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previous time. It is carried on principally by females, who earn good wages, and, as a consequence, domestic servants are at a premium in Kidderminster.

At an unfortunate period a cotton-spinning company started, with a capital of £25,000, and although the whole of that has long been paid up no dividend has yet comforted the speculators. It is hoped, however, for the good of the town, that a favourable turn in the affairs of the company may prevent its deciding on a wind-up. Mr. W. Green also started the manufacture of calico, but has done nothing for the last two years, deeming it prudent to wait till the cotton market is more settled. Then there are manufactories at Kidderminster, Broadwaters, Cookley, Wolverley, and neighbourhood, for tin-plates, iron foundries, tanning, currying, and enamelling of leather, flour-mills, paper-making, &c.

The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, opened nearly a century ago, is a most useful feeder of the town and its manufactories, with coal and other necessaries. Our famous Yarranton, who would undertake much more than a Lord John Russell, attempted to make the Stour navigable in the seventeenth century, but broke down for want of money.

The population of Kidderminster in 1861 was under 18,000. A century ago there were not 6,000 inhabitants, and in 1548 only 700 communicants (adults). Acreage of the parish, 12,474. Lord Foley has the honour of being the^ Lord High Steward of the town. The living is a vicarage, worth £1,100; Earl Dudley patron; Rev. G. D. Boyle vicar; incumbents of St. George's and St. John's, Revds. C. J. M. Mottram and G. R. Kewley; value of each living, £200; patron, the Vicar. The town has been divided into three parishes for ecclesiastical purposes, and marriages are now celebrated at St. George's and St. John's.

Electioneering has been a great feature in the history of Kidderminster. The town sent Members to Parliament in the time of Edward I, but the luxury was considered too expensive, and the right was therefore abandoned till the Reform Bill