As the old company were the first adventurers, the house gave them the
option to perform this Herculean labour, which they accepted.

As parliament have not yet given their determination, and as the printer
this moment raps at my door, "Sir, the press waits, more copy if you
please," I cannot stay to tell the world the result of the bill; but
perhaps, the new proprietors, by losing, will save 50,000_l_. and the
old, by winning, become sufferers.

WORKHOUSE BILL.

I have often mentioned an active spirit, as the characteristic of the
inhabitants of Birmingham. This spirit never forsakes them. It displays
itself in industry, commerce, invention, humanity, and internal
government. A singular vivacity attends every pursuit till compleated,
or discarded for a second.

The bubble of the day, like that at the end of a tobacco-pipe, dances in
air, exhibits divers beauties, pleases the eye, bursts in a moment, and
is followed up by another.

There is no place in the British dominions easier to be governed than
Birmingham; and yet we are fond of forging acts of parliament to
govern her.

There is seldom a point of time in which an act is not in agitation; we
fabricate them with such expedition, that we could employ a parliament
of our own to pass them. But, to the honor of our ladies, not one of
these acts is directed against them. Neither is there an instance upon
record, that the torch of Hymen was ever extinguished by the breath of
Marriot in Doctors-Commons.

In the present spring of 1783, we have four acts upon the anvil: every
man, of the least consequence, becomes a legislator, and wishes to lend
his assistance in framing an act; so that instead of one lord, as
formerly, we now, like the Philistines, have three thousand.

An act of parliament, abstractedly considered, is a dead matter: it
cannot operate of itself: like a plaister, it must be applied to the
evil, or that evil will remain. We vainly expect a law to perform the
intended work; if it does not, we procure another to make it. Thus the
canal, by one act in 1767, hobbled on, like a man with one leg; but a
second, in 1770, furnished a pair. The lamp act, procured in 1769, was
worn to rags, and mended with another in 1773; and this second has been
long out of repair, and waits for a third.

We carry the same spirit into our bye-laws, and with the same success.
Schemes have been devised, to oblige every man to pay levies; but it was
found difficult t