As I mentioned , the Cambrian published an editorial that chided Welsh magistrates for not suppressing the Rebecca movement more forcefully and for not immediately calling in the military when it became evident they were not powerful enough to do so.
This prompted a letter-to-the-editor from one of those magistrates in which he defended their course of action and explained that the nation’s military had no great enthusiasm for becoming the toll collectors of Wales:
To the Editor of The Cambrian.
.
Sir, — Having this instant seen your paper of
, I lose no time in endeavouring
to remove an impression which you have circulated, in the leading article
contained therein.
You specifically charge the Magistrates acting for the hundred of Derllys and
Narbeth, with a want of energy, promptitude, and
decision, at the commencement of the unfortunate and disgraceful
proceedings which have for some months, and still continue,
to agitate and alarm the peaceable inhabitants of the Principality with
unabated violence, and which has attained a height that makes it difficult to
say where it will end, and which causes considerable alarm as to the safety of
both life and property.
I therefore calculate with confidence, you will, when you are in possession of
the facts of the case, with that liberality for which you are so justly
characterized, do an act of justice towards those Magistrates, upon
whom you have, I am quite certain, unintentionally cast such an
unmerited imputation and stigma.
The facts of the case are simply these; — In , a meeting was called at
St. Clears, which was attended
by five Magistrates, three of whom acted for both counties, when an
investigation of the different outrages perpetrated upon the turnpike-gates
and toll-houses in the two counties, was fully gone into, and every attempt on
their part made to explain, remedy, and
conciliate the farmers, entered upon; but,
unfortunately, the evil was too deeply rooted; and it was quite manifest,
matters were in that state, and the combination and organization of Rebecca
and her daughters (so called) so cemented and formidable, as to set at utter
defiance any attempt of the Magistrates to restore order and tranquility, or
in any way to repress the lawless proceedings then in operation; — when it was
unanimously agreed, that a communication of the inadequate and insufficient
means of quieting the insurrectionary movements, without the aid of military
to assist the civil power, should be made to the Lord-Lieutenant of the
County, and that an application should be made through him to the Secretary of
State for the Home Department, to that effect; also, that Government should
offer such a reward as would, upon the conviction of the offenders, enable any
party, giving such evidence, to remove to a distant country, as such person’s
life would be insecure in that district. This communication was signed, and
forwarded to the Lord-Lieutenant, as was also, a letter to the same effect to
one of the Members for the county, requesting him to have an interview with
Sir James Graham upon this painful subject, which was immediately done, and as
far as my recollection goes, was met by her Majesty’s Secretary of State in
the following reply:– “Her Majesty’s Government do not feel authorized to
offer a high reward; and it cannot be recommended to turn the
Military into Toll-collectors.”
If, therefore, any blame there be, I do most positively assert, that such
blame is not in any shape attributable to the Five
Magistrates who took an active part in the affair, although others
there may be, who pitifully shrunk out of all responsibility
in the hour of need.
I am, Sir,
One of the Magistrates acting for the Counties of Pembroke and Carmarthen.
