o such a
place, as we shall presently see--thousands of tons of coal are
disposed of with marvellous rapidity; the days of sale being the
same as those of the Mark-Lane Market.

There was a coal-tax, popularly known as the Richmond duty, which
was levied for many years, for the benefit of one family, but was
abolished some time ago. Its origin, and the especial circumstance
which, gossip saith, more immediately led to its infliction, are not
a little curious, perhaps instructive. The first Duke of Richmond of
the present line was a son of Charles II. by Louise Rene de
Pennevant de Querouaille, a French lady, better known to us as the
Duchess of Portsmouth, to whom Otway dedicated his 'Venice
Preserved' in such adulatory terms. This son, when only nine years
of age, was created a Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter;
and his mother, with the proverbial taste of her country, arranged a
more graceful mode of wearing the blue ribbon, which, as we see in
old portraits, was till then worn round the neck of the knight, with
the George pendent from it. The duchess presented her son to the
king with the ribbon thrown gracefully over his left shoulder, and
the George pendent on the right side. His majesty was delighted,
embraced his son, commanded that the insignia of the order should
always be so worn, presented the youthful knight with 1s. per ton,
Newcastle measure, upon all coals shipped in the Tyne for
consumption in England, and secured the munificent parental gift by
patent to the young duke and his heirs for ever. _Honi soit qui mal
y pense._

After the fortunate family had enjoyed this revenue for about a
century and a quarter, the then Duke of Richmond, a personage said
to be wise in his generation, negotiated the sale of his patent with
the government; and on the 19th of August 1799 the Lords of the
Treasury agreed that the sum of L.499,833, 11s. 6d., the price of a
perpetual annuity of L.19,000, should be paid for the surrender of
the duke's right. This enormous sum was accordingly actually
disbursed by the Exchequer in two payments, and the obnoxious impost
on the Tyne coal-trade was abolished some thirty years
afterwards--by which time the Treasury had been repaid much more
than it had advanced, a circumstance inducing a belief that his
Grace sold his inheritance much too cheaply. The estimate of the
quantity of coals consumed in the United Kingdom, and exported
during the last year, reaches the staggeri