THE TIOVAL EXCHANGE, in general, has been fortunate in finding historians, still the current descriptions are. for the most part, imperfect and incorrect, and utterly without the -sanction of official authority.
Like even thing in the City, the existence of the Royal Exchange is owing to individual enterprise. This is the spirit and essence of commercial prosperity. The merchant is generally the architect of his own fortune: his pursuits nee...ssari:y bring him into contact with his fellow-men ; and thus, the principle of association obtains with him, and expresses itself in the guild and the corporation, in his own person he maintains a special individuality. To him who via Add indn ge personalities. and portray characteristics, a visit to the City Would many examples—some strange and odd enough, hut all striking and strongly marked. In other pursuits of life there is more or less of a professional costume. which sinks the man in the ; but the mer chant pleases himself, or acts upon early associations, in his dress and conduct. 1 l is success mostly depends. indeed. upon the personal. Gresham. the faultier of the floral ExehaTre. is an illustrious example of the truth of these remarks, and another instance of the great works that may be accom plished by the zeal, activity, and perseveranee of an indi vidual.
To Sir Richard Gresham, however, father of the Sir Thomas Greshain, whose name has become a " In tusehold word" to the citizens of London, the merchants of this great metriipolis are indebted for the first serious attempt to found an lgxel:mnge. 11(d'ore this time, the merchants met together in the open air in Lombard-street. exposed to the many inconveniences of such a place of assembling. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Thomas Gresham, who determined to carry into effect what his father had been unable to •10, proposed to the corporation, in 1564, "That it' the City would give hint a piece of ground in a commodious spot. he would erect an Exchange at his own expense. with large and covered walks, wherein the merchants and traders might daily assemble, and transact business at all seasons, without interruption from the weather, or impediments of any kind." This oll'er was accepted, and the new building, when com pleted, was visited by th:t Queen, who "caused the same to be prod:timed by sound of trumpet, the Royal I Exchange, and so to be called from thenceforth, and not otherwise." Sir Thomas Gresham, who died in November, 1579, bequeathed the whole of this edifice. and its various appur tenances, after the death of his with, "jointly for ever to the corporation of London and the Company of Mercers," upon trust for various purposes.
The fitbrie erected by Gresham was almost entirely destroyed by the great fire of London in 1666. Measures
for the erection of a new building were, however, promptly taken, and in October 1667, Kiug Charles II. laid the base of the column on the west side of the north entrance of the second Exchange ; and, on the 31st of the same month, the first stone of the eastern column was laid by his brother, the Duke of York.
The popular notion has always been that Sir Christopher Wren was the architect of this Exchange; this is not the fact, the architect was Edward Jerman, one of the surveyors to the City in I666. As this is a matter on which much clif f Tence of has existed, we think tho insertion of the folowing evidence from a letter in -The Builder," will defi nitiveli settle the question. The writer states. that the ext acts we have given below. were taken from the records of th- ('its. and of the Mercers' Company. and from them are obtain. d the b'low'ing filets, which leave no doubt whatever that derman. and not Wren, was the architect of the late Royal Exehang .
Th ,t on the 19th 1660, the commissioners ap poit ted to the work, summoned tot heir assistance, Mr. Mills and Mr. dorm:in. th City surveyors. Again at a joint com mittee. held on the '25th April, 1667, the t011owing minute is recorded : The committee, concluding it very necessary at this meeting, to make ehoyee of a surveyor for directing and overseeing the building of the Royal Exchange, and assisting them in carrying on that designe to the best advantage. as to substantiallnesse, ornament. and frugality ; and forasmuch as Mr. Al ills, the City surveyor, hath declared that bee cannot perform that works alone, and the committee being very sensible of the greate burden of businesse lying upon him for the City all this time : and considering that Mr.dermati is the most able knowne artist (besides him) that the City now hat h: therefore the committee unanimously made choice of Mr. .1 erman, to assist the committee in the agreeing for. ordering, and directing, of that \Yorke ; and, having declared the same unto him, bee, after much reluctancy and unwilling ness (objecting., it might bee thought an intrenehment upon Mr. Al ills his right,) at length accepted. being assured first by the Lord Alayor and the committee, that itt was no intreneh ment. that this wholle committei, at all times, would acquit him from any scandal] in that behalf(' ; then the committee ordered the clerke to acquaint Mr. derman with all the pro eeedinges of this committee about the said building." After this appointment 'Mr. Mills's name does not oeeur again. and the evidently proceeded with great rapidity, for they were finished within three years and a half from the period of .1 erman's appointment.