In several of the trades foremen were formerly lessees of public-houses, and, as the secretary of the ropemakers, Mr. Pritchard, writes, “drinking men had the preference, but nothing of the sort exists now.” Of course his remark refers to the ropemakers only, but no doubt it is applicable to other trades. The practice, however, on the part of stevedores and warehousemen of keeping public-houses, and of giving a preference to “drinking men,” prevails much too largely, and it is one that might be greatly mitigated by employers, many of whom content themselves with denouncing the drinking habits of their labourers, whilst their own servants are perhaps accumulating a small fortune by the sale of drink and favouring the intemperate amongst the labourers. A still more pernicious custom than any of those named existed in bygone years, and that was the necessity on the part of an artisan to “pay his footing” on entering a new situation. “This custom,” says the secretary of the millers, Mr. J. Clarke, “is now totally done away with amongst society’s men, and I am glad to say that the drinking habits amongst the millers have greatly diminished in the last twenty years of my own experience.” Amongst the iron-moulders the case was much worse. The secretary of the union, Mr. Owen, writes, that besides the fines or “footings” paid by the men on entering a new shop, the apprentices also were mulcted. When a lad was bound, he had to pay the “shop” 10s.; when out of his time, 20s.; and when he got married, 10s. All these fines were spent in drink, and, says Mr. Owen, “the whole shop’s crew often went on the spree for days together, ending in their discharge from the firm.” All these things are now forbidden, and any one asking for footings or money in any shape is liable to a fine of 2s. 6d., the same fine being inflicted by the union upon any man who is known to have complied with the request. But the author has himself had excellent means of forming an opinion concerning the changed habits of the working classes; for, some years since, in conjunction with several friends, he helped to establish a trades hall in Liverpool, to which a number of the unions at once removed from public-houses in different parts of the town, and there now meet in that institution the following trades:—The printers, the coopers, the painters, the shipwrights, the plumbers, the farriers, the upholsterers, and several minor friendly societies, who maintain the establishment at an aggregate expenditure of about £160 per annum, which they subscribe amongst themselves. It is hardly necessary to say that the removal from the public-house to such an institution has exercised a very beneficial influence upon the drinking habits of those trades. The “United Trades Council,” which embraces representatives of every important trade in the town, also meets there, whereas, within the author’s recollection its meetings were held in a little pothouse called the “Tam o’ Shanter,” and