justice and right which, from the very rudeness of their natures, they are incapable of understanding.

One army of barbarians succeeded another in their inroads on the various provinces of the empire; the city of Rome itself was more than once pillaged by them; and by the end of the fifth century, the empire was wholly destroyed, the last emperor being deposed by invaders. The whole of Europe was now in the hands of the conquerors, and an universal chaos prevailed. After dispossessing the original inhabitants of their territory, they proceeded to divide it among themselves. The kings or chiefs of the various tribes of barbarians assumed a show of sovereign power, and took a share of territory larger than that which fell to others. But the subordinate generals and officers received their quota of land, as did also many of the meaner rank. As there was no general policy by which the whole were governed, each proprietor began to deem himself a little sovereign over the domain which had fallen to his share, and the dependants and serfs which he gradually collected around him looked up to him as a guide and superior. These dependants were often small proprietors of land, who were too weak to defend themselves, and therefore clung to some one more powerful, yielding up their small possession to him, and receiving it again from his hands as a fief, feud, or leased property. This was the origin of the Feudal System, which so strikingly characterized Europe during the middle ages :-the barbarians who had actually overturned the Roman Empire received the conquered land as booty, divided into parcels: these parcels of land, from various causes,-sometimes intermarriages, sometimes superior tact, and sometimes actual violence, became gradually combined into larger portions, fewer in number. The owners of these large estates constituted the class of proud, haughty, warlike Barons, of whom we read in the history of almost every country in Europe.

But it was only in the open country that these Barons exercised their peculiar sway: in citics and towns their influence was much smaller. The circumstances which distinguish town from country life are sufficiently marked to show the origin of all civic communities. Where articles are manufactured, a number of persons must be congregated together, and if their city be on the sea-coast, or on the banks of a river, shipping and boats would resort to it, for the conveyance of the manufactured goods to other parts of the country.

The state of Europe then, from the seventh to the tenth century, (for it was not till the seventh century that the irruptions of fresh hordes of barbarians ceased,) was this:The land was possessed chiefly by Feudal Barons, who had under them a large number of vassals and serfs, whose lives and properties had become almost solely at the disposal of their lords; the baron decided the disputes of his vassals in his own baronial hall: he called them out whenever he went

to war; and was, to all practical purposes, their sovereign. The monarch of the country had a general sovereignty over the whole but it was more in name than in reality. In England the contests between the Danes and Saxons and afterwards the Normans, made many changes in the sovereignty; but throughout these changes the nobles were more powerful than the monarch or the people. In Scotland the spirit of clan-ship prevailed down to a recent period. In France, the barons were more powerful than in any other country of Europe, and left to the reigning monarch only the shadow of authority. In Germany there were certain great lords who assumed sovereign authority within their own petty dominions; and Charlemagne was almost the only emperor during this period who had a real supremacy. In Italy, the country was broken up into a number of little independent states, some monarchical, some aristocratic, and others democratic. In Spain, there was a continual strife between the Moors and the Christians for the possession of the country; and when a military chief succeeded in wresting a portion of territory from the Moors, he immediately made himself sovereign over it; and thus Spain became broken up in to a number of petty principalities.

The consequences of this state of things were many and important. National laws scarcely existed, for a baron adopted on his own domain those laws which suited him best. If one feudal lord had a quarrel with another he took the law into his own hands, and revenged himself by force of arms. Again, if one baron made depredations on the domain of a neighbouring baron, captured his castle, and plundered his adherents, the sovereign had seldom power sufficient to see justice rendered, but a scene of reprisal and mutual

attack followed, each vassal and serf being bound by oath to follow the plans of his lord, however iniquitous they might be, and thus all became involved in a petty but ferocious war.

