g$ LON 
were, by this aft’, reverfed and made void. The mayor, 
commonalty, and citizens, of London, were declared to 
remain for ever a body corporate and politic. They were 
to have and enjoy all their rights and charters ; and all 
charters, letters patent. See. concerning any of the liber¬ 
ties, lands, and tenements, rights, titles, &c. made in con- 
fequence of the (aid judgment, were thereby declared void. 
To prevent the recurrence of many disagreeable con¬ 
troverts in the nomination of aldermen, and the election 
of common-councilmen, an aft of common-council was 
made, in 1691, by which it was enabled, that none but 
freemen, being houfeholders, paying fcot and bearing 
lot, fhould be entitled to vote on fucli occafions. 
The city, being indebted to their orphans’ fund, in the 
fum of 747,500b occalioned by various accidents and 
public calamities, applied to parliament for relief in 
1694; and obtained an aft, by which a fund was efta- 
blilhed for the re-payment of the debt. This aft, how¬ 
ever, was procured by bribing fome of the leading mem¬ 
bers of the houfe of commons ; among other Turns diltri- 
buted on this account, fir John Trevor, the fpeaker, re¬ 
ceived a thoufand guineas ; which being diicovered, he 
was, in the next feffion, expelled the houfe for corruption 
and breach of trull; as was another, who had received 
twenty guineas for the fame purpofe. 
This year is dillinguilhed, in the annals of London, 
by the inftitution of the Bank of England. See the ar¬ 
ticle Bank, vol. ii. p. 672. 
In the year 1697, king William being returned from 
Holland, after the concluhon of the treaty of Ryfwick, 
he was earneftly requefted, by the lord-mayor and citi¬ 
zens, to make his public entry into the city. In com¬ 
pliance with which, on the 16th of November, his ma- 
jefty let out from Greenwich, attended by his royal high- 
nefs the prince of Denmark, the principal officers of (late, 
and a great number of the nobility and gentry. His ma- 
jefty was received at St. Margaret’s hill, in Southwark, 
by the lord-mayor, aldermen, &c. in their formalities, on 
horfeback ; who, after congratulating him on the joyful 
occafion, conducted him through the city to Whitehall, 
amidft the acclamations of a.prodigious concourfe of Ipec- 
tators. The proceffion was i'olemn, and the city was em- 
bellifhed with the moll pompous decorations. 
Billingfgate was opened on the 10th of May, 1693, by 
■virtue of an aft of parliament, as a free-market for the 
fale of fiffi, fix days in a week ; with penniffion to fell 
jnackartl on Sundays, before and- after divine fervice. 
Billingfgate was once a fmall port, where ahnoft every ar¬ 
ticle of commerce was landed ; and it now continues to be 
the only place in the metropolis to which the fifhing- 
fmacks bring their cargoes. It is alfo the chief refort of 
fmall vefiels laden with oranges, lemons, Spanifli onions, 
and nuts 5 and, in confequence, many orange-merchants 
live in the neighbourhood. From a lilt of the fllh brought 
to market in the time of Edward I. it appears that feve- 
ral kinds, then probably elteemed dainties, are now con¬ 
temned as unfit for food : amongft thefe may be reckoned 
the conger, the porpoife, and the feal. Great quantities 
of falmon are fent from the north fiffieries to Billingfgate, 
■packed in ice, which is preferved for that purpofe, through¬ 
out the year, in ice-houfes. The fair ladies of this 
place are proverbially famous for the faculty of lcolding : 
a Biilingfgate fifhwoman is generally an adept in the 
fcience, and out-hectors all the fifterhood of vixens. 
Here a foreigner may learn the Englifh language in all its 
purity, unadulterated by modern refinements. 
King William died on the 8th of March, 1702 : in con¬ 
fequence of which the princefs Anne, daughter of the late 
king James, fucceeded to the crown, to the univerfkl joy 
and latisfaftion of the nation. The great fuccelfesob- 
tained over the French in the preceding campaign occa- 
iioned the queen to appoint the 12th of November for a 
public thankfgiving ; on which day her majelty went in 
grand proceffion to St. Paul’s cathedral, whither (he was 
attended by both. houfes of parliament, and live citizens 
DON. 
exerted their utmoft abilities to render that day more 
pompous and brilliant than had ever been done on any 
other occafion. 
