Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria.
SATISFACTORY RESULTS
Whitehall, 18th August 1842.
(Thursday morning.)
Sir Robert Peel presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs leave to acquaint your Majesty that he returned to London last night.
He has this morning gone through all the letters received from the country, with Sir James Graham, by whom the details of the information will be forwarded to your Majesty.
It appears to Sir Robert Peel that the general tenor of the reports is satisfactory. From Manchester, from Wigan, from Preston, the reports are very good.
The movement is not one caused by distress. The demand for employment has increased, and the price of provisions—and particularly of potatoes, bread, and bacon—has rapidly fallen within the last fortnight or three weeks.
People of property and the Magistrates (notwithstanding their political dissensions) are now acting in harmony, and with more energy.
Orders have been sent to apprehend the Delegates assembled in Manchester, the very moment that the law will warrant their apprehension, and Sir Robert Peel should not be surprised to hear of their committal to Lancaster Castle in the course of to-day.
Every vigilance will be exerted with reference to Cooper73 (whom your Majesty names) and all other itinerant agitators.