The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-28 00:00:00

• N
S ZIRDAA7 DEC E M 13!4',R 98 I c-39
, . .

_CITE TWOPENNY POSTAGE.

--<:C:

TO. THE EDITOZ2 OF THE SUN. . .
heg to complain, of a system in the Two-
penny Post Department, that of &taming letters, and
not denvering them every two !worst, according to the
rules
Lpht t letter in the Post office hcfore eight o'clock
this morning, which letter did aor arrive at its destina-
tien•More twelve o'clock, a distanCe of only a.rnite and
a half froin the General Post-office. This is the third
inst_inco of the kind, as regat.d.s myself, within this fort-
, ,

. • •
tiui•loseition of this :sill 4reativ oblige; Sir,
Your humbl.e..serva.nt,
JOHN, CHILDS.

10, 13rtooks' Market, Dcc. 07.

THE NEWPORT RIOTS.

1 Ntveoht, DEc. 27.-----Since our last letter wry beve
beet,: travelling on the hills anti_ in those districts where
Chartism abounds, and we have made ,the ,most minute
ir,nuiries of those who :ire most likely to;efford inforina-
tion as the state of things in their different neighbour.
hoods ; and, there cannot. be a doubt but that secret
; - -
- tilectitegs ace still being held, and that everything is in
ia most unhealtliv.state., Alllipeesons agree that it is the
intention to hold a large,rneeting. It was to have taken
place on Christmas-day, but the Chartists are waiting the
the arrival 'of, Mr. O'Connor or some of the delegates,
-and r-nen are absolutely stationed on some, of the Inds
with telescopes looking' out for the -:approach of some
of the
.I,:aders. ,The magistrates' are in -frequent con.
sultatiOn, and will, we think, act with firmness to pre.
vent any
,disturbance. Strange. to say, the, town cr
Tredegar, which is situate in the midst of the Chartists;
has not &soldier in it; and the reason assigned, is, that
attempts would be made, to tamper with, the military,
,and .it therefore is better to have thona,at some (ha-
lance. 'There are six armed policeman under the com-
mane‘cf Lieut. Homan, and they Are always on the look-
out, and would give early intimation 4-o the military
. commanders. , We heard from one ,person who had had
connunnication with- some
,Chartists that they were
ready to Move at a moment's notice, as soon as-a leader
should,' arrive..; that they were ,well armed, and that
. other ,arms were to meet them on: their march, and that.
their lull determination was.that Mr. Frost should not
be injured -; but probably they'should uot move until
after the trial. ,There is one matter here that par-
ticularly requires notice. . Large numbers of the
working , classes were sworn in., as . special con-
stables,' and were on duty for a few days after the
Newport -riots ; theSe men.were- to be paid for their
attendance, and they have now asked for their money,
but are told that they will not be paid till after the trials,
this ii a created great dissatisfaction. .We heard one
fact, that -last Saturday ,two men . called puddlers re-
ceived. one month's wages, amounting to no less than
231. eao,,so that there is no complaint on the score (it
wages. Witha:view to ascertain the real state of things,
which we was ',liable to obtain from the Magistracy,
whose knowledge of the events taking place is very
. limited, from the meetings being held underground, ant'
the complete secrecy with which they are managed, we
have mixed with the commercial travellers in order to
learn the state of trade, and we find their almost uni-
versal answer to he " We can neither get money nor
orders." The shopkeepers are completely panic struck ;
no inducement will tempt them to buy, as they say they
do cot know that they shall remain in the possession of
their shops for 12 hours.
This state of alarm arises from the fact of there
being secret meetings every night in the levels, and a
Sort of committee meeting of the leaders at a place at
Merthyr, called Pont Storehouse. Having ascertained
this to be the ease, we went personally among them,
and we found that their numbers in, Merthyr alone ex-
ceeded 10,000, all in a state. of feverish anxiety and ex-
citement, ready at a moment (if directed by their lead-
' ers) to commence another insurrectionary movement
• They are also.anxiously awaiting the arrival of Fergus
O'Connor, or some delegate to direct them. Indeed, the
general impression among them
,seems to be, that they
should, wait the result of Frost's trial,endeavouring in the
meantime to entrap the witnesses; and that then, it' Frost
should be convicted, there should be a general rising to
draw off the troops, and that he should be saved- at
all hazards. Every attempt' is also made to tamper
with the few soldiers (one company of the 45th),
stationed-at. Dowlais, . and they have changed clothes
with the miners in some instances; many of them have
been made drunk by them, and, indeed, considerable
ddßeulty is felt in keeping up the proper state of mili-
tary discipline ; bnt, when we consider that the .com-
pany is. composed almost entirely of mere...boys,, it is
only to be wondered that they have acted as well as
they have. In addition to this force at
,Merthyr, which
contains upwards of forty thousand inhabitants, there
are only about thirty pensioners, who are most,of them
enfeebled by. age, and are only armed each with a
cutlas ;, should a - simultaneous rising ..take place
at Merthyr, the Dowlais and. the Plymouth works, all
being, within a distanee of two miles, it is.impossible to
calculate
,the extent to which,,the work of destruction
could be carried before a sufficient force could be
brought to bear upon them. At Newport everything
is quiet, but all arc ready and the Mayor, with a praise-
wort by alacrity, has caused the principal witnesses to br -
brought there from the hills, and thus now they are un-
'der the protection of the military.—Timcs.