28th February 1817: The Tory Leicester Journal calls the growing political reform movements 'political Luddism'

In the last page will be found the Report of the Committee of Secrecy to the House of Commons—we inserted the one to the House of Peers in our last.—The Reports confirm all that we have, from time to time, said upon the subject. There has been an extensive correspondence carried on between clubs and individuals in London, and the disaffected in the country. There is only this difference, that it appears that there have been two or three associations in London, who have not been nominally connected, and which have some shades of difference, but if not nominally connected, they have all been labouring in the same cause; and have poured and united flood of sedition over the populace of London and the manufacturing and commercial parts of the country. We have said, that the agents in all the principal places, where their plans have taken effect, were the old Jacobins, who had been formerly put down by Government, and who had been lying in wait for a favourable opportunity opportunity to exert themselves. The characters drawn in the Report of the most active agents and their measures have no doubt on this head. Their profane scoffings at religion; their attempts to destroy its influence and restraints, in order to fit those they had deluded into instruments desperate enough for their purposes, with the avowal of malignant designs against Kings and Aristocrats, brand the Jacobin character into their foreheads. We have said, that the plan was to make use of the distress of the poor in large towns and manufacturing districta, and this is made out. Clubs, of different names, but having substantially the same object, and corresponding with each other, and with the leading clubs in London, have been very extensively formed; the Reports say in some counties, in almost every village, and this we know to be the fact. These clubs are united, in most instances, by oaths; and, in all, the most rebellious purposes are, without scruple, avowed in the daily conversation of their members. Subscriptions have been raised for the purchase and circulation of inflammatory, seditious, and blasphemous writings; by which, and the active persuasions of idle and dissolute fellows, who are supported for the purpose of seducing the distressed poor  to join their combinations, the clubs have been extended; or the lower classes, in many places, inflamed against the Government, and disposed to acts of outrage.—We have compared these factions to the Luddites;—We need not advert to the fact well known and acknowledged where Luddism took its first rise, that the Jacobinized principles of the operative weavers of Nottingham and its vicinity, more early and more deeply corrupted than in any other part, originated this horrid plot to control, by outrage and assassination, those who employed them—The insolence of these men grew up with their Jacobinical malignity to all above them; and finally issued, where all Jacobinism will issue, in deeds of dark atrocity and blood. This is not, however, the proof of resemblance we mean; the correspondence of the ends and means of political Luddism, and of weaving Luddism, is the proof. Manufacturing Luddism is a plot to bring the master manufacturers under the direction of their journeymen, both as to the prices of labour and the machinery used. To effect this, secret societies are organized, and held together by oaths; the means are, the destruction of machinery, and the assassination of obnoxious masters; whilst vengeance is declared against all who are enemies to the association. In what does political Luddism differ? It is a plot to bring government under the control of a mob, dignified with the name of "the people," to make the very lowest of the population the arbiters of peace and war, the framers of new constitutions, and the frame breakers of the machinery of old ones. To accomplish this similar end, similar means are adopted: Secret societies are formed; they are bound together by horrid oaths; in some instances assassination has been attempted; in all, the members have been taught the right and duty of taking off the heads of their governors. Arms have been prepared, and used; organisation, with reference to insurrection, has taken place; and lists of proscribed victims have been made out. But there is a material difference between the manufacturing and the political Luddites. We have understood that the Luddites of Nottinghamshire have added plunder to their other atrocities. The genuine Luddites, we believe,—spurn the imputation with feelings of offended pride, as no part of that system. The reforming mobs, on the contrary, have, in some instances actually plundered, and in many, have given sufficient indication of their inclination to do so. The Luddites, though they have broken the frames, have never pretended to the right of possessing themselves of the property of their masters. They were still willing to work, though on their own terms, leaving the master to be master still, in full possession of his house, his trade, and his fortune. The reformers, however, carry their Luddism much further; their object is a division of the land, and the extinction of all great capitals, by sharing the general booty.

The Reports enter into the projects and proceedings of the Spafields assemblies, and the persons who promoted them; and show, what indeed no man can deny, that the meeting of December 2d was intended as a cover to an insurrection in London, which was to be the signal for tumultuous proceedings in the country had it succeeded; and which would unquestionably, have been attended with very mischievous consequences had it been deferred, as intended, till the evening. The whole was spoiled by the drunken precipitance of Watson the younger.

