duct to William the Fourth was insinuated against the "baronet," who, it was said, "wished to have been sent ambassador to Sweden," but the Queen refused to give him the opportunity of exhibiting his respectful" manners to the king of Sweden. And then came the two following paragraphs, in which the pith of the offence lay "Should he quit his present position, we ask, where are talents to be found capable of applying a due portion of the 30,000l. to the liquidation of the 80,000l., and who can so well understand wiping off as he who has chalked on? "There is another matter also worth notice. There is a certain estate in Wales, purchased and paid for not long ago. If any public inquiry should take place whence the money for the payment came, who so competent to answer the question as the baronet ?" Evidence was given of the publication and sale of the libel at the Times office. Lord Denman charged the jury. He briefly stated the facts; and said, that the point for them was -what construction ought to be put upon the article? His lordship explained to the jury, that the question of the truth or falsehood of the libel was decided in the preliminary proceedings; and that before the court made the rule absolute, its falsehood was clearly proved. It then only remained for the jury, being satisfied of the fact of publication, and that the prosecutor was the party to whom the article applied, to say whether the imputations were defamatory or not. The jury immediately returned a verdict of "guilty." Lawson was sentenced to one month's imprisonment, and to pay a fine of 2002. 20.-SCOTLAND. - The second centenary of the rising of the memorable Assembly of the Church of Scotland, held at Glasgow in 1638, was celebrated at Glasgow on this day. The lord provost, counsellors, magistrates, the pres. bytery, clergymen, preachers, students, and citizens, went in solemn procession to the High Church, where a sermon was de livered by Dr. Muir, moderator of the General Assembly. In the evening, about five hundred persons dined together in the Trades' Hall: and two hundred more, who dined in a side-room, were admitted into the hall after dinner. 27. APPREHENSION OF MR. STEPHENS. - Great endeavours had of late been made in the manufacturing districts to excite the people against the new Poor-law. Two persons, Mr. Oastler and Mr. Stephens, the latter a preacher in the Wesleyan Connexion, had distinguished themselves by the violence of their harangues on this subject. At a meeting held at Leigh, in Cheshire, in the month of November, Mr. Stephen's speeches were of such a nature as to compel the interference of the magistrates, who issued a warrant for his apprehension. The warrant charged Stephens with "having used violent and inflammatory language, and thereby endeavouring to excite the persons assembled to violence against the persons and property of certain of her Majesty's liege subjects in Leigh and the neighbourhood." Mr. Stephen's was accordingly arrested on the 27th December, and carried to Manchester under a strong escort. Next day the examination of the prisoner took place at the New Bailey, in that town. The first witness called was Mr. James Johnson, linen-draper, of Leigh, who was present at the meeting of the 13th NovemberHe was at the window in the third story of the Fox publichouse. He should suppose there were from two to three thousand people at the meeting. They commenced assembling about nine o'clock in the morning. There was a cart for hustings, and Mr. Stephens spoke from it for two hours and thirty-five minutes, when witness went away. For the first half-hour witness thought he never heard a gentleman address an assembly better, than Mr. Stevens did; but, after then, he began talking about the poorlaw and the factories, and mentioned the names of witness's neighbours, who were mill-owners or guardians. He mentioned the names of Mr. Pownall and Mr. Jackson. Mr. Pownall is chairman of the board of guardians, and Mr. Jackson is another guardian. Witness could not say exactly what he said in reference to these gentlemen; but he quoted some part of scripture, and said, to destroy a poor-law guardian was doing God service; and this language witness understood to apply to the gentlemen he had named. He also mentioned the name of Mr. Jones, a cotton-spinner, who has a factory in the neighbourhood. Mr. Jones is not a guardian. When he introduced Mr. Jones's name, he was speaking of the factories, and the deplorable state which the people were in. He condemned the practices in the factories, and advised the people to arm themselves. He told them to get their guns or pikes, and have them over their chimney-pieces. They were to have them ready, and he would come over, and they were to appoint him their leader. When he came over, he would tell them what they were to do. He then alluded to a lad in Mr. Jones's mill, whom he said Mr. Jones had struck or beaten. When the grand attack was to be made, they were to go to the factories with a dagger in one hand and a torch in the other. He also talked about tarring and feathering Mr. Jones, and sending him as a present to the commissioners. While he was addressing the people, pistols were frequently let off, and pikes held up, Witness saw a pike himself which had a loaf and a herring stuck on it. The pistols were fired so frequently, that Stephens interfered, and said