STATE OF THE COUNTRY. .
WE have again felt ourselves-called on, from the importance of the subject, to devote a large portion of our Paper to an account of the riots and disturbances that have taken place in various parts of the country. We think we may say with safety, that our anticie. pation of last week—that the tumults were dying down—has been realized. It is true, two or three fresh outrages of great magni- tude have been perpetrated. That at High 'Wycombe has occa- sioned more damage than any one 'previously recorded ; but it must not be mixed up with the incendiaries or the machine-breakers. in the agricultural districts. The crime was, in fact, committed by discharged workmen, and workmen, it is alleged, who had been discharged for their inefficiency. Such an insulated outrage might equally have happened in the most peaceful as in the most dis- turbed times. Ttie appointment of a; Special Commission for the trial of the rioters, announced in the Supplement to the Gazette of Friday last—the issuing of circulars from .the Home Office, calling on the County Magistrates to -a resolute and active discharge of their duty—these symptoms of determination on the part of the Government, together with their consequences—in- creased vigilance throughout the country, and a growing convic- tion in the actors, that the game which the labourers were playing could not fail to be a losing one—have led to the result which we feel sincere pleasure in noticing. We shall be as much surprised as grieved if we be called on again to devote so much space to a record of the crimes and follies of our countrymen.
SURRY.—On Sunday, a large hay-stack belonging to Mr. Howorth, Can Hatch, Banstead, was discovered to be on fire. While the inhabi- tants of the neighbouring hamlets were engaged in extinguishing the flames, another fire broke out in the other end of the parish, in the rick- yard of Mr. Turner. Two stacks of corn were in part destroyed in the latter case, but the exertions of the people, and the speedy arrival of the Carshalton engine, prevented further damage.
A petty session was held lately at Epsom ; when it was unanimously resolved to recommend to every district in the county the adoption of the most vigilant and strict measures for the discovery of incendiaries, and also the repression, by all legal means, of riotous and tumulttiary assemblages of people, held for the purpose of procuring reduction of rent or tithes, or increase of wages. The meeting recommended the swearing in of an additional number of special constables for that purpose, and ex- pressed itself at the same time most ready to concur in any plan of relief consistent with the general welfare. Subsequently a petty session has been held nt Brixton, when these resolutions were unanimously adopted, and a special recommendation made to the magistrates to inquire into the state of the agricultural and labouring poor of Camberwell, Lambeth, Clapham, and Streatham,-and to report from time to time their opinion on the same.
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