Star.
London, England, 1831-02-09 00:00:00

„-le driven by water, the water.whe.ei of which also worked a mill;
the people preserved the mill and water-wheel harmless, and
destroyed the thrashing machine, which they considered to
to the cause of abridging their employment. There was one in.
ctnce which occurred, in which the Hindon yeomanry had been con.
where there was a great number of people collected together
, would not call them the mob, foe he never considered them to be
trob if they were peaceable, and not engaged in actual breach of the
.N.) He had admitted that they bad been engaged in an illegal
33, but at the time that the yeomanry came up they were passing along
.3 quiet order ; the yeomanry, however, would not suffer them to pro.
Ne 6, but, getting them into a narrow lane, the yeomanry took
psitions at both ends of the lane, and cut at the men with their
;weals, and actually shot one man who was flying from them across
11,, bells. This ought not to be tolerated in any country. Those
ivor men who were wounded were conveyed to Salisbury a distance of
id miles; and although the yeomanry stopped on the road to take re.
:7.sitment, nct even a drop of water was allowed to the prisoners,
s"o, smarting under their wounds, begged in vain to have a mouthful
stay their parching thirst. They were thus conveyed, with their
sivtods undressed, in the middle of the night, and considerable delay
took place before the gaoler could be roused, and It was full three hours
after their arrival in the town before surgeons were procured to dress
0-cir wounds. Few of the wounded had been prosecuted, and he (Mr,
Uunt) should like to know how it came to pass that the circumstance of
rte man being killed had never been reported. There had, it was
true, a coroner's inquest sat on the body, but the foreman of the
jury was the father of one of the yeomanry, and of course had
~me influence with the jurors. (Cries of ” Hear,:hear.") The vet.
was Justifiable Homicide." The Honourable Member neat
alluded to the case of a tenant of the Honourable Member far
Vaminster, who had
.been tried for writing a threatening letter.
_ _ _

Hur.t) did not mean to defend the act itself, for he con.
sidered that any man who would sit down and write an anonymous
threatening letter was a coward, and none else but a coward would
do so. lie (Mr. Hunt) had often been threatened by letter, and had
Jotters at home to prove, that in one week he had received as many as
f.vc letters, threatening him with certain destruction when he was going

..... _
home from the House, because be had spoken on the pension list, but
Ile treated them all with contempt. He opened them when they were
delivered to him, if they happened to be poet-paid, and generally

cosigned them to the flames; but if they happened not to be post-
paid, he sent them back by the same messenger to Sir Francis Freeling
again. The Hon. Member then, at great length, gave a detail of the
ease of Isaac Looker and his son, the particulars of which appeared
at the time of the trial; in which, after the father had been found
guilty, and was sentenced to transportation for life, the son came forward
3.:d made a confession that he wu the person who had written the letter;
:toil the lad, who was 17 years of age, had, therefore, been transported
i'r seven years. He begged that the house would give great considers-
l'‘,7l to this case, and in particular he would claim the most serious at-
teation of the Attorney-General ; and he hoped, that when the details
%ere known, the sentence of transportation would not be carried into
effect. The hon. member stated that be had seen the elder Locker, who
e.a, a respectable man, and well dressed—(a laugh)—he was as well
dressed as any member in that house, and be had also seen the young
man when he was a prisoner in the gaol of Devises, in a miserable room,
The hon. member animadverted on the conduct of the judge at the

