The Lord Mayor was informed that great quantities of lace were
brought over by women. Some had been found stitched up in the skins
of wildfowl, and there was scarcely an article, dead or alive, that
was not suspected of being a depository of contraband goods. It was
but a short time ago, that a wretched-looking object was discovered
to be the carrier of a large stock of lace. He had an old bedstead,
which, in his trips to Boulogne, he used to take with him. At last,
somebody on board expressed his surprise, why a ricketty piece of
furniture, which looked as if it was the tenement of living animals,
should be so frequent a passenger. Upon close examination, it was
found that the several pieces of the bedstead had been hollowed and
stuffed with lace.

The cruel old English sport of bull baiting was still continued at
Stamford, in Lincolnshire, where it is said to have existed since the
year 1209, in the reign of King John. The story goes that, in that year,
William, Earl Warren, lord of the town, standing on the walls of his
castle, saw two bulls fighting for a cow, in the castle meadow, till all
the butchers dogs pursued one of the bulls (maddened by the noise and
multitude) clean through the town. This sight so pleased the Earl, that
he gave the castle meadow, where the bulls' duel began, for a common, to
the butchers of the town, after the first grass was mown, on condition
that they should find a mad bull the day six weeks before Christmas
Day--for the continuation of that sport, for ever.

But the time had come for putting an end to this barbarous practice, and
it was this year put down by direct interference of the Secretary of
State. At Stamford, and elsewhere, it was believed that this bull
baiting was legal, being established by custom; but the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, with a view of setting the question at
rest by the decision of the Court of Queen's Bench, caused an indictment
to be preferred against several of the ringleaders. The indictment was
tried at Lincoln, before Mr. Justice Park and a special jury, when
several of them were found guilty; and, upon their being brought up for
judgment in the Court of Queen's Bench, the Court unanimously declared
the practice to be illegal; the Chief Justice, in particular, said: "It
was supposed there was some matter of law--at first, there was a supposed
old Charter--for the future, it