.446 A. D. 1651. 



pofed, for which each mortgager fhould have credit in bank to the vaiut 

 of his land. The condition of fuch mortgage to be, either to pay fo 

 much money, with interefl; at 6 per cent, within a year from the day 

 that bank-credit fhould any way fail to be current ; or, in default of 

 fuch payment, the faid mortgaged lands to be forfeited, without re- 

 demption, and to be divided amongft the proprietors of the credit in 

 bank. Other projectors propofed banks on the plan of that at Amflerdam. 

 Others propofed a general regifter of houfes and {hips, as well as of lands. 

 A court-merchant, for the fummary recovery of all debts, &c. Alfo 

 fome very ill-judged projeds for uniting into corporations all merchants 

 trading into any one country, for the fake of what they called uni- 

 formity in trade. Mofl of thofe projeds, after the reftoration of Charles 

 II, and fome after the acceflion of William III, were again propofed to 

 the public, with fome variation iti their form, merely for concealing 

 their being only old projeds palmed upon men for new ones. Such, 

 for inftance, was Dr. Chamberlain's land-bank projed, which was car- 

 ried fo far as to have an ad of parliament in its favour in the year 

 1696. 



The magiflrates of Bruges again wrote to the Englifh merchant-ad- 

 veturers company, to remind them, that in the days of Philip the Good, 

 and Charles the Bold, dukes of Burgundy, and alfo of the archduke 

 Maximilian, their city greatly flourilhed in commerce and in the greatefl 

 plenty of all kinds of merchandize, fo as to obtain the reputation of the 

 greatefl emporium in all Europe I but as nothing fublunary is perma- 

 nent, all thefe advantages are withdrawn, and adverfe fortune is come 

 in their place : fo that this city, once the feat of wealth, riches, and 

 honour, has fince been the feat of war, which obhged the foreign 

 merchants to abandon it, as did alfo the faid fociety with their com- 

 merce in woollen cloths, &c. But now a fettled peace being eftablifh- 

 ed between the Belgic provinces and foreign flates, fome foreign mer- 

 chants are preparing to refettle at Bruges : and as they are informed of 

 the willingnefs alfo of this fociety to refettle there, they are hereby in- 

 vited to come to the port of Oftend, and thence by water-carriage to 

 Bruges, with their cloths, &c. to be afterwards difperfed throughout 

 Flanders, Brabant, Liege, Lorrain, &c. by mofl commodious naviga- 

 tions, by rivers and canals. To this the company courteoufly anfwered, 

 that, as their letters were intirely filent in the two mofl material articles, 

 viz. the free exercife of their religion, and the duties to be paid, they 

 defired a peremptory anfwer thereto ; fince the Englifh parliament, out 

 of their zeal for the worfliip of God, arid for the honour of their nation, 

 could never admit of a treaty for refidence, till thofe two articles be firfl 

 agreed to. [Thurloe, V. '\, p. 198.] bo we heard no more of this refi- 

 dence : and we apprehend that it was now, or foon after this time, that 