..._ _
trial, and quoted his expressions when in reply to the elder Locker's
protestations of innocence. The judge declared that he would not be-
lieve his solemn declaration, and that he might be thankful that an alter-
ation had been made in the law, or he would have paid the extreme
penalty with his life ; but that as it was, he should be sent from the
country for life, and that no one would regret his absence. All the
w'rnesses, four in number, who had sworn to his hand-writing, had
acknowledged that they were on bad terms with the prisoner ; and there
were eleven witnesses who swore that the letter was not in the hand.
truing of the prisoner. The situation of the young man who had sacri-
t'.:ed himself to save his father, was worthy of the highest commenda-
tion. Had be lived In ancient Rome, or Greece, or Athens, or Sputa,
(a laugh.) a monument would have been erected to his memory.
((heat laughter). Yes. a monument would have been erected to his
memory, or he would have been crowned with evergreens. (Laughter.)
The Honourable Member could attribute this laughing, not to the
want of feeling on the pan of the Honourable House, but it must
be to his inability to describe the affitir properly. The affair was
one that would afford an excellent subject for the poet or the
painter—(a laugh) ;it would be exceedingly suitable to be dramatised
—(a laugh ); and where was the hard heart that would not melt when
the distress of the father and the filial affiction of the son were pour.
aged on the stage. The Hon. Member then proceeded to give the par-
ticulan of an affray which had taken place between a crowd of labour.
MS who were prose dhsgalsog the rood and some Magistrates sad their
friends who were returning from hunting, and attacked the labourers
sith their hunting whips. This provocation bad issued in one of the
magistrates being severely hurt, and the labourers who bad been pro.
voted to do him the injury had been tried criminally, and were left for
execution. The next case which the htinourable member cited was
that of a man named Villas, who had, when in confinenwmk, eon
to an attorney to make up his defence, and who had, according le
the custom in such cases, been directed to make a full confession, aid
to give the attorney the ease in its worst possible shape. The rimer
was so poor as to be unable to have an attorney Into the to
him, and the poles had actually been intrusted with this
shice he kept in his possession three days ; and till= was the confession
of the unfortunate prisoner placed in a situation to be used as evident*
against him. He (Mr. Hunt) had represented this in the roper
quarter, and he felt grateful fcc the result, for his Majesty's Minium.
I had commuted the sentence from death to transportation, and be be-
lieved that the Attorney-General had directed that a like occurrence
should never happen again. Until this interference, such was the
practiceant
disclosurein is Salburtyo gaol,
attorney,
that no prisoner
innerthcoeuld makceeethtehemgoam lo
ffimor-
his clerk (hear.) This was worse than the inquisition. He thanked
his Majesty's Ministers for their interference on his representation,
and putting an end to the puttee. It was only to be attributed to the
act! of tyranny of Country Magistrates. The nature of the modes
which he was about to propose was to ask for a general pardon and am.
resty fur all the prisoners nodes sentence, who were tried by the Spe.
dal Commission. In no Instance had one of them been taken in the
acts for which they were tried. They had committed the acts in mobs,
and were suffered to depart and the next day only the obnoxious bull-
viduals were selected, and ihe mark of distinction was generally confined
to those who had offended by being reputed poachers. The Hon. Mem-
ber went into a digression on the baneful effects of the Game Laws, and 1
the temptation for a starving population to transgress these laws. The
Honourable Member repeated that the greatest incendiaries were the
broken-up farmers. He had conversed with many of them, and ono in
particular had stated that when their misfortunes had accumulated upon
them, and that they were unable to pay their rents, the landlord had in-
diced them to remain in their farms, under promises of indulgence; but
whenever the crops were ripened the landlords had seised upon them,
and rendered the Lumen pennyleas. He (Mr. H.) had found many of
that sort In the country, and he could safely assert, that nine-tenths of the
tames in the country were in a state of insolvency. The country could
net long exist in its present state without coming to a convulsion, and
it must have relief. He would newt advocate a convulsion, for be knew
fill well, that if every thing came to that crisis, that he boil/ e
marked man, would be sure to be brought down on the first day. A
laugh.) He implored his Majesty's Ministers to grant his request, j
to think of these facts; and h. was sure that their names would be
laudably handed down to posterity. He knew that they had to ceased
with the rapacious landlord., and with some others who would ad-
vise them otherwise: but he hoped that there were few of that
tion.—One Judge (at least so it had been reported) had reflected=
mercy that had beta shown by his Majesty to some of the convicts. The
hon. member hoped that the report was not coerce!, and that no
judge would have dared to question the right of his Massy to extend
these clement acts of mercy. It had been said that some of these men
were not in want; but he would beg leave to read a statement, well
authenticated, has a perish in Wiltshire. The statement mentioned
one case of s man, with a wife and wen children, who wee in work, sad
had an allowance of 5.. a week from the wish ; and another with a
wife, who was also in work, had an allowance of Is. Id. per week. It
wan contended that the landed interest paid the poor rata; but he
(Mr. Hunt) contended that the poor rates fell upon the labour. With
the above allowances that he had quoted, those was no mere allowed
than twopence halfpenny, and in many instances less than two-pence
farthing a-day for subsistence. The greatest mischief in this country
•as the way in which labourers were paid—and he begged that the
landed interest would take some messuses Wise she booskiss up et
Parliament to prevent this mode of paykotoserhighboosen *so the rates.
When he kept a farm, although in the peel& the farmers
were paying only nine shillings pee week, Mt a piffle he net bowing
a single labourer en hie farm who had Ism them two Mew and six-
pence a day. The peer rates am dims paidl by the laborer, and not by
the land. Look to the perish of Christ C., , where se numb kraut:
the shape of ; sad if these rates were not sitsched to the
which were the pokes of labour, the land never could pay the