thought to damage the revenue, and was prohibited in 1706. The dressing and dyeing of woollen cloths within the kingdom were encouraged by placing a duty upon broadcloth exported white (1708). The consumption of raw silk and mohair yarn and the trade of the manufacturers were assisted by an Act of 1721, prohibiting the wearing of buttons and button-holes made of cloth, serge, and other stuffs. A similar prohibition had been enforced in an Act of 1699. The silk manufacturers had received the assistance of Parliament for more than a couple of centuries prior to this period, by the closing of the ports to the importation of such silk goods as were made in England. Both the woollen and silk trades were bolstered up by an Act (1721) which prohibitel the use of all printed, painted, stained, or dyed calicoes. Sir Thomas Lombe was granted a sum of 14,0001. by the Commons (1732) for the three Italian machines for thrown silk which he erected at Derby, and worked by water-power from the Derwent. Woollen manufacturers were protected against unlawful combinations of their workmen, and the latter, on their part, were given greater security for the payment of their wages (1726). The prohibition against Spanish wool was, however, rescinded on a petition of the clothiers to the House of Commons in 1742, and the prohibition of the importation of thrown silk was rescinded in 1825. An Act of 1750 aimed at preventing foreign manufacturers learning the methods and improvements effected in the woollen and silk trades, by punishing any person who seduced workmen out of the country and prohibiting the exportation of the implements used.

The growth of the salt trade was fostered by two Acts of 1722 taking off the duty upon salt used in the curing of herrings. The export of the fish was at the same time encouraged by laying a proportional duty upon such herrings as were consumed at home only. The export of hats from British America was prohibited in 1732, and the hours of labour and the terms on which apprentices were to be taken in that trade were fixed in 1777. At the same time calico printers and dyers were empowered to employ men who had not served an apprenticeship. The home hop cultivation received the paternal solicitude of Parliament in an Act of 1734, preventing adulteration and prohibiting the import of foreigngrown hops. The use of sugar for colouring porter, however, was permitted in 1811, and in the following year it was allowed in the brewing of ale. The arts of designing, engraving, and etching

re fostered by vesting improvements therein in the inventors.

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The expansion of the carrying trade in British bottoms suggested the encouragement by Parliament of the manufacture of sail-cloth in Great Britain (1742). The printing trade received also its sop in several laws which prohibited the bringing into this country of copies of English works printed abroad. An Act of 1750 was intended to benefit the iron manufacturing trade in the country by providing for the importation of pig and bar iron from the American Colonies, whilst the making up of the crude metal into finished articles was to be secured to our own workmen by preventing the erection of any mill or other engine for rolling iron, any plate-making forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for making steel, in any of the said colonies. A statute with nineteenth century principles, however, was put into force in 1772 for cheapening the provisions of the people. It enacted that the duties on lard and grease should be repealed, and that hams, bacon, and salt provisions should beimported free from any part of Europe. A plateglass manufactory was established by an Act of Parliament of 1773.

The march of science has been so rapid in recent years that one is apt to take what springs therefrom as an established fact after the lapse of a few years, and thus to forget that what is now a necessity of to-day was yesterday undiscovered. This reflection is borne upon one when one learns that the means of ascertaining the longitude at sea, at once determinable nowadays by the most unscientific passenger on an ocean liner, was during the greater part of last century beyond the powers of even the captain by any easy and certain method. When the recent discovery of new worlds had opened up a great sea trade and further expansions were being provided for by other voyages of discovery, the solution of this problem became a crying need, and Parliament, to its

a credit, took vigorous action in the matter. A Board of Longitude, with powers to assist experiments and inquire into claims for the great rewards provided for in the Act, was established in 1714.

The production of a chronometer by which Greenwich time can be carried to any part of the seas, and the longitude at once determined, is due to John Harrison. The principle employed by Harrison in order to obtain a timekeeper which should be reliable under any variations of temperature was that of compensation through the unequal expansion and contraction of two metals.

Harrison received 20,0001., and a number of Bills passed through the Houses and received the Royal assent to encourage maritime discovery; and the Board of Longitude bore part of the

expenses of Cook's voyages. A reward of 20,0001. was offered in 17+5 for the discovery of a North-West passage through Hadson's Straits to the Pacific. In the following year the same premium was placed upon the finding of a North-East passage, and a prize of 5,000!. was provided for any one who should approach within one degree of the North Pole.

Vany Acts of Parliament demand notice which cannot be included in any of the divisions adopted in the discussion of those which fall into particular classes of legislation. The most signitcant and important of these miscellaneous statutes may be signalled out for mention. Immediately on the accession of Charles II., an Act was passed for establishing a post office (December 29, 1660), and shortly afterwards the profits were settled on the Duke of York. A very useful law of Queen Anne (1708) required erery parish within the Bills of Mortality to keep an engine to extinguish fires. Interest was reduced to 5 per cent. in 1714, and the transaction was declared void where more bad been extorted, and the lender was rendered liable to forfeit treble the value of the loan. A Bill establishing a censorship of stage plays encountered much opposition, and was the occasion of some warm debates, but it passed into law (1737). A salutary statute of 1742 prevented the marriage of lunatics. Strange though it may seem, considering the high estimation in which the medical profession is now held, it was not until 1745 that the surgeons and barbers of London were formed into distinct corporations.