But it was not only the domains of neighbouring barons that suffered from the lawless usages of the times: the cities and towns experienced the evil likewise; and we here begin to have a glimpse of the necessity for some such institution as the Hanseatic League. Whatever wealth resulted from the possession of large estates belonged to the barons, but all that which resulted from manufacturing and commercial industry belonged to the cities and towns, which were generally favourable towards the monarchs, and the monarchs towards the citizens. Each was likely to be benefited by a regular government which could preserve order and redress grievances; and each felt a distrust of the power of the barons. This is the chief point in the history of charters of incorporation, municipal privileges, &c. When a sovereign wanted his trea sury replenished, it was the citizens, and not the barons, to whom he looked, and his authority as a sovereign was generally more readily acknowledged by the former than by the latter. As a return and encouragement for this favourable feeling, the monarch granted certain privileges to the citizens, allowing them to choose from among themselves the municipal officers, to govern the financial matters relating to the city, to establish tolls, dues, &c., and many more of a similar kind. This was the mode in which a certain degree of mutual support was established between monarchs and cities, and the time had arrived when that support was needed. The barons frequently had their castles in the immediate vicinity of populous towns, and those who were least restrained by principles of honour and justice, or who were possessed of most power, made frequent depredations on the townsmen, attacking them at unguarded hours, and, when attacked in turn, intrenching themselves in their castles. About the year A.D. 1000 sovereign power was hollow and unreal in Europe; baronial power was vast and overbearing; citizens were advancing slowly and gra dually in manufacturing and commercial enterprise, and in municipal rights, but were troubled by the exactions and depredations of the barons, and also by Scandinavian pirates, who at that time infested all the ports of the Baltic and German Seas; and lastly, the Romish Church,—almost the only one then acknowledged in Europe,-was too corrugt and demoralized to improve the minds or conduct of men. It was in such a state of things that the cities and commercial towns in the north of Germany began to combine together for mutual protection.

II. FORMATION of the Hanseatic * League. The city of Hamburg, situated on the river Elbe, in the north of Germany, was originally a military fort, built by the Emperor Charlemagne, for the defence of his empire from the pirates who infested the Baltic. As this fort was situ ated at the northern part of the empire it was generally the first to suffer from the incursions of the lawless bands of Scandinavians, and it was more than once sacked and burned by them. For four centuries it underwent various vicissi tudes, but continued on the whole to increase in importance and in population. The inhabitants therefore formed allianf the first of these alliances of which the nature has be ances with various towns, for mutual protection. One recorded, was made with the city of Lübeck, in the year 1241. Lübeck was a considerable commercial city, a distance north-east of Hamburg, and the treaty of alliance declared that the two towns should jointly clear the country between Hamburg and the river Trave of robbers, and prevent pirates from cruising on the Elbe,-that the expenses should be borne equally by them, that everything which might tend to the benefit of the two cities should be concerted in common, and that their forces should always be united to maintain their liberties and privileges.

short

The alliance of 1241 was probably a separate proceeding between Lübeck and Hamburg, without relation to other cities, for there was, as early as 1169, a compact between

* With regard to the origin of the word Hanse two opinions prevail. signifying on the sea, because the first Hanse towns were all situated en According to one, this term is derived from two German words, am see, the sea-coast of Holland and Germany, and hence the society is said to have been originally called Am see stenen, or Cities on the sea, and after wards, by abbreviation, Hansee and Hanse. But the other and more pro bable opinion is that the word hanse is an obsolete High Dutch or Teutonic word, having the signification of alliance, confederation, or association, and hence the term Hanse towns implied Confederated towns

other produce of Germany, in exchange for their own dried fish, threatened a general insurrection if the blockade were not discontinued. The king was forced to yield back to the Hanse Towns the privileges which they had acquired, and also to pay them a considerable sum of money. This, it must be owned, looks very much like a stretch of power; for it is not easy to perceive what right, except that of the strongest, the Hanseatics had to proceed to such measures. The year 1300 witnessed the leaguers growing in power and influence. The city of Hamburg obtained from the Earl of Holstein a great increase of privileges; and, in several contests which the towns had with the feudal barons, the united strength of the former generally enabled them to conquer. But power, wherever it exists, is liable to abuse unless checked. We find Elward the Second complaining to the King of Norway for having suffered several English merchants to be imprisoned and their goods seized, at the instigation of the Hanse merchants, "who," says the king, by all possible ways, strive to obstruct the advantages of the English merchants." Indeed it seems pretty clear, that the Hanseatics acted on the Baltic as if none but themselves had a right to the adjacent countries of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.

