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MAIL COACHES.

Mail Coaches were first established to Bristol, in 1784; to other parts of England, and an Act to regulate and encourage them, and exempt them from tolls, in 1785.

POST OFFICES.

Post Offices were first established in Paris, 1462; in England, 1581; in Germany, 1641; in the Turkish dominions, 1740; regulated by parliament, and made general in England, 1656, and in Scotland, 1685.

PENNY, NOW TWO-PENNY POST.

The Penny-Post was set up in London and suburbs, by one Murray, an upholsterer in 1681, who afterwards assigned the same to one Dockwra; afterwards claimed by the government, who allowed the latter a pension of 2001. a year, in 1711. First set up in Dublin, 1774. It was improved considerably in and about London, July, 1794.

RYE-HOUSE PLOT.

The Rye-House is a farm near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, through which his majesty usually passed in his road from Newmarket, which farm belonged to Rumbold, one of the conspirators. It was proposed by them to attack the king and his guards, by firing from the out-houses, while another party should attack them, when they were separated by the gates, and embarrassed in the inclosures; but a fire happening at Newmarket, his majesty returned to London sooner than he intended, and before the conspirators were prepared to put their design in execution. This occurred, June 14th, 1683. The conspiracy was discovered by a letter from one John Keeling, in a letter to lord Dartmouth and secretary Jenkins.

WALLER'S PLOT.

The nobility and people of distinction in London, as well as the most substantial citizens, being weary of the parliamentary war, associated together, and came to a resolution, to endeavour to depose the chiefs of the opposition, to offer his majesty equitable terms of peace, and if this was refused, to form a party strong enough in the city to oppose the levying taxes on them for the continuance of the war; which Pym having some intelligence of, pretended there was a plot to destroy the parliament, and deliver up the city of London to the king; and Mr. Waller being one of the most considerable men, or most active in promoting the said object, it obtained the name of Waller's Plot.

POPISH PLOT.

In the reign of Charles II., in the year 1678, Doctor Tongue, a physician, laid certain papers before the lord treasurer, Danby, importing a conspiracy against his majesty's life, and the Protestant religion, by the jesuits. The chief promoters of this plot were said to be the pope, Innocent XIth, Cardinal Howard, and numerous others in England, of the Roman Catholic religion. The said Tongue, and one Titus Oates, having drawn up a narrative, made oath of the truth of the same. From the circumstance of the origin, it obtained the name of the Popish Plot.

GUNPOWDER PLOT.

Please to remember the Fifth of November,
Gunpowder Treason and Plot;

We know no reason, why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot!

The famous Powder Plot, which was intended to have blown up the king,* lords, and commons, with gunpowder, was discovered on the Fifth of November, the day on which it was to have taken place, 1605; when one of the conspirators, wishing to save William Parker, lord Monteagle, wrote him a letter of caution. Upon which, his lordship communicated the same to the privy council; and the vaults of the parliament being searched, several barrels of gunpowder were found, also one Guy Faux, a Spaniard, with a lanthorn, was found secreted therein. Hence originated the term of " Gunpowder Plot," yearly celebrated on the Fifth of November.

MEAL-TUB PLOT.

This was also a plot of the Catholics, in the reign of Charles II., to discredit the witnesses of the Popish Plot, wherein the famous Titus Oates figured as an informer. The heads whereof being found in a paper concealed in a tub of meal, it obtained the name of the Meal-Tub Plot.

HOLY ALLIANCE.

The blest alliance, which says three+ are all!
An earthly Trinity! which wears the shape
Of Heaven's-as man is mimicked by the ape.
A pious unity! in purpose one-

To melt three fools into a Napoleon!-Byron.

The Holy Alliance was formed at the Treaty of Verona, for the purpose of checking the revolutionary mania, as it was stated, and preserving the legitimate rights of the potentates who formed it.

This alliance has ever been looked upon with a well-founded suspicion, by the English nation; indeed by all, who feel interested in the march of mind, and rational freedom.

THE CABAL COUNCIL.

The celebrated cabinet council of Charles II., which we read of in history, and who were supposed to be in the pay of Louis XIV., derived their appellation from the initial letters of their five names, which composed the word Cabal; viz.

Clifford,

Arlington,
Buckingham,
Ashley
Lauderdale.

As this has not been sufficiently explained, or rather, as the derivation has not been given in the majority of the Histories of England, it is considered, that it will not be found out of place here.

WOOLSACKS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

In the reign of queen Elizabeth, an act of parliament was passed, to prevent the exportation of English wool; and the more effectually

*James the First. + Austria, Russia, and Prussia.

to secure this source of national wealth, the woolsacks on which our judges sit, in the House of Lords, were placed there to remind them that, in their judicial capacity, they ought to have a constant eye to the preservation of this staple commodity of the kingdom.

SLAVE TRADE.

"Oh Slavery! thou Hemlock in the cup of life."

The first attempt, from England, to establish the odious traffic in blacks, was in the reign of queen Elizabeth, in the year 1562; when John Hawkins, an adventurer, afterwards Sir John Hawkins, fitted out three ships, and made a voyage to the Coast of Guinea for slaves.

EXCISE SCHEME.

It was in the year 1733, that the Excise Scheme was first moved in the House of Commons, by resolutions, which were powerfully resisted, but finally carried, and the Excise Bill brought in; the majority being 236, the minority 200. Prior to this period the excise was farmed.*

SOUTH SEA BUBBLE.

In 1711, the ninth year of queen Anne's reign, a charter of incorporation, was granted to a company trading to the South Seas; and the South Sea Company's affairs appeared so prosperous, that in 1718, George the First, being chosen governor, and a bill, enabling him to accept the office, having passed both the houses on the 3rd of February, his majesty, in person, attended in the House of Lords, and gave the royal assent to the act. The result is but too well known; such a scene of misery appeared among traders, that it was almost unfashionable not to be a bankrupt; and the dire catastrophe was attended with such a number of self-murders, as no age can parallel.