What measures ought to be adopted, in consequence of the existing state of things, we shall not presume to say: but that measures of a repressive kind ought to be adopted we have no doubt. The question is not, whether the right of petitioning shall be abridged; but whether plots against the country, and against every man in it who has security, liberty, and property to lose, shall be suffered to ripen. That the danger of an immediate subversion of government has been small, we are ready to allow; because society, at present, has too many bonds and cements to be shaken to pieces by the reformers. Too many of the people remain sound; and the whole of the respectable part of society, excepting some old democrats, and political fanatics, are from their interests, as well as principles, opposed to the reformers. The obvious unlikelihood of success has, indeed, been pleaded against the existence of a plot at all. But this is ridiculous. Men may argue from probability, but that does not annihilate facts; and the fact of an organized insurrection stands upon irresistible evidence. If the reformers themselves judged of things with as much coolness as the persons who thus argue, they would not have attempted insurrection on the 2d of December. But their heated fancy magnifies the importance of their cause; and their egregious concertedness the number of its abettors. The Jacobins of France were at first a small and contemptible party; but they had, like the returning faction, the address to appeal to the populace, and on their shoulders they wrote down all their rivals. The manufacturing Luddites were but few in number, yet their desperate character, joined to the false notion among the poor, that they were keeping up the price of labour, enabled them to keep, for a long time, whole districts in awe, and to prevent informations from being given. A system which spreads delusion among the ignorant, which turns the passions of men against government, except it be a republican one, which is essentially hostile to all those principles on which the constitution is founded, as understood by men of every party, except absolute democrats, cannot be suffered to run on to alienate the great body of the populace from the constitution, who, from their ignorance, are unable to detect the real intentions of their instigators. No government can suffer, or ought to suffer, this organization against itself. Let the right of petitioning remain untouched: but inflammatory public meetings, called by no authority, and affiliated societies, must be put down. It is the country which demands this from Government; it is demanded, not so much to protect Government, as the lives and property of the community.

25th January 1817: Both Nottinghamshire newspapers publish editorials about the 'Loughborough Job' arrests

On Saturday 25th January 1817, both Nottinghamshire newspapers published editorials with varying degrees of detail. 

From the Tory Nottingham Journal:

We congratulate our readers on the proceedings of last week, as respects the Luddites, and confidently anticipate that a death blow will shortly be given to that nefarious system, which has so long disgraced this town and neighbourhood, and has been of such incalculable injury to the manufacturer, the mechanic, and the public at large. We have reason to believe, that in consequence of the ample confession made by James Towle, immediately before his execution at Leicester, on the 20th November last, the ten men now in custody, charged with the outrage at Loughborough, have been apprehended. As there can be no lasting friendship amongst the wicked, it is not to be wondered at, that the link between these disturbers of the public peace have hitherto been held together, should be broken. These companions in iniquity are impeaching one another; and there is little doubt but the whole of their past proceedings, with the names of the principal actors, will soon be known to the Magistrates. We incline to think, indeed, that it is the case already, at least to a very considerable extent.

From the Nottingham Review:

We find that JAMES TOWLE, on the morning previous to his execution, made a full and particular disclosure, to the High Sheriff of Leicestershire, and to a Justice of the Peace for that county, of every person, directly or indirectly, concerned in the felony and destruction at Mr. HEATHCOAT’S factory at Loughborough, and of the Luddites in general, which has been kept secret until it could be made subservient to the ends of justice. He died penitent; assured the Gentlemen that what he had stated to them was true, observing, it could be of no service to him then to say what was false, and lamented that he had not made this discovery sooner, to have saved his life; his comrades are now dong so; the Luddites are impeaching one another, and the Magistrates are in possession, we are credibly informed, of their whole history. Of the 15 men now apprehended, ten are charged with the offence at Loughborough. It is hoped that the wicked and mischievous proceedings of the Luddites are now at an end: they have driven the best part of our manufactory from the town, and the destruction of the property employed in the trade, has injured the great bulk of the manufacturers and, the public in general. We hope and trust that the time will be revived, when the ingenuity and industry of our mechanics will again raise the trade of this Empire above the rest of the world; and we feel confident, that the skill of the workmen will be powerfully aided by the great capital this country can bring into trade, whenever it can be done with security, and the master and servant are free to make what contracts they may choose to enter into with each other. As none of the men have yet been examined before the Magistrates, we decline entering into further particulars until next week.

