really contains a summary of the history of the Guild
in this country, with speculations as to its origin, and a full account of the Hull Guilds and Trading Companies. It is very well printed, and is furnished with several pretty illustrations, which cannot, however, be said to possess more than local in- terest. An index and a list of authorities have been added, and references are very carefully given on each page. This is, in fact, an excellent example of the useful work which a careful man interested in the antiquities of his locality may
do by choosing a subject and gathering what records remain. Traditions, names of fields and pathways, customs, and
especially old words and phrases, are rapidly passing away, and if they are to be recorded at all, it must be by local antiquarians. It is, of course, given to very few to be his- torians; but care and patience are the chief requirements in the editor of local manuscripts or the recorder of dialects.
In the introductory portion of the book, Mr. Lambert tries to trace a connection between English and Roman Guilds.
The chapters (ii. and in which this is attempted, form an interesting summary of the points common to guilds of varied origin ; but the result cannot, as Mr. Lambert (p.56) confesses, be said to be conclusive ; and, in fact, on wider grounds one can
say that in all probability the only similitude which can have existed might be expected on a priori grounds, speaking as
we would speak of all very widely distributed institutions.
The principle of Guild Association is clearly not Teutonic in its origin ; nor is it Roman, or Indian. The Guild is found so generally that it is much more likely to be a purely natural development, occurring wherever a certain advance has been made from the patriarchal condition,—a development merely clothing with new rules and new uses the meetings which seem t) have been common to men of all religions. The Guild develops unconsciously; and, being a natural growth, presents local features ; and its rules have considerable diversity. As time goes on its principle becomes extended ; it may or may not from the first have any connection with an industry or branch of commerce ; in large towns it becomes powerful, absorbing all the mercantile life of the place ; at last, owing to the reorganisation of industries and the growth of new modes of trading, it becomes dangerous, and is made power- less. In England the latest stage was reached practically in 1547. It is not correct to claim a continuity of guild-life throughout the whole Tudor period. The Craft guilds were swept away by 1 Edward VI., c. 14, and the Companies which were reorganised later are a new foundation on a different basis. This Professor Cunningham has shown. The statutes abundantly show that the old workman of 1550 was practi- cally free to work where he wished.
An exceedingly interesting feature of guild-life was its con- nection with the local authority. The guild merchant,—was it a private association or was it really the Borough Corpora- tion ? In this matter, Mr. Lambert follows Dr. Gross and Professor Cunningham in holding that the question is a purely local one. The guild sometimes so overshadowed the town authorities that they appear in the capacity of its servants, In other places the guild merchant is merely the standing committee for trade. Its principle was that of monopoly, and it was obviously regarded as a privilege which had been bought and paid for ; but it is none the less incorrect to describe the guild and the town as identical.
All guilds had a religious side, and many existed solely for religious and social purposes. In some sprang the germs of educational movements which might have had an important history if not somewhat rashly destroyed. If the reader wishes to supplement the somewhat scanty information con- tained in Mr. Lambert's seventh and eighth chapters, he can
do so from Bishop Hobhouse's Somerset Churchwarden's Accounts, or from Mr. Emanuel Green's edition of The Survey and Rental of the Somerset Chantries. If Mr. Lambert had consulted the latter, and found in a place as small as Cros- combe seven guilds, he would not find it difficult to accept * Two Thousand Fears of Gild Life. Together with a Fall Account of the Gilds and Trading Companies of Kingston-upon-Hull. From the 14th to the 18th century. By the lieu. J. Malet Lambert, Hull : A. Brown and Bons.
the statement of Mr. Rye that there were seventy-five in Lynn Regis. The existence of these country guilds, taken together, perhaps, with the monastic charities, and the ideas which were the legacy of a feudal age, supplies the only explanation of the interval which intervened between the break-up of feudalism, and the passing of the Poor-Laws. Perhaps, however, Mr. Lambert felt that any detailed account of village guild-life, unconnected with Hull, would be out of proportion in a work of this kind. His translation of the return made, in 1388, to the King's writ by the Guild of St. John the Baptist (p:112), shows fully how effectual an assistance the guild-system was to the poor, and how well it must have encouraged the habit of self-help. This guild was, in fact, a properly organised benefit-club, and held its feast once a year. It was open to men and women, and its rules provided for quarterly subscriptions from the hale, and weekly payments to the sick members. It flourished, had a guildhall, and maintained its own priest, as the manner was, to say masses for the souls of the members.
The documents which Mr. Lambert has printed comprise the " Compositions," or re-settlements of fifteen trades, and furnish a very useful and complete collection. This collection comprises, it is true, no statutes of a very early date, but they are almost all taken at the same time, and hence give a very complete picture of town-life at the close of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries. If we add to this the fact that Hull was always one of the staple ports for England, and a seat of the Brotherhood of St. Thomas hBecket, or mer- chant adventurers, we see that its institutions are very repre- sentative. It had also a merchants' guild of its own, called the Guild of St. George, of which the statutes are printed by Mr. Lambert, and bear date 1499. A book of this kind is largely composed of materials for others to use, and from what we have said it will be clear that Mr. Lambert's work will serve others who labour in the same field, and will also be interesting to local antiquaries.
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