1800.] 
There are four or five bookfellers, and 
two circulating libraries. The demand, 
however, is principally for novels. Poli- 
tics are‘little read, and hiftory ftill lefs ; 
works of philofophy and profound inquiry 
fcarcely at all. (Wet this is a cathedral 
town, and has, of courfe, a great body of 
refident clergy!) Book-club there ts none 5 
nor public reading reom ; nor news-room; 
nor popular, nor philofophical fociety. 
“OF newfpapers, we learned that ‘* The. 
Courier,” was moft read of any; _ not- 
withfanding the arts made ufe of to cir- 
culate ‘* The Sun;’’ of which we were 
expreflly affured, that the poft-mafter had 
a given number which were diftributed 
about, and received back without coft or 
charge. ‘* The Times,” alfo, was much 
read ; §* The Chronicle,’’ but little. The 
minifterial papers were all declining in 
fale ; the Courier, principally, increafing. 
While we were examining a vclume of 
large diftri&t maps at the principal book- 
fellers, that we might alcertain the route 
that would comprile the greateft{ number 
of interefting objects, a perfon coming 
into the fhop to counter-order the provin- 
cial paper, gave the fhopman occafion to 
oblerve, that their impreffton had already 
diminifhed a fuil third in confequence of 
the new tax. 
From Salifbury we proceeded, unin- 
timidated by the rain, to Wilton-Houfe, 
whofe park, viewed at diftance from the 
road, is a coniiderable embellifhment to 
the fcenery of this flat and uninterefting 
county. In our way we paffed through 
the village of Quidhampton, which in a 
manufacturing point of view may be con- 
fidered. as a fort of fuburb er colony to 
Wilton. The woollen manufatories a- 
round furnith employment not only tomen 
and women, but to children alfo, fo early 
as betw-en five and fix years of age. The 
daily toil of thefe little infants (who, if 
they are ever to attain the vigour and 
healthful a@ivity of manhood, ought to 
be ftretching their wanton-limbs in noily 
gambols over the arten) is added to the 
Jabours of their parents ; whole burthens 
will, of courfe, be confidered as relieved 
by their earnings: yet, Quidhampton 
fcems to have little to boa& in point of 
comfort and accommodation. The cot- 
tages in general are wreiched, fmall aad 
dirty. Some of them are built with brick, 
others are plaiftered, and many exhibit 
nothing but miferable mud walls, equally 
naked without and within. They are 
wretchedly and {cantily furnifhed ; and 
few have even the advantace of a bit of 
Texts of Scripture.—Court of Confcience. 
gardens To complete the catalogue of 
mifery, there is a work-howfe in the parifh, 
in which a number of poor deferted infants 
are configned to captivity and inceffant, 
application. In addition to the wretched 
habitations already noticed, there are fome 
fubftantial and comfortable cottages, a 
few decent houles, and a fulling inill of 
very fimple ftruture. . Children of five or 
fix can earn 11s. 6d. per week ; as they 
grow older they earn fomething more. 
Men and women much the fame as at 
Overton. - , 
(To be continued.) 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Prefume through the-very extenfive: 
i. circulation of your valuable Repof- 
tory, to requeft fome of your well-intorm- 
ed correfpondents, to favor me with fuch 
texts of {cripture, or o:her fentences, as 
they may have obferved in courts of 
jultice, in this or other countries. The 
Jaws of the twelve tables, fo celebrated in 
the Roman jurifprudence, were engravenon 
tablets of copper, and expofed in the moit 
confpicuous part of the public forum, for 
the adinonition and inftruction of the peo 
ple; in this manner, it fhould feem, the 
decalogue is difplayed in our places of 
public worfhip. 
quiry is to obtain an appropriate feleGion 
of texts of feripture, cr other folemn and 
impreflive fentences of admonition, to be 
arranged for public obfervation in a new 
court of juftice, now in ereéticn. - 
Nov. 8, 1799. W.E. 
er 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
OUR correfpondent M, J. in the Ma- 
gazine for October, page 699 defired 
fome account of the Court of Confci- 
ence, I have therefore felected the follow- 
ing notes for his obfervation. This court 
in London was erected in the 9th year of 
Henry ViII. by an aét of the common - 
council, authorifing the court of aldermen 
to affign two aldermen and four comman- 
ers to fitas commiffioners twice a week in 
this court, and determine in all. cafes 
where the fom contefted did nor exceed 
forty filings. This ac of common 
council was confirmed by flatute 1 James 
I, cap. 14, which was afterwards by 3 
James I. c. 15, greatly amended and ex- 
plained. It was thereby declared, that 
every citizen and freemen of London, and 
every other perfon inhabiting in London. 
or its liberties, being a trade{man, vigtual- 
6H2a ler, 
The objedt of ths in-— 
- 
