time Hamburg had over one hundred and Rome at least two hundred in active operation. Each gild had its patron saint. The warm, graphic words of Peter the hermit were re-echoed in the gild meetings, causing the members to forsake all and join him in his holy wars. The societies of the priests and clergy were social and religious. The members did not practice the austere discipline of the monastic orders. They looked after the education of the youth, assisted poor scholars, maintained schools, and provided school-masters. Some of their ordinances shed much light on the customs and manners of the times. Laws were enacted against the gluttony of priests at funeral meals and social gatherings; no priest was allowed to get drunk at their meetings, nor to empty goblets to the health of saints or of deceased members; they were not allowed to burst out into indecent noise nor roaring laughter; they were prohibited from singing vain songs or telling vulgar stories; nor were they to allow the scandalous performances of bears nor of female dancers to be given before them. Some of these admonitions curiously emphasize the unseemly lives of many members of these religious orders. The priests were enjoined to breakfast in honesty and the fear of God, to relate holy stories, to sing hymns and psalms, and to retire from the feast in good season. Records of these gilds go back as far as 858 A. D. When the Reformation swept over Europe it caused many of them to become disorganized and their property to be confiscated; but there is no doubt that when Loyola began his great work, he found many warm followers and devoted missionaries in the former wine-drinking, high-living members of the religious gilds. The secular gilds, though deeply imbued with religious fervor, were organized for some temporal purpose. The earliest industrial gilds were composed of traders and merchants. In southern Gaul, gilds of fishermen and watermen date back to the times of the Roman Emperors. Their chief officer was called "consul." As the towns grew and trade increased, the necessity of a strong bond of union between the individual traders was recognized. The protecting of their property, their liberty, and their merchandise against the violence of nobles, the greed of bishops, and the oppression of burgraves, and against the bold onsets of the robbers who roamed as hungry wolves along the narrow highways, through the mountain defiles, and in the deep forests, and the feeling of insecurity within the towns themselves, were strong incentives for the formation of these societies. Many of the gild members, being landed proprietors, were entitled to citizenship; hence it so happened that the municipal affairs of many towns were strongly and permanently influenced by the merchants' gilds. In the ninth and tenth centuries these gilds took deep root and penetrated into the most remote regions of Europe. Often from self-interest nobles would seek admittance as members. They frequently became aldermen and protectors of the gilds. The Dutch and Flemish gilds exercised a most important influence through the entire Middle Ages. There is not a cathedral or church edifice of any importance in Holland or Belgium but contains some pictorial or sculptured monument in commemoration of some great event connected with these gilds, representing either their livery, banners, corporate seal, military and naval forces, or public festivities. The solemnly religious and secret tie that bound the merchants together was not easily sundered. London, the great metropolis of the world, owes its vast commerce, its municipal system, its crowded population, its enormous wealth, to the humble leagues of merchants. The numerous merchants' associations of our large cities may learn much practical wisdom from the merchants' gilds of the so-called Dark Ages. The most important of these great unions were the Rhenish and the Hanseatic leagues organized in the middle of the thirteenth century. At the time of the interregnum in Germany (1256-73), when the Empire was left utterly without a ruler; when there was no power to check the lawless deeds of princes, grinding the poor to the bone by exorbitant taxes; when knights and nobles pillaged and murdered the traveling merchants; when the strong oppressed the weak unpunished, and might was right in that classical age of club law-then the union of the Rhenish towns stepped for a moment into the plan of supreme power. The gilds of seventy Rhenish towns and of eighty Hansa town were leagued together, not in a mere offensive and defensive alliance; their objects were the maintenance of an entire system of order and law, and the authority of the empire; nobles and princes hastened to join their ranks. They would give strength and consistency to a weak and rotten government. By their laws, breathing strong fraternal feelings, cultivating and nourishing the better part of man's moral nature, they sought to inspire confidence at home; and by their extensive armies and powerful navies they instilled fear abroad. They were exempt from taxes, and had the right to coin money. They began to exercise a controlling influence in the towns, so that many of the laws enacted by the town officials had been previously agreed upon in the gild meetings held in the gild hall. The corporation of London still preserves customs handed down from the former gild regime. As the members of the gild became rich and influential, they assumed aristocratic ideas, and thought themselves above the common journeymen who worked at manual labor. Many aspired to be ennobled, and to join the very class with whom they had waged numerous successful wars. These titles were often bestowed by impecunious kings in return for large donations from the merSome of the Danish, German, and Belgian merchants' gilds enacted laws that no one "with dirty hands" or "with blue nails," or "who hawked his wares in the streets," could become a member of the gild. Before the craftsmen were admitted they must have "foresworn their trade for a year and a day." The exclusion of the working classes was followed by oppression. Common danger makes all men brethren, but the danger had VOL. I.