also decided to form an association which was known as the Central Norfolk Society for the Protection of Agriculture, and was affiliated to the British Agricultural Protection Association, an organization which worked in opposition to the Anti-Corn Law League.
2.—A meeting was held at St. Andrew’s Hall, Norwich, in pursuance of a requisition addressed to the Mayor, stating that “her Majesty’s Ministers had been guilty of an act of gross and wanton injustice and spoliation in depriving the freemen of this and other cities and boroughs of their vested municipal rights; that by their unremitting endeavours to uphold and perpetuate in all their unmitigated harshness and severity the heartless and oppressive provisions of the new Poor Law they had evinced an utter disregard to the wants, feelings, and rights of the poor, and that their recent attempts to deprive the colonial and agricultural interests of the empire of a just protection under the specious and delusive pretext of supplying a deficiency in the revenue which their own mismanagement had occasioned, had rendered them wholly unworthy of the confidence of the country.” Between two thousand and three thousand persons were present, and the greatest confusion prevailed, owing to the action of a large body of Chartists, led by the notorious John Dover. It was proposed that Col. Harvey should take the chair, but the Chartists elected one Matthew Smith, a working man. On the latter assuming the presidency of the meeting, Col. Harvey, Mr. Bignold, and other gentlemen left the hall. A number of resolutions of a revolutionary character were adopted, and Dover, at the conclusion of the meeting, congratulated his followers on the success of the gathering, remarking that “it had cost the Tories £20 for bills, and the Whigs £20 for bullies.” The proceedings, which were of a very orderly character, concluded with three cheers for Fergus O’Connor. Meanwhile the gentlemen who had convened the original meeting adjourned to the Norfolk Hotel, where they passed a series of resolutions emphasising the statements contained in the requisition. During the whole of the proceedings the hotel was besieged by a riotous mob, several serious assaults were committed, and on the 3rd some of the rioters were charged before the magistrates.
9.—Litcham Races took place on this date. Among the other local meetings was that at East Dereham, on June 23rd, where the commencement of the sport was announced by the ringing of the church bells, and the cup was won by Mr. Column’s c.g. Day Star. The trophy “weighed 41 oz., and contained by admeasurement eight pints of Howard’s sparkling champaign, which the fortunate winner twice filled, and the company partook of it with true English feeling.” The Yarmouth meeting took place on July 20th and 21st, the Norfolk and Norwich Races were held on Mousehold Heath, Norwich, on September 8th and 9th, and Swaffham Races on September 15th.
19.*—“For nearly the middle of June, so cold a season has never perhaps been experienced as during all last week. Fires and great coats were in general requisition, and coachmen and guards were to be seen muffled up as if we had been in the depth of winter.”
28.—The Marquis of Douro and Mr. Benjamin Smith, the retiring members, were nominated for the representation of Norwich in Parliament. Dover, the Chartist, nominated a third candidate, Mr. William Eagle, of Lakenheath, Suffolk. “Conservatives and Whigs, in
the show of hands, voted against Eagle, and the Sheriff declared the Marquis of Douro and Mr. Smith duly elected.” Dover thereupon demanded a poll for Eagle, but was unable to deposit one-third of the expense (about £200). The proceedings were temporarily adjourned. “Dover then went out of the room, and, after the lapse of half an hour, something took place which our readers will guess by the result. When Dover came back there was no further demand for a poll—we believe Dover received £50 to withdraw the nomination.” The rumour quickly spread among the Chartists that Dover had “sold” them. The mob waylaid him in Dove Lane, and he retreated to the Guildhall for protection. The windows of the room in which he was supposed to have taken refuge were demolished by the stones thrown by the mob, and the police who went out to quell the disturbance were assailed by volleys of brickbats and other missiles. The 7th Dragoon Guards were called out, the Mayor read the Riot Act, and in the excitement and confusion Dover left the Guildhall unnoticed. On the 29th the Chartists assembled in force and went to the King’s Head, St. George’s Colegate, where Dover lived with a woman named Charlotte Humphrey. They burst into the house and found him armed with his Chartist weapons, which were wrested from him; he was knocked down, brutally belaboured, and hurried to the river, and would have been thrown from the bridge had it not been for the piteous intercession of one of his children. The mob were moving towards the Market Place with their prisoner when he was rescued by the police. At the same time a detachment of dragoons, commanded by Cornet Crofts, with the Mayor at their head, rode up, a coach was procured, and Dover, having been placed inside, was conveyed, under military escort, to the City Gaol, where his serious injuries were attended to by the surgeon of the prison. On the 30th several persons appeared before the magistrates and were punished for taking part in the disturbances. Public tranquillity was somewhat restored the same day by a procession in which “Philip Augustus, the musical pieman,” and “Jerry, the lucifer match seller, in a military costume, with an immense plume of feathers in his cap,” were “chaired.”
28.—Lord George Bentinck and Sir Stratford Canning were returned unopposed for the borough of King’s Lynn.
—Mr. W. Wilshere, Mr. C. E. Rumbold, Mr. Thomas Baring, and Mr. Joseph Soames were nominated candidates for the representation of Yarmouth. The proceedings were marked by great disorder. The polling, on the 29th, resulted as follows:—Wilshere, 945; Rumbold, 943; Baring, 501; Soames, 494. The two first named were declared elected.
30.—Thetford election took place. The Hon. W. Bingham Baring (Conservative), 86; Lord Euston (Whig), 71; Sir James Flower (Conservative), 71. Before a Committee of the House of Commons, on May 4th, 1842, a petition was presented on behalf of Sir James Flower, on the ground that several votes polled for Lord Euston were bad, as the voters had lost their qualifications. His lordship declined to take any part in these proceedings. The objection against one voter having been sustained, Sir James Flower was placed in a majority, and the Committee then passed the following resolution:—“That the Right Hen. Henry FitzRoy, commonly called the Earl of Euston, was not duly elected member for the borough of Thetford; that Sir James Flower,
Bart., was duly elected, and ought to have been returned; and that the Committee have altered the poll by striking off the vote of William Burlingham from the poll of the Earl of Euston.”