PRESTON:

Little Hoole, Longton, , , Pl'eston, Rib­ bleton, Ribchester, , 'Valton-Ie-Dale, Whittingham, and Woodplumpton, which contained, in 1851, a population of 96,368 souls. It is divided into the six districts of Preston (east and west), Alston, Broughton, Longton, and Walton. There has been no new workhouse erected for this union, the five old ones being made to do duty in its stead. Their situations are Preston, 1Val­ ton, Penwortham, W oodplumpton, and Ribchester. The Preston workhouse occupies an airy and healthful situation in Deepdale­ road, a short dist,ance N.N.E. of the town, and a handsome erection, called" The Overseers' Buildings," was raised in 1848, at the corner of Saul-street and Lancaster-road, for the use of the officers of th& union. The guardians meet at the board-room here every Tuesday, at ten o'clock. Thomas Batty Addison, Esq., is chairman, and Thomas Birchall and Michael Satterthwaite, Esqrs., are vice­ chairmen; J oseph Thackeray, Esq., is clerk to the union and superintendent registrar. Among the Provident Institutions of Preston are many Friendly Societies, Lodges of Oddfellows, Foresters, Mechani.Js, Druids, Freemasons, the Catholic Brethren, Guilds, &0. The Sav'ing8~ Bank is also a provident institution, which affords a safe and bene­ cial investment for the savings of the humbler classes, and was first established at the National School here on the 11th of l"Iarch, 1816, but was removed to more convenient premises in Chapel­ street, in 1818. It now occupies a neat building in Lune-street, erected about seventeen years ago, but was removed to that street in 1830; and in 1852 possessed deposits, amounting to £170,298 4s. 2d., beloning to 4423 depositors, including 116 in the branch bank at Lytham, and including also 98 Friendly, and 45 Oharitable Societies. Mr. Charles St. Clal'e is actuary. Newspapers, Literary Institutions, &:e. "The history of tha public press of Preston," says Mr. Baines, "is contained in a nalTOW compass. In the year of the rebellion of 174o, the first newspaper ever published in this town appeared under the title of The British Courant, or Preston Journal, published by J ames Stanley and John Moor; but, from lack of patronage, this journal was at a subse­ quent period discontinued. At the breaking out of the revolutionary wars between France and , when the thirst for news was ardent in the extreme, the late ~fr. Thomas 1Valker established a newspaper, entitled the Preston Review, the nrst num­ ber of which was published June 1st, 1793; after languishing through a few years with indifferent succes..c;, this journal ceased. The next effort to supply the inhabitants with a medium of inte1li~ genca and of commercial and professional communication was madey