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of spirits. Notwithstanding all the wild statements of the total abstainers to the contrary, the latest Parliamentary statistics show that the consumption of beer per head per annum averages _now_ only seven-eighths of a barrel, though before even this moderate quantity reaches the consumers, the Government takes [see Inland Revenue returns, 1879, before alteration of malt-tax] no less a sum than L19,349 per year from the good people of Birmingham alone. Of this sum the brewers paid L9,518, the maltsters L425, beer dealers L2,245, and beer retailers L7,161. ~Bells.~--There was a bell foundry at Good Knave's End, in 1760, from whence several neighbouring churches were supplied with bells to summon the good knaves of the day to prayers, or to toll the bad knaves to _their_ end. There was also one at Holloway Head, in 1780, but the business must have been hollow enough, for it did not go ahead, and we find no record of church bells being cast here until just a hundred years back (1732), when Messrs. Blews & Son took up the trade. Birmingham bells have, however, made some little noise in the world, and may still be heard on sea or land, near and far, in the shape of door bells, ship bells, call bells, hand bells, railway bells, sleigh bells, sheep bells, fog bells, mounted on rockbound coasts to warn the weary mariner, or silver bells, bound with coral from other coasts, to soothe the toothless babbler. These, and scores of others, are ordered here every year by thousands; but the strangest of all orders must have been that one received by a local firm some fifteen years ago from a West African prince, who desired them to send him 10,000 house bells (each 3/4 lb. weight), wherewith to adorn his iron "palace." And he had them! Edgar Poe's bells are nowhere, in comparison with Such a charm, such a chime, Out of tune, out of time. Oh, the jangling and the wrangling Of ten thousand brazen throats. Ten bells were put in St. Martin's, in 1786, the total weight being 7 tons, 6 cwt. 2 lbs. The peal of ten bells in St. Philip's were first used August 7, 1751, the weight being 9 tons 10 cwt. 22 lbs., the tenor weighs 30 cwt. A new peal of eight bells were put up in Aston Church, in May, 1776, the tenor weighing 21 cwt. The St. Martin's Society of Change Ringers "opened" them, July 15, by ringing Holt's celebrated peal of 5040 grandsire triples, the performance occupying 3 hours 4 minutes. Eight bells and a cloc
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