ave it, demanded the head of the table.
The court was afterwards held at the Leather-hall, and the expence,
which was trifling, borne by the bailiff. Time, prosperity, and
emulation, are able to effect considerable changes. The jury, in the
beginning of the present century, were impannelled in the Old Cross,
then newly erected, from whence they adjourned to the house of the
bailiff, and were feasted at the growing charge of _two or
three pounds_.

This practice continued till about the year 1735, when the company,
grown too bulky for a private house, assembled at a tavern, and the
bailiff enjoyed the singular privilege of consuming ten pounds upon
his guests.

It is easier to advance in expences than to retreat. In 1760, they had
increased to forty pounds, and in the next edition of this work, we may
expect to see the word _hundred_.

The lord was anciently founder of the feast, and treated his bailiff;
but now that custom is inverted, and the bailiff treats his lord.

The proclamation of our two fairs, is performed by the high bailiff, in
the name of the Lord of the Manor; this was done a century ago, without
the least expence. The strength of his liquor, a silver tankard, and the
pride of shewing it, perhaps induced him, in process of time, to treat
his attendants.

His ale, without a miracle, was, in a few years, converted into wine,
and that of various sorts; to which was added, a small collation; and
now his friends are complimented with a card, to meet him at the Hotel,
where he incurs an expence of twenty pounds.

While the spirit of the people refines by intercourse, industry, and the
singular jurisdiction among us, this insignificant pimple, on our head
of government, swells into a wen.

Habits approved are soon acquired: a third entertainment has, of late
years, sprung up, termed _the constables feast_, with this difference,
_it is charged to the public_. We may consider it a wart on the
political body, which merits the caustic.

Deritend, being a hamlet of Birmingham, sends her inhabitants to the
court-leet, where they perform suit and service, and where her constable
is chosen by the same jury.

I shall here exhibit a defective list of our principal officers during
the last century. If it should be objected, that a petty constable is
too insignificant, being the lowest officer of the crown, for admission
into history; I answer, by whatever appellation an officer is accepted,
he cannot be insignif