of this letter, and I will repay you and make an addition of a further gratuity if you will be so obliging to favour with as an agreeable passage on my return from hence. I remain, with all due respect, Gentlemen, your obliged and obedient servant,-JOHN BANKS.

"On board the Hawke Packet, Dublin Bay, 9 o'clock Saturday night, Sept. 21st.

To the President and members of the Society deputed by Eolus to sell Winds at the port of Liverpool, att their office, Sign of the Three Tuns in Strand Street."

Unfortunately Mr. Banks was not always so favoured in his weather; for, under date the 18th June, 1777, is a note:

"Mr. John Banks has paid 1s. for a fair wind to Dublin. May he have a better one than he had for his last trip there."

In addition to the income arising from the sale of winds, the coffers of the club derived supplies from other sources, particularly from fines which were exacted on sundry occasions.

The amounts so received were always expended forthwith upon ale for the benefit of the assembled members, and if the amounts arising from these sources proved insufficient to meet their requirements, then each member paid his proportionate contribution or shot towards defraying the expenses of the evening.

Fines were inflicted for various causes, and on divers excuses. If a member had any garment turned, a frequent occurrence in those days of gaudy colours, he was mulcted in the sum of 6d. On appearing in a new suit of clothes a fine of Is. was imposed. For the celebration of his birthday a member paid 2s. 6d., and on marriage 5s. Fines were levied too on the birth of a son or daughter; on a captain taking possession of a new ship; on a member who falsely challenged another's clothes (i.e., claimed a fine in respect of a suit which was not new), and on sundry other occasions.

The first payment in celebration of a birthday was made by Thomas Cartmell in 1776. Mr. Cartmell was a very frequent attendant at the club, and often occupied the post of "President for

"the Night." Gore's Directory tells us that he was plumber and glazier, living close to the "Three "Tuns," namely, at 41, Strand Street. The entry is as follows:

A precedent. Mr. Cartmell's birthday being this 4th June, he has enabled us to celebrate it by paying 2s. 6d.”

Mr. Cartmell himself adhered strictly to the precedent he had created, for in each subsequent year, on the 4th June, his payment is recorded as follows:

“June 4th, 1777. Mr. Thomas Cartmell has paid 2s. 6d. for the celebration of his birthday. God save the King. Regis. Jos.

CATON."

"1778. Mr. Thomas Cartmel has paid 2s. 6d. for the celebration of his birthday. Young. God save the King."

1779, June 4th. Mr. Thomas Cartmel has paid 2/6 for the celebration of his birthday. Long may he live. T. Cooper."

1780, June 4th. Vivat Rex. Mr. Thomas Cartmell has paid 2s. 6d. for the celebration of his birthday. T. Baynes. Born June 4/38."

The outbursts of loyalty contained in these paragraphs had their origin in the coincidence that Mr. Thomas Cartmel and the then reigning monarch, George III, were both born on the same day, and accordingly in celebrating the birth of one the members of the club were enabled to pay the same compliment to the other.

There are perhaps eighty entries with reference to payments in celebration of birthdays, of which the following are typical specimens:

"Joys to the 12th August. Mr. Bradstock has made his appearance here and paid 2s. 6d. in honour of the day being his birthday."

(The gentleman referred to here, and in several other places in the book, was Mr. Garstang Bradstock, some years later a churchwarden of Liverpool.)

On the 17th February, 1777, following another entry :

"At same time the above gentleman commemorated Mr. Bald. win's birthday in a nipperkin of ale.”

Long life to Captain Cooper, wishing him many happy returns of the day. 2s. 6d. Thos. Cartmel."

This entry is interesting as showing the antiquity of the present form of greeting.

The usual form of entry was as follows:

"Mr. Isaac Hinde has paid 2s. 6d. for the celebration of his birthday. W. Rush."

There are many accounts of payments by members that the club might celebrate the occasion of their marriage. Here are a few specimens:

1776, January 9th. Captain James Rimmer has paid five shillings for entering into the honourable state of Matrimony. J. Hinde. Wm. Tyrer Young."

"Capt. Crewdson hath paid Five shillings for entering into the honourable state of matrimony, being his second wife. Witness. Thos. Clay. July 11. 1776."

"Old 3 tons. 13 Octr. 1777

Mr. Peter Allen has paid one shilling for the celebration of his brother William's marriage with Miss Pownall, may they enjoy health and happiness and have the comfort of a son in nine months is the wish of all present. Marrow."

