These successes were not achieved without great expenditure of blood and money. At the close of the previous year (1705) the lord mayor had received an order under the royal sign manual requiring him and the Court of Aldermen to forthwith impress 1,000[pg 624] men—such as had no visible means of subsistence—for service by land or sea,[1920] whilst in the following March (1706) it was found necessary to open a subscription at Mercers' Chapel for furnishing Prince Eugene with £250,000 to assist him in carrying on the campaign in Italy. Notwithstanding the depressed state of the Corporation finances, the city abounded in wealth, and by the close of the first day no less than £160,000 of the whole loan had been underwritten, Sir Gilbert Heathcote, Sir William Scawen, Sir James Bateman and Sir Henry Furnese making themselves each responsible for the sum of £4,000.[1921] With the pecuniary assistance thus afforded him, and with the reinforcements which Marlborough despatched to him from Holland, the prince was enabled to raise the siege of Turin (7 Sept., 1706).
Day of public thanksgiving, 31 Dec., 1706.
It was not long before the crimson velvet gown was again brought into requisition. So great success had attended the allied armies in 1706 that the queen ordered another day of public thanksgiving to be kept on the last day of the year, when she paid another solemn visit to St. Paul's, accompanied by both Houses of Parliament. Strange to say the records of the Court of Aldermen are absolutely silent as to the preparations made for the occasion, but from another source we know them to have been on the same scale as formerly, and we may depend upon it that the crimson velvet gown was there.[1922]
Passage of gunpowder through the city.
The city was at this time in great danger from the passage of large quantities of gunpowder through[pg 625] the streets on its way to the Tower. One can realise the immense risk which the merchant and trader ran in pursuing his regular vocation when one reads that on the 10th July (1706) a cart with iron-bound wheels and laden with twenty-five barrels of gunpowder had been overturned on Fish Street Hill and the gunpowder scattered. Nor was this the only accident that had occurred; the wonder is that the entire city had not been blown up long since, seeing that gunpowder was a commodity dealt in by grocers! The Common Council took the matter up and made a representation to the queen.[1923] Next year a Bill was introduced into the House of Commons by Sir Gilbert Heathcote and Samuel Shepheard, two of the city members, for preventing the dangers arising from bringing or laying up quantities of gunpowder within the city and liberties, but before the Lords and Commons could come to an agreement parliament was prorogued (24 April, 1707).[1924] The municipal authorities were not content to let matters rest here, but prepared a petition to parliament for leave to bring in another Bill. The petition was ordered to lie on the table (24 Feb., 1708),[1925] and in the meantime the citizens had to be satisfied with an undertaking already given by powder-makers not to carry any gunpowder to any wharf or stairs within half a mile of London Bridge.[1926]
The Union with Scotland, 1607.
The Articles of Union between England and Scotland having, after prolonged discussion, been[pg 626] ratified by both the English and Scottish parliaments and received the formal assent of the Crown, a day of public thanksgiving (1 May, 1707) was ordered to be observed for the happy conclusion of the treaty between the two kingdoms. A proclamation had previously been issued (29 April) constituting the existing Houses of Lords and Commons the first parliament of Great Britain for and on the part of England, whilst sixteen peers and forty-five commoners were to be elected to represent Scotland in the same parliament. The first meeting was to take place at Westminster on the 23rd October.[1927] Meanwhile addresses of congratulation to the queen arrived from various parts of the kingdom; but in consequence of the Article of Union declaring the Presbyterian form to be the true Protestant religion, no such address came from the University of Oxford. It was otherwise with the city of London, where Presbyterianism had always been in favour. On the 9th May the Common Council voted an address to her majesty congratulating her upon the happy union of the two kingdoms, a blessing which Heaven (they declared) had reserved for her to accomplish, who was the true and sincere lover of piety, unity and concord.[1928]
France and the Pretender, March, 1708.
The Londoners entertained sincere affection for Queen Anne, and lost no opportunity of showing their loyalty. Such an opportunity presented itself in the spring of the following year (1708), when Scotland was threatened by a French invasion in favour of the Pretender. The citizens hastened to assure her that[pg 627] the French preparations inspired them—her majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects—with no terror. The repeated tenders of their lives and fortunes were (she was asked to believe) not empty words, but they would be ready when occasion offered to demonstrate to the world their unfeigned loyalty in support of her majesty and the maintenance of the Protestant succession against the Pretender and all other enemies at home and abroad.[1929]
Search for Papists and Jacobites in the city, 1708.