4th November 1816: Tory Nottingham Journal promises to go on the 'attack' against Luddism

Whilst we contemplate with satisfaction the exertions which are now making in order to give employment and afford relief to the peaceable and well-disposed part of the manufacturing and labouring poor, during the ensuring winter, it is no small pleasure to us to learn, that the inhabitants of the several villages in this disturbed part of of the country, no longer disposed to suffer the repeated attacks and outrages of a daring banditti, have at length determined to repel force by force. For this purpose, associations have been entered into, arms procured, signals agreed-upon, and measures taken, not only for defence, but for attack, pursuit, and to cut off the retreat of the depredators, and to bring them to justice. Desperate evils require desperate remedies; and as it is proposed to give large rewards to those who shall be the means of taking and securing any of the offenders, we have no doubt but a short time will put an effectual stop to these daring acts of iniquity. We forbear to say more on this subject at present.

25th September 1816: Large demonstrations of unemployed men occur in Leeds

On Wednesday 25th and Friday 27th September 1816, large demonstrations took place in Leeds, involving hundreds of unemployed men. The protests were against their predicament, but also directed at the publisher of the Tory Leeds Intelligencer, who had recently published editorials scoffing at the distress of the unemployed.

Both Leeds Newspapers carried reports and editorials about the demonstrations.

The Leeds Mercury of Saturday 28th September 1816 carried a long editorial:

On Wednesday last an assemblage of several hundred men, chiefly work-people out of employment, took place in front of the Leeds Intelligencer Printing Office, but after remaining in that situation for some time they separated, without committing any act of riot or excess. The motive of this meeting we have heard differently stated, but we believe the real object of the unfortunate people of whom it was composed, was to shew the town, and more especially to prove to the Printer of the Intelligencer, that the distress which has been felt and complained of in this town and district is a reality, and not, as he has indiscreetly and insultingly represented it, in his paper of the 16th instant, a mere "farce" and an "excellent joke." After the meeting in Cross-Parish a number of the people adjourned to the Workhouse, where the Committee, consisting of the guardians of the poor, was then sitting, and the applications for the relief of distressed families were on that day unusually numerous. 

In speaking of the public distress in this town, we have uniformly guarded with extreme caution against those exaggerations into which we think opposite sides have fallen. We have stated repeatedly, that according to our views, the Mayor's Letter to the Ministers of Religion in the town, coloured those distresses too highly; but his error was on the side of humanity; and we are far from thinking that he could be guilty of the folly of wishing to impart éclat to the conclusion of his mayoralty by seeking to obtain contributions for distress which had little or no existence. Such an insinuation it remained for those who condemn others for speaking disparagingly of authorities, to level against the chief magistrate of the borough. The truth of the declaration made from the hustings in Westminster we have also denied, not in degree, but to the extent. We have said, and we now repeat, that the distress is neither unequalled nor indescribable. But while we have combated these exaggerations on one side, we have with equal earnestness, and certainly with more feeling, denied pointedly and positively that the distress on which so much has been said, has no existence. Existence it unfortunately has, and to an extent too that no well regulated mind can contemplate without feelings of deep commiseration. But it is not sufficient that the public should feel; it is necessary that they should act; and we hope the time is not far distant, when the town of Leeds, properly convened, will have an opportunity of shewing that they are alive to the destitute state of  their distressed neighbours. In the mean time, it is the wisdom of men of all parties to sooth the public feelings, and to guard against those exaggerations, as well on one side as on the other, which are calculated only to convert into a subject of discussion, those misfortunes which it ought to be the business of all, by united efforts, to alleviate, if they cannot remove. 

It has been suggested to us, that all discussions on these subjects are prejudicial; and if he be meant all intemperate discussions, we fully concur in the truth of the observation. But if it be meant to deprecate all mention of the subject as well that which exaggerates as that which tends to place the matter in a sober and proper point of view, we must beg to express our decided dissent from such a proposition. Truth, humanity and justice, never suffer by investigation. The gloomy silence of studied suppression, is, if possible, more mischievous than even the language of violent discussion. It closes the door of hope. It appears like abandoning the cause of the poor in despair; and that we will never do while we have a mind to exercise and a pen to wield in their behalf. 

