390 ANNUA^L REGISTER, ISl?. 



jjroperty were destroyed. The 

 men who committed the outrage 

 were seen on the road between 

 Wakefield and Horbury, inarching 

 in regular sections, preceded by a 

 mounted party with drawn swords, 

 and followed by the same number 

 of mounted men as a rear guard. 

 They were supposed to have assem- 

 bled from Huddersfield, Duesbury, 

 Hickmondwicke, Guildersome, 

 Morley, Wakefield, aud other 

 places. 



In many parts of this district of 

 country the well-disposed were so 

 much under the influence of terror, 

 that the magistrates were unable to 

 give protection by putting the 

 watch and ward act in execution, 

 and the lower orders are represt- nted 

 as generally either abettors of, or 

 participators in, the outrages com- 

 mitted, or so intimidated, that they 

 dared not to interfere. 



At Sheffield the storehouse of 

 arms of the local militia was sur- 

 prised in the month of May, a 

 large proportion of the arms were 

 broken by the mob, and many 

 taken away. This disturbance, 

 however, seems to have been fol- 

 lowed by no further consequences, 

 and the remainder of the arms were 

 secured. 



But during the months of May 

 and June depredations of different 

 kinds,and particularly theseizureof 

 arms, continued to be nightly com- 

 mitted in other parts of Yorkshire ; 

 and it is represented, that in the 

 neighbourhood of Huddersfield and 

 Birstall the arms of all the peace- 

 able inhabitants had been swept 

 away by bands of armed robbers. 

 In consequence of these outrages 

 the vice-lieutenant of the West 

 Riding, the deputy-lieutenant, and 

 magistrates, assembled at Wake- 



field on the 17th of June, and 

 came to a resolution, " That the 

 most alarming consequences were 

 to be apprehended from the nightly 

 depredations which were committed 

 by bodies of armed men." At the 

 same time this remarkable circum- 

 stance was stated, tliat amongst one 

 hundred depositions taken by the 

 magistrates of the facts of robbe- 

 ries committed, there was only one 

 as to the perpetrator of the crime. 

 During the latter part of this 

 period, it is represented that 

 nightly robberies of arms, lead, and 

 ammunition, were prevalent in the 

 districts bounded by the rivers Air 

 and Calder, and that the patrolea 

 which went along both banks of 

 the Calder, found the people in 

 the ill-affected villages up at mid- 

 night, and heard the firing of small 

 arms at short distances from them, 

 through the whole night, to a very 

 great extent, which they imagined 

 proceeded from parties at drill. In 

 the corner of Cheshire, touching 

 upon Yorkshire and Lancashire, in 

 the neighbourhood and to the east- 

 ward of Ashton, Stockport, and 

 Moultram, nocturnal meetings were 

 more frequent than ever, and the 

 seizure of arms ciirried on with 

 great perseverance. Peculiar diffi- 

 culties are stated to exist in this 

 quarter from the want of magis- 

 trates. 



Your commitee have not thought 

 it necessary to detail, or even to 

 state, all the outrages which have 

 been committed in different parts of 

 the country, but have selected from 

 the great mass of materials before 

 them, such facts only as appeared 

 to them sufficient to mark the ex- 

 tent and nature of these dis- 

 turbances. 



The causes alleged for these de- 

 structive 



