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THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, LONDON. In most large commercial cities, it has long been the custom that a particular place should be appropriated to the daily meetings of merchants. The name which was first generally applied to such places is Bourse, by which they are still known in Paris, Antwerp, St. Petersburg, and other large cities on the continent. The account given of the origin of the name of Bourse, as applied to a place of meeting [for merchants, is this. In the city of Bruges there stood a large ancient building, which had been erected by the noble family of La Bourse, (signifying Purse in French and Flemish,) whose coat of arms on the walls was three purses. The merchants of Bruges made this old house the place of their daily assemblies ; and when they afterwards went to the fairs of

Antwerp and Mons, they called the place appropriated in those cities to similar purposes, by the same name as that which they had applied to the place of meeting in their own city, that is to say,-the Bourse. The French merchants also carried the name into the cities of their own country; and even in London the merchants' place of meeting was called Bourse or Burse, until Queen Elizabeth ordered it to be styled the Royal Exchange; and even afterwards retained the original name among foreigners, who styled it the Bourse Royale.

The Bourse or Burse in London was built by the celebrated merchant, Sir Thomas Gresham *; and before its erection the merchants were accustomed to assemble in the open air in Lombard-street, where they transacted their business, subject to the many inconveniences of such an exposure. That these inconveniences were severely felt is proved by the fact that various schemes were suggested for remedying them; although no active steps appear to have been taken for that purpose until the year 1531. In that year, Sir Thomas Gresham's father, Sir Richard, who enjoyed the honourable distinction of being styled "the King's Merchant," and who was then serving the office of sheriff, wrote to Sir Thomas Audley, the Lord Privy Seal, requesting him to move the king (Henry the Eighth) to direct a letter to be sent to Sir George Monoux, requiring him to sell certain houses in Lombard-street to the mayor and commonalty, for the purpose of erecting a Burse on the ground of the same for the use of the merchants.

Three years after Sir Richard's application, the king sent a letter to the city, directing that a Burse should be built at Leadenhall; but as the Common Council voted that the place of meeting should not be removed from Lombard-street, no further measures were taken.

Thirty years afterwards, when Elizabeth had been seated on the throne about six years, the scheme was revived with greater effect. Sir Thomas Gresham proposed to the corporation of London, in the year 1564That if the city would give him a piece of ground in a commodious spot, he, at his own expense, would erect an Exchange, with large and covered walks, wherein the merchants and traders might daily assemble, and transact business at all seasons, without interruption from the weather, or impediments of any kind.

This offer was accepted; and the foundation of the Exchange was laid by Sir Thomas Gresham on the 7th of June 1566. The superstructure was carried on with rapidity, and the whole covered in with slate by November 1567, soon after which the building fully finished."

was

The upper part of this edifice was divided into shops, which were let out by Sir Thomas at a yearly rent. These shops were seven feet and a half long See Saturday Magazine, Vol. II., p. 225.

and five feet broad; from the smallness of their size, it often happened that the same person rented more than one. There were likewise at first, other shops fitted up in the vaults below; but these being found very inconvenient by reason of their dampness and want of light, the vaults were soon let out to other uses. An entry in the Ward-book of Cornhill, under the year 1594, gives us some information as to the manner in which the vaults were then appropriated; it runs thus,—

Presented William Grimbel for keping typlinge in the vaults under the Exchange, and for broyling of herringes, sprotts, and bacon, and other thinges in the same vaults noisome to the merchants and others resortinge to the Exchange.

The number of the upper shops was one hundred and twenty; which, when the vaults had been detached

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from them, "paid, one with another, a rent of four
pounds ten shillings a year, upon leases of twenty-
one years." Ward, in his Life of Gresham, says,
that the tenants placed in them by Sir Thomas were
'chiefly young men of small fortunes, but industrious,
who, by their diligence, brought great business to their
shops, and employed some thousands of poor people
in working our manufactures." It would seem, how-
ever, that they were not at first very prosperous;
for when Elizabeth visited the Exchange, three years
after its erection, so many of the shops were un-
occupied that Sir Thomas found it necessary to go
round among the shopkeepers and entreat them "to
furnish and adorne with wares and wax-lights, as
many shoppes as they either coulde or woulde, and
they should have all those so furnished, rent free for
that year." Some time afterwards, Stow's Continuator,
speaking of this Exchange says, "it is as plente-
ously stored with all kinde of rich wares and fine
commodities as any particular place in Europe;
into which place many forraine princes daily send to
be best served of the best sort." The same authority
enumerates among the tenants of the shops of that
period, haberdashers, armourers, apothecaries, book-
sellers, goldsmiths, and globe-sellers.

