u pass the Royal
Exchange think of Gresham: when you go up Walbrook remember the stream
beneath your feet, the Roman Fortress on your right, and the British
town on your left. London is crammed full of associations for those who
read and know and think. You will be better citizens of the present for
knowing about the citizens of the past.

2. The next lesson is your duty to your country. What does it mean, the
right of the Folk Mote? The Mote has now become a House of Commons, a
County Council, a School Board. You have the same rights that your
ancestor had. He was jealous over them: he fought to the death to
preserve them and to strengthen them. Be as jealous, for they are far
more important to you than ever they were to him. You have a hundred
times as much to defend: you have dangers which he did not know or fear.
Show your jealousy by exercising your right as the most sacred duty you
have to fulfil. Your vote is an inheritance and a trust. You have
inherited it direct from the Angles and the Jutes: as you exercise that
vote so it will be ill or well with you and your children. Be very
jealous of the man you put in power: learn to distinguish the man who
wants place from the man who wants justice: vote only for the right man:
and do your best to find out the right man. It is difficult at all
times. You may make it less difficult by sending to the various
Parliaments of the country a man you know, who has lived among you,
whose life, whose private character, whose previous record you know
instead of the stranger who comes to court your vote. Above all things
_vote always_ and let the first duty in your mind always be to protect
your rights and your liberties.

These are the two lessons that this book should teach you--the respect
that is due to the past and the duty that is owed to the present.

NOTES

1. THE FOUNDATION OF LONDON. PART I.

~AEneas~: a Trojan prince who escaped from Troy when it was destroyed by
the Greeks.

~Venus~, the Roman Goddess of Love and Beauty, was the mother of AEneas.

~Troy~: a famous city in the north-west corner of Asia Minor. It was
destroyed by Greek invaders about 1,000 years before Christ, and the
stories connected with it form one of the chief subjects of Greek and
Latin poets.

~Troynovant~ means New Troy.

~Constantine the Great~ was Emperor of Rome, that is, of all the then
known world from 305 to 337 A.D. He was the first Roman Emperor to adopt
and favour Chr