Zbe Vrobinces.
There has been no renewal of the insurrection at Carmarthen ; though the neighbouring district continues in a very disturbed state.
Additional troops have moved into that part of the country, and have been distributed in various quarters to be ready to act. Nevertheless, some gates in the country-places have been destroyed ; the last men- tioned being a handsome stone gate near Cardigan. The worst feel- ing is manifested.. " Rebecca" has issued a notice that she intends to destroy Pembroke Workhouse. One countryman was detected in the endeavour to mislead a party of dragoons, whom he had undertaken to guide. A gentleman, the other day, directed a dragoon who had strag- gled from his party; and on Saturday last, a respectable farmer, who met the gentleman in Carmarthen market, told him that what he had done had been mentioned at a meeting in the hills, and that if he valued his life he wouldiaot return to that part of the country.
A meeting of about twenty County Magistrates and of many delegates from the several parishes was held at Newcastle Emlyn, on Friday. The Honourable Colonel Trevor, Vice-Lieutenant, took the chair.
Strongly rebuking the spirit of disorder, Colonel Trevor entreated the people not to compel the command to be given for the troops to fire on them. He remInded them, that in destroying the gates they were de- stroying their own funds ; that they would be compelled to repair the roads ; and that they might perhaps make themselves liable at the Quarter-Sessions to penalties of 2001. or 300/. If the accounts which he had heard were true, the complaints were greatly exaggerated. He read the following written declaration of the Magistrates- " We are willing that every grievance that can be proved to exist, and which can be remedied, should be removed, either in the administration of the funds of the trusts, or by the erection of new gates, or by increase of tolls. For that purpose, we will name a Committee of Trustees and tally-holders to go into all the accounts of the treat; and at that Committee Mr. Ball shall attend, if he wishes it, on your behalf. 1( any point of law should arise, counsel's opinion shall be taken, by which the trustees must abide until set aside by a court of law. The Mag4trates have had a force of troops put at their disposal by the Government ; arid though they are willing to redress all that is amiss, they cannot give way fo force, and must put down also all disturbances ; the Go- vernment being ready to increase the number of troops, if necessary."
Mr. Lloyd Hal, a barrister who had been retained by the farmers of several parishestaid that all they wanted was fair play for every party. He stated that he had himselfjoined in applying to the Government for troops—
He had told the people, and be now told them, that the law must be kept. The people were already poor enough : to encourage Rebecca in destroying property, was the way to make them much poorer. If they kept the law, he would advocate their grievances; but if they broke the law, he would no longer continue their advocate. The Committee having been nominated, Mr. Lloyd Davis said he thought that the tally-holders ought to be requested to do what all the
landlords had been obliged to do—reduce their interest to 3- per cent ; and the Government should be asked to extend the time for repayment of the principaldent by them, and take 21 per cent of it per annum, instead of 5 per.cent t and then the extra half-toll could be immediately got rid of. Several tally-holders in the room signed a pledge to accept the 3i per cent. The meeting of the Committee was fixed for Friday. The meeting then broke up. The reporter of the Times gives some useful explanation of the proximate cause of the riots ; which he imputes remotely to the poverty of the farmers. and other things, immediately to the abuses of the tolls- " The tolls of the highways of this county [Carmarthen] are farmed out to contractor's, the highest bidder becoming the farmer of them ; as I believe is usually the case with thelcollection of turnpike-tolls. The chief tillage [manure ? ] of this county is lime; and a great number of lime-kilos are erected in different places, often with by-roads to them; and it is the custom of the farmers to buy their own stone, and often their own coal, and carry them to these kilns to be burned into lime, pod then convey away the lime to their lands. Often the far- mers of a district were enabled to get to these kilns without going through any turnpike; upon which the toll-contractors complained to the trustees, that they could not continue to pay the full amount of their contract price of the tolh unless toll bars were erected on these by-roads. These applications have been listened to, and there are scarcely two miles of by-road or high-road without a turnpike. The consequence is, that where heretofore the farmer paid Is. for a load of stone which he had taken to the quarry with his team, be is now com- pelled to pay Is. in addition for turnpikes, another shilling toll on his coal, and again has toll demanded on bringing away his lime. This, therefore, has be- come a very serials tax upon thefaruser, and has greatly enhanced the cost a/ the tillage for his land. Again, it has been the custom, if ever a bridge had to be built, a road to be made less circuitous, or a bill to be cut down, to erect a turnpike to defray the cost of the improvement. These new and additional turnpikes have been continued, and tolls exacted, long after the cost of the bridge or other improvement has been over and over again defrayed. In other places, parishes are compelled to repair the roads at their own cost ; and the farmers who have contributed to this cost contend that it is unjust that they should be called upon to pay toll as well. From these several causes, in- credible as it may appear, 1 have been informed by several persons likely to be acquainted with the fact, that, taking the whole county of Carmarthen, on an average there are not three miles of road without a toll-bar. From Pon- tardulais Bridge, the boundary of the county, to this town, a distance of only nineteen miles, I myself counted no less than eleven toll-bars, or rather ten and the clean-swept foundation where one stood last week. The farmers of the county, a most peaceable, quiet, and orderly population, were roused to such a pitch of indignation by this abuse, that at length, under a leader more daring than the rest, who assumed the name of 'Rebecca,' several of these newly set-up gates were pulled down. It is remarkable, and proves that it is their sense of justice only which is outraged, that none of the old-established gates originally placed on the road have been meddled with." The same writer accounts for the name of " Rebecca "— " It is understood to be founded on the 60th verse of the 24th chapter of Genesis. And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, "Thou art our sis- ter; be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.' The Welsh are a very religious people ; and with many of the ignorant and simple-minded:peasants, this opposition to turn- pikes is mixed up with a kind of fanaticism, and they think they are doing a good and praiseworthy work in endeavouring to destroy that which they look upon as an oppressive injustice."
