'TIS SIXTY YEARS SINCE).

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1100, 20 August 1880, Page 2

'TIS SIXTY YEARS SINCE).

In 1820 Napoleon was still alive in St. Helena. Louis XVIH. was King of France. Alexander was autocrat of all the Eiussias, there was no kingdom- of Greece mo kingdom of Belgium. -In Germany there were • mord- . than"/ thirty reigning princesj and in Italy several; while the Pope was still' a temporal soverign. The two! great colonies of South, Australia, arijd-.New .Zealand, had no existence. The one, founded in 1835j has how athri^in^: 'population' of 150,000, and^tha^othery 4rst colonised, in 1839, a population of dyer 450, 000. In; 1820 slavery was at its ftteight in the JBrithish cpib>iies. ; ■ "Im l|2o coining, forgery, arson, and horae stealing were punishable \yifcli death. . ;late as, 1827 Edward Lowe,; a coiner, drawn %o the scaffold ori a hurdle, and it was 1829 that Thoriia^ Maynard completed the Catalogue of those who were executed for forgery: There were no railways. Gas had not.' yet ; been supplied to London, and some of the most important provincial towns were lighted with" flickering oil-lamps. It ' was ; not till

1838-9 that Mr. Crooke set up a telegraphic line on the Great Western Railway from Paddington to Drayton. It was only in 1824 that M. Daguerre commenced those curious experiments which resulted in the wonderful art of photography. So common- an implement as a steel pen did, not come into use until 1826, when the first gross of three-slit pens was. sold wholesale for £7 4s.' A better pen .isj.now sold for 4d. a gross. Pens, first used by Cathrine Howard, were of brass, and it was only 1824 they were manufactured by machinery under a Yankee patent. Tea and sugar and salt were ,articles so heavily taxed that they were' regarded as luxuries by the poor. The restrictions on the importation of foreign corn were so great , that half., the popoulation was ill fed. In 1851 an act was passed permitting importation ■■•? when wheat reached . £4 a quarter ; but during the discussion on this bill mobs assembled in London, and the houses of its supporters were damaged. Other riots followed. Free trade' in corn was prohibited down to 1846. There was no literature for the people, and news-papers were so taxed that only the rich could procure them. Even had they been reduced in price to what they are now, the Vast majority would have 'been unable to benefit from them, as they were unable to read. The Society . for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge had not yet started, and penny serials, we.re. unknown and unthought of. There were no harmoniums.; and objects of luxury. Lucifermatches had. not been invented. To procure a t light ,'the old flint-and-steel arrafigemeintk had to be used, and after alight had 'jbeen procured the candle used to give only a sorry light.- — Ghbe.

The Rangitikei Advocate says: — "A candaverous looking young man with light sandy whiskers, dressed in a threadbare dark coat, and blue serge nether-garments, is travelling trough the district towards Wanganui making a systematic house-to-house call,, and by means of his glib orations manages to pick up a tidy sum from the charitably disposed. He represents himself as a discharged Civil servant, the victim of political enmity." . ■■'■'-'•■'