there was too much cracking; he had not done cracking himself yet, and they might crack by and by. Witness saw about twenty pistols himself, and parties went up and down the street firing them off. This meeting excited a great deal of alarm among the peaceable inhabitants Witness felt alarm then, and felt alarm still. Mr. Stephens cross- examined this witness at great length; but the only modification of his evidence, worth notice, was that Mr. Stephens, when speaking of a general rise, did not say, what it was for, nor when it was to be. William Coward, a constable, of Leigh, heard part of Mr. Stephens's harangue. After quoting the text "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith the Lord," he added, "What I mean to say is this, that God has perhaps raised up you to fire down these buildings (alluding to houses round about), and perhaps even that venerable church which our forefathers have erected." He advised the people to give up their seats in churches and chapels, to take their children from the different places of worship, and to save their pennies to buy guns, pikes, and pistols. The same witness attended a torch-light meeting at night, and heard a speech from the prisioner. He spoke about soldiers and officers, and advised the people not to be afraid, for all was right between the soldiers and him, and the people had nothing to fear from that quarter. He spoke of the different labours and sufferings that people had to go through in factories; and he then alluded to the employers; and fire was mentioned-whether with respect to mills, or to doing some thing to the employers. witness could not tell. He called Richard Yates, a local preacher, who had been made a poor-rate collector, the diabolical Richard Yates, and said he would die on a dung-hill. He told the meeting, that if he lived at Leigh, he would go to the poor-law guardians, by half a dozen, a dozen, or two dozen at a time in a body, and he would bring a guardian out, he would not hurt him, but he would take off his coat, waistcoat, and shirt, and he would then get a pillow of feathers, and he would feather him, and get a barrel of tar, and he would tar him right well over; and when he had done that he would say to him, "Go to roost thou devil!" And if he had wings, and were to fly, they would wonder what kind of a bird he was. This witness said that he gave his evidence against Mr. Stephens with great reluctance. He belonged to the Wesleyan connexion him self, and Stephens's father had been a highly respectable Wesleyan preacher. He loved every man, and hated no one; but he felt bound to declare, that since Mr. Stephens had been at Leigh, there was more irritation among the people than ever he had before known, and he had lived there many years. Since Mr. Stephens had been there, more arms had been collected together than he had ever before heard of or known. He knew one or two smithies now where they were actually employed making pikes. They were principally of steel, some of steel and iron, and were fourteen or fifteen inches long, with a screw at the one end to screw into a socket, and they were very sharp at the pointed end. This had been much more actively going on since Mr. Stephens's visit to Leigh, and several gentlemen had been threatened either to have a pike or a ball into them; and he thought when a man bought a loaf in a shop, and said to the seller, clapping his hand on a pike in his breast, "the next loaf I fetch, I shall fetch it with this pike," that was enough to alarm any one. On his cross-examination by Mr. Stephens, he said, " Mr. Stephens did not, either at the day or night meeting, say anything about fire and factories, or firing factories, or burning factories, that he heard. Witness had seen a hundred pikes at least since the meeting; he thought there was one in nearly every house in the township of Bedford, and a good many in Leigh; and the grinders might be seen grinding eight or ten or twenty pikes in open day. He had seen a hundred or two, some in the open air, others hanging up over chimney-pieces, in houses just as Mr. Stephens had advised them to do, all ground, sharpened, and ready for action. The enquiry was adjourned for a few days, and Mr. Stephens, meanwhile, was liberated on giving bail. He employed the interval in uttering fresh tirades against the poor-law, and, on one occasion, from the pulpit solemnly denounced the curse of God on whoever should aid in setting it up. On his next examination, about 4,000 people were assembled in the vicinity. James Dean, a fresh witness, corroborated the previous evidence, with some additions. At the torch light meeting at Leigh he said, Mr. Stephens observed, that the question under discussion was "a knife and fork question, and a bread and cheese question," Some man in the meeting shouted, "We have no beef; we have no use for knives and forks." Mr. Stephens said, "Take them and put them to your tyrants' throats, and see how they will fit them." No further evidence was offered Mr. Stephens's address to the bench consisted chiefly of a narrative of the previous proceedings at his arrest, examination, and conveyance from Worsley to Manchester, like another Duke d'Enghien, at night by a military escort. The magistrates directed the prisoner to be committed for trial at the next Liverpool assizes; but agreed to take bail for his appear ance. |