122 



MINISTRY AT WARRINGTON. [Chap. IV. 



reviewed) gives a lively account of a lecture on the air-pump 

 at the Bristol Ragged School, by a blind gentleman (their 

 friend Mr. S. Worsley, see p. 5) ; and he had other contribu- 

 tors. The outside pages he chiefly devoted to local matters, 

 and to advertisements, on which the duty was not then re- 

 pealed, and for which the terms were : — 



s. d. 



" The Queen's Profit for doing nothing ... ... ... 16 



The Printer's charge for his work, per line ... ... 03" 



From his record of Proceedings of Public Bodies, it would 

 seem that Warrington was in many respects a progressive 

 town : " The Town Museum and Library is remarkable as 

 being the first and the only * institution of the kind established 

 under the new Act." After describing its attractions, he adds, 

 " And all this without any charge, except the paltry rate of \d. 

 in the pound, which amounts, in the case of most working 

 people, to the astonishing sum of $d. or 4^. in the course of 

 the year." A committee had also been formed to raise ^2000 

 for baths and washhouses. When persons complained of 

 being overburdened already, he referred to the public dinners 

 of the civic authorities, and remarked, " Those people who 

 were feasting, and who had plenty to eat and drink at home, 

 consumed at one series of entertainments what might have 

 been the mental, and to a great extent the bodily, food of sixty 

 or seventy neglected children throughout the entire twelve 

 months." He begins an article, " The Rest for the Dispensary," 

 by saying, " The good people of Warrington have had three 

 very good Mayors, each of whom has given them several 

 extremely good dinners, which have cost a good many hundreds 

 of pounds." They invited the Mayors to a dinner in return ; 

 and "it was agreed that 12s. 6d. should be paid to the inn- 

 keeper for each man's dinner; but that i$s. should be charged 

 for each man's ticket, the rest to go to the Dispensary." About 

 one hundred persons sat down to dinner, including most of the 

 principal burgesses; u a very bad example was set to the 

 people, who are scolded enough by the ' higher classes ' when 



* He subsequently wrote, "in the manufacturing districts." 



