488 



Provincial Occurrences : Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, 8$c. [[APRIL, 



of the times still shows to a grievous extent in 

 many parts of this county. Between 20 and 30 

 families are emigrating to America from Co- 

 ningshy, Dogdike, and the fens in that neigh- 

 bourhood, principally middle farmers and me- 

 chanics. The parishes are holding vestry meet- 

 ings, to devise plans for assisting the industrious 

 poor with large families to follow their rather 

 better-off neighhours in their migration I !! Lin- 

 colnshire Mercury, March 19. 



WILTSHIRE. Warniinster is suffering as 

 severely as any the distress which is now uni- 

 versally afflicting the country. Out of several 

 cloth factories, only one is employed, and that 

 only partially. The machinery is rusting. The 

 depression in agriculture is dreadful ; and there 

 is not a tradesman in the town free from com- 

 plaint. 



Thirty-two prisoners were sentenced to death at 

 the Salisbury and county assizes ; 20 were trans, 

 ported, and 40 imprisoned for various periods. 

 Mr. Justice Bosanqnet, in lamenting to the Grand 

 Jury the state of the calendar, said, " I am in- 

 clined to think that this increase of crime is to be 

 attributed to the pressure of that distress which 

 now unfortunately prevails in the country, rather 

 than to any alarming increase of depravity 

 amongst the lower orders!" 



DORSETSHIRE. At these assizes, 12 pri- 

 toners were condemned to death, 12 transported, 

 and several imprisoned. 



14 prisoners were condemned at Dorset assizes, 

 7 transported, and 12 to hard labour and im- 

 prisonment. 



CAMBRIDGESHIRE. Feb. 25, a public din- 

 ner was given at Cambridge to the gentlemen 

 against whom the corporation of that town 

 brought actions, to try their right to the tolls, 

 known by the name of " StreetTolls" and to ce- 

 lebrate the triumphant result that has opened the 

 market of Cambridge, and overturned the op- 

 pression and unlawful demands of that corporate 

 body. After dinner, allusion was frequently made 

 in the respective speeches to Colonel French and 

 the Duke of Rutland, as connected with the pre- 

 sent state of the representation of that town to 

 Parliament, and to the place worth .2,000 per 

 annum which the colonel receives, and of which 

 Mr. Wells said he would do the business for 

 .200 : an object worth attending to in the dis- 

 tressed state of the country, 



OXFORDSHIRE. At these assizes, 8 pri- 

 soners received sentence of death, 6 of transpor- 

 tation, and a few of imprisonment. 



NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.-At the Lent as- 

 sizes, 12 prisoners received sentence of death, 

 and 9 were transported. 



A meeting of the freeholders of this county 

 was held, March 12, at the Shire-Hall, North- 

 ampton, for the purpose of taking into consider- 

 ation the great distress, privations, and diffi- 

 culties of the agricultural, commercial, manu- 

 facturing, and other interests of this county and 

 the kingdom in general, when a petition was 

 unanimously voted to Parliament praying relief, 

 by adopting the strictest economy in all branches 

 of public expenditure. 



RENT A meeting of the freeholders has been 

 held at Pcnnenden Heath, when it wan unani- 



mously resolved to address the King for an in- 

 stantaneous Reduction in the Civil, Military and 

 Church establishments, and a Reform in Par- 

 liament. High debates took place, and Field- 

 Marshal Cobourg's immense income and emo- 

 luments were alluded to petitions were also 

 voted to the Lords and Commons. 



RUTLANDSHIRE. A meeting of the agri- 

 culturists of the county of Rutlnnd was held at 

 Okeham, at which a petition to Parliament was 

 agreed to, which attributed the difficulties of the 

 country to excessive importation of foreign pro- 

 duce at inadequate prohibitory duties, and the 

 contraction of the currency without a suitable 

 diminution of the public burdens, and praying 

 for retrenchment, alteration in the present tithing 

 system, reduction of taxes,' and for a reform in 

 the House of Commons. 



NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. A private meeting 

 was convened in Thurland-hall, Nottingham, for 

 the purpose of discussing the propriety of forming 

 a "Nottingham Political Union," similar to that 

 lately instituted in Birmingham, when it was 

 unanimously resolved that a General Political 

 Union '' should be formed between the middle 

 and lower classes of the people of that town. A 

 committee was then appointed to prepare the ne- 

 cessary regulations. 



At Nottingham county assizes, 7 prisoners re- 

 ceived sentence of death, 4 of whom were under 

 20 years of age. 



SURREY. A meeting has been held at Epsom 

 of the freeholders of this county, when several re- 

 solutions on the distress of the country were 

 agreed to, as well as a petition embodying the 

 same, including a prayer for the radical reform 

 of the Commons! -The county members at- 

 tended. 



CORNWALL. A public meeting has been held 

 at Bodmin, on the prevailing distress, when re- 

 solutions were entered into and a petition resolved 

 on to the Legislature, praying an inquiry into it, 

 and also into the present defective state of the re 

 presentation of the Commons! 



A meeting has been held at Liskeard Town-Hall, 

 when a petition to Parliament, embracing a reform 

 in the representation of the people, as well at 

 the very great distress now prevailing, was car- 

 ried unanimously.* 



* Mr. Grubb, who proposed the successful pe- 

 tition (there being two proposed), said, " It was 

 his firm belief, that ' milk and water ' petitions 

 would avail nothing. It was the duty of erery 

 honest man to speak out ; nor could any doubt 

 that it was so, when the distress of the country 

 was considered. Ministers would not grant ade- 

 quate relief until compelled to do so by an honest 

 House of Commons, constitutionally elected by 

 the voice of the people ! ! ! Here was the bane of 

 the Sta'e ; the real source of the evils all now 

 deplored. If the people had been represented in 

 reality, government never could have contracted 

 an enormous National Debt, and the overwhelm- 

 ing amount of taxation required to pay the in- 

 terest of that debt would not have been re- 

 quired!! !"" This." says the tl'est Briton and 

 Cornwall Advertiser, " is a new event in the 

 domestic politics of Cornwall ; and is, we trust, 

 the precursor of more important occurrences. 

 Cornwall sends 44 members to Parliament, and 

 yet now begins to see the necessity of a r*- 

 form!!!" 



