240 Provincial Occurrences : WiUe, Kent, Derbyshire, <$<?. [FEB. 



Wellington, Wenlock, Brldgenorth. Ludlow, 

 Bishop's Castle, Shiffnal, Newport, and Oswestry. 

 The Shropshire masters, at the quarterly meet- 

 ings last week, were compelled to submit to ano- 

 ther reduction in price, viz. 5s. per ton on pig 

 iron ; and this will ultimately cause a depression 

 of full 10s. per ton on manufactured bars and 

 rods. 



WILTS. At the quarter sessions, there were 

 93 prisoners for trial, and upwards of 20 appeals 

 were entered. Simon Haskell, for having entered 

 Ragland coppice, the property of the Marquis of 

 Bath, with intent to destroy game, was sentenced 

 to seven years transportation!!! At these Ses- 

 sions, petitions to his Majesty and to both Houses 

 of Parliament, on the distress which pervades every 

 class of the community, were unanimously agreed 

 to, and signed by every magistrate present. 



KENT. Fifty-nine houses were lately destroy. 

 ed by fire at Sheerness ; the damage is estimated 

 at .20,000. 



A meeting has been held at Tonbridge, and pe- 

 titions been prepared there and at Wrothain to 

 the legislature, on the depressed state of the 

 country. 



DERBYSHIRE. A meeting has been held a 

 the County Hall, Derby, and which was attended 

 by the most eminent agriculturists and landowners 

 in the county; when, after many communications 

 had been read, relative to the agricultural dis- 

 tress of the country, it was agreed that a memorial 

 should be presented to the First Lord of the Trea- 

 sury, representing the extreme depression of the 

 agricultural interest.* 



WARWICKSHIRE, At a meeting lately held 

 at the Public Office, Birmingham, it was resolved 

 to establish in that town a society for the Sup- 

 pression of Mendicity. The committee of this 

 Self-Supporting Society have recommended also 

 the appointment of four additional surgeons, in 

 order to extend its benefits as much as possible 

 over the town and neighbourhood. 



The amount received in deposits at the Birming- 

 ham Savings' Bank last year was .25,787. 18s.2d. 

 while the sums repaid, including interest, did not 

 exceed .13,313. 10s. lOd. leaving an excess of 

 Receipts of 12,474. 7s. 4|d. ; and in the course 

 of the same period, interest amounting to 

 .1,177. 13s. 5|d. has been paid to depositors, or 

 placed to the credit of their respective accounts. 

 The total amount of deposits, on the 20th 



* We extract from this memorial the following. 

 ..." We hold it to be our bounden duty as men 

 desirous of enjoying and of transmitting our pos. 

 sessions unimpaired, to our posterity, to state 

 without disguise or delay, to those authorities to 

 which we necessarily look for relief, our painful 

 sense of our present sufferings, and our reasonable 

 apprehensions of being driven by a continuance of 

 them, from that sphere which we occupy amongst 

 the loyal subjects of this empire. We beg to inti- 

 mate to your Grace with melancholy reluctance 

 our personal knowledge of rents greatly reduced 

 'and still in arrear of tenants ruined of labour- 

 ers unemployed of farms thrown out of cultiva- 

 tion, and of sales, forcibly effected, of produce, at 

 a price infinitely below the cost of production ; 

 and to express our conviction, under the duration 

 of the present severe distress, of our inability to 

 keep up our usual demand for articles of manu- 

 facture, and to contribute our accustomed share, 

 which we have always borne, and are still ready 

 to bear, willingly, in proportion to our means, 

 in the collection of the revenue." 



of November, was 43,906. 7s. 8d. of which 

 .43,741. 17s. 5d. was Invested in government 

 securities, and .164. 10s. 3d. remained in the 

 hands of the treasurer. The number of deposi- 

 tors was 2,480. 



A meeting of the merchants, manufacturers, 

 tradesmen, mechanics, artisans, and other in- 

 habitants, has been held at Birmingham, for 

 forming a general political union " between the 

 lower and middle classes of the people.' 1 The High 

 Bailiff having refused to call it, alleging that 

 " it was no part of his duty to call a meeting for 

 such a purpose," a party of 12 of the inhabitants 

 undertook it ; and it was attended by upwards of 

 10,000 persons, who resolved, "That the severe 

 distress which now afflicts the country, and which 

 has been so severely felt for the last 15 years, is en- 

 tirely owing to the gross mismanagement of pub- 

 lic affairs; and that such mismanagement can 

 only be effectually and permanently remedied by 

 an effectual reform in the Commons House of 

 Parliament." A censure was passed on the High 

 Bailiff, and thanks to the Chairman and Messrs. 

 Att^vood and Beardsworth, and the Political 

 Union formed, and 36 gentlemen nominated for 

 a Political Council; when, after three cheers 

 for our good king," this immense assembly 

 quietly dispersed. 



SCOTLAND. Before the middle of the 18th 

 century, Loch Roag was the most celebrated her- 

 ring fishery station on the North-west of Scot- 

 land, the herrings there being accounted the 

 largest and richest of all. Soon after 1750, the 

 .herrings abandoned Loch Roag, and for 35 years 

 none were seen in it. In 1790 the shoals began to 

 revisit the loch,and in the course of 1794 no fewer 

 than 90 sail of deck vessels were employed in the 

 fishery. In 1797, the herrings again bade adieu 

 to the loch, and no shoal has entered till the pre- 

 sent (1829) autumn ; when, after the lapse of 32 

 years, their presence was again witnessed to the 

 great joy of the parishioners of Uig. 



IRELAND. Distress in the Liberty. A 

 meeting was lately held at Dublin, for furthering 

 the plans previously adopted for the relief of 

 the starving artisans. Thousands of the miser- 

 able victims of decayed commerce, with which 

 the Irish metropolis abounds, took their station 

 near the Rotunda, and presented a melancholy 

 spectacle. The attendance at the meeting was, 

 we are sorry to say, very thin. The Lord Mayor 

 presided at this meeting. One of the Secretaries 

 read the report of the Committee which had been 

 appointed at a former meeting. This report 

 stated that there'were the appalling number of 7,000 

 indigent operatives receiving from the Committee 

 a weekly allowance at the rate of a penny a 

 day!!! About 130 of the weavers who could not 

 obtain employment in Dublin, have sought it in 

 the manufacturing towns of England, rather than 

 remain in a state of mendicity at home. The 

 efforts to promote the use of Irish manufactures 

 have not, as yet, produced any sensible effect. 

 The Committee refer to the report previously pub- 

 lished ; and appeal, in very pressing terms , to the 

 public feeling, touching the urgent necessity for 

 general exertion, to arrest the progress of exist- 

 ing misery. The balance on hands for the relief 

 of those indigent families with which the Liberty 

 is crowded, amounts to the pitiful sum of .307. 



