66 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



facturing counties wera never more 

 alarming than at present. Letters, 

 which arrived in town yesterday, 

 from the vicinity of Manchester, 

 relate various outrages recently 

 committed by the persons desig- 

 nated Luddites. At a late hour in 

 the evening they assemble in large 

 gangs, and proceed from house to 

 house, in the small villages, in 

 search of fire-arms, which they 

 seldom fail to obtain, as thej' gene- 

 rally proceed on information. One 

 account which we have seen states, 

 that a gentleman had two guns, 

 one an old and the other a new 

 one : the latter he was desirous of 

 preserving, and therefore hid it be- 

 tween amattrass and bed. Anight 

 or two afterwards, several armed 

 men demanded admittance into his 

 house; which having obtarined, 

 they desired possession of all the 

 fire-arms on the premises. The 

 gentleman gave up the old gun, as 

 the only one he had ; but this did 

 not satisfy them ; they told him 

 where to find the other, and threat- 

 ened to shoot him if he delayed a 

 moment to obey them. The new 

 gun was in consequence resigned. 

 The churches are every where 

 plundered for lead, to be converted 

 into bullets. 



Between eleven and twelve 

 o'clock on Thursday night, Mr. 

 Nadin, assisted by a picquet of mi- 

 litary, took into custody (and seiz- 

 ed the papers of) thirty-eight per- 

 sons unlawfully assembled ata pub- 

 lic-house, in Ancoat's-lane, Man- 

 chester. They slated the object of 

 their meeting to be for the purpose 

 of petitioning for peace and parlia- 

 mentary reform, but their papers 

 and books appeared to be of a dif- 

 ferent tendency. They were exa- 

 mined by the magitilrates, at the 



New Bailey, on Friday ; which 

 examination was adjourned to Sa- 

 turday, when it was resumed, and 

 the whole thirty-eight were com- 

 mitted to Lancaster gaol, to take 

 their trials for having administered 

 the abominable and unlawful oath, 

 known by the term of twisting-in. 



At the Newcastle races, just as 

 the race was finished, the tempo- 

 rary stand belonging to the White 

 Hart inn, being loaded with about 

 200 persons, gave way in the mid- 

 dle, and involved nearly 100 in 

 the crash. About forty were seri- 

 ously hurt, and ten or twelve dan- 

 gerously, several of them having 

 broken limbs. 



18. An aggregate Catholic meet- 

 ing was held in Dublin, the earl of 

 Fingall in the chair. Lord Killeen 

 moved a series of thirteen resolu- 

 tions, recommending the renewal 

 of an earnest application, by peti- 

 tion to the legislature, for the to- 

 tal and unqualified repeal of the 

 penal laws: the petitions to be 

 prepared and presented without 

 delay ; lamenting that " the pro- 

 mised boon of Catholic freedom 

 had been cruelly intercepted by 

 the fatal witchery of an unwor- 

 thy, secret influence," — recom- 

 mending catholic freeholders not 

 to support candidates who do not 

 pledge themselves to support the 

 catholic cause, — and returning 

 thanks to lords Grey, Grenville, 

 Donoughmore, and Mr. Grat- 

 tan. 



Counsellor O'Gorman begged it 

 be distinctly understood, 

 that any arrangements or condi- 

 tion which might be connected 

 with Mr. Canning's motion in the 

 House of Commons, would have no 

 influence on the conduct of the 

 catholics of Ireland, as they were 

 determined 



might 



