Lloyd's of London

“ It is desired that all persons that have subscribed the Politie would come into the Insurance Office, and subscribe the new Politie, that it may be known who the Insurers are; and if any one has found the old Politie, they are desired to bring it to Mr Tho. Astley, at the Insurance Office on the Royal Exchange, and they shall be well rewarded.”
The origin of the present Corporation of Lloyd’s was in the Coffee House of Edward Lloyd, who, in 1688, lived in the very busy commercial thoroughfare of Tower Street, as appears from an advertisement in the London Gazette of 18/21 Feb. ”

“ The Merchants' Room is superintended by a master, who can speak several languages: here are duplicate copies of the books in the underwriters' room, and files of English and foreign newspapers.
The Captains' Room is a kind of coffee-room, where merchants and ship-owners meet captains, and sales of ships, etc. take place.
The members of Lloyd's have ever been distinguished by their loyalty and benevolent spirit. In 1802, they voted 2000l. to the Life-boat subscription. On July 20, 1803, at the invasion panic, they commenced the Patriotic Fund with 20,000l. 3-per-cent. ”

“ Not only has Lloyd's—a mere body of merchants—without Government interference or patronage, done much to give stability to our commerce, but it has distinguished itself at critical times by the most princely generosity and benevolence. In the great French war, when we were pushed so hard by the genius of Napoleon, which we had unwisely provoked, Lloyd's opened a subscription for the relief of soldiers' widows and orphans, and commenced an appeal to the general public by the gift of £20,000 Three per Cent. ”

“ London, with more posters per head of population than any other city in the Empire, recruited men less swiftly than any other place.
Thousands of sight-seers crowded to the football matches while the newspapers vainly lashed themselves into fury. It was only when Lloyd George asked for more men, and gave convincing reasons that they were needed, that the country responded. Day by day the newspapers made the best of bad news from the front, and day by day did the readers thereof conclude that England was doing well, and they "supposed that she [34] would bungle through." ”

“ And lastly, all bystanders being pressed into the service, the packing-case mounted the steps upon some fifteen pairs of wavering legs—scraped, loudly grinding, through the doorway—and was deposited at length, with a formidable convulsion, in the far end of the lobby, which it almost blocked. The artisans of this victory smiled upon each other as the dust subsided. It was true they had smashed a bust of Apollo and ploughed the wall into deep ruts; but, at least, they were no longer one of the public spectacles of London. ”

“ Now to rhyme with the last, there is no other fit man.
These, with Young, Cheap, and Lent, Luckie, Hastie, and Slow,
With dear Mr. Allnutt, Allfrey, and Auldjo,
Are all the queer names that at Lloyd's I can show."
Many of these individuals are now deceased; but a frequenter of Lloyd's in former years will recognize the persons mentioned. 30
THE JERUSALEM COFFEE-HOUSE,
Cornhill, is one of the oldest of the City news-rooms, and is frequented by merchants and captains connected with the commerce of China, India, and Australia. ”

“ Williams was not only a man of great powers of mind, but also of remarkable independence of character, and as a self-taught genius attracted, on his visits to London, a good deal of notice from the men of letters of his day. ”

“ She was evidently an accomplished person, with a wide circle of well-connected relations and friends. Mary Frampton during the earlier part of her life went with her parents to London once every two years, and was present at the Gordon riots, the Warren Hastings trial, and the thanksgiving service for the recovery of George III in 1789. About two years after her father's death she and her mother settled at Dorchester, and formed a centre for the society of the county. Miss Frampton is said by all who have any recollection of her to have been a most agreeable person. ”

“ In November Elliot reached England, and for the next two years was a private tutor. In December 1672 he was ordained priest by the Bishop of London. He was then chaplain to Lord Grey of Werke, after which he officiated in Dublin, until in 1679 he was summoned to England as witness in a lawsuit arising out of Lord Grey of Werke's will. ”