The visit mentioned above as having been paid by Queen Elizabeth to the Bourse in 1571, was the occasion of its obtaining the name of "Royal Exchange," by which it has ever since been known. Her Majesty went into the city to dine with Sir Thomas Gresham, and on her return inspected it.

After

The three and twentieth of Januarie, [1571,] the Queene's Majestie, accompanied with her nobility, came from her house at the Strand, called Summerset-place, and entered the citie of London by Temple Bar, Fleet-street, Cheape, and so by the north side of the Bursse, to Sir Thomas Gresham's in Bishopsgate-street, where she dined. dinner, her Grace returning through Cornhill, entered the Bursse on the south side; and after her Highness had viewed every part thereof above ground, especially the Pawne, which was richlie furnished with all sorts of the finests wares in the citie, she caused the same Bursse by an herald to be proclaimed The Royal Exchange, so to be called from thenceforth and no otherwise.

A curious tradition has been preserved relative to this visit, namely, that Sir Thomas, before the Queen came to his house, purchased of a foreigner a costly pearl, which, on account of its high price, had been refused by several persons of the first quality, that he caused it to be reduced to powder, and during the entertainment drank it up in a glass of wine. The tradition is embodied in an historical play in which Gresham thus speaks,

Here fifteen hundred pound at one clap goes,
Instead of sugar Gresham drinkes this pearle
Unto his queen and mistress: pledge it lords.
This story, (says Dr. Ward,) has been handed down by
tradition as a real fact, but as I find no historical proof of

it, I would not be thought to mention it as a thing probable, but only to show upon what evidence it depends; for it seems no way agreeable to the character of Sir Thomas, who always knew how to make the best use of his money.

Sir Thomas Gresham died on the 21st of November, 1579, and by his will bequeathed "the building called the Royal Exchange, with all the pawns and shops, cellars, vaults, messuages, tenements, and other hereditaments" belonging to it, after the determination of the particular uses, estates, and interest for life, and entail thereof, upon the Lady Anne his wife, "jointly for ever to the Corporation of London and the Company of Mercers;" upon trust that the citizens out of their moiety should pay salaries of 507. per annum each to four professors, who should read public lectures gratuitously on Divinity, Astronomy, Geometry, and Music, at his Mansion-house between Bishopsgate-street and Broad-street, afterwards called Gresham College; 67. 13s. 4d. per annum each, to eight alms-people living behind the said mansion; and 107. annually to each of the prisons of Newgate, Ludgate, the Marshalsea, King's Bench, and Wood-street Compter:-and that the Mercers out of their moiety should pay annual salaries of 50%. to each of three persons who should read lectures on Law, Physic, and Rhetoric, at his Mansion-house; 1001. for four dinners quarterly, at their own hall, and 107. yearly to. Christ's, St. Bartholomew's, St. Thomas's, and Bethlem Hospitals, the Spital and the Poultry Compter.

Lady Gresham continued to receive the emoluments arising from the Royal Exchange, in rents, fines, &c., until her decease, in 1596, before which time they

amounted to 751. 5s.

The Exchange built by Sir Thomas Gresham, was nearly destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, not quite one century after its completion. Evelyn, in his account of this awful calamity, laments "the Sumptuous Exchange ;" he tells us also, that " Sir Thomas Gresham's Statue, though fallen from its niche in the Royal Exchange, remained entire, when all those of the kings since the Conquest, were broken to pieces." Another eye witness of the great fire, the Rev. T. Vincent, after remarking in his God's Terrible Voice in the City, that no stately building was so great as to resist the fury of the flames, continues: The Royal Exchange itself, the glory of merchants, is now invaded with much violence: when the fire was entered, how quickly did it run round the galleries, filling them with flames: then descending the stairs, compasseth the walks, giving forth flaming vollies, and filling the court with sheets of fire; by and by the kings fell all down upon their faces, and the greatest part of the building after them (the Founder's statue only remaining), with such a noise as was dreadful and astonishing.

