or damages, and even George Edmonds (none too
tender-tongued himself) could not stand the jibes and jeers of _The
Argus_. The poor printer was arrested on a warrant for libel; his types
and presses were confiscated under a particular section of the Act for
regulating newspapers, and Allday himself at the March Assizes in 1831
was found guilty on several indictments for libel, and sentenced to ten
months' imprisonment. A third series of _The Argus_ was started June
1st, 1832, soon after Allday's release from Warwick, and as the vile
scurrility of the earlier paper was abandoned to a great extent, it was
permitted to appear as long as customers could be found to support it,
ultimately dying out with the last month of 1834. To Mr. Joseph Allday
must credit be given for the exposure of numerous abuses existing in his
day. He had but to get proper insight into anything going on wrong than
he at once attacked it, tooth and nail, no matter who stood in the road,
or who suffered from his blows. His efforts to put a stop to the
cruelties connected with the old system of imprisonment and distraint
for debt led to the abolition of the local Courts of Requests; and his
wrathful indignation on learning the shocking manner in which prisoners
at the goal were treated by the Governor, Lieutenant Austin, in 1852-53,
led to the well-remembered "Gaol Atrocity Enquiry," and earned for him
the thanks of the Commissioners appointed by Government to make the
enquiry. As a Town Councillor and Alderman, as a Poor Law Guardian and
Chairman of the Board, as Parish Warden for St. Martin's and an opponent
of churchrates (while being a good son of Mother Church), as founder of
the Ratepayers' Protection Society and a popular leader of the
Conservative party, it needs not saying that Mr. Allday had many enemies
at all periods of his life, but there were very few to speak ill of him
at the time of his death, which resulted from injuries received in a
fall on Oct. 2nd, 1861.

_Allen_, J.--Local portrait painter of some repute from 1802 to 1820.

_Aston_, John, who died Sept. 12, 1882, in his 82nd year, at one time
took a leading share in local affairs. He was High Bailiff in 1841, a
J.P. for the county, for 40 years a Governor of the Grammar School, and
on the boards of management of a number of religious and charitable
institutions. A consistent Churchman, he was one of the original
trustees of the "Ten Churches Fund," one of the earliest works of chu