served. The keeper was out on business: it therefore could not be accidental, but method; and indeed he ap-. peared to me, on both visits, to be well calculated for the important trust. The total amount of earnings and disbursements, from Easter sessions 1802 to Easter sessions 1803, was as follows, viz. Do. necessaries for manufactory, oil, batting sticks, &c. Do. cash advanced to prisoners, and entered to their accounts Do. of per centage allowed task-master Do. of cash paid to Mr. Threlfall, the inspector Average number of prisoners for the year, one hundred and sixty-six. The accounts are examined and signed by Mr. Threlfall, the inspector, and laid before the magistrates at each quarter sessions, with the vouchers from the several employers for their respective sums. Amount of earnings from the 4th October, 1804, to the 9th October, 1805, 8117. 14s. L. s. d. Disbursements for the above period 303 13 4 508 0 74 £811 14 O These prisoners prisoners have the other moiety of William Edmundson's legacy, mentioned in the list at Lancaster; it amounts now to 21. 10s. per annum, and is the only benefaction to this prison. It is distributed as follows: every New Year's day each prisoner receives a loaf of fine bread, value three halfpence, six ounces of cheese, and a pint of ale; and what the legacy is short of that allowance, is made up out of the earnings. They have likewise a holiday every New Year's day in the afternoon. Debtors arrested by the process issuing out of the borough court for sums under 10l. are sent here. At my visit in 1802, I remarked a total neglect of cleanliness in the court-yards of this prison, and for want of a drain the uncovered deposits were extremely offensive. Dunghills up to the very windows of the workshops, and a hog-stye in another part; and I am sorry to observe, that there was no alteration at my last visit, 23rd October, 1805. I am informed that it is intended to vault or cover them over next summer; but I think the nuisance cannot be removed without a regular drain is made for so crowded a place; it would then be an excellent prison. The form and manner of the Government of this town. The mayor for the time being, according to a guild order made in the reign of Edward III., 1328, on the Monday previous to the election of his successor, summons the bailiffs to appear before him and the burgesses, to pass the accounts of their stewardship for the year, charging themselves with all monies received belonging to their office, and likewise stating what payments they have made according to any orders given by the aforesaid mayor and council to them to dispose of; and after passing their accounts, the said bailiffs have till Candlemas day to gather in their arrears and finish their accounts; after which the mayor with his burgesses and other invited guests and friends have a public dinner out of the revenues of the borough, which feast is called the privy accounts dinner, and the evening following the mayor and his brethren meet again upon the town's affairs, and for the election of new officers for the ensuing year; and the present mayor, in the week before the election court, causes the serjeant to summon all the inhabitant burgesses personally to appear at the said court, and when the election court approacheth, one of the serjeants, early in the morning, ringeth the town's bell to put the bur gesses in mind of their duty to appear in that court, which he again repeats at ten o'clock, and likewise at two in the afternoon, when the mayor, with his brethren and burgesses, appeareth in the hall for keeping the said election court. The bellman of the borough crieth aloud O'yes, which signifies to open the court in due form: when silence is proclaimed, whilst the bailiffs' accounts are examined and duly made up. Afterwards the bellman reiterates O'yes three times more; the town clerk calls upon the inhabitant burgesses personally to appear, from the court roll book. When the court roll book is once called over, and in case of all the burgesses not appearing, a new proclamation is made, in the open streets, and on their not appearing at this second call, shall be fined in the sum of 3s. 4d.; and on the third call, not appearing, shall be fined 6s. 8d., unless the mayor or town clerk, otherwise excuses them in some particular or extraordinary case of emergency, whereby they possibly could not attend. After which the town clerk enters the formulæ of this election court in the following words:" And here you may perceive, that this court of election was one of the grand three portmotes formerly in use within this our borough of Preston, during the Saxon era, unto which all burgesses, under a penalty, were then bound to appear, as has been declared ; heretofore." The mayor then stands up, and nominates a person fitting for the office, to fill the office of one of the elisors, in order to nominate a jury. The senior alderman, having received advice from his brethren in office, and the capital burgesses of the borough, in behalf of the common burgesses or freemen, to whom in former days the choosing of a second elisor belonged, do likewise choose another person to be an elisor, in unison with the former which two elisors are to nominate and duly elect twentyfour right and worthy persons to be regularly impannelled as a jury; twelve of which shall be taken out of the body of those called capital burgesses, and the other twelve to be chosen out of the common burgesses of the borough of Preston. The following oath is then administered to the elisors: "You two are elected and chosen to be electors, commonly called elisors, within this our borough, and the franchises thereof: you shall therefore elect and choose twentyfour honest and discreet burgesses, inhabitants within this said town, and such as are burgesses of the last guild merchant; which twenty-four, so by you to be chosen, are to elect one honest, wise, and discreet person, to be mayor; one honest, wise, and discreet person to be bailiff; and one honest, wise, and discreet person to be sergeant: and the |