24 AUGUST 1839, Page 6

We regret to state, that the condition of the agricultural

labourers in Wiltshire is butt little, if at all, better than it was in the winter and spring. Bread, made of smutty wheat and of barley, with very low wages, was their portion then ; now, notwithstanding the impetus that has or should have been given to agriculture by the high prices result •

g from the Corn-laws, pretty nearly the same description of food pad the same rate of wages prevail. We have now lying belbre us a loaf of bread, part of the store of a labouring man in one of the Southern parishes of this county, which, although neither so black nor 6o bad as some we had occasion to notice early in the spring, is never- theless far from good, and in our belief unwholesome : it is made from wheat which, in addition to being smutty, has also been further injured by being mow-burnt. For this very ordinary wheat, the consumer, Rho is a thresher with a large fluidly, four of whom are quite young, Pays 7s a bushel: the earnings of man are only 88. a week; with such wages how can he procure better food ? It must not be imagined that this is a solitary instance ; many more might be recorded front the same neighbourhood.—Wiltshire Independent. Trade in Manchester is very bad, and the operatives in great num- bers are idling about the districts. Many are thrown out of employ- ment in consequence of having taken prominent parts in the riots, and others from the depression of trade, the cotton-masters being compelled to shut up their mills three days in the week. No less than flirty mills are standing idle three days out of the six. There have been some at- tempts at rioting at Hindley, near Wigan, and at Chorley, to which places the Lancashire cavalry have been despatched, and sonic of the infantry; which ended, however, without bloodshed, and by a capture of a number of the Chartists, who have been committed to Kirkdale Gaol for trial. At Westhoughton, near Bolton, during the holyday week, the mob determined upon stopping the coal-mines ; in which they succeeded, Several of the rioters so engaged ware apprehended at midnight at their homes on Monday night, and on Tuesday they were brought before the Bench of Magistrates at Bolton. The con- stables had warrants for the apprehension of fourteen persons ; but the principal leaders had absconded. All the prisoners were held to bail.— Times Correspondent.