WHILE we are upon this subject, we must be excused, if we expose the extreme want of candour, and the palpable, and we will add, wilful misrepresentation that has taken place regarding the statements in our last paper. We never adduced as a proof of the public distress the fact that only 1046 men were out of employment in the whole of the West-Riding of Yorkshire; what we said was, that's 1043 men were out of employment in one particular department of a single branch of the woollen manufacture. It is dealing fairly with the public, is it honest towards the labouring classes, to make these wilful and deliberate perversions of the truth? Let any man of integrity answer that question. We did not, as a proof of public distress, say that an accumulated surplus of £400 was at this moment in the hands of the parish officers. What we did say was, that an accumulated surplus of £1800, which was in the treasury of the parish in May last, had since that time been reduced to £400. Are not these repeated efforts to deceive, a proof that they are a part of a system? and what must be done the nature of that cause that requires such support? 

It is in pursuit of this system, that the Dissenters of Leeds are represented as answering the solicitations of the Mayor "to contribute to the relief of their suffering brethren, with dry eyes and immovable countenances, quietly keeping their hands in their pockets, and protesting that they could not discover any objects on whom they could properly bestow their charity." Do the Dissenters deserve this reproach? Let the numerous charities in Leeds answer this question. Do they deserve, in a time like this, to be held up, in a public newspaper, as fit objects for popular indignation? Is this a just representation of their conduct, or of the language of the paper that might be supposed to speak their sentiments on the occasion in question? In the first place, the letter of the Mayor was not, as is here insinuated, confined to the Dissenters. It was sent also to the Clergy of the Established Church, who acted, and very properly acted, in the same way as the Dissenting Ministers. But is it true that "the organ of the party" denied the propriety of raising funds for the relief of the distressed? Did we not, on the contrary, recommend that the inhabitants of the town should be called together, "to devise a mode of relief, that should be, in some degree, commensurate with the distress it is meant to abate?" And yet our accusers have the unblushing effrontery to come forward and state publicly, that the propriety of raising funds, for the release of the distressed, was denied. We have long treated the calumnies and misrepresentations, flowing from the contaminated source in which these imputations originate, with silent contempt, and impunity has made the slanderers audacious. There have evidently been making an experiment upon public credulity, and endeavouring to compress into a focus the greatest possible mass of misrepresentation, calumny, and falsehood.

The same edition also had a shorter article about the demonstration on Friday:

Yesterday another assemblage of unemployed workmen took place in Briggate and Cross-Parish, from whence they proceeded to the Court-House, where the Magistrates were sitting, and paraded for some time in front of Park-Row. Though we are by no means dispose to censure these meetings with undue severity, the first of which might be considered in some degree necessary in order to prove by an argument the force of which could not well be resisted, the reality of the public distress; yet we must say, that we do not perceive any good, and we fear much ill, may arise from their repetition. We hope and believe, that no violence or outrage is intended; but all large bodies of men, assembled under such circumstances, resemble a magazine of combustibles, and who shall say that some incendiary hand, either from a mistaken zeal, or from worse motives, may not cast in a spark, the consequences of which would probably be less fatal to those without than those within the garrison? It is, we allow, a great evil for men that are willing to work to be unemployed; but there are still greater and more lasting evils. In a country like this, no man will be suffered to perish for want. The masters in general, are as anxious to give employment to their workmen as the men are to be employed. They have a common interest. One cannot be pinched by penury, but the other must be threatened with ruin. They are embarked in the same ship, and the crew may depend upon it that the officers will not suffer her to sink, if any effort of theirs can keep her afloat. The mess at present may be slender, but popular commotions would not strengthen it. We hope trade will soon begin to improve; we hear, indeed, that some alteration for the better has already taken place. In the mean time, the more opulent inhabitants of the town, will, we do not doubt, do their duty. There never yet was a well founded appeal made to them in vain. It is some consolation to know, that in many branches of trade work-people are tolerably well employed, among those may be ranked joiners, bricklayers, and handicrafts men in general; there are, to be sure, many exceptions, but the principal distress is found among those usually employed in the different branches of the woollen manufacture.

The Leeds Intelligencer posted the following editorial about what had occurred, and in response to the Leeds Mercury's comments:

In our Market-place, on Wednesday and Friday last, there was an assemblage of between three and four hundred men, who stated themselves to be out of work. They paraded in different places, but, we are happy to say, did not commit any violent acts of outrage. The general belief is, that the sole object of this assemblage was to convince us, that there were so many persons as composed it out of employment. 