“ The trades unions of London got up a monster demonstration (21 April) , which presented itself at Whitehall as a deputation demanding the recall of the labourers. Melbourne calmly refused to receive it, and the unionists were persuaded to march on to Newington. As home secretary Melbourne was the cabinet minister responsible for the administration of Ireland. Though he was at first willing that O'Connell should be master of the rolls, he soon saw that no terms were to be made with him, and approved of the suppression of his meetings and of his arrest. ”

“ Three days afterwards ten battalions of British infantry, recalled from the Netherlands, arrived in the Thames. The rest of the infantry and most of the cavalry followed later, and the duke himself reached London on 18 Oct.
At the end of October an army of fourteen thousand men was formed at Newcastle under Wade; but this included six thousand Dutch troops, which had capitulated at Tournay and elsewhere, and which, on account of French remonstrances, were not allowed to serve in the field. ”

“ He told Newcastle, on 4 April, ‘You will find that the whole of the laws of this ancient kingdom must be new modelled.’ He made some suggestions himself, and sent Lord Findlater to London to advise on the legislation needed to break down the clan system. To support or supplement the magistrates, parties of troops were sent throughout the highlands to hunt for rebels, plunder and burn their houses, and drive off their cattle. ”

“ Pigs and mules seem to be the only exception, thriving here as in other parts of the West Indies; and toads are most disgustingly numerous. Such a port as this, however, is entirely unsuited to be the centre of a great trade; and, accordingly, the intercourse between the two seas is already chiefly removed to Chagres. But the harbour to seaward is not there equal to what might be expected from the river which it receives and discharges. A ledge of rock runs across its mouth, with not more than fifteen feet water in the deepest places, and in many rising even to the surface. ”

“ Having begun with the antiquities of Wales, Allen from 1880 gave special attention to those of Scotland also ; in 1883 he was elected fellow of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, and in 1885 was Rhind lecturer in archaeology in the University of Edinburgh. In England, he became F.S.A. in 1896, editor of the 'Reliquary and Illustrated Archæologist' in 1893; and Yates lecturer in archæology in University College, London, for 1898. Allen had in a high degree the patience, thoroughness, and insight of the scientific archæologist. ”

“ Dewi Wyn first became known to the Welsh public as a poet of promise in 1804. The Gwyneddigion Society of London, under the leadership of Dr. William Owen Pughe [q. v.] and Owen Jones (Owain Myfyr) , was endeavouring to revive the old bardic customs, and, among other enterprises, offered for several years an annual medal for the best poem on a given subject in the strict metres. The subject for 1803 was ‘The Memory of Goronwy Owain.’ Dewi Wyn competed, and was assigned the second place, Griffith Williams (Gutyn Peris) being declared the winner of the medal. ”

“ He fell ill; the duke was allowed to take his place, and arrived at Lichfield on 28 Nov. He had nominally 10,500 foot and 2,200 horse, really about two-thirds of those numbers (Blaikie, p. 94) . They were distributed between Tamworth and Stafford, with a vanguard at Newcastle-under-Lyne. It was uncertain whether the rebels, who were then close to Manchester, would make for Wales or for London, and, though their number was barely five thousand, their movements were quicker than those of the English. ”

“ Their report, which he drafted, gave so much offence to the civil side of the war office that it was suppressed. During 1889 he was employed in negotiations for the purchase of sites for defensible storehouses on the south and east sides of London. ”

“ MALLESON, GEORGE BRUCE (1825–1898) , colonel and military writer, born in London on 8 May 1825, was second son of John Malleson of Wimbledon, by Lucy (Nesbitt) , whose father was colonial secretary in the Bahamas. He was educated at Wimbledon and at Winchester College, where he became an ardent cricketer. Through Colonel Oliphant, a director of the East India Company, he was given a direct commission as ensign on 11 June 1842, and was posted to the 65th Bengal native infantry on 26 Sept. ”

“ It was that period of the year when, to those who look on the surface of society, London wears its most radiant smile; when shops are gayest, and trade most brisk; when down the thoroughfares roll and glitter the countless streams of indolent and voluptuous life; when the upper class spend, and the middle class make; when the ball-room is the Market of Beauty, and the club-house the School for Scandal ”