In an old work styled the "Burning of London in the year 1666, commemorated and improved in a CX. Discourses, Meditations, and Contemplations, by Samuel Rolle, Minister of the Word, and sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge," we find some curious and interesting remarks upon this subject. In the third part which treats of "the most remarkable passages and circumstances of that dreadful fire," Meditation IX. is Upon the burning of the Royall Exchange.

What a princely foundation (says the writer,) was that Royal Exchange! and of how great use? Was not that the center in which those lines met that were drawn from all parts of Europe? rich merchants, I mean, and other eminent tradesmen and great dealers, not merely English_but Spanish, French, Dutch, Portugueze, Danes, Swedes. Was not the place a little epitomie or rather representative of all Europe (if not of the greatest part of the trading world,) renewed every day, at such a time, and for so many hours? As London was the glory of England, so was that Royal

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Exchange one of the greatest glories and ornaments of London. There were the statues of the kings and queens of England set up, as in the most conspicuous and honourable place (as well receiving lustre from the place where they stood as giving lustre to it.)

How full of riches was that Royall Exchange. Rich men in the midst of it, rich goods both above and beneath. There men walk't upon the top of a wealthy mine; considering what Eastern treasures, costly spices, and such like things, were laid up in the bowels, (I mean the cellars,) of that place. As for the upper part of it, was it not the great furnished with most of those costly things, wherewith they storehouse whence the nobility and gentry of England were

did adorn either their closets or themselves?

About the space of nineteen months, was that Royall Exchange in building, viz., from June 7th till November in the year following. So that the sunne had finished his annual course once, and almost a second time, ere that work was finished; but was it so many hours in burning as it was months in building?

When this Exchange was burned in 1666 the amount of funds belonging to the trust in the possession of the trustees was only £234. 8s. 2d. ; yet they soon began the work of rebuilding.

The plans and elevations were submitted to Charles the Second in September, 1667, and, on the 23rd of October, the king laid the base of the column on the west side of the north entrance, after which he and

his suite were plentifully regaled, under a temporary

shed

upon

the Scotch walk, "with a chine of beef, fowls, hams, dried tongues, anchovies, cavaire, and wines." On the 31st of the same month, the first stone of the column on the east side of the north James the Second, and on the 18th of November, the entrance was laid by the Duke of York, afterwards foundation-stone of the eastern column of the south entrance was laid by Prince Rupert. The architect employed was Mr. Edward Jerman, and not as has been often stated, Sir Christopher Wren; the work was diligently superintended by the joint committee of the Mercers' Company and the Corporation of London, appointed for that purpose by those bodies.

The following official entry was inserted in the books by an order dated Dec. 16, 1667 ::chester, recommending one Caius Gabriel Cibber to the A letter from the Right Honourable the Earl of Manmaking the statues for the Royal Exchange, and the rather in regard he hath shown his Majesty some models which have been well liked of, having been read; the committee called the gentleman in, and acquainted him that the business of making the statues is yet very much from their thought, having the whole Exchange to build first; and

that a new committee will succeed before the main work be effected, to whom, when fitting time shall come, he may do well to apply himself.

Cibber seems to have taken their advice, for he did execute most of the statues.

During the period occupied by the rebuilding of this edifice, the merchants held their meetings at Gresham College, but when the works were sufficiently advanced, they took possession of the New Exchange, which was first publicly opened on the 28th of September, 1669.

