DEAN Folsom—We noticed in our second edition last week, a
rising among the foresters, with a view to throw open by force the oak planta- tions which were enclosed by Government twenty years ago, and in which the rioters conceived they had a right of commonage. The people whose levelling attack on the fences and mounds had excited much alarm, have we are happy to learn, returned to their senses. They now Offer unlimited submission, on condition that the past shall be pardoned to the followers, if not to the leaders. On Sunday evening, a party of the 3rd Dragoon Guards arrived at Colford, from Dorchester • detachments have scoured the forest district in every direc- tion, but they have found every thing quiet. Ten prisoners have been taken, but they are mere boys. The chief instigator of these disturb. ances is said to have been a forester of somewhat superior education to his compeers, who, on the faith of some old acts, coupled with certain assurances which he had received in London touching the intentions of the late Ministry, had succeeded in persuading the country people of the legality of their attempts to throw open the forest. Lord Lowther. had,
it is said, some designs of that kind, which were stopped by the changes that took place in November last. The Tory papers, with their usual blundering, attempted to make the Dean Forest affair a Reform riot. The fact is, the poor foresters are Anti-Reformers, or, at any rate, deci- dedly Anti•Ministerialists—with less malignity certainly in their objects and dispositions, bat quite as ignorant as the rest of the set. MERTIMI.—It was incorrectly stated in the first accounts from Mer- thyr, that two of the brave Highlanders were killed. Many of them were severely hurt, but all of them are now recovered except one, and he is out of danger. The attack of the mob on the soldiers, outside of the Castle inn, was most bold and determined ; and had not the firing from the windows been both steady and wellelireeted, they would cer- tainly have disarmed the whole of them. The attack seems to have been hazarded solely from the fewness of the military ; had there been three hundred instead of one hundred, no blood would have been shed. Even as it was, much less mischief would have ensued had the military been ordered to fire sooner. In such desperate cases, the true mercy is prompt justice ; but men naturally wish to 'avoid the last remedy if possible. The Riot-act was reed, and every inducement used to disperse the peo- ple ; indeed, no blame seelas to rest with any of the authorities. The number of killed, it has been ascertained, was sixteen—a fearful amount, but not so great as at first reported. A leader of the rioters, named Pen. derrin, but better known its Louis the Huntsman, was apprehended on the 7th he is described as a man fit for any desperate deed. It is im- possible net to admire the courage of these hardy Welshmen, however much we must condemn its misdirection. The grand cause of the riots appears to have been the truck system. The town and district are now tranquil.
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