His ale, without a miracle, was, in a few years, converted into wine, and that of various sorts; to which was added, a small collation; and now his friends are complimented with a card, to meet him at the Hotel, where he incurs an expence of twenty pounds.

While the spirit of the people refines by intercourse, industry, and the singular jurisdiction among us, this insignificant pimple, on our head of government, swells into a wen.

Habits approved are soon acquired:  a third entertainment has, of late years, sprung up, termed the constables feast, with this difference, it is charged to the public.  We may consider it a wart on the political body, which merits the caustic.

Deritend, being a hamlet of Birmingham, sends her inhabitants to the court-leet, where they perform suit and service, and where her constable is chosen by the same jury.

I shall here exhibit a defective list of our principal officers during the last century.  If it should be objected, that a petty constable is too insignificant, being the lowest officer of the crown, for admission into history; I answer, by whatever appellation an officer is accepted, he cannot be insignificant who stands at the head of 50,000 people.  Perhaps, therefore, the office of constable may be sought for in future, and the officer himself assume a superior consequence.

The dates are the years in which they were chosen, fixed by charter, within thirty days after Michaelmas.

CONSTABLES.

1680   John Simco          John Cottrill
1681   John Wallaxall      William Guest
1682   George Abel         Samuel White
1683   Thomas Russell      Abraham Spooner
1684   Roger Macham        William Wheely
1685   Thomas Cox          John Green
1686   Henry Porter        Samuel Carless
1687   Samuel Banner       John Jesson
1690   Joseph Robinson     John Birch
1691   John Rogers         Richard Leather
1692   Thomas Robins       Corbet Bushell
1693   Joseph Rann         William Sarjeant
1694   Rowland Hall        John Bryerly
1695   Richard Scott       George Wells
1696   Joseph Haddock      Robert Mansell
1697   James Greir         John Foster
1698   John Baker          Henry Camden
1699   William Kettle      Thomas Gisborn
1700   John Wilson         Joseph Allen
1701   Nicholas Bakewell   Richard Banner
1702   William Collins     Robert Groves
1703   Henry Parrot        Benjamin Carless
1704   William Brierly     John Hunt
1705   Jonathan Seeley     Thomas Holloway
1706   Robert Moore        John Savage
1707   Isaac Spooner       Samuel Hervey
1708   Richard Weston      Thomas Cope
1709   Samuel Walford      Thomas Green
1710   John Foxall         William Norton
1711   Stephen Newton      John Taylor
1712   William Russel      John Cotterell
1713   John Shaw           Thomas Hallford
1714   Randall Bradburn    Joseph May
1715   Stephen Newton      Samuel Russell
1716   Stephen Newton      Joseph Carless
1717   Abraham Foxall      William Spilsbury
1718   John Gisborn        Henry Carver
1719   Samuel Hays         Joseph Smith
1720   John Barnsley       John Humphrys
1721   William Bennett     Thomas Wilson
1722   John Harrison       Simon Harris

A LIST