their children. A very large sum of money was at times thus invested,
to the no small advantage of all parties concerned in the arrangement.
But in the seventeenth century the Corporation became involved in debt
to this fund, and to private individuals, to the extent of
three-quarters of a million sterling. This state of bankruptcy was by
no means the result of imprudence or ostentatious extravagance.
During the Rebellion the City had been despoiled by both parties under
various pretexts. After the Restoration the great fire consumed a vast
amount of city property and necessitated a ruinous outlay in the
reconstruction of entire streets. To this was added the shutting up of
the Exchequer by Charles II., and the seizure of the charter when the
City refused any longer to provide the means for his selfish and
disgraceful prodigality. A better era, however, was inaugurated by the
accession of William and Mary, in the fifth and sixth of whose reign
an Act was passed for raising what was called an "Orphans' Fund."
The estates of the Corporation were charged with the annual payment of
8,000 pounds towards the liquidation of their debt, and for the same
purpose a duty of 2,000 pounds a year on the personal property of the
citizens was paid till 1795. To meet these heavy charges a duty of
fourpence per chaldron was levied on coals and culm imported into
London, and also an additional duty of sixpence per chaldron for fifty
years. By this means the debt of 750,000 pounds was finally
discharged in 1782, but another debt had been contracted by the
Corporation being called upon to contribute to public improvements
beyond the just limits of their jurisdiction. By the year 1823 no
less a sum than 846,300 pounds had been expended in this manner out of
the Orphans' Fund, and in the l0th of George IV. a further sum of
1,000,000 pounds was charged upon the fund to defray the expenses for
improving the approaches to London Bridge. Under William IV., however,
the coal duties were fixed at one shilling per ton in lieu of metage,