cratic, and the chroniclers boast the number of noble gårds which stood within her fortifications. Her burgomasters, who were allowed by law to wear "gold and gilt," set their faces against all free trade, and stood out manfully for the now exploded theory of "protection." No stranger was allowed to enter a shop save during fair-time; the citizens of Lund were forbidden to trade in their harbour; the natives were prohibited from visiting the fairs of the neighbourhood; while the right of "wrecking" (a custom long since suppressed by Skanör and Falsterbo) was restored to them.

The consequence of these ordinances may be easily imagined. In 1617, remarks a writer of the day, "groups of trees were growing in places where merchants' houses once stood; 150 houses were unoccupied, and people were so poor they could pay neither their rents nor taxes-the commerce of Malmö had been stifled by 'protection.""

Sigbrit, in her day, took Malmö in hand, established there a company of brewers, and very good beer they made, so much so that Frederik I. constantly writes to the burgomaster begging "a few tuns for his own especial drinking," which however he never thought of paying for. Sigbrit overhauled the Latin school, bundled off the poor scholars, and, maybe, the rich ones would have been only too happy to accompany them in their exodus; for so great was the severity of the monkish teachers, "many boys are said to have died from ill-treatment, and those who did attend sat like frightened hares, neither understanding, nor answering from fear, the questions put to them." On a complaint being made of this undue severity, the monks replied, "they had bought their own learning at a

ration, hearing that the ghosts caused the coffins t raised no gold was foun skeleton sat three huge t the intruders, and forth they had done a bad d To pacify the spirits of their memory this stor thereon, and the six to you may still distinguis poor-box.

When you stand on with your eye the ou: you imagine the city t becomes shrunken from of waste ground. Ther still; on every side new planted, and squares 1 tion has increased fro a suitable outlet to S ow, in some

similar price, and would sell it at no other." Some of the rules of the school, whether dictated by Sigbrit or not, are remarkable for their refinement: "Every boy was ordered to blow his nose on a pocket-handkerchief, and the pupils expressly forbidden to sneeze in people's faces when they walked in the streets."

Sigbrit was no greater favourite in Skåne than in Denmark. She is thus described in the Rhyming Chronicle:'-.

"Usurious in Holland, she cheated in Norway;
Nuts and apples she brought to the market.

In Bergen she kept a kro-house

Where seamen got drunk:

And when she came to Copenhagen

It was ill-luck to the country."

Many of Christian II.'s letters are addressed to his mint-master at Malmö; some of them contain allusions to the clipping of the coinage (moneta Malmoyensis). In 1591 Malmö had the honour of contributing 3000 thalers towards the marriage present of Anne, queen of James VI.

In the Rådhus are preserved the archives of the city, dating from the year 1300—autographs of the Frederiks and Christians, Niels Kaas, and other worthies; old books on burgher law, unlike our English codes, plain and comprehensible. In one corner lies a sort of Jonathan Wild's museum-knives, hatchets, and hammers,

Malmō was the first city of Denmark in which the Roman-Catholic service was abolished, and replaced, an 1329, by the liturgy in the mipur tong Malmo afforded a refuge to many English Protestants who fled from the faggots of Smithfield in the reign of Mary Tudor. There exists a curious book by one of the exiles entitled The richt ray to the kingdome of Herine, by John Gau : printed i Malma be me, Thone Hochstraten, the 16th day of Octa, 1333)