The Sun.
London, England, 1827-05-21 00:00:00

THE WELCH LANDOWNERS.

On Saturday evening a highly respectable meeting of
Gentlemen born in the principality of Wales, and others
friendly to the cause of poor cottagers whose rights are in-
volved in the Bill of Enclosure now before Parliament,
was held to receive the Report of the Committee appointed
at a former meeting, as to the proceedings which had sub-
sequently taken place.
HENRY HuanEs, Esq., the Chairman, congratulated
the meeting on the favourable feeling which now existed
in the public mind towards the cause of the poor cottagers.
Since they laq met, Mr. Bettis, the agent of Lord NeW-
barough and the principal instigator of the Bill, had been
to them with offers to negotiate ; but after the abandon-
ment by the agent of the other offers made, if not with the
intent, with the effect of treacherously lulling resistance to
the measure, the Committee thought themselves bound at
once, and decidedly, to }•eject all overtures from ti land-
owners.—(Applause.) He had now to communicate a
circumstance which might excite astonishment in the me-
tropolis, but which would excite none in the minds of those
who were aware of the mode of action of those local despots,
whose proceeding had not hitherto been submitted to any
thing like a public opinion. The Committee had received
information that a petition had. been got up by the agents
of the landowners, arid sent to the tenantry under their
power, for signature, impugning the character of the cot-
tagers, calling them sheep-stealers, and attempting to im-
plicate the whole body, upon complaints made against in-
dividuals amongst them.—(Shane.)—Those who knew
the 'Welch peasantry must feel how abominably false were
such accusations. He would not attempt to characterize
the use of such matter, even if true, as a pretext to justify
the landowners in seizing the produce of the labours of the
cottagers ; but that the Legislature might not by such
means be prejudiced, a cou❑:•2r petition had been signed
by those who were disenthralled—who were free from the
influence of the landowners—attesting the innocence and
general deserving character of the cottagers.—(Applause.)
—One inducement held out to the Crown to divide the
common lands amongst the neighbouring landowners, was
a promise on their part that they would deal kindly and
equitably with all the cottagers or others whose rights
were comprised. But no faith was to be given to such
promises : all experience and testimony was against them.
In several letters which had been sent with subscriptions
from kind friends, they were cautioned not to be deceived
by such language. His Lordship, it proceeded to de-
scribe, got on this occasion half the Galigfa common, with
the roads through it ; and the effect of the measure was,
to send the farmers three miles out of their way to get
lime, an article without which they could not cultivate
their lands, as in that country lime was the usual dressing
of a wheat crop. The setting out of the public roads was
loudly exclaimed against, but in vain : the Parliamentary
interest of the few prevailed against the right and coinve-
nien,es of the many, as it always would where the voice
of the public could not interpose.—(Hear•)

Mr. GRIFFITH DAVIES, begged, in addition, to state to
the meeting, as illustrative of the character of the men with
whom they had to deal, that the agent had declared to them,
that if the landowners were exasperated by the opposition
to the hill, they would bring actions of ejectment against
the cottagers, and otherwise pursue them at law.—(Hear,
hear. )_Mr. Davies then read to the meeting a long and
interesting letter, which lie had received from one of the
most active and intelligent of the cottagers. Alluding to the
conduct of the landowners' agents, the writer said, " We
are informed that 0. Griffith-ap-Tryfan keeps, a regular
journal of all faults he can find, and employs others to do
the same, and carry him every information. Our fair was
held yesterday, and I heard Owen Grigith should boast
that the cottages should very shortly be levelled to the ground
on Cilgyn Mountain.—(Hear, hear.)—We intend to !ewe
a regular watch at Caernarvon Post-office, and whatever
you may want you may rely on receiving by return of post."
(Mr. Davies observed, that letters were not delivered in
those districts, and were only exhibited in the post-office
window, that they might be seen on market-days by those
to whom they were addressed. The cottager was posted
to watch this window for a packet.) " Enclosed you'll
find 51., being the amount you paid for us ; and if any
more should be wanting, every man, women, and children
are ready to sell their clothes,—yes, their y das faun !
to support you ; so work away, my dear boys."—(Cheers.
Mr. GRIFFITH JONES was most anxious that, as public
attention had been drawn to this case, one honourable ex-
ception should throughout be made in favour of one of the
greatest landowners in Wales—Colonel Hughes. That
gentleman, who himself possessed lands in the district, had
declared but the day before, that he was desirous that justice
should be done to the cottagers, and that in all the en-
closures they should have a fee simple in the land which
they had been allowed to cultivate.—(Applause.)—He de-
clared that he did not believe that the profit to be derived
by the Landowners from the ground allotted after the cot-
tagers had been ejected, would repay them for the expellee
of obtaining the Bill. The lawyer would have the oyster,
and give to them the shell. He then proceeded to defend
the character of the peasantry from the attack made upon it
by the Landowners. Mr. Jones concluded by moving a
resolution, expressive of the satisfaction of the Meeting at
the report, and the communications submitted to them by
the Committee.

