Four years previous to the date of this “Tag,” namely, in 1773, an Act of Parliament was passed, giving power to sixty-four Commissioners, elected by the inhabitants, to light and cleanse the streets, lanes, and other places within the town of Brighton, and for the general regulation and improvement of the town. In 1809, meetings of the inhabitants took place at the Old Ship, for and in opposition to obtaining a new Act of Parliament; and on the 21st of February, 1810, a very large majority of the Vestry, at a meeting held at the Old Ship, resolved that the Bill as framed by the Town Committee, which had been appointed by the inhabitants, should be forthwith presented to Parliament, to be passed into a law. The Act passed that year, augmenting the number of Commissioners to one hundred, and raising the duty on coal from sixpence to three shillings per chaldron. On the 22nd of June, 1825, (6 Geo. IV.) this Act was repealed and another passed, extending the number of Commissioners to one hundred and twelve, and giving them increased powers, in consequence of the extensive enlargement and requirements of the town. Under the provisions of this Act some of the greatest improvements in the town were effected. The most prominent of these was the Sea Wall, which forms the southern front of Brighton from Cannon Place to the west end of Kemp Town. As early as 1799 the requirement of a wall at the foot of the East Cliff, now the Marine Parade, to prevent the encroachments of the sea, occupied the attention of the possessors of property in that vicinity, as amongst the Conditions of Sale of the land for the purpose of erecting the Royal Crescent,—sold by auction by Mr. Christie, at the Old Ship Inn, Monday, September 16th, 1799,—was the following:— If it shall be judged necessary to build a Sea-Wall under the Cliff, for Use or Ornament, the Purchasers and Plot Holders of each Ground Plot to contribute their Proportion for Building the same. The building of the Crescent commenced forthwith; but, in consequence of one of the most prominent of the speculators absconding, the whole of the houses were not completed until the end of December, 1807, at which period the area in front of the Crescent measured four acres. No wall was then considered necessary at the foot of the Cliff, but a dwarf wall was built on the south side of the carriage road, in lieu of posts and rails, which guarded in a most irregular manner the other portion of the road-way from the Steine to Black-Rock. On widening the road as now existing in consequence of the construction of the present massive sea-wall, not only was the dwarf wall removed but the crown of the rise of the road, which there ranged with the present paving of the Crescent, was taken off, and the incline made on the turfed area, which was considerably contracted by setting back the iron railings in a line with the front of the other property immediately east and west.