fat Vrobintts.
The Anti-Corn-law League again invaded the agricultural county of Kent, on Saturday; the point of attack being the metropolitan city, Canterbury. Just before the meeting, another one was held by about four hundred agriculturists, at the Corn Exchange, to determine the course to be taken by their party ; Sir Brooke Brydges, Chairman of the East Kent Agricultural Association, presiding. Several persons wished that Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden should be invited to discuss the question before that meeting ; but a resolution was carried, " That the farmers of East Kent do not consider it expedient to enter upon the discussion of the Corn-laws at a meeting called by or at the request of any person unconnected with the county." Mr. G. P. R. James, the novelist, seconded this resolution. The Morning Chronicle, however, reports, that when the Corn Exchange meeting broke up, nearly the whole of the assemblage did proceed to the Cattle-market, where about 3,000 persons had assembled to hear the Anti-Corn-law deputation ; who were accompanied on the hustings by Sir John Tylden, Mr. Plum- mer, Mayor of Canterbury, Alderman Brent, several other members of the Corporation, and many resident agriculturists of the district. Sir John Tylden was called to the chair. Speeches from Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden having been heard, and some questions put by Mr. Webb, a Chartist, having been answered, Alderman Brent proposed a reso- lution in favour of free trade ; which was carried, with few dissentients.
A meeting of merchants, manufacturers, bankers, and others, was held at Birmingham, on 'Wednesday, to consider the state of the manu- facturing districts and their trade. Mr. Richard Spooner was called to the chair. He explained the object of the meeting ; and stated that Ministers, in replying to a communication from the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, and more recently to the deputation of iron- masters, attributed the distress to over-production and over-trading, with the intimation, that by ceasing to produce, things would find their natural level, but they held out no prospect of direct relief. Mr. T. C. Salt moved a voluminous resolution, as the basis of a memorial to the Queen, setting forth that Ministers had imputed the distress to over- production and over-trading ; that that declaration was tantamount to a positive instruction to masters to dismiss their workpeople ; that in such case the labourers and their employers would become non-consumers in proportion as they became non-producers, since diminished consump- tion always overtakes diminished production ; demanding inquiry ; and arraigning the Currency Act of 1819 as the main cause of the national calamities. Mr. Salt, followed by Mr. C. H. Bracebridge, of Brace- bridge Hall, enlarged on the mischiefs of the restricted gold currency. Mr. Goddard objected to merely reechoing what had been done by them before ; and be moved a long string of resolutions, averring that the producing classes had for a series of years been most grievously oppressed, attributing the distress to bad legislation, declaring that there WS no relief to be hoped for except in the repeal of all taxes imposed
since 1790, and pronouncing the Government responsible for maintain- ing the welfare of the productive classes. Mr. Counsellor Baldwin seconded the amendment ; remarking, that the true reasons of the dis- tress were over-taxation and want of proper representation. Mr. Ed- monds, referring to the ill success of previous communications with Government, and the handle which dissension as to remedies among a deputation had afforded to Lord Melbourne, objected to the suggestion of specific causes and remedies ; as he would throw the whole respon- sibility of discovering both on Ministers themselves. To which end, he moved the following resolution, as a second amendment-
" That Ministers having declared they have no remedy for the distresses of the country, a requisition to the Mayor be prepared and signed, requesting him to convene a public meeting, to agree to a memorial to her Majesty to dismiss her Ministers, on the express ground that they had admitted that there are no measures within their power to relieve the present alarming embarrassments, and that the cause of the distress was over-production."
Mr G. F. Muntz, the Member, supported the last motion with an account of an interview that he had with Sir Robert Peel ; at which he asked the Minister whether he would assent to the appointment of a Select Committee in the House of Commons to inquire into the dis- tress, and Sir Robert withheld his assent, because he did not see that any good was to be obtained from a Committee : so it was clear that. Sir Robert Peel never would yield his views to the views of any other man. The motions being put successively, Mr. Goddard's was rejected by a large majority ; Mr. Edmonds's carried by a still greater majo- rity, amid loud cheering ; and the requisition to the Mayor was signed at once.