Another contest shortly afterwards ensued between the Hanseatics and the Danes. Denmark, although wholly separated from Sweden, is at one part divided from it only by a narrow channel called the Sound, on whose western bank are the cities of Copenhagen and Elsineur; and through this Sound all vessels have to proceed to and from the Baltic and the German Ocean. Now it appears, that, in 1348, the Danish fleet in the Sound, having interrupted the navigation of the Hanseatics by demanding toll, was attacked and defeated by the combined fleet of the Hanse Towns; most of the Danish ships were destroyed; and the king was forced to assign to the Hanseatics the fine province of Schonen, for the space of sixteen years, as an indemnification for the expenses which they had incurred. This is the first mention which we have met with, of a toll being demanded by the Danes for the passage of ships to and from the Baltic: it has been adhered to, more or less, to the present day; and has been a fruitful source of disagreement among the Northern nations.

In the year 1361, a naval contest of a more extensive character occurred on the Baltic, in which the Hanseatics played a conspicuous part. Waldemar the Third, King of Denmark, attacked the city of Wisburg, in the isle of Gothland, an extensive commercial emporium at that time, and carried off a large booty. As Wisburg was a Hanse Town, or was at least closely connected with them, the Hanseatics were greatly excited; they seized on the Danish ships and merchandise everywhere; declared war against Denmark; and, having made an alliance with the King of Norway, the Duke of Mecklenburg, and the Earl of Holstein, they attacked Copenhagen. The Lübeck squadron was under a commander, appointed by the citizens; and all the rest of the fleet was commanded by the Earl of Holstein. The allies succeeded in capturing the castle, and destroying the town of Copenhagen; but they failed in an attempt on Helsinburg. The Danes, in their turn, sent a fleet to Lübeck, and defeated its squadron, taking six of their ships, burning others, and forcing the rest to take refuge in the harbour of Travemund. The contest ended without any satisfactory termination of the difficulties for which it commenced; and this circumstance seems to have led to a frequent renewal of hostilities between them, in most of which the fleets of the confederacy were victorious. In 1364, three years after the last contest, the Danes received a total overthrow in or near the haven of Wismar, where their whole fleet was destroyed, and their admiral made prisoner, by the Hanseatic fleet, usually stationed at that once famous haven.

Four years afterwards we find the confederacy in alliance with Albert, king of Sweden, against the Danish monarch: the allies attacked him on the coast of Schonen, and took several Danish towns. As Denmark was at the same time attacked, on distinct grounds, by the people of Holstein and Jutland, he found it necessary to make peace with the Hanse Towns, by granting them new and great privileges all over Denmark. But even the concession seems to have been insufficient to allay the hostile feeling between the parties; for, in the following year, the confederates attacked Denmark with such vigour as to drive the king out of his dominions; they took the castle of Copenhagen, as well as many other castles, and made prisoners of many of the nobility.

But besides these, which were all Hanse Towns in the proper acceptation of the term, there were numerous others, comprising, indeed, nearly all the principal cities in Europe,-which were allied to them, for the mutual protec tion of commerce and navigation: among these were Amsterdam, Utrecht, Stockholm, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bruges, Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais, Rouen, St. Malo, Bourdeux, Bayonne, Marseilles, Seville, Cadiz, Barcelona, Lisher, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, and London. These towns wer merely related to the confederacy for the convenience and safety of commerce; but the real Hanseatics subscribed to common fund, out of which the salaries of officers, the expenses of meetings, &c., were defrayed. Lübeck and Cologne, as being the chiefs of the league, paid the larges quota towards this common fund; and the other towns pai according to their rank or size. The fleets were not mai tained out of this fund; but each town furnished its on whenever wanted.

We have before observed that the confederacy, for ce venience of business, was divided into four districts, at the head of which were the towns of Lübeck, Cologne, Brus wick, and Dantzic. All business occurring in each respe tive district, which was not of great and immediate in portance, was usually left to be determined at the gener assemblies of the whole confederacy, annually held at t head city of that district, where the records and documers of the district were deposited. But if the matter happe to be of great importance to their commerce, freedom, &, it was reserved for the triennial meeting of the whole repre sentatives of the Hanseatic League, usually held at Lübeck, where the journals, archives, and records of the whole con munity were kept.

