"I, Thomas Goodman, once herd of one Mr. Cobbit going a Bout gaveing out lactuers; at length he came to Battel and gave one their, and there was a gret number of Peopel came to hear him and i went: he had A verry long conversation concerning the states of the country, and telling them that they war verrey much impose upon, and he said he would show them the way to gain their rights and liberals, and he said it would be very Proper for every man to keep gun in his house, espesely young men, and that they might prepare themselves in readyness to go with him when he called on them, and he would show them wich way to go on, and he said the peopel might expect fire as well as other places.—this is the truth and nothing But the truth of A deying man.
"Thomas Goodman."
There was a very curious case connected with these agrarian riots, which occurred at the Special Commission at Salisbury, where Isaac Locker was indicted for sending a threatening letter to John Rowland, in these words—
"Mr. Rowland, Haxford Farm.—Hif you goes to sware against or a man in prisson, you have here farm burnt down to ground, and thy bluddy head chopt off."
Some evidence was produced to show that the prisoner, in his conversation, had justified the machine-breakers and fire-raisers, and that the magistrates and military, who disturbed the proceedings of the mobs, were the only breakers of the peace; but the case turned on the question, whether the letter was in the handwriting of the prisoner. Locker was found guilty, and the judge, in spite of the man's asseverations of his innocence, sentenced him to transportation for life.
The judge and jury retired for some refreshment, and in their absence, the man's son, Edward Locker, came forward and declared that he had written that and other letters. The judge expressed his surprise that this evidence had not been brought before him previously, and proceeded to try the prisoner on two similar indictments, when his son got into the witness box and testified that the letters were in his handwriting. The trial ended in the father's acquittal on those two counts, and the judge said that he would lose no time in getting the former conviction and sentenced quashed. An indictment was immediately prepared, and found against the son, to which he pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to transportation for seven years.
The Special Commission ended its labours on the 15th of January, having hanged many rioters, and sentenced very many more to long terms of transportation.
Besides Cobbett, there was a noted atheist, named Richard Carlile, who is still looked upon as a persecuted martyr by Freethinkers. On the 10th of January, he was indicted at the Old Bailey for having written and published two seditious libels—one tending to bring the Crown into disrepute, and the other, which was addressed to the insurgent agricultural labourers, tending to produce an insurrection among the labouring and agricultural population. He was acquitted on the first, but found guilty on the second count, and he was sentenced to pay a fine to the King of £200, be imprisoned in the Compter of the City for the space of two years, and at the expiration of that time, to find sureties for ten years to come, himself in £500, and two sureties in £250 each, and to be imprisoned until such fine was paid, and such sureties provided.
The question of the reform of Parliament was now taken in hand seriously, and it was not before it was needed. The expenses attendant on elections were something enormous. The Leeds Mercury, quoted in the Times of August 30, 1830, speaking of the county of Yorkshire, says—
"At the great contested Election of 1807 the expenses of the three candidates amounted to a quarter of a million—and, at the Election for 1826, when there was no contest, but only a preparation for one, the four candidates had to pay £150,000."