JB/109/114/001

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1819 2 Aug.
Collectanea. Parl. Reform.

The following Letter from Earl Fitzwilliam to Earl
Stamford, the Lord Lieutenant of the County of Chester,
will be read with much interest.

Wentworth, July 21, 1819.

My Lord – I had the honour of your Lordship's letter on the
16th instant, conveying the resolutions of the Magistrate of
Cheshire, passed on the 13th Instant, in General Quarter Sessions,
for which communications I get your Lordship to accept
my best thanks. As a Meeting of the people was fixed for Monday
the 10th Instant, to be held on Hunslet Moor, near Leeds,
which I thought likely to furnish the means of forming an
opinion respecting the important consideration of the temper
and consideration disposition of the population of that great
Town and extensive district, I deferred acknowledging your
Lordship's till I had received accounts of what passed on
that occasion. The professed objects of this Meeting did not
differ from those of one already held at the same place recently.
They were Parliamentary reform, by means of Universal
suffrage, election by Ballot, and Annual Parliaments,
grounded upon certain abstract principles of the rights
of men; but to these were added, on this occasion, another Resolution
(rather inconsistent with the spirit of the former; which
would produce a complete new House of Commons), to send
a Representative to the present House, whenever a proper one
could be met with. Notwithstanding there appears no abatement
from the large extent of their claims, still, I am given to
understand, there appeared in their manner a manifest humiliation
of spirit in the more humble tone, and means proposed
for attaining their ends, since they even expressed an inclination
to petition Parliament. But without entering into particulars
of what passed, it is a great satisfaction to me to inform
your Lordship, that the numbers who attended at this meeting
did not exceed half of those that attended the last; and that
of the numbers present, a much larger proportion of women made up
this Meeting than at the last. At the close of the business the Meeting was
dissolved and the people dispersed without tumult or insult to
anyone, in a manner the most orderly and peaceable on the whole, I
think I may confidently assure your Lordship, that though there are
to be fond in this Riding
a certain number
of very seditious,
designing and dangerous
characters, who are
endeavouring to instil
into the minds of the uninformed,
doctrines suversive
of every thing valuable
in our Constitutional
Establishment, these
men are few in numbers
without character or
influences; the mass of the
population is by no means
disaffected, but, on the contrary,
contented with the
present mode of things .....
Wentworth Fitzwilliam

Identifier: | JB/109/114/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 109.
Date_1	1819-08-02	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	109	Main Headings	Parliamentary Reform
Folio number	114	Info in main headings field	Collectanea Parl. Reform
Image	001	Titles
Category	Collectanea	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering
Penner		Watermarks	[[watermarks::I&M [Prince of Wales feathers] 1818]]
Marginals		Paper Producer	Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1818
Notes public		ID Number	35769
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