“ As Betty followed her, she looked back at Sir Thomas Gresham’s quaint building with its sloping roof, its high middle tower, and the gilded grasshoppers on its pinnacles. It was a very different place indeed from the one she had visited this very morning with all the roar and bustle of modern London round about it, but its purpose was the same. For now, as then, the Royal Exchange is the centre of London’s enormous trade. ”

“ Wesley soon prevailed upon him to become one of the itinerant preachers whose time was fully taken up by the work. On 24 Oct. 1753 he set out for Cornwall. In 1766 he was at Dundee. After travelling for twenty-two years, he was, in 1775, appointed by Wesley supervisor of the methodist press, a position which he held until 1789, when Wesley removed him, because, as he said, 'the errata were insufferable,' and pieces were inserted in the magazine without his knowledge (Journal, 8 Aug. 1789) . The remainder of his life was spent in retirement in London, where he died in March 1799. ”

“ The Maoris afterwards, contrasting the two governors, said: 'Browne was like a hawk, he swooped down upon us; Grey was like a rat, he undermined us.'
On 5 March 1862 Browne was appointed governor of Tasmania, and remained there till the end of 1868. He was made K.C.M.G. on 23 June 1869. He administered the government of Bermuda temporarily from 11 July 1870 to 8 April 1871. He died in London on 17 April 1887. In 1854 he had married Harriet, daughter of James Campbell of Craigie, Ayrshire, who survived him. They had several children. ”

“ In "this northern island, sundered once from all the human (p. 2) race," has for centuries been lit one of the torches that have illumined humanity. Not even Imperial Rome shone with such a lustre; not even the Cæsars in all their purple ruled over such a mighty, such an all-embracing empire.
The history of this mighty empire is bound up with the history of London. For, the history of London is that of England; it was the river, our "Father Thames"—her first and most important highway, a "highway of the nations,"—that brought her from the beginning all her fame and all her glory. ”

“ Well, thou art a young innocent thing—so I had best hold my peace. Both palaces are empty and forsaken, both Whitehall and Somerset House. The rats and the spiders can take their own pleasure in the rooms that were full of music and dancing, card-playing and feasting, two or three months ago. Why, there was no better sight in London, after the dead-cart, than to watch the train of carriages and horsemen, carts and wagons, upon any of the great high-roads, carrying the people of London away to the country, as if the whole city had been moving in one mass like a routed army. ”

“ Laden omnibuses go down to Westminster or up to Charing Cross, and as they pass every passenger looks at the two Life Guards in their scarlet glory, for they are one of the sights of London that never grows stale. Taxicabs and limousines spin smoothly left and right, men and women enter and leave Government offices: a Whitehall morning is moving easily, leisurely, elegantly, if you like, towards noon. ”

“ It is not, I think, that men of my species are insensitive to the great past that is embodied in Westminster and its traditions; we are not so much wanting in the historical sense as alive to the greatness of our present opportunities and the still vaster future that is possible to us. London is the most interesting, beautiful, and wonderful city in the world to me, delicate in her incidental and multitudinous littleness, and stupendous in her pregnant totality ”

“ Betty asked.
“One of the chief reasons. England has already beaten the Spanish Armada and become ‘Mistress of the Seas,’ and the ships you see here, go to and from this port of London increasing its trade and its riches every day. Now you understand why that Exchange built by Sir Thomas Gresham was so much needed as a meeting-place for merchants to arrange the enormous amount of business the sailors have won for them. London is becoming more and more a city of merchants, living in beautiful houses. ”

“ The wisdom of the Legislature cannot stoop to such elemental questions. It is unworthy of the wise and illustrious senators of this great empire to take heed of such a vulgar consideration as commercial morality. This is a free country, wherein every man may freely live, providing for himself, and warring upon his kind. Such throughout is the tone and the spirit of the proposed measure for the "better regulation" of the City of London. ”