According to My Lights

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 Excerpt: ... Lane, 'Respectfully informs the public that her night is fixed for Monday, the 12th (January, 1800), when she promises a comedy, and to sing, accompanying herself on the Lute.' State lotteries were legal in 1800, and large diamonds, the predecessors of the Koh-i-Noor, were disposed of in this way. The Budget expenses for 1800 were under forty millions; army and navy, as usual, taking the lead. This sum was provided for by four millions of indirect taxes, and over five millions of Income-tax, the remainder being made up of credits, surpluses, and loans, and three millions charged for renewing the Bank of England Charter. George Washington dies; and Bonaparte is Chief Consul of France. France soon became an empire; and America was, and still is, a republic. A Bill to prevent bull-baiting was thrown out in the House of Commons by a majority of two, and the King, George III., went in state to the House of Lords to give his royal consent (July 2) to the union with Ireland. Bull-baiting, to judge by the speeches of many distinguished statesmen, was looked upon as one of the pillars of the British Constitution. Forestalling--buying produce months in advance--was then a crime, and occasionally duly punished. A watchman named Night is fined for assaulting a drunken citizen, who complained that he was calling the wrong hour and the wrong weather. Sentence of death was passed on a number of prisoners for various offences--burglary, sheep-stealing, highwayrobbery, horse-stealing, forgery, firing a pistol, coining, and taking a bill out of a letter in the Post Office. No executions took place, at that moment, for stealing linen off a hedge, or breaking down the bank of a fish-pond. Footpads not only infested the country, but London and the suburbs, though they were not ...