stable, to obtain a public meeting of the inhabitants, held their own meeting, at which Mr. Edward Baxter presided, and adopted a congratulatory address to her Majesty on her victory. It was presented by Messrs. Wooller and Hobhouse. The opposite party, who had already by their counter-requisition prevented the holding of a meeting sanctioned by the authorities, now (December 9) held a meeting in the Police-office, at which they agreed upon an address to the King, and obtained three thousand approving signatures. Her Majesty's triumph was celebrated with great joy by one party, who illuminated their shops and houses.

It is stated in the journals of 1821 that Sir Walter Scott passed through Manchester on the 9th. April, and on the 30th. June that "the Right Honourable the Earl of Wilton, second son of Earl Grosvenor, and grandson of the late Earl Wilton of Heaton House, near this town, took the oaths and his seat in the House of Lords as a Peer on Friday last." On Thursday the 29th. November his Lordship married Mary Stanley, daughter of the late Earl of Derby, at Huyton Church, near Knowsley, her Ladyship being in her twenty-first and his Lordship in his twenty-second year.

The years 1825-6 were unhappily remarkable for more severe distress than any which had occurred since, or probably during, the war. Many country bankers, unable to sustain the pressure upon them, stopped payment; distance did not destroy these influences here. The Chamber of Commerce applied to Government for a loan of Exchequer bills to relieve the manufacturers, and it was shortly afterwards announced that the Bank of England had authorized the Chamber to grant the loan of sums from £500 to £10,000, on goods or personal security. The number of bankruptcies through the country was enormous, and the stagnation of trade everywhere such as to occasion the most poignant suffering to the working

classes-suffering which was the more severe because the previous great activity in business had given them no warning to lay up provision for an evil day. A meeting was held in Manchester for the purpose of obtaining a subscription to relieve the distressed operatives; soup-shops were opened, and fourteen thousand persons were weekly assisted with soup, meal, peas, &c. Although the inhabitants of all classes contributed liberally to the privisionfund, it was found totally inadequate to the calls made upon it, and a meeting was therefore held in the metropolis for procuring further aid. His Majesty, George IV., gave £2,000, and many of the Ministry followed the liberal example; Sir R. Peel subscribed £500, Mr. (the present Sir Robert) Peel, £300; the Marquis of Stafford, £1,000. In a very few days £ 60,000 were obtained, and very large augmentations were afterwards made to the fund, which was voted in small sums, and at various times, to the places most severely affected by the panic. Subsequently about forty thousand articles of clothing were issued from the government-stores for the assistance of our own poor and the needy of several other towns; nearly £20,000, arising from the local subscription and the auxiliary fund in London, were spent in provisions in Manchester, and in 1826 some thousands of the unemployed were put to work on the roads. In some parts of the country human beings were yoked like cattle to waggons, but this practise was rather resorted to for the purposes of unwise excitement than from the existence of any necessity for so extreme a measure. Unfortunately the poorer classes in various towns, and in this as elsewhere, were led into the commission of serious breaches of the peace early in the year 1826. In May, several riots occurred. Factories were attacked by mobs, and an attempt was made to destroy, by fire, that of Mr. Hugh

