is obscure, the historical evidence being 

 scanty and doubtful. As the ancient economy 

 n-st.'d on slavery, and guilds were the voluntary 

 organisation of the industrial classes, such associa- 

 tions could not have l>een very widely diffused in 

 the ancient world, if they existed at all. The 

 probability is that the trade conmrations of the 

 later Roman period, though very different from the 

 guilds, may nave affected the early development 

 of the latter. But the real origin of the guilds 

 must be sought in the needs and circumstances of 

 the time when they flourished. 



The guilds known to history were an organisa- 

 tion of the commercial and industrial classes, 

 determined by the economic, social, and political 

 conditions prevalent during the middle ages. The 

 i most important of these conditions were the growth 

 of freedom in the towns as opposed to the slavery 

 of older times and the still existing serfdom of 

 the country, the prevalence of a small industry 

 operating for the most part in strictly defined local 

 limits, and the absence of strong central govern- 

 ments. They were free local associations of the 

 industrial classes for the promotion of their common 

 interests at a time when central governments did 

 not exist or were too weak to perform all the 

 functions of government as now recognised. 



As the cities, and the free life associated with 

 them, arose but slowly in the Teutonic settlement* 

 after the wreck of the Roman empire, the guilds 

 had at first a very gradual growth. The first 

 mention of an institution so called occurs in 

 England in the laws of Ina (7th century) and 

 Alfred. We hear of it first on the Continent in the 

 time of Charlemagne in 779. By the middle of the 

 9th century guilds were widely diffused throughout 

 the Frankish empire. In the llth century they 

 began extensively to flourish in the countries 

 settled by the Teutonic peoples ; and they were 

 powerful also in France and Italy, where the 

 Teutonic influence had been only partially felt. 

 In the 14th and loth centuries the institution 

 reached its culminating point. 



Guilds were an historical institution varying 

 with the times and with the needs and aims of 

 their members ; and it would therefore be mis- 

 leading to attach too definite a meaning to the 

 word. In some of them doubtless the distinctive 

 features were periodic festivals defrayed by the 

 contributions or the members. These were the 

 social guilds. As during the middle ages the 

 distinction between religious and secular was not 

 so strongly marked as now, all the guilds had more 

 or less of a religious cast. Many of them, how- 

 ever, had a distinctly and exclusively religious 

 purpose, and are therefore specially called religious 

 guilds. But the earliest great example of the\ 

 historic guild was the gilda mercatoria or gild 

 merchant. In the evolution of town life during the 

 middle ages the commercial class was the first to 

 assert itself. It does not fall within the scope of 

 this article to explain the conditions under which 

 the medieval towns arose; and we need hardly 

 state that as the towns grew, the necessity for 

 intercourse among themselves and with the sur- 

 rounding country regions was soon felt. Within 



