By a statute passed in 1831 (1 & 2 Will. IV. c. 32), the old system was materially improved. The whole of the former provisions respecting qualification by estate or birth were removed, and any person obtaining a certificate is now enabled to kill game, either upon his own land, or on the land of any other person with his permission.

THE AS A MARK.

It is said that Withred, king of Kent, used the sign of the Cross for his mark to his grants, he being unable to write his name; and that from him originated the custom. It is said also, that the majority of the barons who signed Magna Charta made their marks, being ignorant of the science of writing.*

The sign of the Cross was first used by Christians as a distinction, in 110; that of our Saviour, found on Mount Calvary, 326.

STAMP DUTY ON RECEIPTS.

The Stamp Duty on Receipts was first imposed during the celebrated Coalition Administration, in 1783, which gave occasion for the following jeu-d'esprit, at the time generally attributed to Sheridan:

"I would," says Fox, "a tax devise,
That should not fall on me;"

"Then tax receipts," Lord North replies,
"For those you never see!"

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, 1479; 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 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 £200 a year, in 1711. First set up in Dublin, 1774. It was improved considerably in and about London, July, 1794. Mr. Rowland Hill's plan of a uniform inland rate of postage of one penny per half ounce, came into operation 10th January, 1840.

*See Magna Charta.

RYE-HOUSE PLOT.

The Rye-House is a farm near Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire, through which Charles II. 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 Jeukins.

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 XI., 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.

The famous 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.. *James the First.

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 Guido 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 Romanists, 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 Holy Alliance was a league formed between certain of the principal sovereigns of Europe, after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, on the proposal it is said of the Emperor Alexander, 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 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.

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. It was not until the latter end of the eighteenth century, that the atrocities of this trade began to engage the attention of parliament. In 1788, an act was passed to regulate it, and after twenty years' animated discussion, it was at last totally abolished in 1807. In 1834, an Act was passed abolishing slavery in fourteen British colonies, and twenty millions sterling voted as compensation to the owners.

EXCISE DUTY.

It was in the year 1733, that the Excise Duty 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 I., 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. Among the various bubbles which were started about this time may be mentioned one "For making iron with pit coal," and another "For carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is." Maitland, in his History of London, informs us that one of the projects which received great encouragement, was for the establishment of a company "to make deal boards out of sawdust." For full particulars about the South Sea and other bubbles of the period, see Mackay's Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, vol. i.

STANDING ARMY IN ENGLAND.

This unconstitutional force, as some of our would-be patriots have designated it, takes its date 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 £24,000 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 £227,000,000.

PROPERTY TAX.

The first tax on personal property in England was levied by Henry II. (whose reign began, 1154), which amounted to twopence 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 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 £60,000, together about £2,000,000 sterling of modern money.

In the reign of Henry III., the revenue of customs was £6,000 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 highroads, 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 in the same manner as soldiers, but which, in time of war, was found ineffectual.

*See Beef-eater.