The whole cost of rebuilding the edifice was 58,9621. Considerable repairs have, at times, been made in this edifice. In the year 1767 Parliament voted 10,000l. for the purpose; and it was then found necessary almost to rebuild the western side. But the most extensive reparations and improvements which this fabric has ever undergone were made between the years 1820 and 1826, from the designs and under the superintendence of Mr. George Smith, architect to the Mercers' Company. These consisted of building a new stone tower on the north front, in place of a more lofty one of timber; constructing three new stone staircases of large dimensions; chipping, scraping, and repairing the entire surface

360-2

VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF VARIOUS CLIMATES.

of the edifice; repairing the sculptured figures and scroll-work, the roof, galleries, shops, &c., in short, of renovating the whole structure. The aggregate expenses amounted to about 33,000l., of which the the stone staircases and floors alone cost 60007.

The old tower was a lofty structure, being one hundred and seventy-eight feet in height; it consisted of three stories, with grouped columns and pilasters of the Corinthian and composite orders at the angles. The lower story was stone, the upper stories of timber, finished by a cupola, on which was sustained a ponderous weathercock, in the form of a grashopper. It was a most singular design, and strikingly dissimilar to the various church towers. The tower which replaced it in 1821, and the shell of which remained still standing after the recent conflagration, was only one hundred and twenty-eight feet six inches in height. Within the area, on the four interior sides of the building, were twenty-five large niches, containing figures of twenty-two of our sovereigns, namely:on the south side, Edward the First, Edward the Third, Henry the Fifth, and Henry the Sixth; on the west, Edward the Fourth, Edward the Fifth, Henry the Seventh, and Henry the Eighth; on the north, Edward the Sixth, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, James the First, Charles the First, Charles the Second, and James the Second; on the east, within a conjoined or double niche, were William and Mary; George the First, George the Second, George the Third, and George the Fourth.

Such, then, was the Royal Exchange of London, when, on the night of Wednesday, the 10th of January last, it fell a prey to the flames. Soon after ten o'clock on that night, a fire broke out in the northeastern corner of the edifice; it spread with rapidity towards the west, and in the space of a few hours had made a complete circuit of the quadrangle, destroying, in succession, the northern, western, southern, and eastern sides of the building. Of the tower which rose above the principal entrance on the southern side, the shell alone was left standing; and some of the decorations of the portico above that entrance sustained but little injury. The statue of Charles the Second, which stood in the middle of the area within, was not destroyed; but as the inner walls fell, they carried with them all the royal statues which had formed so conspicuous a feature among their

ornaments.

It is of course very improbable that any length of time will elapse before the City of London, be provided with another "Royal Exchange ;" and there is little reason to doubt that the new edifice will surpass its predecessor in magnificence. The regrets of some, that we have not a Sir Christopher Wren to rebuild it now," may be dissipated by the fact, that Sir Christopher Wren had nothing to do with rebuilding it before; and little danger we should trust is to be apprehended of our inability to produce as skilful an artist as Mr. Edward Jerman, notwithstanding that he was considered by the committee in 1667, (when Sir Christopher Wren was living,) to be "the most able known artist," next to "Mr. Mills the city surveyor." At all events, there is little hazard in predicting, that ere long a new edifice will be erected, and in the conceited doggrel of an old ballad, written soon after the Great Fire of 1666,—

Th' Exchange, that Royal Infant, shortly will
Her own and forreign language speak with skill,
And on that acre the noon sun shall see,
All his long travels in epitomie.

THAT which is good to be done, cannot be done too soon; and if it is neglected to be done early, it will frequently happen that it will not be done at all.-BISHOP MANT.

How various are the climates of the earth, and yet how uniform is each climate in its temperature, notwithstanding the fact, that we traverse annually a circle in space whose diameter extends over one hundred and ninety millions of miles. In each particular climate we behold races of animals and plants, many of which would not prosper elsewhere. Though apparently rains, and winds, and frosts are very irregular, yet we find a remarkable constancy in the average of the weather and seasons of each place. Very hot summers, or very cold winters, have little effect in raising or depressing the mean annual temperature of any one climate above or below its general standard. We must be convinced, from observation, that the structure of plants, and the nature of many animals, are specially adapted to the climate in which they are located. A vegetable, for example, which flourishes when the mean temperature is fiftyfive degrees, would perish where the average is only fifty. If our mean temperature were raised or lowered by five degrees, our vegetable world would be destroyed, until a new species suited to the altered climate, should be substituted for that which we possess at present. An inhabitant of the equatorial regions, whose mean temperature is eighty, would hardly believe that vegetable life could exist in such a climate as ours. We have the same opinion of the arctic regions. But both are equally mistaken; the care of a presiding Providence is limited to no climate; it

Lives through all space, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent.

