238 Provincial Occurrences : Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, fyc. FEB. 



the magistrates who signed the requisition for 

 the meeting. After the meeting, above 100 of the 

 principal gentry dined together, and amongst the 

 topics introduced at table, Sir W. Ingilby said, 

 ' In a late parliamentary inquiry, it was stated 

 by a very old and experienced agriculturist, that 

 45 or 50 years ago, there was not a house in his 

 parish where there was not a barrel of good malt 

 liquor on tap, and that now the change was so 

 entire, that there was not one house in the whole 

 parish, where a barrel of beer was to be found 

 broached!!!" 



NORFOLK. General meetings of the no- 

 bility, clergy, and freeholders of this county, as 

 well as the owners and occupiers of land in the 

 hundreds of Tunstead, Happing, Grimshoe, Eyns 

 ford, Guiltcross, Shropham, &c. &c., have taken 

 place, when it was determined to petition Par- 

 liament for a repeal of the malt tax. " Nothing 

 but a reduction of taxes, can save thousands of 

 industrious families from ruin'* was the univer- 

 sal opinion at all these meetings. 



The cliffs at Mundesley have been greatly un- 

 dermined by the late very high tides, and the 

 whole line of coast demonstrates the devasting 

 influence of the hurricane of Jan. 2 ; the land 

 has been swept into the ocean in some places 

 astonishingly. 



NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. At the meeting at 

 Newark, Dec. 31st, for relief of the poor .553 

 was subscribed for purchasing beef, and selling 

 it to the poor at ld. per lb., and flour also in 

 a similar way. From the details brought before 

 the committee, it appears there are in Newark 

 482 families (1,468 persons) quite distressed and 

 unemployed. 



WORCESTERSHIRE. At a Meeting of the 

 Committee of Magistrates, at the last Quarter 

 Sessions, at Worcester, it was resolved to procure 

 an act of parliament for the erection of county 

 courts and judges' lodgings in that city. 



By the annual accounts of this county, made up 

 to Michaelmas last, it appears that the sum ex- 

 pended was upwards of .8,000 ; about .6,000 of 

 which was spent in punishing crime! inde- 

 pendent of .000 for maintaining Irish vagrants, 

 and .350 for the Clerk of the Peac'es Bill of 

 cravings!!! 



GLOUCESTERSHIRE.- It is lamentable to 

 witness the frequent perpetration of serious of- 

 fences by the youthful class of society in this city, 

 of which the recent quarter-sessions afforded 

 abundant proof. Out of 47 prisoners enume- 

 rated in the calendar, 2 1 were under the age of 

 20 !!! The magistrates, laudably anxious to re- 

 claim these early wanderers from the path of rec- 

 titude, felt great difficulty in deciding on the de- 

 gree of punishment ; but in almost all the cases f 

 imprisonment, with hard labour, was resorted to, 

 as most likely to attain the desired end. Felix 

 Parley's Bristol Journal. 



At a public meeting recently held at Bristol, of 

 the merchants, manufacturers, traders, and other 

 inhabitants of that city, resolutions were entered 



middle and labouring classes, and that the effect 

 is to demoralise one, and to make the other dis- 

 satisfied. We, your Petitioners, therefore humbly 

 pray your Honourable House, that you would be 

 pleased to repeal forthwith these odious Taxes, 

 and grant that the trade in Beer may be free." 



into, subscriptions commenced, and a committee 

 formed, for the purpose of forming a rail-road 

 from thence to the city of Bath. The Mayor of 

 Bristol has granted the use of the Guildhall for a 

 public meeting to petition Parliament for a repeal 

 of the malt and beer duties. Subscriptions have 

 commenced at Bristol to defray the expenses of an 

 application to Parliament for leave to build a 

 suspension bridge over the river Avon from Clif- 

 ton Down. 



SUSSEX. The Earl of Egremont, according 

 to annual custom, on New Year's Day, gave a 

 dinner to upwards of 2,000 poor women and chil- 

 dren of Petworth and the adjacent parishes. 

 There were 4 fine oxen, estimated to weigh from 

 120 to 130 stone each, slaughtered and cooked on 

 the occasion, beside 500 plum puddings, and a 

 plentiful supply of strong beer. The company 

 were enlivened by the band of the 10th hussars. 



The magistrates assembled at the late Lewes 

 quarter sessions, passed resolutions on the com- 

 mercial and agricultural distresses of the country, 

 which were forwarded to the Duke of Wellington, 

 who, in his answer, said, " I will draw the atten- 

 tion of the King's servants to it." 



CHESHIRE There are now in Macclesfield 

 900 families not possessing more than one blanket 

 to every 10 persons!! Nothing but personal in- 

 spection can convince one of the horrible wretch- 

 edness existing in the dwellings of the poor. In 

 one instance our informant found a family, con- 

 sisting of father and mother, a daughter aged 17, 

 another about 13, in the last stage of consump- 

 tion, and two young children, with but one bed to 

 sleep on, and that without blankets or any other 

 covering than a coarse linen sheet and a tattered 

 cotton rug !!! It is our duty to appeal in the 

 strongest language we can use to the humane 

 feelings of those who in these times have means 

 to relieve left in their power. Macclesfield 

 Courier. 



On New Year's Day Earl Grosvenor and friends 

 visited, according to annual custom, the school at 

 Chester, of which he is the founder. The chil- 

 dren, to the number of 460, were assembled in the 

 spacious room up stairs, and presented a very 

 clean and healthy appearance, especially the 

 little girls, 100 of whom distinguished for good 

 conduct, received an annual suit of clothes from 

 the Countess. His lordship delivered an appro- 

 priate address to his youthful auditory ; and at 

 half-past one the little hungry host proceeded to 

 the large room below, to dine, where they found 

 555 lb. of roast beef; and plum pudding in pro- 

 portion, and the boys were regaled with half a 

 pint each of good ale. This school was esta- 

 blished in 1812, for the gratuitous instruction of 

 the children of the inhabitants of Chester ; and 

 10,000 children of both sexes have already received 

 the invaluable blessings of education. The Chester 

 Chronicle, from whence we extract the above, 

 adds, " we wish this noble and patriotic example 

 ware more generally followed. Did every noble- 

 man and gentleman in England but love the chil- 

 dren of the tenantry and labourers as he does his 

 game ." 



BUCKS. At the Magistrates' Chamber, Janu- 

 ary 2, several poor persons complained of not re- 

 ceiving their allowance, which led to a conversa- 

 tion between Lord Nugent and Sir J. D- King as 



