The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-19 00:00:00

what they voluntarily promised ; had they only
acted up to the principles on which they professed
to be based ; had they only done this, there would
have been by this time such a demonstration of public
opinion in favour of Mr. Thorogood, and against the
iniquities of Church-rates, as would, beyond all ques-
tion, have insured the liberation of the former, and the
abolition of the latter in the course of the ensuing
session. As it is, we do not despair of these happy re-
sults. If the example of the Dissenters of Leicester be
only followed with that promptitude, spirit, vigour, and
determination, which we confidently anticipate, then is
the speedy release of Mr. Thorogood certain, and the
doom of Church-rates inevitable. The Church persecutors
of this noble martyr to a good conscience and a righteous
cause, doubtless thought, that in consigning him to
Chelmsford gaol they were consigning him to his grave.
What if his dungeon should become the grave of Church-
rates ! Nothing could exceed the unanimity and decision
of purpose which characterised the speeches and proceed-
ings at the Leicester meeting. All present—and as our
readers must have observed from the report which ap-
'

peared in yesterday's paper, the meeting was at once
most numerous and respectable—all present seemed
actuated by one feeling of the warmest sympathy for
Mr. Thorogood, and the most resolute determination to
do everything in their power to diminish the pressure
of his trials. There were no heartless Dissenters at the
Leicester meeting ; no, nor half-hearted Dissenters
either. The non-conformists of that place are non-
conformists ; they are in heart and soul, aye, and in
practice, too, what they profess in words. How striking
the contrast which they present to the London Dis-
senters, if we may judge of the latter from the specimens
afforded us in the members of the Societies to whom
we have found it necessary to make such repeated allu-
sions. The meeting at Leicester, taken in conjunction
with its inevitable results, cannot fail to be regarded by
Mr. Thorogood as some compensation for the injuries
he has suffered, not only at the hands of a tyrannical
Church, but also at the instance of persons calling
themselves Dissenters, and who parade their professed
attachment to the principles of religious liberty in
speeches at public meetings, addresses at tavern din-
ners, and in the columns of the public journals. The
lukewarmness, nay, positive indifference of the latter,
must, indeed, have gone deeper into the heart of the
Chelmsford sufferer, than even positive injuries inflicted
on him by the High Church party ; for what can so
deeply wound the susceptible heart as the coldness and
the unkindness of friends in the hour of adversity ?
Henceforth let us not do the Church the injustice of
representing Mr. Thorogood as her exclusive victim :
he.
is just as much, and we doubt not he considers him-
siders himself even more, the victim of half-hearted
Dissenters as of the Church. But we turn from the
ungrateful task of reprobating the conduct of a large
portion of the Dissenting body, to the gratifying one
of bestowing our most hearty commendation on the Dis-
senters of Leicester, for the noble manner in which they
have acquitted themselves in the case of Mr. Thoro-
good. To the Dissenters in every other town of any
importance in the kingdom we say—" Go and do like-
wise," We earnestly hope that that body in all parts
of the country will arise as one man, and ,by public
meetings and public subscriptions on behalf of Mr. Tho-
rogood, show that they are not participators in the guilt
of the London Societies, and that therefore they will
not submit to bear any portion of the opprobrium which
they have drawn down upon themselves.

