which, however, was lost on the turf. The Repository was the largest
establishment of the kind in the kingdom, and Beardsworth'a house
adjoining was furnished in most splendid style, one centre table (made
of rich and rare American wood) costing £1,500.

~Beelzebub.~--Watt's first steam engine was so christened. It was
brought from Scotland, put up at Soho, and used for experimenting upon.
It was replaced by "Old Bess," the first engine constructed upon the
expansive principle. This latter engine is now in the Museum of Patents,
South Kensington, though Mr. Smiles says he saw it working in 1857,
seventy years after it was made.

~Beer.~--Brewers of beer were first called upon to pay a license duty in
1784, though the sellers thereof had been taxed more or less for 250
years previously. The effect of the heavy duties then imposed was to
reduce the consumption of the national and wholesome beverage, which in
1782 averaged one barrel per head of the then population per annum, down
to half-a-barrel per head in 1830, its place being filled by an
increased consumption of ardent spirits, which from half-a-gallon per
head in 1782, rose by degrees to six-sevenths of a gallon per head by
1830. In this year, the statesmen of the day, who thought more of the
well-being of the working part of the population than raising money by
the taxation of their necessaries, took off the 10s. per barrel on beer,
in the belief that cheap and good malt liquors would be more likely to
make healthy strong men than an indulgence in the drinking of spirits.
Notwithstanding all the wild statements of the total abstainers to the
contrary, the latest Parliamentary statistics show that the consumption
of beer per head per annum averages _now_ only seven-eighths of a
barrel, though before even this moderate quantity reaches the consumers,
the Government takes [see Inland Revenue returns, 1879, before