The Anti-Corn-law League convened a meeting of the County of Kent ; and it was held on Penenden Heath, on Thursday ; an assem- blage of about 3,000 persons collecting round the hustings. Mr. Cob- den arrived at one o'clock, accompanied by Mr. Charles Villiers and Colonel Thompson. Mr. White, of Yalding, was called to the chair. 31r. Cobden made a long address; and in the course of it he corrected a misapprehension— The object of the Corn-law Repealers was to increase the quantity of corn, in order that all might he enabled to eat bread ; and this could only be done by increasing the foreign trade. The argument of cheap bread was never his; all he had said being, that there was Oct enough bread; that the people had a right to exchange the produce of their labour for food; and he cared nothing about its price, provided it was a natural price. The meeting was interrupted by Mr. Atcherley, a gentleman who frequents public meetings and advocates some medicament of his own invention. Approaching Mr. Cobden, he cried—" Give us your hand, old fellow." Mr. Cobden replied—" I would rather have no hand in it." He tried to move an amendment ; but the meeting would not hear him. 31r. J. Osborn junior, of Marden, an influential landowner, op- posed Mr. Cobden. He undertook to prove that free trade in corn would produce cheap bread, (at which there were cries of " A good thing tool ") but there would be the most prejudicial consequences— land thrown out of use, and people out of employment. As an illustra- tion, he mentioned the case of a man with a wife and two children, who twelve months ago earned 12s.; now he earns .6s. 8d. on the parish- roads ; and he said that the low price of corn had thrown him out of -work. Mr. Villiers replied to Mr. Osborn; driving home the question, whether or not the farmers and labourers profit by the present system ? Colonel Thompson followed up the attack on the Corn-laws. Mr. Beacon moved and Mr. G. Swainson seconded the adoption of petitions to Parliament for the total and immmediate repeal of the Corn-laws. Mr. Fleming, a Socialist, opposed the motion ; but it was carried, with two dissentients, Mr. Fleming and Mr. Atcherley. Thanks were voted to the Chairman, and three parting cheers were given to Mr. Cobden.
An agriculturist meeting at Denbigh, on Wednesday, was defeated by the League. The meeting had been called by certain occupiers of land to consider the depressed state of agriculture, and the means of pro- curing protection ; but only about thirty farmers were among the assembly in the Town-hall. Two members of the League had arrived from Liverpool ; and the Mayor of Denbigh, also a Leaguer, was ap- pointed to the chair. Lord Dungannon, who was present, protested against the meeting's being considered an agricultural one, and left the room. After a good deal of debating for about five Wen, a resolu- tion was carried in favour of a "moderate fixed duty" on-foreign grain.
Dr. Sleigh, the agriculturist candidate for Aylesbury, sustained a singular defeat on Monday. He addressed a meeting of electors and inhabitants at the County.hall, for two hours, on the state of the nation. He attributed the distress to want of wages, inadequate remuneration, and to the grasping spirit of avarice and covetousness among employers, foreign competition, machinery, and joint stock banks. His remedy was increased agricultural protection ; and he moved a resolution de- nouncing free trade. Mr. John Gibbs took the opposite course, and proposed a resolution declaring that the removal of all restrictions on trade would be the best way of lessening the amount of national dis- tress, and tend to promote the interests of all classes. Ultimately the Free-trade resolution was carried by an immense majority.
Thirteen prisoners, consisting of nine private soldiers of the Fifteenth Regiment and four civilians, were indicted at the Manchester Borough Sessions, on Saturday, for having, on the evening of the 23d May, assaulted, beaten, and wounded David Leipsitt, an Inspector in the Man- chester Police force, and several constables belonging to the same body. The trial occupied most of the day. All the prisoners were found guilty, except two. Two were sentenced to six months' imprisonment and hard labour in the New Bailey, and all the other prisoners to twelve months' imprisonment in Lancaster Castle.
Previous page
