From the Monmouthshire Merlin:
Rebeccaism.
(From our own Reporter.)
Swansea, . The town presents a most animated appearance: the usually
quiet inhabitants are all on the qui vive: gay military
uniforms enliven the streets; grave officials from Downing street are seen
chatting in little clusters; the inns are all crowded; bold Dragoons are going
round with their billets, and the enlivening military bugle is heard at
intervals. Another troop of the 4th Dragoons have
arrived, and are to remain for some time. A force of artillery is hourly
expected; and indeed, the report is credited in well-informed circles, that
ere long there will be nearly a thousand soldiers in Carmarthenshire and
Glamorganshire. The service is not uninteresting or unexciting in these
picturesque districts at present; but when winter comes on, if Rebecca do not
go off her evil ways, it will be worse than private-still hunting in Ireland.
Mr. Maule, solicitor to the Treasury, and his assistant, are at the Mackworth
Arms: he is without Jock Campbell this time, who did the Crown business with
him in , at Monmouth.
A meeting of the magistrates has this evening taken place at the Mackworth
Arms, at which were present, Mr. Talbot,
M.P., Mr.
L.W. Dillwyn, Mr. Dl. Llewelyn, Mr. Vivian,
M.P.,
Dr. Hewson, Mr. T.E. Thomas,
Mr. John Grove, Rev. J.
Collins, Rev. S. Davies,
Colonel Jones, and others. Colonel Love and Captain Napier were, we
understand, at the conference.
One of the most important and startling events of the week is the seizure
of a case of arms: the case contained 12 rifles, and a quantity of
bullets, copper caps,
&c. This
dangerous and alarming consignment was directed to Mr. Griffith Vaughan,
landlord of the Pontardulais Inn, Carmarthenshire, one of the persons now out
on bail, charged with a participation in the pulling down of the Bwlgoed gate,
and the charge against whom is to be heard
. The Government had intimation of
the nature of the importation at the port of Swansea, and “stopt the supplies.”
It is currently bruited abroad that Sir James Graham has written a letter,
couched in anything but complimentary terms, to the authorities, for not
remanding, instead of liberating on bail, the parties brought before them last
week.
This great statesman, who wears the robe of office turned inside out, has no
just grounds for blaming magistrates who acted constitutionally. The right
hon. baronet may, perhaps,
like the Castlereagh doctrine of a “vigour beyond the law.”
That very disinterested demagogue, Feargus O’Connor, is said to be
here, from Merthyr, and it is also said that the men employed in the copper
works will “strike” at the forthcoming reduction in wages of 12½ per cent.
When I compare the wages of these men, say an average of £1 per week, and in
some instances, from £2 to £3, with the starving stipend of the colliers,
which is from 4 to 5 shillings per week, with 2 shillings for a boy, I think
the copper men are unreasonable; and in the present stagnant state of trade, I
deem it probable that the master smelters will not regret the turn-out, should
it come, as it is well known to every person conversant with the trade, that
they are absolutely losing by every ton of copper now made.
I hear this evening with extreme regret, that instead of setting at once about
a redress of grievances in Carmarthenshire, a rate of
3d in the pound is
about to be enforced for a rural police. I shall not write about the
expediency of the latter measure, but I am quite sure that heavy wrongs
promptly call for the former.
Scores of the small farmers and the suffering peasantry are in a deplorable
state–
“Need and oppression stare within their eyes,
Contempt and beggary hang upon their backs;
The world is not their friend, nor the world’s law.”