As this belief is avowed by our opponents, we would ask, Why then, do they insidiously seize such a moment, to enter into a long strain of falsehood and declamation, in order to render us as odious as possible in the eyes are lower orders? They know we cannot treat them, in a reply, as they deserve, without the hazard of adding to that irritation which has already been excited, and which we are anxious to allay, not on our account, but for the sake of public tranquillity, and of the misguided men themselves, whose safety might be compromised by their own unthinking rashness. 

We have never contended that no distress whatever existed—that not any persons were out of employment;—this has, all along, been self-evident. What we have argued, and that merely in refutation of the Westminster Patriots, is, that the distress the poor, in this place, did not warrant the assertions of the redoubted Major Cartwright, and the truth of this is fully admitted, even by those who have taken the occasion to malign and misrepresent us. That even a single individual should be destitute of work, we lament as much as anyone—but we will not, though the task would not be difficult, cast back or recriminate the foul aspersions put upon us by our angry and insidious adversaries. 

To the proposal of those adversaries we fully agree, and are willing to abide by the judgment of an impartial public, which of the two has advocated the cause of Liberty, and which the cause of Licentiousness—which has contended for the honour of Britain, and which has supported the cause of her most inveterate enemies. In the real, unexaggerated distress of the labouring classes, and in the present depression of trade (which is not confined to this country, but which extends all over Europe, and even to America) we ever did, and ever shall, feel the deepest interest: and whatever our enemies may insinuate or threaten, we shall never be found wanting, as far as our feeble means allow, in giving our support to the cause of humanity. Have not our columns, on every agitation of great questions in commerce, and on the recent Wool Question in particular, been zealously crowded with articles to promote that commerce and the consequent employment and prosperity of the labouring classes? For the vigilance with which we have watched over their real interest, we are not afraid of a comparison with any paper in the Kingdom. Have we, in public or in private, ever withheld our mite from any effort to relieve public distress? We may be represented as enemies of the poor: but the consciousness of an exactly opposite character, and the invariable exercise of that character in the discharge of our duty, shall with us, as we trust it will with the Public, suffice better to silence the voice of calumny, than the prolongation of a discussion which several reasons render it improper to continue. For the actual difficulties that exist, both with respect to workmen and their employers, we trust the returning title of prosperity will speedily bring an efficient remedy, if it be not interrupted and frighted back by the designing clamour of those whose business it is to sow dissatisfaction, and to excite despair.

26th July 1816: The London Courier defends the transportation of the Ely prisoners

An editorial in the 26th July 1816 edition of the London Courier attacked the meeting recently held in Ely which expressed disquiet about the transportation of Ely prisoners:

In common with other Newspapers we have inserted some Resolutions, purporting to have been entered into by the Inhabitants of the Town of Ely, assembled at an inn in that city, Mr. JONATHAN PAGE in the Chair. We read those Resolutions with equal astonishment and indignation. As if their object was to raise a clamour against Government rather than to serve the cause of the persons whose case has filled them with such sympathy, Mr. PAGE and his associates do not wait the event of any application either to the Secretary of State or to the Judges, but give instant publicity to their Resolutions. The trials at Ely are fresh in the recollection of all our readers, who must have admired and applauded the manner in which firmness was combined with forbearance, and justice tempered by mercy. Five of the persons convicted were sentenced to be executed, which sentence has been carried into execution. There were nineteen other persons convicted, whose sentences were less severe: of these nine were left in any Ely gaol, and Mr. JONATHAN PAGE'S first resolution declares that these nine had "an expectation regularly notified to them that their punishment would be limited to twelve months’ imprisonment." By whom? By the Judges? Certainly not—for the decision upon the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them depended solely upon the PRINCE REGENT his Ministers. In addressing all the prisoners, Mr. JUSTICE ABBOTT said "Such of you whose lives may, perhaps, be saved by the Crown, that power alone on earth that can save them, must not expect that you shall be dismissed from your offences without undergoing some severe punishment."—But nothing in the Justice’s speech pointed out the particular mode of punishment which these nine were to undergo. But did Mr. PAGE or the Meeting enquire whether any circumstances had occurred to render it inexpedient to keep these men in Ely Gaol?—Did they enquire into their conduct while in gaol? Did they take the pains to ask whether the Magistrates had recommended their removal? Were they anxious to ascertain whether the Judges themselves had approved of it? Did they inform themselves whether or not these nine could not be kept on board the hulks as separate from the other prisoners, as they would be in Ely gaol? When transportation is thought to be the proper commutation for a sentence of capital punishment, some term of transportation must by law be specified; but, although such specified term be for seven years, whether the whole of that sentence be carried into execution depends upon the pleasure of the Crown. The REGENT'S mercy may be again extended, and all further punishment remitted at the end of one year. This will probably depend in the present case on the conduct of the delinquents themselves. 

