, has
always preserved more or less of her ancient character as a free city.
Paris was merely a military bulwark, the dwelling-place of a ducal or a
royal sovereign. London, no less important as a military post, had also
a greatness which rested on a surer foundation. London, like a few other
of our great cities, is one of the ties which connect our Teutonic
England with the Celtic and Roman Britain of earlier times. Her British
name still remains unchanged by the Teutonic conquerors. Before our
first introduction to London as an English city, she had cast away her
Roman and imperial title; she was no longer Augusta; she had again
assumed her ancient name, and through all changes she had adhered to her
ancient character. The commercial fame of London dates from the early
days of Roman dominion. The English conquest may have caused a temporary
interruption, but it was only temporary. As early as the days of
AEthelberht the commerce of London was again renowned. AElfred had rescued
the city from the Dane; he had built a citadel for her defence, the germ
of that Tower which was to be first the dwelling-place of kings, and
then the scene of the martyrdom of their victims. Among the laws of
AEthelstan, none are more remarkable than those which deal with the
internal affairs of London, and with the regulation of her earliest
commercial corporations. Her institutes speak of a commerce spread over
all the lands which bordered on the Western Ocean. Flemings and
Frenchmen, men of Ponthieu, of Brabant, and of Luettich, filled her
markets with their wares, and enriched the civic coffers with their
toils. Thither, too, came the men of Rouen, whose descendants were, at
no distant day, to form a considerable element among her own citizens;
and, worthy and favoured above all, came the seafaring men of the old
Saxon brother-land, the pioneers of the mighty Hansa of the north, which
was in days to come to knit together London and Novgorod in one bond of
commerce, and to dictate laws and distribute crowns among the nations
by whom London was now threatened. The demand for toll and tribute fell
lightly on those whom the English legislation distinguished as the _men
of the Emperor_."

[Illustration: BROAD STREET AND CORNHILL WARDS. (_From a Map of 1750._)]

In 994, Olaf king of Norway, and Sweyn king of Denmark, summoning their
robber chieftains from their fir-woods, fiords, and mountains, sailed up
the Thames in ninety-four war vessels, e