It is 1/2d. per week, or 850 per cent. on the sum borrowed. If 6d. it is the same " 425 do. If 9d. do. " 285 do. If 1s. do. " 215 do. If 2s. do. " 107-1/2 do. If 2s. 6d. do. " 87-1/2 do. "This explanation should be a warning to those who are so improvident, as to pawn their Sunday cloaths, every Monday morning, or 52 times a year, a custom which too frequently prevails, without reflecting that the Interest paid the Pawnbroker would, probably, purchase two or three coats, gowns, or silk cloaks, in the course of the year."--(_Times, Mar. 20, 1797._) * * * * * "ON PUBLIC-HOUSES. (Condensed.) "In the City of London, and within the Bills of Mortality, there are at present 5,204 licensed Public Houses, and it is calculated that the Beer, and Spirits, which are consumed in these receptacles of idleness, and profligacy, by the _labouring people_, only, is little short of _three millions sterling a year_. It has been lately discovered, that clubs of apprentice boys are harboured in Public Houses, for the purpose of supporting their brethren who run away from their masters, and of indulging themselves early, in scenes of lewdness, and drunkenness, which they generally do, by pilfering their masters property, and disposing of it at the old iron shops. "In a recent publication, the consumption of Ale, and Porter, annually, in the metropolis, and its environs, is stated to be 1,132,147 barrels, equal to 36,625,145 gallons, making 158,400,580 pots at 3-1/2d. £2,311,466 15 10 "And, by another calculation, the average consumption of Gin, and Compounds, in Public Houses, previous to the stoppage of the distillery, was about 3,000,000 of Gallons 975,000 0 0 ---------------- £3,286,466 15 10