Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/593

* HANSABD. 639 HANSEATIC LEAGUE. court. After three years of strife and debate Parliament ended the anomaly of a conllict be- tween the two departments of Government, and also did away with the antiqmited methods of Parliamentary redress, by enacting a law that any proceedings against persons for publication of papers printed by order of either House of Parliament are to be stayed by the courts of law, upon delivery of a certificate and affidavit that such publication is by order of either House. The Hansards are, however, most widely known by the reports of the debates in Parliament, which are published by them and bear their name. The accuracy of these reports is rarely questioned. They are not, however, prepared by shorthand reporters employed by the Hansards, but are compiled from the reports in the London newspapers, and then submitted to the speakers for correction. The speeches as they appear in Hansard are not, therefore, in all cases the spoken words, but frequently are the product of the closet, the reviser inserting in many eases what he intended to sa^'. or wished he had said, and omitting the heated passages which he re- gretted to have uttered. Cobbett's — often called Hansard's — Parliamentary Histori/ ( 1006-180.3) in 36 volumes furnishes the most complete avail- able record of its pi'oceedings during these cen- turies. Since 1803 the Hansards have published the debates of Parliament in four series : ( 1 ) 1803-20, in 41 volumes; (2) 1820-30, in 25 vol- umes — an index of the whole forming an extra volume: (3) 1830-91, in 356 volumes; (4) the present series: begun in 1892, by 1900 76 volumes had been published. The executive Government takes a certain number of copies of Hansard for distribution among the public offices and depart- ments. Many peers and members of Parliament, foreign governments, and public libraries, also subscribe to this work,, which is issued at a cer- tain fixed price, which the Messrs. Hansard guar- antee, at the commencement of each session, shall not be exceeded. HANSCH, hiinsh, Anto?i ( 1813-76). An Aus- trian painter, born in Vienna. He was a pupil of Miissmer at the Academy of Vienna, and after- wards traveled and studied in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. His works consist of landscapes remarkable for composition and care- ful detail. Notable pictures are: "Region Bor- dering on the Kc'inigsee" (1849); "The Jung- irau in Swit7erland"' (1853); "Under the Lin- den Trees on the Shore of Chiem Lake" (1858), all in the Vienna Museum; "The Lake of Con- stance." "Firwood in the Salzkamniergut" (Vien- na Academy) ; "From the Wilderness of Styria." "At Bernina Pass." "-fter the Storm," and "The Wetterhnrn." HANSEATIC LEAGUE, or HAN'SA, The (from OHG. hansa [lianxr], Goth, hanxa, .S. Iws. league). A iniion established in the thir- teenth century by some of the cities of Xorthern Germany for their mutual safety and for the pro- tection of their trade. This union grew out of associations of Carman merchants organized abroad. In order to travel and trade with great- er security, these had long been accustomed to band themselves together into companies: and through such associations had secured privileges in certain cities, notably in London. Novgorod, ^ Bergen, in Norvay, Bruges, and Wisby, in Goth- land, off the coast of Sweden. In London the mer- VoL. IX.— 35. chants of Cologne had obUiined a letter of protec- tion as early as 1 157, and other Cierman merchants wlio resorted to London joined tlie Cologne Han.se. When Liibeck, in the thirteenth century, began to threaten the supremacy of Cologne, the mer- chants of the latter city endeavored to exclude the men of Liibeck from trading in Kngland. Possibly this opposition was inlhiential in caus- ing Liibeck to seek allies to strengthen its posi- tion. Between 1241 and 1255 she entered into a treaty with Hamburg for the mutual protection of the commercial higlnvay between the two cities. This alliance, which is often regarded as the origin of the Hanseatic League, resulted in putting the control of commerce in the Baltic and the North Seas into the hands of the mer- cliants of Hamburg and Liibeck. In 1259 Liibeck, Rostock, and Wismar formed an alliance against pirates on the sea and robbers on land. In 12G7 the merchants of Liilieck were allowed to form a separate hanse in London. In 1284-85 the five Wendish cities of Liibeck, Wismar, Ros- tock, Stralsund, and Greifswald waged war against King Erie of Denmark, and secured from him certain privileges. Before the end of the thirteenth century Cologne had been forced to take a subordinate position, and LUbeek was the recognized leader. In the thirteentli century there were several instances of alliances formed between difl'erent groups of cities. These allied qities gradually found it advantageous to join the Lubeck union, which was constantly becoming more powerful. In 1343 it was officially designated as The Hansa. In 1362 the allies began a war against Waldemar IV. of Denmark, who had attacked Wisby in 1361. and in 1370 Denmark was compelled to conclude a treaty with the 'seventy-seven hansen.' in which the latter were guaranteed freedom to trade and an indemnity for the losses which they had suffered. In addition, it was agreed that no one in the future should receive the Danish crown without the advice of the cities and without the confirmation of the privileges of the Hanseatic League. The entire League, which at one period em- braced at least eighty-five towns, and included every city of importance between the Netherlands and Livonia, was divided at first into three, and later into four, classes or circles : ( 1 ) The Wendic cities of the Baltic; (2) the towns of Westphalia, the Uhineland. and tlie Nether- lands: (3) those of Saxony and Brandenburg: (4) those of Prussia and Livonia. The capitals of the respective circles were Liibeck, Cologne, Brunswick, and Danzig. The professed object of the League was to pro- tect the commerce of its members by land and by sea, to defend and extend its commercial rela- tions with and among foreigners, to exclude as far as possible all other competitors in trade, and firmly to maintain, and, if possible, to extend, all the rights and immunities that had been granted by various rulers to the corporations. For the promotion of these ends, the League kept ships and armed men in its pay, the charge of whose maintenance was defrayed by a system of taxation and by the funds obtained from the money fines which the Diet levied for infringe- ments of its laws. In its factory at Bergen, in Norway, only immarried clerks and serving men were employed, and an almost monastic dis- cipline was enforced; but the by-laws of the