in every respect to those imported from France, and are often sold as French to accommodate the prejudice of the customer.  It seems hard to say why Worcester, a city so centrally situated, and, before the railway era, so advantageously situated as regards the means of communication with other parts of the kingdom, has not become a manufacturing emporium and a place of much greater importance.  In my belief, one principal reason has been the hindrance to speculative or bonâ fide building, which exists in the bad tenure of land everywhere around the city; there can be no doubt that this has driven enterprising men to settle in places which in other respects were less suitable for their undertakings.  There has, moreover, been a lack of unity and coöperation amongst the inhabitants in the promotion of the general good which has been “the worm i’ the bud” to many schemes which would in all probability have greatly advanced the prosperity of the city.  Considerations of the common weal have been postponed to the interests of partizanship.  To make an application of our civic motto—Worcester, if faithful to herself, may flourish ever.  Worcester is rich in charitable institutions and revenues for alleviating the distresses of poverty.  It may be a question, indeed, whether these have not reached the point at which eleemosynary aid ceases to be advantageous, begins to foster dependence, and eats out the energy of a community; but their abundance has at any rate not had the effect of drying up the streams of private benevolence.  At least £40,000 have been raised in Worcester at different periods of distress and necessity which have occurred since 1800, for the relief and aid of its own poor.

There are many minor manufactures carried on in the county, especially the preparation of leather at Bewdley, Stourport, and Worcester, which need not be further particularised, and for the remaining towns and boroughs—these—like an honoured aristocracy—repose on their historical associations; the fame which the touches of a master hand, such as Fielding’s, may have cast around their name; or the remembrances of former activity and bustle.  But I must not omit a passing notice of Malvern, that gem of nature’s setting, on whose hills the purest air is breathed, the purest water drank, and the richest and most unique inland landscape to be seen in all England.  Formerly what is called Malvern Wells was the only part of the hills at which visitors stopped, but for the last twenty years Great Malvern has been gradually growing as a place of resort, and is now a “town” by Act of Parliament.  And whether for pleasure or for health it must continue to be resorted to, and to increase in fame and importance; for it abounds in nature’s simplest but most efficacious restoratives, and its beauties will bear repeated inspection, and will be appreciated just in proportion to the cultivation of the mind that dwells on them.

Even from this hasty and cursory glance at the progress of the county during the first half of the nineteenth century, it will be apparent that Worcestershire has not been deficient in contributing her quota to the general prosperity.  The age is remorseless in its demands; we cannot stand still.  The years that are past press with all their accelerated momentum on the heels of those that follow and hurry them to a yet greater speed.  But our resources are not exhausted, nor need we fear that they shall ever be.  We do not trace the decay of nations to any failure in the material of greatness, but in the enervation of the mind that should develop it.  It only remains for us, then, to be found in the practice of intelligence and industry—which make a people great—and of the virtues which make a people happy.

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS.

The great change in constituencies and elections which divides with so marked a line the period over which the records of this volume extend has long been accepted by all parties as un fait accompli, and few, if any, would revert to the system of former days, even if it were possible.  All now see that by its means we have been enabled to take Reform as our watchword, instead of Revolution, and to escape anarchy and despotism—the Scylla and Charybdis into which the continental nations have been continually falling.  Elections in Worcestershire have of course been much the same as elections elsewhere; often scenes of riot and corruption, now and then the occasions of an irresistible burst of popular feeling, but very far from being at any time exercises of calm, deliberative, and patriotic judgment.  As to the changes which should be made in the constituencies with a view to remedy existing evils, and to add strength to our constitutional edifice, everybody now-a-days has his own crotchet, and the writer’s is an educational franchise.  He believes that it would be perfectly feasible to make a register of all parties who could read and write, in the presence of the revising officer, some declaration of the privileges and responsibilities of a vote, and who could satisfy him that they understood the functions of a representative.  No one that had not so far qualified himself for the exercise of the franchise could in these days reasonably complain of being denied it, and it would give a greater impulse to elementary education than all the grants of public money that ever have or ever will be made for the establishment of schools.

COUNTY OF WORCESTER.

Before the passing of the Reform Bill the number of electors on the county register was not much more than 3,500.  At the last revision there were in the eastern division, 6,515; western, 4,135.

1802—July 12—(General Election, the old Parliament having run out its legal term.)—The Hon. Edward Foley, of Stoke Edith, and Wm. Lygon, Esq., reëlected without opposition.

1803—July 19—(Vacancy occasioned by the death of the Hon. E. Foley.)—The Hon. W. Ward elected without opposition.

1806—March 3—(Vacancy occasioned by the elevation of Wm. Lygon, Esq., to the Peerage.)—The nomination takes place in the Castle Yard, Worcester.  The Hon. W. B. Lygon, son of the peer recently created, was proposed by the Rev. Mr. Pyndar, and seconded by Thomas Hornyold, Esq.  The Hon. W. H. Lyttelton, undeterred by the Beauchamp influence, then thought to be overwhelming, came forward “to assert the independence of the county,” and was proposed by John Amphlett, Esq., of Clent, and seconded by the Rev. Mr. Onslow, Vicar of Kidderminster.  The show of hands was in favour of Mr. Lygon, and a poll demanded by his opponent.  After five days’ polling Mr. Lyttelton resigned, the numbers then being—Lygon, 1,502; Lyttelton, 1,145—majority for Lygon, 357.  A sharp correspondence, imputing artifices, fraud, &c., afterwards took place between the candidates.  The representation of the county had not been contested previously since the general election of 1741 (64 years before), when the numbers were Lechmere, 2,309; Pitt, 2,120; Deerhurst, 1,930; Lyttelton, 1,412.

1806—November 7—(General Election on the accession of the short-lived Fox ministry.)—The Hon. Mr. Lygon, and the Hon. Mr. Lyttelton, returned together without opposition; the Hon. Mr. Ward having retired from the representation in consequence of ill health.

1807—May—(General Election—Change of Ministry, and