At the equator we find the natives of the Spice Islands, the clove, and nutmeg trees, pepper and mace. Cinnamon bushes clothe the surface of Ceylon; the odoriferous sandal-wood, the ebony-tree, the teak-tree, and the banyan grow in the East Indies. In the same latitudes, in Arabia the Happy, we find balm, frankincense, and myrrh, the coffee-tree and the tamarind. But in those countries, at least in the plains, the trees and shrubs which decorate our more northerly climes are wanting. And as we go northwards, at every step we change the vegetable group, both in addition and by subtraction. In the thickets to the west of the Caspian Sea we have the apricot, citron, peach, walnut. In the same latitude, in Spain, Sicily, and Italy, we find the dwarf plum, the cypress, the chestnut, the cork-tree; the orange and lemon-tree perfume the air with their blossoms; the myrtle and pomegranate grow wild among the rocks. We cross the Alps, and we find the vegetation which belongs to Northern Europe, of which England is an instance. The oak, the beech, and the elm, are natives of Great Britain; the elm-tree seen in Scotland and the north of England is the wych-elm. As we travel still farther to the north, the forests again change their character. In the northern provinces of the Russian empire are found forests of the various species of firs, the Scotch and spruce-fir, and the larch. In the Orkney Islands no tree is found but the hazel, which occurs again on the shores of the Baltic. As we proceed into colder regions, we still find species which appear to have been made for these situations. The hoary or cold elder makes its appearance north of Stockholm; the sycamore and mountain-ash accompany us to the head of the Gulf of Bothnia; and as we leave this, and traverse the Dophrian range, we pass in succession the boundary lines of the spruce-fir, the Scotch-fir, and those minute shrubs which botanists distinguish as the dwarf-birch and the dwarfwillow. Here, near to, or within the arctic circle,

we yet find wild flowers of great beauty,—the mezereon, the yellow and white water-lily, and the European globe-flower. And when these fail us, the reindeer-moss still makes the country habitable for animals and man.

So also there are boundaries to the growth of corn, the vine, and the olive. Wheat extends over certain tracts from England to Thibet; it does not flourish in the polar regions, nor within the tropics, except in situations considerably raised above the level of the sea. The temperature required for the cultivation of the vine must not be under fifty, nor much above sixty-three degrees, though, in the warm climates, elevation of situation will correct the excess of heat. Maize and olives have their favourite regions in France, Italy, and Spain. We first meet with rice west of Milan; it extends over the northern provinces of Persia, and over all the southern districts of Asia, where there are facilities for irrigation.

Millet is one of the principal grains of Africa. Cotton is cultivated in the New World no higher than forty degrees latitude; in the Old it extends to latitude forty-four degrees, being found in Astrachan. Exceptions, indeed, occur with respect to the sugarcane, the indigo-tree, the plantain, and the mulberry, all natives of India and China; for these productions have found a genial climate in the West Indies and South America. The genuine tea-tree seems indisposed to flourish out of China, though the South American Indians have something like it. The Cassava yams, the bread-fruit-tree, the sago-palm, and the cabbage-tree, are all apparently special provisions for the islands in which they are peculiarly found to flourish.

narratives be employed for depicting scenes of vice, another evil of the greatest magnitude is likely to result from them, even though the conduct exhibited should be shown to end in remorse and misery. For by the mere familiarity with vice, an injury is done to the youthful mind, which is in no degree compensated by the moral at the close. Imagination, therefore, is a mental power of extensive influence, and capable of being turned to important purposes in the cultivation of individual character. But to be so, it must be kept under the strict control of reason and of virtue. If it be allowed to wander at discretion, through scenes of imagined wealth, ambition, frivolity, or pleasure, it tends to withdraw the mind from the important pursuits of life, to weaken the habits of attention, and to impair the judgment. It tends in a most material manner, to prevent the due exercise of those nobler powers which are directed to the cultivation both of science and virtue.

