ey will be beaten in the
end. The _King-times_ are fast finishing. There will be blood shed
like water, and tears like mist; but the people will conquer in the
end. I shall not live to see it--but I foresee it."

* * * * *

HARDHAM'S 37

Snuff-takers generally, especially the patrons of Hardham's 37 will
read the following record of benevolence with some gratification:--"In
1772, Mr. John Hardham, a tobacconist, in London, a native of
Chichester, left by his will the interest of all his estates to the
guardians of the poor, 'to ease the inhabitants in their poor-rates
for ever.' This valuable legacy amounting to 653_l._ per annum was
subject to the life of the housekeeper of the testator, so that it was
not till 1786 that it reverted to the city."--This is even better than
the plan for snuff-takers paying off the national debt.

* * * * *

PRESTON, LANCASTER.

Preston is a market-town, borough, and parish; situated on the river
Ribble, in the hundred of Amounderness, county palatine of Lancaster.
It was incorporated by Henry II., in 1160; and the privileges and free
customs granted by this and subsequent royal grants were confirmed by
Charter of 36th Charles II. The body corporate consists of a mayor,
recorder, seven aldermen, and seventeen capital burgesses, who,
together, form the common council of the borough. The mayor, two
town-bailiffs, and two sergeants are elected annually, upon the Friday
preceding the festival of St. Wilfrid, who was formerly lord of this
town; and they are invested, on the 12th of October following, by a
jury of twenty-four guild burgesses. The members of the council, with
the exception of the mayor, retain their seats for life, or during the
pleasure of a majority, and vacancies are supplied by the remaining
members. The town sends two representatives to parliament, and affords
the nearest practical example of universal suffrage in the
kingdom--every male inhabitant, whether housekeeper or lodger, who has
resided six months in the town, and who has not, during the last
twelve months, been chargeable to any township as a pauper, having a
right to vote for two candidates at elections. This principle was
established by a decision of the House of Commons, on an appeal, in
the year 1766, and has ever since been acted upon. The burgesses are
entitled, by the charter of Henry II., to have a GUILD MERCHANT, with
the usual