A minister of state, whose duties brought him into constant attendance upon royalty, once made a memorandum in his diary to watch the king into a good humour, that he might ask him for a Lighthouse. It is probable that the wish of Lord Grenville (for it was he) was not to learn what living in a lighthouse would be like, but rather to realize the very considerable living to be got out of one.
Whether his lordship ever got what he desired, we do not know; but could he have foreseen the serious penalties the nation would have to pay for having the "well-beloved cousins and councillors" of its kings quartered in this free and easy way upon its mercantile marine, surely he would have been too generous to seek it. Henry VIII. and his daughter Elizabeth were alive to the true policy in such matters, for he put the custody of such things into the charge of a chartered body, whose interests were made identical with the public welfare; and she, making her Lord High Admiral Howard surrender his authority in regard to beacons, buoys, marks and signs for the sea to their custody, gave the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House their first Act of Parliament, and set them forward upon an ever-widening career of usefulness, which has resulted in our channels being almost as well lighted as our streets.
Not but what among the proprietors of "private lights," as those not under the control of the Trinity House were called, there were men of sagacity, energy, and self-devotion. Men who were proud of the means whereby they lived, and took the same pleasure in having their lighthouse a credit to them that an opulent manufacturer does in having his mills up to the mark with all the most recent improvements. But the same motive did not exist in the one case as does in the other. If a manufacturer does not keep in the front rank as regards machinery, the character of his goods is degraded in the market. He must choose between spinning well or not at all. But with the private manufacturers of light for bewildered sailors the case was different: they were authorized to levy tolls on all vessels passing, using, or deriving benefit from the light in question; a certain range of distance appears to have been assumed within which the vessel was liable; and although at one lighthouse the oil might be bad, at another the candles unsnuffed, whilst at a third the coal fire would be reeking in its embers, still so long as the light was there the dues were chargeable.
Things came to a crisis at last. In districts where at the time when the king's good-humour had been availed of vessels from fishing-village to fishing-village crept round by twos and threes, the waters got crowded daily and hourly with ships of mighty tonnage, and every ton had to pay. It was difficult to tell what the recipients of the royal benevolence were making; but from the style in which their mere collectors throve, it was