Bruges has been spoken of as a place where the leag established a comptoir, or general warehouse, for the re tion and sale of commodities belonging to all the cities of the league. Various causes led to the removal of this com toir from Bruges to Antwerp, where the Hanse merchan's had a magnificent old house, resembling a college, rounded by shops and warehouses. The next compter established was that at London, to which we have bef alluded, under the name of the "Steel-yard," or the "Germ Guildhall." Another comptoir was established at Gret Novogorod, anciently a famous commercial city and republi, tributary to Russia. A fourth comptoir was at Bergen, Norway. Each of these comptoirs was governed by a corp rate power, which superintended all the commercial arrang ments of the league in the country where the comptoir was situated. At Bergen, the comptoir consisted of twenty-cre large buildings; at the head of each of which was an overbefore him: above him was a council of merchants, consist seer, who gave judgment on the different causes which came ing of one or two aldermen, and eighteen counsellors; the aldermen being chosen at Lübeck, and sent out for five years. The comptoir at Bruges, from its central situati was more important. dred merchants, who lived at different parts of the Low It included, at one time, three hun

Hanseatics, and being unable to obtain, in an amicable way, any satisfaction for those losses, the towns of Dort, Haerlem, Amsterdam, Gouda, Rotterdam, Hoorne, Enchuysen, Middleburgh, Veere, Flushing, and Armuyden, fitted out a number of warlike ships. Having, by the aid of this fleet, twice beaten the Hanseatics at sea, and taken great riches from them, they compelled the Hanse to sign a very advantageous treaty, which was to hold good for twelve years after the year 1444.

This event was followed by many others in which England was an interested party. Some English ships having attempted to fish and trade on the coast of Iceland, against the positive prohibition of the Danish king, the governor happened to be killed in an affray with them; and in the following year (1448) the Danes, by way of reprisal, seized four English merchant-ships laden with commodities from the Baltic. The English considered this act to have been suggested by the Hanse merchants, and the "Steel-yard" merchants were seized as hostages till reparation was made. On this occasion an instance occurred, which was by no means the only one, of a defection of some towns from the common band; the "Steel-yard" merchants from Cologne and other western Hanse towns contrived to get their own goods and persons excepted from this seizure, leaving their brethren from the eastern towns to get out of their difficulties in the best way they could indeed, the town of Cologne more than once broke faith with the Hanse, and humbly sued to be forgiven;—a delinquency which was never charged against Lübeck, the first, the only, and the neverflinching leader of this extraordinary confederacy.

These wrangling disputes between England and the Hanseatics were allayed for a time, by a treaty for eight years, made in 1456; but the friendly feeling was hollow and transient, for we find King Edward the Fourth, in 1466, calling in question the validity of the powers of the Steelyard merchants of London; and the merchants had to present him with a large sum of money for the renewal of the charter. Another charter was given in 1470, by which the Steel-yard privileges were given for five years to the Cologne section of merchants alone, probably for some pecuniary assistance rendered in that quarter. The Steel-yard merchants are frequently spoken of by our historians as an usurping body, who often went beyond their charter. Always trading in a body, they easily ruined single traders by underselling them: those merchants who were connected with the cities of Bruges and Hamburg were very influ ential in the Steel-yard, and indeed almost fixed their own prices at will, both for exports and imports. This influence was somewhat checked during the stormy period of the wars between the houses of York and Lancaster; but at the termination of the strife, compensation was made to the Steel-yard merchants for some injuries they had suffered during that. period; and a new charter was given to them by Edward the Fourth, in 1472. This charter was confirmed, two years afterwards, in a still more extensive form, by Act of Parliament; whereby the Hanse merchants were freely to trade in England, and the English in the Hanse Towns; and various facilities were afforded for the commercial arrangements of the Hanse merchants. This compact appears to have been acted on for a considerable number of years in a friendly spirit: we will therefore now turn to the continental proceedings of the Hanse.

The confederacy frequently showed itself an overmatch for the neighbouring princes. On one occasion, we find the King of Denmark and Norway, the Marquis of Brandenberg, the Duke of Mecklenberg, the Duke of Brunswick, and other princes, leagued together against the Hanse; but their measures proved abortive. At another time the power of the confederacy was shown, by its interposition being asked by the King of Denmark, for the settlement of a dispute between that monarch and the King of Sweden. Shortly afterwards they were engaged in a war with the Dukes of Brunswick and Lunenberg, whom they defeated and compelled to make a humiliating peace.