This was seconded by Mr. JoHN LLOYD, who declared,
that in charity to the landowners themselves, who knew

not what they did, he should pray them to stay their pro-
ceedings. The resolution was carried unanimously.
Mr. llEwrrr, one of the gentlemen who have come for-
ward to give their honorary professional assistance in aid
of the cottagers, moved a resolution, reprobating the at-
tempt made by the landowners to impugn their characters.
He happened to have a letter in his pocket from a friend
who had recently been on a grand jury—" We had had,"
said he, in concluding his letter, " our Assizes at Mold
this week, and, -as usual, little more for the grand juries
to do than receive the Judge's compliments on the honesty
of our country, and to eat our dinners and return home."
—(Cheers.)—They should not abandon these poor people
to Welch judges, or such men as Mr. Kenrick. The
landowners, he should be ready to prove, if the question
was entered into, were the greatest encroachers.
The resolution was carried unanimously, after a very
spirited speech from Mr. J. MITCHELL, in which he ap-
plied the anecdote of Caractacus, who, when led in chains
through the streets of Rome, dazzled with its splendid
magnificence, lifted up his arms with astonishment, and
exclaimed—" Strange, that a people possessed of so much
wealth and luxury should envy me a cabin on my native
mountains." A Welch peasant, when hereafter wander-
ing for bread, might exclaim with equal astonishment,
on viewing the princely mansion of Lord Nevvborough—
" Strange, that a man possessed of so much wealth and
luxury should envy me a little cottage on Cilgwyn Moun-
tain."

Mr. LLOYD moved a resolution expressive of the deter-
mination of the meeting to come forward to aid to the
utmost of their power their poor countrymen in resisting an
act of oppression that might hereafter be attempted by the
local agents of the landowners. He was but a borderer,
yet he ftlt with Terence, .Homo sum : humani nihil a me
alienum put°. The resolution was carried with great
enthusiasm.

Mr. TlMmurrr said, that he had'come a stranger amongst
them, anxious even in the smallest degree to lend assist-
ance in favour of the weak and oppressed against the strong
and the oppressor. In rising to move the thanks of the
meeting to the editor of the TilileS for the support he had
afforded them, he could not but feel pride in being the
inhabitant of a metropolis whose public journals wielded
such a power to redress or prevent injures, and that while
in London comparatively but few acts of oppression could
be committed, yet such had now become the energy and
intelligence of its inhabitants, that they were no longer
satisfied with defending their own or their neighbours' in-
terests, but were ready to defend and protect their fellow-
countrymen in the most remote parts of the island.—
They had been told that the instigators of these measures
were lawyers. No wonder that such men should be en-
raged at the repose of the principality. It was by crime
that such men as these got their bread. It was by peace
and honesty that such men as these starved. For a gaol to
have its doors open—for an Assizes to have no business,
might be fun for all other people, but for such men it was
starvation and death.—(Applause and laughter.)—No
crime, no cause; no pauper, no two parishes to quarrel
which should maintain him.—(Hear, hear.)—Very differ
rent was that part of the country which he had some ac •
quaintance with (Norfolk), where half the business of a
Quarter Sessions was appeals about paupers ; not a little in
the punishment of poachers and petty thieves; all, how-
ever, bringing grist to the lawyers' mill.
Mr. HEWITT, the Solicitor, here rose, and said he had
many legal friends in Wales, and that it would be the
highest injustice, if he were to sit by and admit by his si-
lence that their general character was such as was now de-
scribed. He implored the Meeting to believe him, when
he assured them, that those described by the speakers were
exceptions.
Mr. GRIFFITH JONES, the other solicitor, concurred in
the declaration.

Mr. HELLtoTT.—I do not mean to inelude even the
greater part of the profession in this censure, but only such
men as the agents of these measures and their adherents. I
see, in the legal gentlemen who have given their noble as-
sistance to the Welch cottagers, an example of disinterested-
ness refreshing to the soul, amid a scene which presents
every thing to appal the heart, and to make him blush for
the species to which he belongs. Such, then, is this
transaction, unjust on every point, defensible on none;
embodying in it all that can dishonour the actors, with no
one redeeming quality, save that sordid gain which will
poorly repay the moral sacrifice by which it has been ob-
tained. That the cottage system works well in Wales, is
evident from the peaceful and honest character of the pea-
sants. What name, then, is too bad, what condemnation
too awful, for that man who has a head to plan the destruc-
tion of so much peace, but no heart to feel for its conse-
quences ? If the agents of this measure retract, they may
yet, even at the eleventh hour, save something of their:re-
putation: they may show, at least, that a spark of moral
sense is yet remaining, which the loud and solemn voice of
their fellow-countrymen has at last roused from its long
and shameful repose.—(Loud and enthusiastic applause.)

The vote of thanks to the Editor of the Times was
carried unanimously.
Several other gentlemen addressed the Meeting. It was
stated in the course of the proceedings, that no opposition
was contemplated by the friends of the cottagers to the
general principle of the enclosure of waste lands, or to the
exercise of manorial rights. Thanks were voted to the
Chairman, when the Meeting adjourned.