t breakage, and all and everyone should pay into a "General
Accident" Association, for broken limbs, like broken glass, cannot be
foreseen or prevented. It is not likely that any of [**] will be "drawn"
for a militiaman in these piping times of peace, but that the system of
insurance was applied here in the last century against the chances of
being drawn in the ballot, is evidenced by the following
carefully-preserved and curious receipt:--

"Received of Matthew Boulton, tagmaker, Snow Hill, three shillings and
sixpence, for which sum I solemnly engage, if he should be chosen by
lot to serve in the militia for this parish, at the first meeting for
that purpose, to procure a substitute that shall be approved of.

"HENRY BROOKES, Sergt.

"Birmingham, Jan. 11, 1762."

The local manufacture of Insurance Societies has not been on a large
scale, almost the only ones being the "Birmingham Workman's Mutual," the
"British Workman," and the "Wesleyan and General." The late Act of
Parliament, by which in certain cases, employers are pecuniarily liable
for accidents to their workpeople, has brought into existence several
new Associations, prominent among which is the comprehensive "Employers'
Liability and Workpeople's Provident and Accident Insurance Society,
Limited," whose offices are at 33, Newhall Street.

* * * * *

~Interesting Odds and Ends.~

A fair was held here on Good Friday, 1793.

A fight of lion with dogs took place at Warwick, September 4, 1824.

The Orsim bombs used in Paris, January 15, 1858, were made here.

In 1771 meetings of the inhabitants, were called by the tolling of a
bell.

A large assembly of Radicals visited Christ Church, November 21, 1819,
but _not_ for prayer.

A "flying railway" (the Centrifugal) was exhibited at the Circus in
Bradford Street, October 31, 1842.

The doors of Moor Street prison were thrown open, September 3, 1842,
there, not being then one person in confinement.

March 2, 1877, a bull got loose in New Street Station, and ran through
the tunnel to Banbury Street, where he leaped over the parapet and was
made into beef.

William Godfrey, who died in Ruston-street, October 27, 1863, was a
native of this town, who, enlisting at eighteen, was sent out to China,
where he accumulated a fortune of more than L1,000,000. So said the
_Birmingham Journal_, November 7, 1863.

The De Berminghams had no blankets before the fourteenth c