We have said that Bruges was one of the cities at which a comptoir or factory had been established by the Hanse. But this does not imply that Bruges was one of the Hanse Towns; it was placed in the same relation as London with the confederacy, and therefore had power to ally itself or not with the confederacy, for particular purposes. We find that in 1471 a treaty of commerce was concluded between he Hanse and the city of Bruges, which stipulated that all the merchandise of the Hanse should be brought to Bruges only, as the sole arehouse for all the Netherlands; for

which end, certain ships should be placed at Amsterdam and Sluys, which the merchants of both parties should use; and which were also to be well armed against pirates. Five years after this event, the Hanse showed its power by disfranchising the city of Cologne, on account of the selfish manner in which that city had consulted its own interests in certain transactions, without considering those of the confederacy to which it belonged; and it was only at the intercession of the Emperor Frederick the Third and the Elector of Treves, that Cologne was again admitted into the confederacy. A similar instance occurred in 1478, when the confederacy sent a notice to the King of England, for the information of English merchants, "That the city of Colberg, in Pomerania, had separated itself from the Hanseatic confederacy, and is, therefore, utterly incapable of participating in the privileges of this league in England, until the said league shall certify that Colberg is again reconciled to it.” VI. DECLINE AND FALL OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE. As we approach nearer to the end of the fifteenth century, we find many symptoms that a decrease in the power of the Hanse was approaching. The various countries of Europe, in proportion as their commerce extended, interfered with the exorbitant privileges of the Hanse merchants. In the year 1486, serious differences occurred between the league and the French, with whom they had, generally speaking, been on amicable terms. In 1491, a solemn assembly of the whole Hanseatic confederacy was held at Antwerp, in great pomp, in order to adjust disputes which were at the time pending with England and with Holland. All parties were actuated by grasping motives, and no satisfactory result followed this meeting; for Holland, as well as England, began to feel that commerce could be well carried on with out the aid of the confederacy, and, indeed, in spite of its authority.

Yet, notwithstanding these partial discomfitures, the league was still formidable: in 1492 (the year in which Columbus discovered America, an event which had much influence on the future fortune of the league), seventy-two cities and towns sent representatives to the general assembly at Lübeck. Their old enemies, the Dukes of Brunswick and of Lunenberg, were again defeated by them about the same period. Four years afterwards, they were involved in disputes with John, king of Denmark, on account of certain political events between the latter and the Regent of Sweden. The King of Denmark had been driven out of Sweden by the Regent; and, in order to punish the Swedes, he requested the Hanse merchants to retire altogether from Sweden. The merchants, however, little caring for the political struggles of others, resolved, at a general assembly at Lübeck, that they could not consent to limit their own commerce, merely because one monarch had baffled another. They refused to accede; but still the Danish king showed himself sufficiently powerful to be a formidable rival to the merchants; for his ships now began to traverse the Baltic without fear of the Hanseatics. Still more rapidly did the power of the Hollanders increase, as was shown in an event which took place in the year 1511. A fleet of Dutch ships, homeward bound from the eastern shores of the Baltic, and consisting of no less than two hundred and fifty merchant men, and four ships of war, appeared in sight of the city of Lübeck. The Lübeckers thought this a fair opportunity to be revenged on the Hollanders for invading the commerce of the Baltic, which the arrogant merchants claimed as the exclusive right of the Hanse. The Lübeck vessels attacked those of Holland, took some, burned others, and drove the rest into the harbour of Bornholm, where a large Danish fleet lay. The Danes then assisted the Dutch in repelling the attack of the Lübeckers, and driving them into their own port. The Danish fleet had, in the previous year, ranged over the Baltic, taken all the Hanseatic ships it could meet with, burned the suburbs of Travemund, the port of Lübeck, and destroyed many small towns belonging to the Hanse. It therefore appears that the supremacy of the Hanse was now seriously attacked in the Baltic, both by the Danes and by the Hollanders.

An event which occurred in the year 1515, will throw some light on the overbearing system of commerce pursued by the Hanse. The Danish merchants, who carried the produce of Denmark to the Hanse Towns for sale, com plained to their sovereign, that they were not permitted to fix the price of their commodities; the Hanse magistrates assumed a power of arbitrarily setting a fixed price thereon; and those magistrates, being themselves merchants, took advantage of their own regulation. The consequence was,