Beever. So alarming was the aspect of affairs in Manchester, that it more than once occupied the attention of the Cabinet Council, and the issue was, on the one hand the meeting already named to open a subscription, and on the other the marching of large bodies of troops into the most unquiet districts. At the autumn Assize between forty and fifty rioters were tried and convictedmany of them of a capital offence. The local and county taxation was increased greatly by the operation of this commercial embarrassment. In the township of Manchester the rate for the relief of the poor, which in 1824 was only two shillings in the pound, was in 1826 and 1827 five shillings. The county rate was similarly affected: in 1821 it was only £51,395; in 1824 it rose to £ 69,641, and in 1826 it amounted to £102,204. The issue of local notes was said to have had a tendency to produce the panic, and a return was obtained, in confirmation of that opinion, from which it appeared that the issue by country banks was, in 1820-of one and two pound notes, £1,728,186; and the total issue £ 3,493,901; whilst in 1825, the former amounted to £3,251,499, and the total to £8,755,307. According to a recent statement, however, the notes of private banks circulating on the 26th. December, 1835, was £8,334,863, and of Joint Stock Banks, £2,799,551: total, £11,134,414. In connexion with this subject it may be mentioned as an extraordinary fact, that in 1828 the utmost alarm was excited by an intimation that one of the most respectable private banks in Manchester had it in contemplation to issue its own notes. A public meeting was forthwith called "to prevent the possible introduction of a local note circulation in this town and neighbourhood," and resolutions were passed so strongly condemnatory of the intention, that no notes appeared. Since that time opinions have changed. There are now

Besides others in the immediate vicinity. All these issue their own notes. The first on the list was projected in 1826,* (the year in which the Bank of England opened its branch in Manchester) and the eagerness for speculation in banks which has ever since been evinced may be judged from the fact, that in one of the most recently-established there were applications for one hundred and twenty-six thousand shares, whilst the number to be created was only twenty-four thousand!

Other remarkable events transpired in the memorable years 1825-6. On the 29th. August a dinner was given to Lord Bexley. In the earlier part of the year a strong conflict arose on the building and furnishing of the new Parliamentary Churches: meetings were held at the Collegiate Church, at one of which it was proposed that, instead of silver, a pewter communion-service should be provided for the rising edifices. The inhabitants of Manchester took a lively interest in the mysterious circumstances connected with the death of Francis Dukinfield Astley, Esq., and the subsequent judicial investigation, but it does not pertain to the present undertaking to refer more particularly to that painful event. The murder of Mr. Price, a manufacturer, in his warehouse in Marsden Square, at mid-day on the 10th. February, 1826, attended by the simultaneous firing of the premises, excited a strong sensation throughout the town. His warehouseman, James Evans, was put upon trial at Lancaster for wilful murder, but the Jury acquitted him. The abduction of

* The issue of notes has been comparatively recent.

Miss Turner in March, 1826, is connected with the locality thus far, that Mr. Wakefield brought his victim to the Albion Hotel, in Piccadilly, and that William Wakefield was in custody here, but was liberated on entering into recognizance to the amount of two thousand pounds. In May his brother was examined at Disley and committed for trial. William Wakefield not appearing at the Lancaster autumn Assize,* his recognizance was forfeited, and a bench-warrant issued for his apprehension. In the succeeding March the two brothers stood their trial, and were eventually sentenced to three years' imprisonment Edward Gibbon Wakefield in Newgate, and William in Lancaster Castle. In the same year an Act was obtained annulling the alleged marriage. At the Spring Assize for 1828 judgment was given in a tithecause pending between the Warden and Fellows of the Collegiate Church and their lessee, Mr. Joule, they claiming tithe in kind on hay, milk, potatoes, the agistment of ley cattle, gardens, &c.: it was decided that the parishioners were liable to all these demands, except the tithe in kind on gardens, orchards, poultry, &c.

On Tuesday, the 7th. October, the first Manchester Musical Festival of modern days-for many such had been held in earlier times upon a less extensive scale— took place. It was a season of general and delightful relaxation, in which all the wealthier classes of the district participated, and its enjoyment was perpetuated by the fact that it brought to the coffers of those charitable institutions which adorn and dignify the town the liberal

The trial of the two M'Keans at this Assize, for a murder at a village tavern at Winton, near the line of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, was regarded with much interest, They were convicted and hanged. Another cause which attracted considerable attention was one at the suit of Sir O. Mosley, Lord of the Manor, against Mr. Walker, a fishmonger, for an infrac tion of his manorial rights. In the course of the trial (which went in favour of Sir Oswald) it was stated that he had within a few years expended £20,000 in improving his markets.