The state of a mind which has yielded itself to the influence of this delusive habit, cannot be more forcibly represented than in the words of an eloquent writer:-

The influence of this habit of dwelling on the beautiful fallacious forms of imagination, will accompany the mind into the most serious speculations, or rather, musings, on the real world, and what is to be done in it, and expected; as the image which the eye acquires from looking at any dazzling object, still appears before it wherever it turns. The vulgar materials that constitute the actual economy of the world, will rise up to its sight in fictitious forms, which it cannot disenchant into plain reality, nor will even suspect to be deceptive. It cannot go about with sober, rational inspection, and ascertain the nature and value of all things around it. Indeed, such a mind is not disposed to examine, with any careful minuteness, the real condition of things. It is impossible, we think, to reflect upon all this It is content with ignorance, because environed with somevariety of natural wealth, and upon the adaptation thing more delicious than such knowledge, in the paradise of each species to the climate in which it is found, which imagination creates. In that paradise it walks dewithout perceiving that the distribution of those pro-lighted, till some imperious circumstance of real life call it ductions, no one climate yielding a perfect substitute, generally speaking, for that of another, was originally designed to prompt and to continue throughout human existence, that commercial and friendly intercourse which has been long since established between the inhabitants of countries the most remote from each other.—Quarterly Review.

ON READING WORKS OF IMAGINATION.

THERE has been considerable difference of opinion in regard to the effects produced upon the mind by fictitious narratives. Without entering minutely upon the merits of this controversy, I think it may be contended that two evils are likely to arise from much indulgence in works of fiction. The one is a tendency to give way to the wild play of the imagination, a practice most deleterious both to the intellectual and moral habits. The other is a disruption of the harmony which ought to exist between the moral emotions and the conduct,-a principle of extensive and important influence. In the healthy state of the moral feelings, for example, the emotion of sympathy excited by a tale of sorrow, ought to be followed by some efforts for the relief of the sufferer. When such rela

tions in real life are listened to from time to time without any such efforts, the emotion gradually becomes weakened, and that moral condition is produced which we call selfishness, or darkness of heart. Fictitious tales of sorrow appear to have a similar tendency,—the emotion is produced without the corresponding conduct; and, when this habit has been much indulged, the result seems to be, that a cold and barren sentimentalism is produced, instead of the habit of active benevolence. If fictitious

thence, and gladly escapes thither when the avocation is past. There everything is beautiful and noble, as could be desired to form the residence of an angel. If a tenth part of the felicities that have been enjoyed, the great actions that have been performed, the beneficent institutions that have been established, and the beautiful objects that have been seen in this happy region, could have been imported into this terrestrial place, what a delightful thing it would have been to awake each morning to see such a world once

more.

To the same purpose are the words of another writer of the highest authority

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out upon the wing, is often the sport of those who delight To indulge the power of fiction, and send imagination too much in silent speculation. He who has nothing external that can divert him, must find pleasure in his own thoughts, and must conceive himself what he is not,-for who is content with what he is? He then expatiates in boundless futurity, and culls from all imaginable conditions that which, for the present moment, he should most desire; amuses his desires with impossible enjoyments, and confers upon his pride unattainable dominion. The mind dances from scene to scene, unites all pleasures in all combinations, and riots in delight which nature and fortune, with all their bounty, cannot bestow. In time, some particular train of ideas fixes the attention; all other intellectual gratifications are rejected; the mind, in weariness or leisure, recurs constantly to the favourite conception, and feasts on the luscious falsehood whenever she is offended with the bitterness of truth. By degrees the reign of fancy is confirmed; she grows first imperious, and in time despotic. Then fictions begin to operate as realities, false opinions fasten upon the mind, and life passes in dreams of rapture or of anguish.

[ABERCROMBIE on the Intellectual Powers.]

WHATEVER God himself has pleased to think worthy of his making, its fellow-creature man should not think unworthy of his knowing.—BOYLE.

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