"August 25th, 1779. Matrimony. Mr. James Johnson has paid 5s. for entering into the state of matrimony in August, 1778. May he live long and be happy. Will Rush."

"1780, June 24. Captain Thomas Rigmaiden has paid 5s. (by hands of the groomsman) for entering into the Honourable State of Matrimony."

The following two examples will illustrate the imposition of fines upon members whose wives were blessed with offspring :

"Oct. 14, 1776. Cap. Preistman has paid 1s. for having a son born this day."

"Be it known that Captain George Bates hath paid one shilling in ale for ye honour of having a daughter launched at half past eleven o'clock last night. 9 June 1776. Jno. Bankes."

Coming to a consideration of the entries relating to the imposition of fines for new suits of clothes, we find that they number more than those under any other head; and as they are interesting as showing the taste for gaudy display in which the men of that time indulged, and also their fertile power of description, it is difficult to refrain from quoting a very large number of examples.

The usual form of entry of this fine is as follows:-"Capt. James Fazakerley has paid Is. "for his suit of chocolate coloured cloaths, with

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"gilt buttons," followed by the signature of the president for the night. Other entries relate to such garments as "new brown big coat with a green collar," "claret coloured clothes," "damson coloured clothes," blue cloathes with oval yellow buttons," "dark brown cloths with death's head buttons of the same colour," "dirty grey cloaths with large diamond buttons," "sage green cloathes lined with white silk," "purple coat, green striped waistcoat, white metal buttons;" "suit of pea green cloathes," " green and orange cloths with buttons of the same," "thunder and lightning coat, hell-fire waistcoat, and black breeches; " purple olive coloured cloathes with yellow buttons," "dark orange and green coat, white waistcoat, and black silk breeches;" "Devonshire brown cloaths with macoroni buttons," "toads back suit of cloaths," "damned ugly green clothes," and so on, almost ad infinitum.

Having now dealt with those entries in the log book which relate purely to the inner working of the club, we come to the somewhat more interesting research into those which throw a light on the social and political life of the time. In the period. between 1775-1780 Liverpool, though but a small town in comparison to the Liverpool we know, was nevertheless a thriving and prosperous commercial community. Besides its home industries, its potteries, its breweries, and its ship building yards, it had its merchant fleet scattered over the broad ocean, and its whalers upon the Arctic Sea. Moreover it was deriving profit from the Guinea trade, the carriage of slaves from Africa to America and the West Indies: a profitable trade, accepted as inevitable at that period, but one to which we now look back with a shudder of horror.

There are many references to the Guinea traders in these records, and this specific reference to the slave trade:

"Feby. 23rd, 1776. Captn. Johnston lays Mr. Thomas Cartmell one guinea to one shilling that Ralph Fisher Capt. of the Charles Town has not sold two cargoes of slaves since he left Liverpool in the West Indies and America."

There was a large fleet of boats engaged in the cheese trade, carrying Cheshire cheese from the Mersey to London, and over one half of the captains of the boats engaged in this trade are mentioned in this book as being members of the club.

Liverpool was at this time in a most flourishing period of its existence. The speed with which the town was growing may be judged from the fact that in 1775 two new churches had been opened— St. Catharine's, in Temple Court, which was pulled down in 1820, and St. James's, which is still standing. In the same year the foundation stone of St. John's Church was laid, and in the following year St. Mary's Church, Harrington Street, was opened; that is to say, that in these two years the number of churches in the town was raised from 9 to 13. The last-mentioned church, St. Mary's, Harrington Street, was pulled down in 1809. It is mentioned in these records on the first page:

“1776, January 7th. Capt. Dickenson lays Mr. Powell 1s. that there is a single seat in St. Mary's Church that will hold eight women."

Another of the churches, St. Thomas's, was the subject of a curious wager, interesting in the light of an after event:

"On Novr. 13th, 1776, Mr. James Ayres lays Mr. Barnshaw is. in ale that a first-rate ship of war from the keel to the top-gallant mast Head is not so high as St. Thomas's Church Steeple.'

Gore's Annals of Liverpool inform us that in June, 1780, a ship in No 1 Graving Dock had her mainmast shattered by lightning, and at the same time a stone was struck out of St Thomas's steeple near the top.

The castle had been pulled down some years earlier than this, but the old castellated mansion