English Gilds.

Brentano , in order to study the English labour question , joined in 1868 , Dr . Engel , director of the Eoyal Statistical Bureau at Berlin , on a short tour to the English manufacturing districts , but he soon discovered that a thorough knowledge of the

position of the working classes in England would require a sojourn of many months iu the country . He therefore remained till May , 1869 , having filled his portfolio full of material which he had collected * relalino- to workiuo- men's associations of every

kind ancl history of labour in England . At the death of Mr . Toulmin Smith , Lujo Brentano was requested to write a general introduction to that gentleman ' s unfinished Avork , which , after some

hesitation , he consented to do . The English Gilds Avere local association of those of one trade , and bound together all classes of that trade for the defence of their rights ancl liberties , as well as to assist the aged and needy amongst

them , thus combining to a considerable extent the objects of our present trades' unions , and our friendly and benefit societies . They were not partnerships or trading companies , for their aim Avas to " set up something higher than personal

gain and mere materialism as the main object of men living in towns , and to make the teaching of love to one's neighbour be not coldly accepted as a hollow dogma of morality , but knoAvn and felt as a habit of life . "

The English Gilds , Ave are informed , as a system 01 wide-spread practical institutions , are older than any kings of England . The old laws of Alfred , Ina , Athelstan , and Henry I . reproduce still older laws in which the existence of Gilds is

acknowledged , and in ivhich it is taken is a matter of course that every one belonged to some Gild . As early as A . D . 688-725 , the laws of Ina touch upon the liability of the brethren of a Gild in the case of slaying a thief . The " -Indicia Civitatis

Limdonije , " of Athelstan ' s time ( A . D . 924-40 ) , contains ordinances for keeping up the social duties in the Gilds of London . Stowe , in his survey of London mentions that the Cnichten Gild , or Young Men ' s Gild , Avas as old as the time

of Edgar , and that charters of confirmation were given successively by Edward the Confessor , William II ., aud Henry I ., and to another " Young Men's Gild , a grant of land Avas made in the time of Ethelbert in 860 . Domesday Book

mentions two Gilds in Canterbury , and a Gild Hall in DoA er . The word Gild , of Saxon origin meant " rateable

payment . " Dr . Bosworth defines it as " payment of money , compensation , tribute , " and to the verb Gyldan , Gildan , Geldan , he attaches the meaning , " to pay , give , render . " That the Avord came to be applied to the brotherhoods , from their

having gathered a regular rate or " Gilde " from each member seems a natural explanation . On the origin of corporations , Mr . Toulmin Smith says : Corporations , using the Avord in the sense in which it is applied to towns & c , in

England , had their beginning in the old " Frithborh or peace-pledge . " The gist of this is , that all the inhabitants of a place ( communitas ) are bound to each one , and each one to all , and the whole to the state for the maintenance of the

public peace . The "YieAv of Frank-Pledge " ( which though only nominal in many places , yet still quite real in others ) is now kept up in Courts Leet is one relic of this Frith-borh . The liability of hundreds , parishes , & c-, to certain obligations

is another practical relic of it . Every man in every " communitas " used to be actually enrolled in the Frith-borh , on reaching a certain age , and thenceforth had to be present , ( or to account for his absence ) at every one of the regular meetings of

the ' communitas . ' This practice Avas kept up till comparatively modern times . The articles of the " Yiew of Frank Pledge" Avere part of the common law , but were also enacted in Acts of Parliament , ancl Avere added to from time to time as fresh

circumstances arose . The bodies thus acting were all true "Corporations" though , as different places increased and grew unequally , different shapes were taken , some larger and some smaller , and some almost dwindled aAvay to nothing .

Eepresentative Councils , & c , are a mere incident , and not an essential to corporations . The whole body is the corporation . The head of these corporations used to be the " Provost , " ( a name formerly universal in England ) , the " Constable , " the

" Bailiff , " or the "Eeeve . " Up to the Corporations Eeform Act , * the names of the heads of Corporations varied very much . That of Mayor is really modern . It is but twenty-five years since the Corporate ( representative ) body in Birmingham

was the Bailiffs and Court Leet . " In the year 1388 , two parliaments were held ; of the second of these , held at Cambridge , and which fell in the 12 th year of Eichard IL , it happens that the roll or official record is now lost , bat it is