568 
having attended with their families, to witness 
the gratifying sight. The parents of most of the 
children were also present, and after the service, 
the children were regaled with buns, &c. 
April 14, a very numerous meeting of bankers, 
merchants, traders, and other inhabitants of 
Bristol, was held at the Guildhall, the mayor in 
the chair, when various resolutions were unani- 
mously passed, for petitioning Parliament against 
the renewal of the East -India Company’s charter. 
WALES.—In the county of Merivneth, about 
8 miles from Bala, at the distance of about 50 
paces from the south side of the road leading to 
Festiniog, may be seena rock, which presents a 
range of columns, to all appearance of basaltic 
formation. The columns seem to be about a foot 
in diameter, and 6 or 8 feet in length, and the 
fragments on the road side possess all that an- 
gular appearance so characteristic of basalt; 
and, though they cannot bear any comparison 
with the celebrated columns on the south-west of 
Staffa, yet they seem to be full as regular as those 
of several cliffs on the other side of that island, as 
well as on the coast of Mull, As the geological 
structure of the principality affords so great a 
variety of formations, and as the face of the coun- 
try presents so many obstacles to a complete in- 
vestigation of its contents, notwithstanding the 
numerous preserving and intelligent geologists, 
who have, from time to time, been occupied in 
exploring its recesses, still it may be presumed 
that there lie concealed, among the seclusions of 
the mountains, many curious appearances which 
have hitherto escaped observation; and, amongst 
the number of such, may be placed the columnar 
formations on the side of the Arennig, of which, 
most probably, no description has hitherto been 
given: A complete and scientific description of 
the rocks alluded to, would afford great satisfac- 
tion to all lovers of natural history. 
SCOTLAND..-An aggregate meeting of the 
distressed and ill-fated weavers was recently 
held on the public green at Glasgow. They ar- 
rived by districts or divisions, in regular array, 
three men deep, and the number assembled 
amounted to about 12,000. After several of their 
own body had made remarks on their sickening 
state of destitution, a committee was appointed 
to wait on the manufacturers, with a view to in- 
duce them to pay the prices going in October last. 
Five of a committee were also appointed to wait 
on the lord provost and magistrates, with a me- 
morial previously prepared. ‘The magistrates re- 
plied that they could hold no conference with a 
body so assembled, and the meeting dispersed, on 
the understanding that their delegates were to be 
received by the magistrates the following day.— 
Scotch Paper. 
Queries were some time ago circulated among 
the manufacturers of Paisley with a view to 
ascertain the condition of the silk trade in that 
town, under the operation of the free trade sys- 
tem, of which the following is the result: It is 
proven that in silk gauze, which is the principal 
branch of the silk trade in Paisley, there were 
two-thirds more looms employed in the year 
1824 than at the present time; that prices have 
been reduced from 33 to 50 per cent.; and that 
the average wages per week, in 1824, were 
15s. 2d., and only 8s. 14d. for the last six months. 
From the information obtained from the manufac- 
Provincial Occurrences : Wales, Scotland, &c. 
[May, 
turers in the India imitation line, it appears that 
the number of looms have been reduced two-fifths, 
while the prices haye declined 30 per cent., that 
the average weekly wages of the weavers in 1824 
was 2Us., and for the last six months 14s. In Can-~ 
ton crapes the prices paid for weaving have fallen 
75 per cent. The manufacture of broad silk is 
almost unknown in Paisley. For a long period 
prior to 1824, the silk trade in Paisley was pro- 
gressively on the increase, with little or no fluc- 
tuation in prices ; and that since 1826 the decline 
as to quantity, quality, and price, has been so 
rapid, that the conclusion is warrantable that the 
continued enforcement of the laws referred to will, 
in the course of a very short time, produce the 
total extinction of the silk manufacture in that 
neighbourhood.—Macclesfield Courier. 
IRELAND.—March 21 there was a very nume- 
rous meeting of the freeholders of Erris, held at 
Binghamstown for the purpuse of considering the 
propriety of petitioning Parliament against the 
bill for raising the qualification for the elective 
franchise. Mr, Lyons commented on the. bill for 
the disfranchisement of the 40s. freeholders. 
This measure, he contended, by inducing the 
landlords to divide their land into large farms, 
would be depopulating in its effects, and throw 
thousands upon the world without a home or the 
means of subsistence. ‘Were the tithes and chureh 
rates mitigated, and the sub-letting act repealed, 
he thought the 4Us, freeholder would have some- 
thing to console lim for the loss of his franchise ; 
but as it was, the Relief Bill would render him 
little more at present than an ideal service, whilst 
he was thus robbed of his only valuable politieal 
privilege. He thought it unjust that the poor 
peasant should be required to pay so dearly for 
the new order of things, and that too, when his 
only crime was having exercised his privilege in 
latter to virtue and indep 
resolution, among others, 
‘« That while we hail wit 
sure of relief now before 
dismay upon the bill for 1 
sent imposing aspect of the national question, and 
its near and certain approach to a happy termi 
nation.” 
behind each chair, in .a 
other attendants are keptsi 
* The forty-shillings freehglde 
amount to upwards of 400,000"persnn 
