486 Provincial Occurrences : Devonshire, Worcester shire, 8$c. 



GLOUCESTERSHIRE. The inhabitant* of 

 Pursley, assembled in the Town-ball, have pe 

 titioned parliament, to take into their most se- 

 rious and immediate consideration the unpa- 

 ralleled distress they are labouring under, attri- 

 butable, in connection with the enormous weight 

 of taxation, to the almost total stagnation of 

 trade throughout this and the whole of the ma- 

 imfacturing districts." 



DEVONSHIRE. By the late statement of the 

 Devon and Exeter Savings' Bank it appears that 

 < I,2C2996. 15*. 7d. have been received since its 

 original institution, and that the total in pay- 

 ments made amounts to .^588,254. 1'5*. 7d., so 

 that the sum of ,<>75,776. 19*. 3d. remains in 

 hand. The number of accounts opened 31,285, 

 and the number of deposits received 114,513. 



At the last Report published of the state of the 

 Devonport Union Savings' Banks, the sum paid 

 in by 5.188 depositors since its commencement, 

 amounted to .288,154. 14*.. out of which pay- 

 ments have been made of the sum of ^4^,467. 16s.8d. 

 remaining balance .243,314. 9*. Sd. 



WORCESTERSHIRE. At a meeting of the 

 freeholders of this. county, held March 2, at the 

 Guildhall, Worcester, it was unanimously re- 

 solved to petition the legislature on the present 

 universally depressed state of the country, and 

 praying a full and strict inquiry into its causes- 

 Lord Beauchamp and the county members were 

 requested to present the petition to the House 

 of Lords and Commons.* 



At Worcester assizes, 23 prisoners received 

 entence of death ; the persons tried for being 

 concerned in the murder of the Rev. Mr. Parker, 

 and then for his murderer Hemmings, were all 

 discharged, although one confessed his guilt!!! 

 The record, styled " the Clerk of Assize's Ca- 

 lendar," thus recites this case of English Juris- 



* The petitioners stated, that they had heard 

 with astonishment that his Majesty's Ministers, 

 at the opening of the Par iament, declared the 

 present distress to 1 e partial ; and that the retail 

 tradesmen in country towns were in a state of 

 prosperity : and that they conceived that nothing 

 luit the grossest and most culpable ignorance of 

 the real state of tlie country could have induced 

 these declarations ; inasmuch as the distress is 

 general and unprecedented ; that all interests are 

 sunWing in a most alarn. ing degree, and thht the 

 re.tail trade, in particular, never was in so de- 

 pressed and ruinous a situation as it is at the 

 pre.-ent time ; and that the only persons upon 

 whom the general distress had not yet fallen, are 

 those who are living upon the proceeds of faxes 

 and fixed tnonied obligations in the shape of di- 

 vidends, pensions, salaiies, and sinecures. 



That They are of opinion that a great part of the 

 present distress is to be nttributi d to the alteration 

 in the currency, a measure adopted without any 

 inquiry as to the effect it wul I have on the in- 

 dustrious classes of the community, or as to the 

 just ce or injustice of the measure. 



That it would have- been impossible such ruin- 

 ous and unjust measures could have passed the 

 Hojuseof Commons, had it consisted ol what, the 

 constitution supposes it to consist, the real repre- 

 sentatives of the p"op1i>. 



That it is a notorious fart, that a large number 

 of the Members of that House (Commons) arc.thc 

 mere nominees of Peers, and a majority obtain 

 their seats by purchase, and are not elected by 

 the free voice ot the people; and that therefore it 

 is expedient that there be an immediate and tho- 

 rough reform in the Commons House of .Par- 

 liament. 



prudence ! " Standing indicted a accessariet 

 to a murder, but the principal felon not having 

 been tried, and being now dead, and the pri~ 

 toners therefore declining to plead, they are 

 to be discharged III" 



HANTS. The inhabitants of Southampton 

 and neighbourhood have, by lesolutfons passed at 

 the Guildhall, March 8, determined to petition 

 Parliament, " to revise those Penal Laws by 

 which the punishment of Death is inflicted." At 

 their recent assizes,32 prisoners received sentence 

 of death ; and all have since been reprieved ex- 

 cept one! 



A petition from the Landholders of this county 

 has been presented to Parliament, complaining of 

 their present depressed state, which they attribute 

 in a great measure to being undersold in their 

 own markets by the importers of agricultural 

 produce. 



A county meeting was held at Winchester, 

 March 10, convened by the High Sheriff, and 

 attended by about 4,000 persons, consisting of the 

 respectable Yeomanry, when resolutions were 

 unanimously passed, and a petition voted to Par- 

 liament.* 



BUCKS A meeting of agriculturists and 

 others has been held at Aylesbury County Hall, 

 to take into consideration the present distressed 

 state of the country, when it wa unanimously 

 resolved to petition Parliament for relief from an 

 overwhelming taxation and for a thorough reform 

 in the House of Commons representation. Lord 

 Nugent attributed much of the present difficulties 

 to the people's fondness for War.f 

 - At these assizes, 7 prisoners received sentence 

 of death. Baron Vaughan addressed the Grand 

 Jury on their very full attendance to discharge 



* The petition was founded on a series of reso- 

 lutions, to the effect that th" Speech from the 

 Throne had created much dissatisfaction, and was 

 calculated to cause great, dismay amongst the 

 people of this kingdom that if some speedy and 

 effectual remedy were not applied, the country 

 will soon be overwhe me.-! with anarch}' and con- 

 fusion ny the changes which bav been made in 

 thecunency that the interests of the kingdom 

 have suffered ai d are now suffering from the 

 absurd Free Trade experiments that this king, 

 dom has suffered, and is now suffering from the 

 want ot a Fair Representation in the Commons 

 House of Parliament, whi^h has been r< cently 

 illustrated in a late trial in this county for bribery 

 and corruption in Stockbride, where it had been 

 proved upon oath, 60 guineas had been rejru'arly 

 given for a vote! that the only mode by which 

 the present severe distress can be rend 61 ed sup- 

 portable, is by an immediate reduction of those 

 taxes which press on the productive classes of the 

 community that, in order to make such reduc* 

 tion, the public expenditure shou'd be reduced, 

 all unnecessary pensions and } laces abolished, 

 and the national debt pared down to the altered 

 value of money, &e. &e. [Field 'Marshal Co- 

 bourg, his .'50,<,00 per annum, and his other 

 emoluments, were alluded to in the course of the 

 speeches.] 



f "Tell your children, and your children's chil- 

 dren," said his Lordship, " to look back at the 

 year 1830! and they w.ll see the effects of War! 

 In the deserted country-house ; in the farm- 

 house, the occupier of which can n ot cu'tiva'e 

 his land, cannot support his poor; in the cottage, 

 where the poor cannot keep out the elements 

 and the labouring population stiff ring to an un- 

 usuai extent ; all 1 roiight on by that beldam War, 

 whose hideous visage has been upheld by a 

 Grinding Taxation!!!" 



