rial bearings in 1798.
Receipts for money and promisory notes were first taxed in 1782. Hair
powder tax, of 21s. per annum, was first levied in 1795. In 1827, there
was a 1s. 3d. duty on almanacks. The 3s. advertisement duty was reduced
to 1s. 6d. in 1833, and abolished August 4, 1853. The paper duty, first
put on in 1694, was repealed in 1861; that on bricks taken off in 1850;
on soap in 1853; on sugar in May, 1874, and on horses the same year.
Hats, gloves, and linen shirts were taxed in 1785; patent medicines,
compound waters, and codfish, in 1783; in fact every article of food,
drink, and clothing required by man from the moment of his birth until
his burial, the very shroud, the land he trod on, the house he lived in,
the materials for building, have all been taxed. For coming into the
world, for living in it, and for going out of it, have Englishmen had to
pay, even though they grumbled. Now-a-days the country's taxes are few
in number, and per head are but small in amount, yet the grumbling and
the growling is as heavy as of old. _Can_ it arise from the pressure of
our local rates? Where our fathers paid 20s. to the Government, we do
not pay 5s.; but where the old people gave 5s. in rates, we have to part
with 25s.

~Telegraphs.~--The cable for the first Atlantic telegraph was made here.
Its length was 2,300 nautical miles, and it required 690,000 lbs. of
copper in addition to the iron wire forming the strand, of which latter
there was about 16,000 miles' length. The first time the "Queen's
Speech" was transmitted to this town by the electric telegraph was on
Tuesday, November 30, 1847, the time occupied being an hour and a half.
The charge for sending a message of 20 words from here to London, in
1848, was 6s. 6d. The Sub-Marine Telegraph Co. laid their wires through
Birmingham in June and July, 1853.

~Temperance.~--There appears to have been a sort of a kind of a
temperance movement here in 1788, for the Magistrates, at their sitting
August 21, strongly protested against the increase of dram-drinking; but
they went on granting licenses, though. Father Matthew's first visit was
September 10, 1843; J.B. Gough's, September 21, 1853; Mr. Booth's, in
May, 1882. The first local society for inculcating principles of
temperance dates from September 1, 1830; U.K. Alliance organised a
branch here in February, 1855; the first Templars' Lodge was opened
September 8, 1868; the Royal Crusaders banded together in the summer