110 



Provincial Occurrences : Yorkshire, Norfolk, fyc. [JAN. 



The funds of the York Coun!y Hospital being 

 nearly exhausted, a bazaar, concert, and ball took 

 place the week before Christmas, for the purpose 

 of raising a sum of money to replenish them. 

 The project originated with the Hon. Mrs. Beilby 

 Thompson, and it was patronised by all the ladies 

 of distinction in the county. A vast number of 

 articles were contributed by the ladies, the value 

 of which was estimated at .5,000. The receipts 

 from the sale of these, from the concert, and 

 from the ball, were ^4,2/8. 16s. 6d. 



Nov. 30. Another meeting' of the unemployed 

 workmen took place on Hunslet Moor, when, 

 amongst various resolutions, the following passed 

 unanimously, " That we, the operatives, by no 

 moans wish to assume a situation that does not 

 belong to us, yet, we are well aware that labour 

 is the only source of wealth, and that we are the 

 support of the middle and higher classes of so- 

 ciety ; and, therefore, unless we can obtain la- 

 bour, and a fair remuneration for it, the middle 

 classes must soon sink to our level, and the whole 

 community become disorganised. We see that a 

 great redundancy of machinery is throwing large 

 numbers out of employment, and forcing them 

 upon their parishes." Leeds Intelligencer. 



Dec. 11. A meeting of the inhabitants of Hud- 

 dersfield and neighbourhood, was held at the 

 Court-house, the chief constable in the chair, to 

 take ,5 n to consideration the present deplorable 

 utate of the operatives and labouring classes, in 

 consequence of the dreadful depressions of trade, 

 when various speeches were made, and a com- 

 mittee was formed, and several resolutions enter- 

 ed into for the purpose of calling the public at- 

 tention to their miserable condition.* An appeal 

 has been made at Leeds on behalf of the unem- 

 ployed poor ; and two meetings have been held, 

 one at the Workhouse Board Room, the other at 

 the Court House, for the purpose of soliciting 

 subscriptions by personal canvass throughout that 

 town. At Halifax trade is as bad as ever, and no 

 hope for the better ; at Bradford it is still worse 



* Mr. Joseph Batley, of Armitage, said There 

 has never been a period within the recollection of 

 any one present when the town and neighbour- 

 hood of Huddersfield presented an aggregate of 

 suffering so truly appalling as at the present mo- 

 ment. That we are surrounded by 13,000 of our 

 fellow-creatures, as capable of happiness, and as 

 susceptible of misery as ourselves, who are drag- 

 ging on a miserable existence with the wretched 

 pittance of 2d. per day, is of itself a fact suffi- 

 cient to melt the hardest heart, and awaken the 

 most insensible to feelings of pity and benevo- 

 lence. In contemplating the mass of misery 

 around me ; when I reflect 6n the patience, the 

 resignation, with which it is all borne, it excites a 

 high admiration at the heroic fortitude of the 

 poor sufferers, and it deepens every feeling of 

 commiseration. Had the tame degree of suffer- 

 ing and privation existed 30 years ago, I am per- 

 suaded that the presence of an army would have 

 been necessary to have preserved the country in 

 peace. But although the unbroken tranquillity 

 which has hitherto been preserved in the midst of 

 the most intense suffering is a subject of admir- 

 ation, it may be easily accounted lor ; we are in- 

 debted for this tranquillity to the superior intelli- 

 gence of the labouring population. They are not 

 now that ignorant, headstrong, brutal mob, which 

 have been the terror of the peaceable in former 

 days; no, they are an educated, well-informed 

 people, and they need not be told that every act of 

 lawless violence on their part would only aggra- 

 vate their own misery, and remove to a greater 

 distance the prospect of better days !!! 



than Halifax. The landlords of the county are 

 pretty generally reducing rents : SirTatton Sykes 

 has at this moment 110 less than tixty farms upon 

 his hands! Leeds Intelligencer, Dec. 17- 



The first stone of the new church at Myton, 

 Kingston-upon-Hull, was laid, Dec. 14, in grand 

 style and ceremony ; it is to contain 1,200 sittings. 



NORFOLK. A committee has been appointed 

 at Norwich, to consider the distressed state of the 

 manufacturers in that city, with a view to devise 

 some means to alleviate that distress. 



A meeting of the operatives of Norwich has 

 recently taken place, when the following resolu- 

 tion, amongst others, was agreed to unanimous- 

 ly : " That this meeting views with indignation 

 and disgust, the combination of master manufac- 

 turers and the court of guardians, as calculated 

 to destroy the rights, independence, and comforts 

 of the journeyman weavers of this city, and will 

 bring them ultimately to a worse state of pau- 

 perism than that which they at the present most 

 severely suffer."* 



Cromer Hall, the seat of G. Wyndham, esq., has 

 been destroyed by fire ; this handsome edifice was 

 of the Gothic order, and recently erected on the 

 site of the old hall, at an expense of more than 

 .12,000 ; it had been just completed, but was not 

 furnished. 



LINCOLNSHIRE. The sheriff has refused to 

 call a county meeting for the petitioning the legis- 

 lature for a repeal of the Malt and Beer taxes, 

 alleging, " that although the weight of taxation 

 falls with more than an average pressure on the 

 agricultural classes, and although he feels the 

 necessity of the measure, yet he is convinced that 

 the exigencies of the country, during the recess, 

 must have irresistibly drawn the attention of 

 H. M.'s government to the state of the kingdom 

 in all its branches ;" and therefore advises wait- 

 ing. In consequence of the refusal, five magis- 

 trates have convened a meeting to be held at tlie 

 Castle Hill, Lincoln, on January 8.f 



* The Rev. Mr. Beaumont, in addressing the 

 chairman, said : " We sometimes hear farmers 

 talk of the rot among sheep: my opinion is that 

 the rot has got into the boasted commerce of this 

 country, and that it is in vain to expect it will 

 ever attain its former splendour. To this rot 

 maybe added the fact, that France, Germany, the 

 Netherlands, Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, and 

 Russia, have all, since the conclusion of the late 

 French war, been vigorously pushing on the 

 manufacture, at their own homes, of cottons, 

 linens, woollens, and cutlery. We are therefore 

 under a woeful delusion if we expect ever to see 

 the commerce of this nation flourish again as in 

 times past. The monopoly of landed property is 

 the chief cause of all our sufferings. For, it is 

 notorious to all, that a comparatively small num- 

 ber of individuals have clasped nearly the whole 

 surface of the country ; and having done this, 

 they boldly maintain their superior claim to 

 power ; which claim they ground upon their 

 having a greater stake in the country than those 

 who have no property. It follows of course, that 

 an honest working man, born and brought up, 

 settled and having a family in the country, is not 

 supposed to have any stake in it, because he has 

 no visible property ! Excessive taxation is also, 

 not a remote, but an immediate cause of the pre- 

 sent sufferings of the nation, and if one half of 

 the present taxation were remitted, even the other 

 half would finally ruin the country, &c. &c." 



f One of these magistrates, Mr. Johnson (of Wy- 

 tham on the Hill) has published an addms to the 

 County at large, headed with the following lines 

 from Shakspeare : O 