STANDING ARMY IN ENGLAND.

This unconstitutional force, as some of our would-be patriots have designated it, takes its data from 1486, when Henry VII. established fifty yeomen of the guard, and which, in time, became a precedent for a more extensive and effective force.†

LAND TAX IN ENGLAND.

The first land tax was in the reign of Ethelred II., with whom the Danes had broken an agreement. The invaders committed horrid cruelties and devastations all over the kingdom, and the timid Ethelred paid them no less than 24,000l. for peace. This was levied on land, and was called danegelt, by which ignominious name the tax, called Land Tax, was first known in England. The modern land tax was first established at the revolution, in 1688, from which period to the year 1800, it yielded above 227,000,000l.

PROPERTY TAX.

The first tax on personal property, in England, was levied by Henry II, (whose reign began, 1154), which amounted to two pence in the pound, on the amount of every individual's net effects, after deducting the debts owing, to be verified on oath; and one penny in

*See Public-house chequers.

+ See Beef-eater.

the pound for the four following years. This tax was afterwards raised to one tenth part of all personal property, as in 1188, intelligence had been received, that Jerusalem had been taken by the sultan of Egypt. On this occasion, the English are said to have paid above 70,000, and the resident Jews about 60,000l., together about 2,000,000 sterling of modern money.

In the reign of Henry III., the revenue of customs was 6,000l. per

annum.

POSTS.

The first institution of posts is generally ascribed to the Persians. The monarchs of that extensive empire, that they might have intelligence of all that passed in the provinces of their vast dominions, placed sentinels on eminences, at convenient distances, where towers were built, which sentinels gave notice of public occurrences to each other with a loud and shrill voice; by which means alone, news was transported from one end of the kingdom to the other with surprising expedition. This method, however, being found to be tedious and uncertain, Cyrus, as Xenophon informs us, provided couriers, and erected houses on all the high roads, for keeping post horses, and delivering packets from one to another.

PRESSING FOR THE NAVY.

This mode of recruiting our navy commenced in the year 1355; prior to which, seamen were enlisted same as soldiers, but which, in time of war, was found ineffectual.

OLD AND NEW STYLE.

year

Pope Gregory III. caused the Kalendar to be reformed in the 1582; whereby the English, and some other Protestant countries, which adhere to the Julian Kalendar, lost ten days, and occasioned the distinction of Old and New Style.

CHILTERN HUNDREDS.

Of the hundreds into which many of the English counties were divided by king Alfred, for their better government, the jurisdiction was originally vested in particular courts, but came afterwards to be devolved to the county courts, and so remains at present, except with regard to some, as the Chiltern Hundreds, in Buckinghamshire, which have been by privilege annexed to the crown. These having still their own courts, a steward of those courts is appointed by the chancellor of the exchequer, with a salary of twenty shillings, and all fees, &c. belonging to the office. This is made a matter of convenience to members of parliament; when any of them wish to resign, he accepts the nominal office of the Chiltern Hundreds, and by this vacates his seat.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN COURTS OF LAW, AND

LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS.

The French, or rather the Norman-French language, was introduced into our courts of law by the Conqueror, and was the only language used till the reign of Edward III., in the year 1362, when an act was passed, that the counsel at the bar shall plead in the English tongue, but the pleadings to be entered in Latin.

Another writer says: it is said on the lord's committee on the privileges of peers, that the prelates, dukes, earls, barons, and all

the commons, having at length shown the king the mischiefs arising from the laws, customs, and statutes of the realm, not being known to them, because they were impleaded, shown, and judged in the French language, which was little known in the kingdom; and the king with their consent willed, that all proceedings henceforth should be in the English tongue. The French language, notwithstanding, was still used in the rolls of parliament.

ACTS OF PARLIAMENT.

Prior to the long parliament, the term Ordinance of Parliament was used; but on the 16th of January, 1649, the Commons altered their style, and called their ordinances, Acts of Parliament, which term is used at the present day.

RUMP PARLIAMENT.

The parliament, which in history is stiled the Rump Parliament, was thus denominated, because it was a remnant, or the latter end of the Long Parliament, and did not amount to one hundred men.

TRANSPORTATION.

Transportation of criminals, instead of execution, first commenced in 1599.

Henry VIII. executed 72,000 during his reign!

ALE HOUSE LICENCES.

Ale, and ale-houses in England, are made mention of in the laws of Ina, king of Wessex. Licences were introduced, 1551.

NAVAL SALUTE TO THE ENGLISH FLAG.

This honour to the Flag of England, first commenced in Alfred's reign, and has continued ever since.

AFFIRMATION OF THE QUAKERS

Was first accepted as an oath, in 1702; an alteration made in it, December 13th, 1721.

SWEARING ON THE GOSPEL.

In our courts of law, &c. was first used in 528.

"He that imposes an oath makes it,
Not he that for convenience takes it;
Then how can any man be said,

To break an oath he never made!"-Hudibras.

AUCTIONS

Were first introduced into Britain about 1700, by Elisha Yule, a governor of Fort George, in the East Indies; who disposed of a cargo of goods, he had brought home with him, by this meaus.

ORIGIN OF TYTHES.

"And he will take a tenth of your sheep."-1 Sam. c. 8, v. xvii. Selden, in his History of Tythes, says, they were anciently disposed of by the owners of the land where they arose, at their pleasure, to such monasteries, and in such portions as they thought proper. Every person founding a church for his own use, and that of his tenants, appropriated to it the tythes of his lands.

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