January 25—A police force, organised by the Worcester City Commissioners, with Inspector Sharpe at their head.
January—The Worcester Philharmonic Society, just formed, gave their first concert.
March 26—Mr. G. R. Robinson moved for a committee to revise the taxation of the country, and to inquire into the propriety of substituting a property tax in lieu of a great portion of it. The motion was defeated by the opposition of Government: 155 members, however, voted in its favour; amongst the minority being the Hon. H. B. Lygon and Sir Thomas Winnington.
April 8—The Worcestershire Natural History Society formed, at a meeting held at the Guildhall, Worcester, with Sir C. S. Smith, Bart., in the chair.
May 1—The Hirondelle coach, passing through Worcester, was driven from Liverpool to Cheltenham, a distance of 136 miles, in 9 hours and 33 minutes—14 miles an hour, including stoppages.
May 17—On Mr. W. Whitmore’s motion to substitute a fixed duty on corn for the alterative duties then in force, Mr. G. R. Robinson and Mr. R. Godson voted in the minority. Colonel Davies also paired off in favour of the motion.
June 6—Colonel Davies moved a vote of confidence in ministers, with reference to their conduct towards Portugal, which was carried by a majority of 263.
July 22—Funeral of the Earl of Plymouth, in Tardebigg Church. The whole of the Yeomanry were assembled on the occasion, and great crowds gathered to witness the procession. The burial service was performed by the Lord Bishop of Worcester, assisted by the vicar of Tardebigg, the Right Hon. and Rev. Lord Aston.
September 9—The Government Commissioners made their inquiries at Worcester into the Charter and Corporation of the city. The forty-eight members of the old Corporation were, of course, self-elected, and the nomination virtually rested with a few of the body. They rigidly excluded all professional men and all Dissenters. The income of the body was stated to the Commissioners to be £2,100 per annum, and the expenditure about £2,000; this included subscriptions and donations for charitable purposes, amounting to about £300 a year. It was accidentally discovered, during the inquiry, that the sword bearer charged one penny per pot on all fruit brought into the market, though the toll was only one farthing. A complaint was made that the £20 charged upon persons, not freemen, who wished to trade within the limits of the city, had the effect of discouraging young men from entering upon small businesses.
October—The Bridgwater Treatises presented to the Rev. George Redford, by some members of the Worcester Literary and Scientific Institution, for “his just castigation of their scandalous libeller, ‘O. S.,’ for his refutation of the assertion ‘That the diffusion of useful knowledge leads to atheism,’ and for his defence of the anti-sectarian principles upon which the London University is founded.”