to the purchasing of interesting and improving publications. The first of these societies was instituted on the 28th. day of September, 1811, under the title of "The Uxbridge Book Society." It is restricted to eighty, and consists of about sixty members, comprising most of the nobility, gentry, and clergy, in the neighbourhood, and many of the most respectable inhabitants of the town. Its affairs are conducted by a President, Vice President, Committee, Secretary, and Treasurer*. Each subscriber pays *President.. THOMAS HUSSEY, Esq. Vice Presidents, The Right Honourable JOHN SULLIVAN, The Very Rev. the DEAN of CHESTER, Committee. The Rev. T. D. ALLEN, The Rev. JOHN HILLIARD, J. W. KNOLLYS, Esq. The Rev. D. C. LEWIS, DANIEL SCOTT NORTON, Esq. HENRY NORTON, Esq. on admission two guineas and one guinea annually, with three shillings to the librarian. The society has an annual dinner on the Monday preceding the full moon in September. The present number of volumes is about four hundred and sixty. The books are deposited in a public room open to all the subscribers. A daily paper and several reviews are taken by this society. Another Society, somewhat similar in its nature and object, was formed by several of the inhabitants of the town, in September 1815, entitled, "The Uxbridge Reading Society." Besides a very respectable collection of volumes, amounting to near four hundred, this society possesses an electrical machine, and several other philosophical instruments, and The Rev. GEO. OTTEY, THOMAS HURRY RICHES, Esq. CARRIER TOMPSON, Esq. THOMAS WITTS WALFORD, Esq. BENJAMIN WAY, Esq. ROBERT WRIGHT, Esq. Secretary, THOMAS WITTS WALFORD, Esq. Treasurer, JAMES TATTERSAL, Esq.. Librarian, Mrs. ASTILL. occasionally receives familiar lectures on the arts and sciences from several of its members. The annual subscription is, for gentlemen, one guinea, and for ladies fifteen shillings. The property is vested in fifty transferable shares. The meetings of this society are held and its library kept in one of the rooms at the markethouse, lately used as a School of Industry. See Chap. II. Sect. 3. page 100. It consists at present of about thirty members. Any person on paying the subscription, and conforming to the rules, is eligible to membership. The third Society is more confined and private in its nature, and is intended chiefly for circulating works of a moral and religious character. The books of this society are annually sold among the subscribers. SECTION 8. POPULATION,-GOVERNMENT OF THE TOWN,- Population. It will doubtless be interesting to our readers to be presented with the most accurate returns of the different classes of inhabitants of this town, at several distinct periods. The last census was taken in 1811. Since that time the population has considerably increased, as is evinced by the erection of a great number of small tenements, the whole of which are inhabited. The continued scarcity of dwellinghouses, and the eagerness with which they are sought after when vacant, are decided evidences of the increasing population and prosperity of the town. The following table exhibits a comparative view of the population in 1782-1801-1811. The two latter returns are extracted from parliamentary documents. See Lysons's Out Parishes, p. 185; from the information of the Rev. Mr. Mills, Vicar of Hillingdon. We suppose the present population to amount to several hundreds more than in 1811; and besides this computation, a part of the town, called Hillingdon-End, commencing with the eastern side of Vine Street, contains ninety-nine houses. If the inhabitants of these are reckoned in the same proportion, as in the other parts of the town, they will amount to about five hundred and fifty persons, which will make the whole population of the town considerably above three thousand, and this we consider still on the increase. Government of the Town. In offering a sketch of what can hardly deserve so stately a term as the GOVERNMENT of this town, and which should, perhaps, be more properly denominated its civil economy, we are under the necessity of correcting a mistake, which has long and generally prevailed, and which pervades all topographical works in which any description is given of Uxbridge. It is said to be governed by two Bailiffs. There is every probability that this was the case formerly, but that arrangement appears to have been abolished towards the end of the seventeenth century. The term Bailiff is indeed of rather extensive and various signification, determinable only by special regard to the ticular age when it was used, and to the sense par |