C H R (3 N 1 C L E. 



99 



weie drawing were given them 

 by the manager of a great colliery, 

 for the purpose of their being 

 drawn to London. They had a 

 painted board, too, containing a 

 magistrate's certificate in their 

 favour. The colliers contradicted 

 the rumour that they had begged 

 money on their way, Avhich they 

 declared was false. This, they 

 said, was contradicted by their 

 placard, which was inscribed, 

 " Willing to work, but none of 

 us will beg." They admitted, 

 however, that they had received 

 601. on their way, but this they 

 said was the amount of voluntary 

 donations, totally unsoUcited by 

 them. 



About fifty colliers arrived at 

 Chester, from the neighbourhood 

 of Wolverhampton, drawing a 

 waggon loaded with coal, with 

 the professed intention of obtain- 

 ing relief from the benevolent in- 

 habitants of the towns and vil- 

 lages through which they passed 

 on their way to Liverpool. Infor- 

 mation having been given to the 

 Magistrates of that city of their 

 approach. Aldermen Evans, Bow- 

 ers, and Bedvvard, attended by 

 Mr. Finchett, the deputy town 

 clerk, met them in the suburbs 

 of the city : on being informed 

 who they were, the men imme- 

 diately pulled off their hats, and 

 paid great and respectful atten- 

 tion, while the magistrates ad- 

 dressed them on the illegality and 

 dangerous tendency of their pro- 

 ceedings : they told them, that 

 though they well knew an<l la- 

 mented the temporary distresses 

 of the country, and of their 

 business and district particularly, 

 they would not permit this mode 



of relief, whilst it might legally 

 and more effectually be had in 

 their own parisli, where their 

 situation and- circumstances wei'e 

 known; they therefore earnestly 

 entreated them to return peace- 

 ably to their respective homes, 

 and they would take the coals^ 

 and give them money to defray 

 their expenses on the road; but 

 if they attempted to go into the 

 city, they should be opposed, and 

 punished to the utmost severity 

 of the law. This firm though 

 conciliating conduct had the de- 

 sired effect ; the men consented 

 to return. The magistrates or- 

 dered 201. to be given to the nien, 

 and horses to be brought to draw 

 the w^aggon-load of coals to the 

 infirmary, which was done ac- 

 cordingly. 



9. This morning 36 colliers 

 passed through Leicester, drag- 

 ging an empty waggon, and pro- 

 fessing to be on their way home 

 into Staffordshire : three of them 

 waited upon the Magistrates, re- 

 questing relief, and stated that 

 they had been as far as Upping- 

 ham, with a load of coals, where 

 they sold them, and had been 

 prevailed on by some gentle- 

 men of that place to return, after 

 having collected upwards of 51. 

 to defray their expenses. The 

 Magistrates told them they were 

 truly sorry for their distressed si- 

 tuation, but that the means they 

 were pursuing to obtain relief, by 

 going about the country in bodies 

 and begging, were highly im- 

 proper, and could not be tolerated ; 

 that they were, in fact, in a state 

 of vagrancy, and could only be 

 relieved in that character ; they 

 were also told, that while the 

 H '2 Magistrates 