-29. been averted, and pride and arrogance were coming to the surface. The descendants of the old merchants wished to gain distinction by hobnobbing with the nobility, buying large estates, aping the extravagance of the courtiers, and passing their time in idleness and vice. The patrician merchants and their friends of the nobility sought to evade the paying of taxes, and to shift all the burden upon the dependent craftsmen, squeezing from them the money to pay the debts of the towns. The craftsmen, in consequence, clung more closely together, and what they lacked in wealth they made good in numbers; by putting themselves under the protection of ambitious noblemen, who ever gazed with greedy eyes upon the wealth of the portly merchants, they were enabled to add strength to their unity, and not only to act on the defensive, but to take the offensive, and to assist in pulling down the fabric of aristocracy and wealth that had so completely overshadowed them. A sort of guerilla warfare was carried on for many years, victory finally siding with the craftsmen, who were enabled gradually to shake loose from their noble allies. Much blood was shed before they succeeded in obtaining their rights and privileges. In the weaver's battle in Cologne, in 1371, the craftsmen were defeated, and thirty-three of them were executed in one day; many others were ferreted out and put to death; some two hundred, with their wives and children, were banished. In their struggle for liberty, they were joined by numerous additions of runaway serfs and slaves, seeking freedom and protection in the cities. The influence of the patricians was finally broken, and the municipal power of many towns passed into the hands of the craft gilds. They did not, however, exercise their power arbitrarily; the old patrican merchants were allowed many privileges, and often in the legislative bodies they were allowed the majority of votes; they dare not return to their old oppressive ways. An ordinance of Edward II. (1307-27) declared that "no person, whether an inhabitant of the city or other wise, should be admitted to the freedom of the city unless he were a member of one of the trades or mysteries." It is probable that the exclusion of the craftsmen from the merchants' gilds gave much additional strength and force to whatever organizations may have existed among the early artisans, and the necessity of a more close union for protection and mutual assistance was generally recognized. Whatever may have been their origin, whether from the Roman "collegia opificum," or the Scandinavian "gilde," it is certain that they spread like wildfire over Germany, France, Italy, England, and the Netherlands. The weavers' gild became the most aggressive and influential. They formed a sort of middle-class between the patricians and the bondmen. Their gild became the most flourishing and the wealthiest; they were ever foremost in the struggle for liberty. In order to understand the nature of the contests between the patricians and the craftsmen, we must bear in mind that it was not a struggle for increased wages, or for diminished hours of labor; but for political rights, for representation in the legislative assemblies, for the removal of burdensome taxes and exactions. They aspired after liberty, toleration, and protection. Many of the craftsmen were masters and employers of labor. The sovereign would frequently interfere, now siding with the merchants, now with the craftsmen; it was his policy to be on the winning side, and to use its influence against his own enemies, the nobility and feudal lords. The king, and sometimes the patricians, claimed the right to nominate the of ficers of numerous gilds. In others they were elected by the members. In London the craft gilds attained their greatest importance under Edward III. (1327-77). The king himself joined one of the gilds, followed by many of his courtiers. The gilds of Italy have an interesting his tory. We here see the merchant gilds driving out the feudal lords and establishing an aristocracy of wealth; this in turn is opposed by the so-called lesser "arts," or gilds com posed of small traders and artificers; they succeed in wresting the reins of government from the "greater arts," and so widely extending the suffrage that mobocracy and fanaticism are rapidly introduced. In France the gilds were under the immediate control of the crown. The most important officers were appointed at the court, and were supported by taxes levied upon the gilds. The subaltern officers, masters, dean, and warden were elected by the members. The requirements for a candidate seeking admission were very exacting. The number of apprentices was limited to one to each master, not including his sons, but butchers and bakers could have any number. In order to become masters, the apprentice was obliged to undergo a most trying examination. He must work alone, under the supervision of judges, upon a masterpiece that must be faultless. All his work must be done by daylight. The candidate must be able to make all the tools and machines used in his craft. It was currently believed that many despairing candidates sought the aid of the Evil One to enable them to complete a faultless masterpiece. The gild laws of England were much like those of France. The candidate seeking admission was initiated with solemn formulas in the presence of the town authorities. At the close of a long period of service to a master, he became a member in full fellowship, and also acquired the right of citizenship. The tools of workmen were frequently examined to see that they were in good order; no patched articles could be sold, nor was the mixing of inferior and good materials allowed. No one was permitted to work longer than from daybreak to the ringing of the curfew. Long holidays were allowed, sometimes continuing for several weeks. Prices were regulated by law, and no one was allowed to entice away another's customers. The organization of the gilds was very complete. In the middle of the fourteenth century the gilds of cutlers in Germany were united into four great fraternities, having their centers respectively at Augsburg, Munich, Hei delberg, and Basle; all differences between by their officers. But influences were at the gild members were settled by the officers work to drag down the craft gilds from their of the fraternities sitting as one body. Many high pinnacle, even as they had humbled of the continental gilds adopted a principle and crushed the merchant gilds. On acfirst established by Edward III. of England. count of the severe demands made of candiHe decreed that "all artificers and people dates, the high entrance fees, and the arbiof mysteries shall each choose his own mys- trary exactions imposed by the craft gilds, a tery before the next Candlemas, and that large class of workmen, particularly journeyhaving chosen it he shall henceforth use no men, were unable to gain membership, and other." they formed independent organizations. Employer and employé became now for the first time antagonized, and a feeling of retaliation caused them to work to each other's injury. The question of wages began to be discussed, particularly after the great plague of the fourteenth