O11 the 16th of November, 1703, there happened the 
moft dreadful florin of wind that had ever been known in 
the memory of man. It began about ten o’clock at night, 
and continued to rage with the greateft violence till about 
feven in the morning, when it gradually abated. During 
the courfe of the night the people were under the molt 
dreadful apprehenfions, fearful of being killed by the 
ruins of their habitations. About eight in the morning 
the wind was fufliciently moderate to admit them to look 
out at their doors, when the deftrnftioo that had been 
made (truck every beholder, whole firll confideration was 
to inquire after their friends and relations ; and the next 
day afforded fufficient employment in viewing the uni- 
verfal havock all over the city and fuburbs. Upwards of 
two thoufand Hacks of chimneys were blown down in and 
about London ; the ftreets were covered with tiles and 
.dates from the roofs of houfes; the lead on the tops of 
feveral churches was rolled up like fkins of parchment; 
and at Weftm in Her-abbey, Chrift’s Hofpital, St. Andrew’s, 
Holborn, and many other places, it was carried off from 
the buildings. The roof of the guard-room at Whitehall 
was carried entirely away, and the great weathercock 
blown down. Two new-built turrets on the church of 
St. Mary Aldermary, one of the fpires of St. Saviour’s, 
Southwark, and the four pinnacles at St. Michael’s, Crook¬ 
ed-lane, were entirely blown down ; the vanes and fpin- 
dles of weathercocks in many other places were bent ; fe¬ 
veral houfes near Moorfields were levelled to the ground ; 
as were about twenty other whole houfes in the out-parts, 
with a great number of brick U'alls, and the gable ends of 
houfes out of number. Twenty-one perfons were killed 
by the fall of the buildings, and about two hundred greatly 
maimed in the ruins, befides thofe drowned in the river. 
The lofs fuftained by the city of London alone, was efti- 
mated at two millions. The damage at fea, however, far 
exceeded that by land ; for, in that dreadful night, no 
fewer than twelve men of war were loft, and upwards of 
eighteen hundred men periffied ; befides the lofs of a gteat 
number of merchant-fhips, computed at a much greater 
value. All the fhips in the river, four excepted, were 
driven from their moorings, and thrown on-fhore, between 
Shadwell and Limehoufe, in the greateft confufion. Up¬ 
wards of five hundred wherries were entirely dallied to 
pieces ; above fixty barges were found driven foul of Lon- 
don-bridge ; and as many more funk or ftaved between 
that and Hammerfmith. In fliort, the profpecl on the ri¬ 
ver afforded a fight equally difmal with that on the land. 
It is not generally known that every year, on the fame 
day, a fermon is preached at a meeting-houfe in Little 
Wild-ftreet, Lincoln’s-inn Fields, to commemorate and 
deprecate the return of fo dreadful a vifitation. 
In the year 1704, an aft of common-council was pafled 
for regulating the nightly watch t>f the cit}', by wffiich it 
was ordained, that a number of ftrong able-bodied men 
ffiould be provided by each ward ; and alfo that the de¬ 
puty and common-council of every ward fhould have 
power to oblige every perfon occupying any houfe, (hop, 
or warehoufe, either to watch in perfon, or to pay for an 
able-bodied man to be appointed thereto by the faid de¬ 
puty and common-councilmen ; the faid watchmen to be 
provided with a lantern and candle, and well and fuffi- 
ciently armed with halberts; and to watch from nine in 
the evening till feven in the morning from Michaelmas 
to the 1 ft of April, and from ten till five from the ill of 
April to Michaelmas. The total number of watchmen 
appointed by this aft was five hundred and eighty-three. 
In 1708, the fiery zeal of contending parties broke out 
into a moft violent flame at the profecution of Dr. Henry 
Sacheverel, chaplain of St. Saviour’s, Southwark, before 
the houle of lords, on an impeachment of high crimes and 
mifdemeanors by the commons, for preaching two fer- 
mous. The populace were perfuaded by the tories, that* 
inltesd 
