NEWPORT. 



697 



kill the seal, and poles to defend their vessels from 

 the pressure of the ice. In the beginning of 

 March, the crews of the vessels in their respective 

 harbours collect on the ice with hatchets, saws, 

 &c., and cut two lines in the frozen surface, wide 

 enough apart to allow their schooners to pass ; an 

 operation of great labour, as after the thick flakes 

 have been sawn or cut through they have to be 

 pushed beneath the firm ice with long poles. The 

 vessels then get out to sea if possible through the 

 openings, and work their perilous way to windward 

 of the vast fields of ice, until they arrive at one 

 covered with the animals of which they are in 

 quest, and which is termed a seal meadow; the 

 seals are attacked by the fishers, or more properly 

 speaking, hunters, with fire arms, or generally with 

 short heavy batons, a blow of which on the nose 

 is instantly fatal. The large ones frequently turn 

 on the men,* especially when they have young ones 

 beside them, and the piteous cries and moans of 

 the latter are truly distressing to those who are 

 not accustomed to the immense slaughter which is 

 attended with so great a profit. The skins with 

 the fat surrounding the bodies are stripped off to- 

 gether, the carcases left on the ice, and the pelts 

 or scalps carried to the vessels, whose situation 

 during a tempest is attended with fearful danger ; 

 many have been known to be crushed to pieces by 

 the ice closing on them. 



NEWPORT; a market-town in Monmouthshire, 

 147 miles west from London. It is situated on the 

 river Usk, about four miles above its entrance into 

 the Bristol Channel; and over the river is a hand- 

 some stone bridge of five arches, that in the centre 

 being seventy-five feet in span, erected in 1800, by 

 David Edward, son of the architect of the famous 

 bridge at Pont-y-Prid, in Glamorganshire. The 

 town is called by the Welsh Castell Newydd, 

 which, as well as its English appellation, has been 

 applied to it in contradistinction from the more an- 

 cient town of Caerleon, higher up the river. Le- 

 land, in the reign of Henry VIII. mentions it as a 

 town in ruins ; but since that period it has become 

 a place of commercial importance, and undergone 

 great improvements, principally within the last half 

 century, having, in consequence of the extension 

 of canal navigation and railroads in its neighbour- 

 hood, increased more rapidly than any in South 

 Wales. The river Usk is here navigable for large 

 vessels, there being a rapid and high tide, by means 

 of which they are carried up the stream. The 

 Monmouthshire canal and the Sirhovvey railroad 

 furnish communications between this town and the 

 interior ; and thus the means are afforded for the 

 prosecution of commerce on an extensive scale. 

 Coal and iron are the principal articles of merchan- 

 dize exported. The local advantages of the town 

 for ship building, occasions it to be prosecuted to 

 a considerable extent ; the river being so situated 

 that vessels of great burthen can be launched from 

 the docks into deep water. Besides iron foundries', 

 here are breweries, rope-works, nail-factories, and 

 an earthenware manufactory. Near the bridge over 

 the Usk are the remains of the ancient castle of 

 Newport, supposed to have been founded by Robert 

 Fitzroy, earl of Gloucester, the natural son of 

 Henry L, who possessed extensive domains in this 

 part of the country, in right of his wife, the heiress 

 of Robert Fitz-Hamon, a Norman baron. This 

 fortress formed a parallelogram, and the walls were 



* The hooded seals sometimes draw their hoods, which are 

 hot-proof, over their head*. 



constructed of rubble, coigned with hewn stone. 

 Population of Newport in 1831, 5441. 



In November, 1839, Newport was the scene of a 

 singular insurrection on the part of the chartists, 

 which was not suppressed without considerable 

 bloodshed. On the 4th of that month, a large 

 body of chartists, many thousands in number, well 

 armed, headed by Mr John Frost, late a magistrate 

 of the place, marched into the town from the hills, 

 and commenced a violent attack on the Westgate 

 hotel, where the magistrates were sitting. After 

 in vain remonstrating with the insurgents, the riot 

 act was read, and the besieged, which fortunately 

 included a party of the 45th foot, were compelled 

 to fire upon the rioters, who fled in all directions, 

 leaving behind them a great quantity of arms, ten 

 or eleven men killed, and from thirty to forty 

 wounded. Several of the special constables and 

 soldiers were wounded, some of them severely. 

 The mayor, T. Philips, Esq. was shot in the arm 

 and hip. But for the firmness and promptitude of 

 the authorities, the town of Newport would have 

 become a heap of ruins. It appears that, according 

 to a preconcerted arrangement, on Saturday night 

 (Nov. 2), the men began their march from the 

 "hills" in the neighbourhood of Merthyr, &c. 

 armed with muskets, pikes, crowbars, pickaxes, 

 &c. dividing into various columns ; one to attack 

 Newport, another to keep in check the soldiers 

 stationed at Brecon, while a third marched to- 

 wards Monmouth to liberate Vincent, their former 

 leader, from the gaol. After which they were 

 unitedly to seize the whole of South Wales. With 

 these purposes their march was continued, the 

 rioters sacking the villages in their route, seizing 

 the provisions, and compelling the whole of the 

 adult male population to join them. At all the 

 iron-works, &c. they blew out the furnaces. At 

 four o'clock on Monday morning they halted in 

 Tredegarpark, the seat of Sir Charles Morgan, bart. 

 where they waited for about two hours for the 

 junction of another division from Pontypool and 

 its neighbourhood. The junction having been 

 made, they formed at about six o'clock into two 

 divisions, and marched into Newport, the one di- 

 vision marching down Stowhill, the other through 

 Charles street, and both joining in the centre of 

 the Main street. On arriving at the Westgate inn, 

 they gave three cheers, and proceeded to attack the 

 house, where they were so effectually checked. 

 Frost and several others were committed to Mon- 

 mouth gaol, and a special commission was issued 

 for their trial. On the 9th Nov. lord Normanby 

 addressed a letter to the mayor of Newport, ex- 

 pressing her majesty's high approval of the conduct 

 of the magistrates; and on the 13th Nov. his lord- 

 ship addressed another letter to the mayor, Thomas 

 Phillips, jun. Esq. offering him, with her majesty's 

 gracious sanction, the honour of knighthood. 



The special commission for the trial of the char- 

 tist rebels of Newport was opened at Monmouth 

 on the 10th of December, the judges being lord 

 chief justice Tindal, Mr Baron Parke, and Mi- 

 Justice Williams. On the 12th the grand jury de- 

 livered by their foreman, lord Granville Somerset, 

 true bills against John Frost, Charles Waters, 

 James Aust, William Jones, John Lovell, Zepha- 

 niah Williams, Jenkiri Morgan, Solomon Britton, 

 Edmond Edmonds, Richard Benfield, John Rees, 

 David Jones, George Terner (otherwise Coles) and 

 John Rees, for high treason. In order to comply 

 with the forms customary in trials for high treason, 



