uld put out their fires and go to bed
when they pleased, it would appear, from being recorded in many places,
that the time of ringing the curfew bell was first changed from eight to
nine o'clock, then from nine to ten, and afterwards to the early hours of
the morning. Thus we find in _Romeo and Juliet_:

"The curfew bell hath rung:
'Tis _three o'clock_."

In Shakspeare's works frequent mention is made of the curfew. In the
_Tempest_ he gives the following:

"You whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms--that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew."

In _Measure for Measure_:

"_Duke._ Who call'd here of late?
_Provost._ None since the curfew rung."

In _King Lear_:

"This is the foul fiend Flibertigibbet;
He begins at curfew, and walks to the first cock."

This old English custom of ringing the curfew bell was carried by the
Puritan fathers to New England; and where is the Bostonian of middle age
who does not well recollect the ringing of the church bell at nine o'clock,
which was the willing signal for labourers to retire to bed, and for
shopmen to close their shops?

Before closing this Note, may I be allowed to inform MR. SANSOM, that
_Charlestown_ is in Massachusetts, and only separated from Boston by
Charles River, which runs between the two cities. The place to which he
refers is _Charleston_, and in South Carolina.

W. W.

Malta.

* * * * *

THE "SALT-PETER-MAN."

(Vol. vii., pp. 377. 433. 460.)

The statute against monopolies (21 Jac. I. c. 3.) contains a clause (sec.
10.) that its provisions should not extend to any commission grant or
letters patent theretofore made, or thereafter to be made, of, for, or
concerning the digging, making, or compounding of saltpetre or gunpowder,
which were to be of the like force and effect, _and no other_, as if that
act had never been made.

In the famous "Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom" agreed upon by the
House of Commons in November, 1641, there is special allusion to the
vexation and oppression of the {531} subject by purveyors, clerks of the
market, and saltpetre men. (_Parliamentary History_, x. 67.)

Shortly afterwards was passed an act (which obtained the royal assent)
giving liberty for importing gunpowder and saltpetre, and for making of
gunpowder. The preamble asserts that the importation of gunpowder from
foreign parts had of late times been against law prohibited, and th