GUILFORD 



flourished from the twelfth to the fourteenth 

 century. The members of any guild were 

 usually all residents of the same town, and 

 included both merchants who bought and sold 

 and artisans who made their own products. 

 The guild was often granted a monopoly of 

 ihe retail trade in its town, with the privilege 

 it" taxing outsiders who brought in goods. 

 Anyone could join it who was willing to share 

 in the taxes of the town. So we see in this 

 type of guild the seed of the policies of several 

 modern organizations of widely-different pur- 

 pose, such as societies to promote protective 

 tariffs, labor unions to resist the immigration 

 of foreign workmen, and civic leagues of busi- 

 ness men and taxpayers. 



Craft Guilds. In the days of the guilds the 

 manufacturers were skilled workmen as well as 

 owners of the goods which they produced. In 

 each town all those who shared in a certain 

 craft or trade, such as weaving, or gold-working, 

 banded together to advance the standard of 

 their work. The members were divided into 

 three classes, according to their skill. First 

 were the masters, who alone were entitled to 

 buy materials and sell manufactured goods. 

 They bought and sold at prices fixed by the 

 organization, and their establishments were 

 under the supervision of the guild, so that no 

 inferior product might be turned out. The 

 second grade was composed of journeymen, who 

 received wages from the masters and lived 

 with them. When their education was com- 

 pleted, each was required to construct a mas- 

 terpiece before being declared a master, just 

 as a candidate for the degree of Master of 

 Arts in a modern university must write a 

 thesis. The beginners at the craft were appren- 

 tices; for their work they received board and 

 lodging. 



The craft guilds were most important in the 

 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but a few 

 of them survived nearly to the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. At the time of their greatest prominence 

 it became more difficult for journeymen to 

 advance to the grade of master, and the jour- 

 neymen formed guilds of their own which were 

 the forerunners of the modern labor organiza- 

 tions. The original craft guilds, on the other 

 hand, bear resemblance to present-day associa- 

 tions of competing business men. A.MC c. 



Consult Seligman's Medieval Guilds; Staley's 

 Guilds of Florence. 



GUILFORD; gU'jard, or GUILFORD COURT- 

 HOUSE, BATTLE OF, one of the last important 

 battles of the Revolutionary War, fought on 



GUILLOTINE 



March 15, 1781. An American force had been 

 recruited and placed under Nathanael Greene, 

 while Cornwallis had charge of the British com- 

 mand. Greene joined Morgan, who had de- 

 feated Tarleton, the leader of the British cav- 

 alry, and together they retreated into North 

 Carolina. Cornwallis followed, but failed to 

 overtake them at once, owing to Greene'- i \- 

 cellent generalship. A battle was finally fought 

 at Guilford Courthouse, near the site o! the 

 present city of Greensboro, N. C.. in which 

 the Americans were defeated, but Cornwallis 

 lost about 600 men. He then decided to go to 

 Virginia, while Greene marched back into South 

 Carolina and drove the southern divisions of 

 the British forces back to Charleston. Corn- 

 wallis soon saw that no gain could be made by 

 the British, and wrote to Washington asking 

 what would be his terms of surrender. 



GUILLEMOT, gil'cmot, the name applied 

 generally to several species of birds belonging 

 to the auk family, and especially to the com- 

 mon, or joolish, guillemot, so called because it 

 permits itself to be captured rather than aban- 

 don the cliffs on which it breeds. This bird 

 abounds in the Arctic regions of both hemis- 

 pheres, and in the colder parts of the tem- 

 perate zones, and during the winter migrates 

 as far south as the Mediterranean Sea. It lays 

 but one egg, which is pear-shaped, with an 

 exceedingly thick shell, and is more than three 

 inches long. The thick-billed guillemot inhab- 

 its the same localities as the common variety. 

 The Pacific coast species is called the erra. 



GUILLOTINE, gil'otcen, an instrument 

 used for the purpose of beheading persons, 

 introduced into France during the Revolution 

 in 1792, on the suggestion of Dr. Joseph Guillo- 

 tin, after whom it was named. The instrument 

 consists of two up- 

 right posts, with a 

 crossbeam at the 

 top, the posts being 

 so grooved as to al- 

 low the falling of a 

 heavy steel knife, 

 with a slanting edge, 

 upon the neck of 

 the victim, as soon: 

 as the cord holding 

 it in place is re- THE GUILLOTINE 

 leased by the executioner. The guillotine is 

 still the means employed in France for the 

 execution of criminals. 



For a description of its use during the French 

 Revolution, when hundreds of persons were 