century. Increased pay was demanded and refused, and the authorities were called upon to restrain the workmen in their efforts to coerce the masters. New and varied combinations of the workingmen were easily formed, and more intense rivalries, wrought from a deeper spirit of questioning and of doubt, introduced tactics before unknown. The gilds, after their centuries of historic usefulness, perished almost without a struggle, but from their ruins arose the leagues and associations of modern times, the trade unions, sources of much evil, and yet a strong bulwark against the dangerous encroachments of wealthy monopoly and of organized capital. L. W. Wilhelm. The brotherhoods of artisans, including masons, carpenters, and other mechanics, exercised a wide influence during the Middle Ages; civil and ecclesiastical authorities everywhere showed them marks of particular favor; they were taken under the immediate protection of popes, and being released from exactions imposed upon the other fraternities, they became designated "free gilds." Their organizations have long perished, but in the grand cathedrals of Europe their works do follow them. The rise of the craft gilds from the darkness and chaos of prehistoric times, and their gradual emergence from the early dawn of history till they reached the noon-tide of power and importance in the Middle Ages, is exceedingly interesting history. So mighty did they become that kings and princes were enrolled under their banners, and municipalities were governed by their laws and ruled THE SPRING VALLEY CONTROVERSY. THOSE who have lived in San Francisco twenty years recollect George H. Ensign, and those whose recollections go back six or seven years farther, recall his project to utilize for the supply of the city a spring which brought to the surface a small but steady stream of water, at the bottom of a deep depression in the hillside in the neighborhood of Broadway and Powell Streets. This depression was known as Spring Valley. Ensign soon discovered that this spring would not suffice, and sought for other sources of supply, first in the little stream which ran into the marsh about where the upper part of Seventh Street now is, and then farther to the south beyond the city limits. At that time the people of the city were supplied with water from wells, from water-carts which obtained water from boats that brought it from Saucelito, and even from the savings of the winter rains. There was, it is true, the Mountain Lake Water Company, which proposed to bring water from a little lake out near the Pre sidio, but it accomplished nothing practically. Ensign associated some energetic men with him, who had foresight and courage. Very soon it came to be understood that there was a water company which was making a persistent effort to introduce the muchneeded water supply into the city, and it was very favorably looked upon. It was still considered Ensign's project, though his pumps, machinery, etc., for distributing water were known as the Spring Valley Water Works. On the 23rd of April, 1858, the legislature passed an act authorizing George H. Ensign, and his associates and assigns, to lay down distributing water-pipes in the streets of San Francisco. The city was to have the privilege of tapping any of the pipes and connecting hydrants for the extinguishment of fires without charge for the water used. The rates to be paid by consumers were to be fixed by five commissioners, two of whom were to be appointed by the Board of Supervisors, two by Ensign and his associates, and the four were to choose a fifth; and it was expressly provided that the rates established should yield not less than twenty per cent. on the capital actually invested in the works. It was further enacted that at the end of twenty years the city should have the right to purchase the works upon a valuation to be determined by a board of commissioners appointed jointly by the owners and the city. This act also contained a clause that in case any other person or company should thereafter introduce water into San Francisco, then Ensign and his associates should not only furnish free water for fire, but should also furnish it for other municipal purposes. It was upon the construction of this clause that a litigation arose, out of which, as we shall see, grew very much of the controversy with the city, and, one may say, the present misfortunes of the water company. On the 22nd of April, 1858-the day before the grant of the privilege to Ensign and his associates—the legislature passed a general act for the incorporation of water companies. This law-which was no doubt framed and its passage urged by the Spring Valley people-provided that all corporations formed thereunder should furnish to the cities which they might supply fresh water to the extent of their means, in case of fire or other great necessity, free of charge. also enacted that the rates to be charged should be determined by a board of commissioners, two of whom were to be chosen by the city, two by the water company, and in case these four could not agree, they were to choose a fifth, and the majority had the power to fix the rates. Ensign and his associates then incorporated under this general act, as the Spring Valley Water Works. They absorbed a rival organization known as the San Francisco Water Works, and proceeded to extend their operations with great energy. Business grew, and it became necessary to project and set about the building up of the elaborate system of catchment and distribution, of which so much has been said in the heated discussions of the past few years. As we know, millions of dollars have been invested, and the insignificant enterprise of Ensign on the hillside near Mason Street has grown by degrees to be the practical monopolist of the sources of water supply for the great city of San Francisco. Its stock has within three months been as high as 119 or 120, representing a total value of over nine and one-half millions. It suddenly fell, within almost a few days, over one million and a half. The immediate cause of this shrinkage was the election of a mayor and board of supervisors upon a platform favoring a radical reduction of rates, and the introduction of an ordinance to lower them over thirty per cent. The hostility between the voters of the city and the company is not a sudden access of passion: it is a growth of many years. As is the case with many long-standing quarrels when coolly analyzed, we can perceive reasonable grounds for the claims of each side. On the one hand, it is not to be permitted that a private business company shall plant itself upon the available sources for supplying a great city with water, and be |