The state of South Wales remains without material alteration. The turn-out of the men at the various copper-works continues ; several conferences between them and their employers—at which the masters declared that they could not continue incurring the loss occasioned by the old rate of wages, and the men that they could not live on the re- duced rate—having had no satisfactory result. The Chartists are astir in the district : they were to have had a meeting, at the Trades Hall of Swansea, on Monday ; but the authorities interposed, the proprietors of the Hall withdrew their sanction, and the meeting was indefinitely postponed. The offer of rewards for the conviction of persons engaged in the late toll-bar riots having failed, Government have added the offer of a pardon to actual rioters turning informers.
The dispute between Lord Brougham and the Birds has probably been settled by the result of a trial at Appleby Assizes, on Friday. It was an action for trespass, brought by Mr. Robinson, a farmer and tenant of Lord Brougham, against Thomas Bird, Adam his son, and Mr. Irving, an auctioneer. Sir Thomas Wilde, Mr. Stuart Wortley, Mr. Roebuck, and Mr. Cowling appeared for the plaintiff; Mr. Knowles for the defendants; who had entered a stable belonging to Mr. Robin- son and seized a horse, under a distress-warrant for rent, with a view of compelling Lord Brougham to prove his title to the estate annexed to Brougham Hall. The Birds subsequently took possession of the Hall ; and, no doubt, said Sir Thomas Wilde, expected that Lord Brougham would submit to some gross extortion. A title to land cannot be tried by seizing for rent ; but Mr. Robinson was prepared to sustain Lord Brougham's right ; which was thus stated by Sir Thomas— From the very earliest period of English history, the Burghams Browhams, or Broughams, were in possession of this property : in the time of Henry the Second it belonged to the Brougham family. James Bird acquired some in terest in the estate prior to 1726, whether as mortgagee, or in what other way, did not clearly appear. In 1726, James Bird, an attorney, was the owner of Brougham Hall, and of the demesnes and lands therewith connected. That person left two granddaughters. These two sold the interest of the Birds to Lord Brougham's ancestor, his great-great-uncle, for 5,0001.; and so brought back the estate that formerly belonged to the family. The defendant Thomas Bird, who had of late been beggieg and borrowing all over the country, affect- ing to have some claim or other to the property in question, was able to show no sort of relationship or title to the property.
Witnesses were produced, including Mr. Thomas Robinson, the son of the plaintiff, who described the trespass; and Mr. William Brougham,. Lord Brougham's brother, who proved that the estate had been in pos- session of their father, who died in 1810, all his life. No defence was offered. In summing up, Mr. Justice Wightman remarked, that pos- session of the estate had been proved for one hundred and seventeen years, and it was very seldom that so strong a title could be made out.. He explained to the Jury, that the object of the action was not to recover damages ; and directed them to return a verdict for the plaintiff, with any amount of damages that they might think reasonable under the circumstances. They returned a verdict accordingly, with 40s. damages.
Afterwards, in the Criminal Court, Thomas, Isaac, Peter, John, and Adam Bird, with Thomas Bird, a nephew of the elder Thomas, were. charged with forcibly entering Brougham Hall on the 23d May. They offered no defence. Sir Thomas Wilde, on the part of Lord Brougham, did not press for punishment, but consented that sentence should be postponed, to be carried into effect in case they were guilty of any fu- ture breach of the law. They were discharged on their own recog- nizances, with an admonition from the Judge.
At Stafford, on Saturday, Arthur O'Neil, the Chartist preacher, was convicted, under various counts, of sedition ; the occasion being the delivery of his inflammatory speech at Rowley Regis, on the 26th An- gust 1842; and he was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment in the County Gaol at Stafford.
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