The Parliamentary Session of 1807 has a lustre shed upon it by the humane Act abolishing the slave trade. An Act of the ensuing year is also worthy of notice and appreciation. It provided for the interment in churchyards of bodies cast on shore from shipwrecks. On January 1, 1826, came into force the important Act for altering and establishing a uniformity of weights and measures for the l'nited Kingdom. A humaneness, not too common in those days, is exhibited in the statute of 1827 which prohibits the setting of spring-guns, man-traps, and other contrivances calculated to destroy human life or inflict bodily injury.

The historian must write of the past after such a lapse of time as shall enable him to weigh each action dispassionately, apart from the bias of its time, and judge it by its results, which will then be available ; and it must be left to a writer of the

-p to continue this inquiry by an examination of the Acts of

IIUJOURS OF SPEECH AND PEN.

It is always interesting, and sometimes instructive, to listen to
the blunders in speech made by others. In the club or drawing-
room, on the streets, even in churches, we often find the meanings
of words hopelessly confused, or the words themselves clipped and
altered almost out of all recognition. The English language seems
to afford boundless opportunities, to those who possess that dan-
gerous gift of a little knowledge, for ludicrous interchange and
misapplication. Here are a few specimens of such blunders that
have come within the experience of the writer.

Two old students of politics—their name is legion-came
together one morning upon the street. Naturally, they were sus-
picious of the Government, and exceeding anxious for the country,
like so many of their know-little class. It's a bad state of
affairs,' said whitebeard number one gloomily. “As bad as it can
be,' agreed number two with alacrity. The two white heads
nodded together ominously. “There must be war,' quoted one.
* Ah! you're right. We can never escape this time, croaked the
other. “Let me see,' said number one, working a tremulous hand
towards his coat-tail pocket ; let me see what the daily paper
procrastinates !' Somewhat similar is the story narrated by a
clergyman. Late one night he was called out to minister to an
old man—a worker upon the adjacent railway–who was supposed
to be dying. The summons was brought by another old man,
the elder brother of the stricken one. While he was bustling
about, making preparations for departure, the clergyman forgot
momentarily the social status of his visitor, and asked, 'Is he in
ectremis ?' The old man was not going to be beaten. 'Aye,
he's right in, your reverence.' After a pause, he added as a
clincher, 'Clean in, poor chap! Right up to the neck, sir.' Pre-
sently the old man went on sadly, 'Me and brother Bill ’ave
worked together the past fifteen year.'. 'On the railway ?' asked
the clergyman. 'Aye, sir. We've worked all that time on the
firmament way. This reminds us of the large and burly indivi-
dual who was asked his occupation. Occypation, sir? Why, to
be sure, I be a gorger! Of course he meant gauger.

Coom out o' that,' shouted an irate but zealous churchwarden

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in a rural district to some urchins who were playing marbles against the church door. “I'll let passon know how ye dessicate the holy place. This word forms a common stumbling-block. A grocer once informed us that people from quite the respectable classes not infrequently asked him for desecrated soup.

Lawyers, as well as doctors and the clergy, frequently have amusing tales to tell. A Canadian barrister is responsible for the following :-One day a farmer came into bis office, and requested that a holograph will should be prepared for his signature. The lawyer began at once to explain terms, but the tiller of the prairie, who prided himself not a little upon his legal knowledge. only grew angry. “I want a holograph will,' he declared ; and I'm going to have it,' he added in parenthesis. When the impossibility of his request was still pointed out, he angrily stumped from the office, shouting out, 'D— it! If I can't have a holograph will, I'll blamed well die intestine!' Almost as funny was the tradesman who had recently been left some land. He came to the lawyer with instructions for a deed of transfer to be prepared in favour of himself. On being asked his reasons, he gave them thus: Don't feel sort of comfortable about that bit of country. I know how particular you lawyer gents are, and I thought, maybe, that if I signed a deed making over the property to myself no one would be able to touch it. When his application was refused, he went away in a rage, and subsequently tried to bring an action against the lawyer, who, he imagined, Fas trying to defraud him.

On the occasion of a visit to his native town by a member of Parliament, one citizen, who had been prevented from going to listen to the speech in the Town Hall, asked another who had been present how the distinguished man had been received. 'Did they cheer him?' he asked. Cheer him?' said the other; I should

• ' think they did. Why, they gave him a perfect jobation !' This man must surely have been related to the long-suffering landlady who was compelled to put up with some very noisy and unruly lodgers, who were accustomed to make the night hideous with their unseemly revellings. She confided her woes to a sympathetie friend : There's no putting a stop to it, drat 'em, and I shall be 'aving the police down on my 'ouse soon, I know I shall. It's the same thing every night. As soon as I gets into bed, they're up to all their augeries !' But as a good example of a thorough and

a hopeless perversion of words the following would be difficult to