(From the Morning Herald.)
We said the other day that the riots of workmen at
Merthyr Tydvil, in the year 1831, which led to great
carnage by military execution, were of a local cha•
racter, and of an unpolitical origin. A. Welch journa
—the Glanzorgan and Monmouth Gazette—contradicts
us, and positively states that the disturbances in ques-
tion were of a political and revolutionary character.
We repeat our assertion that they were not. We well
recollect that local, and not political, causes, were as-
signed, at the time, as the cause of the outbreak, one
of which causes was that the iron-masters had lowered,
or were supposed to be at.out to lower the wages of their
workmen. Another was that they thought the Merthyr
Court of Requests a grievance, and were resolved to put
it down. In alluding to the revolutionary character of
Frost's Chartist outbreak, the other day, we happened
to say, en passant, that it was the first rebellion that
had occurred in Wales since the days of Owen Glen-
dower, for that the riots of Mertbyr Tydvil, thougl.
only suppressed by a military force, which caused great
carnage, were local in their origin, and only assumed
the appearance of being insurrectionary from the
means taken to suppress them. We instanced only
one of the causes of this local quarrel—the lower-
ing of wages. The thing having occurred nearly
nine years ago, we had not at the moment recol-
lected the other local cause—namely, the hostility
which, for some reason or other, the workmen had con-
ceived against the Court of Requests. The Welch
newspaper which contradicts us in the most dogmatic
and discourteous manner as to the local nature of those
riots, furnishes itself corroborative proofs of the cor-
rectness of our statement. It admits that. wages al
that period were lowered, particularly at one of the more
extensive works." There was, then, a lowering of
wages just about that time. Many serious local out-
rages have arisen from the same cause. The lowered
wages of the peasantry in the south of England, in
consequence of the cheapening of labour by thrashing
and other farming machinery, gave rise to the " Siving
riots," which preceded those of Merthyr Tydvil, and
took place while the Duke of Wellington's Adminis-
tration was yet in existence, Many thousands were
concerned in those riots, and they extended into several
counties, which the riots of Merthyr Tydvil did not,
and yet the " Swing riots" were not of a political
nature, but connected with the lowering of wages
and the use of machinery. They were in fact
local outrages, wholly unconnected with any design
to overturn the Government, or change the constitu-
tion of society. We say the same of the Merthyr
Tydvil riots which took place in the following year.
With regard to the merits of the quarrel we expressed
no opinion whatever—we merely stated the fact of the
riots not being ;like those lately headed by Frost—a po-
litical insurrection. The Welch journalist chooses to ex-
tract from the few words we wrote upon that subject
an imputation of blame on one party, and an oblique ex
pression of sympathy for the other. In this he only
shows the liveliness of his imagination ; for, whatever
we may have felt, we expressed nothing of the sort,
either directly or indirectly. But, inasmuch as the
Whigs threw upon the Tory Ministers all the responsi-
bility of the " Swing riots," we thought it fair to mete
out their own measure of justice to themselves, and to
hold the present Government accountable for the
carnage which took place by rifle-ball and bayonet
under " Whig auspices" at Merthyr Tydvil. The
Welch writer having admitted that wages were lowered
by the iron-masters about that time, goes on to say,
" What excuse did this afford for dissatisfaction ?
, None whatever. The iron trade was in a deplorable
condition then, and when there is no prosperity
for the masters the men can hardly look for exor-
bitant wages." What has this to do with the
matter at issue between us ? We said not one word of
the merits of the quarrel. We did not say on which
side there was justice or injustice. At the same time
we are free to confess we do not think working men are
at any time put in particular good humour by the low-
ering of their wages, though, perhaps, a "philosopher"
sitting at his desk might be able to give them a hundred
reasons why they should be not only content but happy
at finding themselves in possession of reduced means of
subsistence. Now that our attention has been more
particularly called to the subject, we recollect it was
stated at the time that after the conflict in the town the
mob, who had possession of the heights, called out to
the soldiers, " Don't injure your own countrymen—we
only want bread." This looked more like a " revolt of
the belly" than a political insurrection. It is quite pos-
sible that some persons of Whig politics may have taken
advantage of the riots to wreak their hostility upon some
of the more prominent of their political opponents, al-
though the disturbances were local in their origin, and
quite unconnected with political objects. The fact is,
there was no Chartist organisation in Wales then, nor
anywhere else—socialism had not then spread its baneful
influence among the labouring classes. Nor was any
one of the Merthyr Tydvil violators of the peace,
at that time charged, like Frost's men, with high trea-
son—those who were tried, and some of whom we in-
terested ourselves to prevent from being hanged, were
tried either far rioting or for felonious acts connected
with riots, and in no way connected with treasonable
proceedings.

(From the Morning Post.)