ave died in his bed, still King of
England. It was the City which forced James II. to fly and called over
William Prince of Orange. It was, again, London which supported Pitt in
his firm and uncompromising resistance to Napoleon. And in the end
Napoleon was beaten. It cannot be too often repeated that two causes
made the strength of London: the unity of the City, so that its vast
population moved as one man: and its wealth. The King thought of the
subsidies--under the names of loans, grants, benevolences--which he
could extort from the merchants. We who enjoy the fruits of the long
struggle maintained especially by London for the right of managing our
own affairs, especially in the matter of taxation, cannot understand the
tyrannies which the people of old had to endure from Kings and nobles.
Richard II., for instance, forced the citizens to sign and seal blank
'charts'--try to imagine the Prime Minister making the Lord Mayor, the
Aldermen, the Common Council men, and all the more important merchants
sign blank cheques to be filled in as he pleased! That, however, was the
last exaction of Richard II. Henry of Lancaster went out with 12,000
Londoners, and made him prisoner.

Another factor, less generally understood, assisted and developed the
power of London.

It was also the position of the City as the centre of the country; not
geographically, which would give Warwick that position, but from the
construction of the roads and from its position on the Thames. But, to
repeat, the use and wont of the City to act together by order of the
Mayor, principally made it so great a power. Whatever troubles might
arise, here was a solid body--'24,000 men at arms and 30,000 archers,'
all acting on one side. The rest of the country was scattered,
uncertain, inclined this way and that. The City, to use a modern phrase,
'voted solid.' There were no differences of opinion in the City. And
that, even more than its wealth, made London a far more important
factor, politically, than the barons with all their following.

40. ELIZABETHAN LONDON.

PART I.

A map of Elizabethan London, drawn by one Agas, which is almost a
picture as well as a map, shows us very clearly the aspect of the City.
Let us lay down the map before us. First of all, we observe the wall of
the City; it is carefully drawn of uniform height, with battlements, and
at regular intervals, bastions. Outside the wall there is the ditch, but
it is now, as Stow desc