Mr. PAGE and his associates begin with telling us, that the Magistrates refused the Shire-hall for their meeting: but they do not tell us the Magistrates’ reasons, or that they thought the purport of the meeting improper and unnecessary. No, no: their object seems to have been to give instant publicity to resolutions which appear to have been entered into without any enquiry or investigation, and which could not tend to produce any other effect than clamour. The country is tranquil, they say. Were Resolutions like these complaining of the severity of Government, likely to preserve it so? They accuse Government too of acting upon a supposition that the neighbourhood was in a disturbed state, of encreasing the measure of severity upon a mere supposition, without taking any pains to ascertain the real situation of the country. Were there no Magistrates on the spot capable of giving as accurate information as Mr. PAGE and his associates? Has the Bishop of ELY no palace at Ely? Do they mean to represent him as so supine and negligent? The fact we believe to be, that his Lordship, the Magistrates, and the Judges, all concurred in the necessity of removing these persons from Ely to the hulks, where, we repeat, it will depend upon themselves whether a year shall be the limit of their punishment, or not.

24th July 1816: Bury & Norwich Post editorial about the recent meeting in Ely

ELY, JULY 22, 1816.

We are much concerned to state, that an occurrence which has recently taken place here has occasioned a very considerable degree of ferment in the public mind in this neighbourhood.—It will be in the recollection of our readers that nine of the rioters who were condemned were considered deserving of the lenity of the Crown, and they were consequently reprieved, and an official notification was made to them that their sentences would be commuted for 12 months’ imprisonment.—They continued in Ely gaol until Thursday last, when, strange to tell, a dispatch arrived from the Secretary of State’s Office announcing their Pardon, upon Condition of being transported for 7 years!!! In the course of the day they were sent off for the Hulks, and in order to prevent any unpleasant consequences, the circumstances attending their removal were with great propriety concealed from the public until the following day.—The wives and families of the unfortunate men, as might be expected, are in a deplorable state of distress, and an universal gloom is spread over the inhabitants of the town.—The rich and poor are equally loud in their murmurings, as these men were deprived of the small consolation of being permitted to take leave of their nearest relatives, who indeed imagined that their place of confinement was only to be changed from Ely gaol to Newgate.

We are well assured that the severe examples recently made have produced the happiest effects. The lower classes seemed to have felt the necessity of them, and to be duly sensible of the lenity shewn to those men whose lives have been spared.—In the town of Littleport, we are told, that a reformation of manners is plainly discernible amongst those who were engaged in the late riots. It is, therefore, a matter of sincere regret, that it should be thought advisable to adopt so impolitic a measure, than which, as it appears to us, nothing could be more calculated to make an indelible impression upon the public mind, fatal to the good order and peaceable government of Ely and its neighbourhood.—The prisoners are principally young men of good character, who, it is supposed, had been induced to join in the late riots from the evil examples which were set them.

A very numerous and respectable meeting of the inhabitants took place on Monday at the Club Inn, (the Magistrates having refused to allow the use of the Shire-hall) when several Resolutions were come to upon the business, for which see advt. next page.

12th July 1816: The Tory Leicester Journal sees the 'Loughborough Job' as a consequence of 'democratic principles'

On Friday 12th July 1816, the Tory Leicester Journal carried an article reporting recent arrests for the 'Loughborough Job' in which it blamed 'democratic principles' for the growth of Luddism:

In the commitments to the County Gaol during the last week, were two men named Benjamin Badder and John Slater, both of Nottingham, on suspicion of being concerned in the late attack upon Mr. Heathcote’s manufactory at Loughborough.—Jas. Towle, of Basford, near Nottingham, has also been committed to the said Gaol, charged with being concerned in the said offence. Luddism has very justly been attributed to the influence of those democratic and disorganizing principles which have very extensively prevailed among many of the higher classes in the countries where the stocking and lace manufactory is carried on. The charge we believe to be too well founded. Democratic newspapers, and democratic principles, have had a very wide circulation, and many tradesmen and manufacturers, instead of counteracting them, have lent their utmost aid to give them authority. It is true they did not expect to have their frames broken, their property destroyed, and their servants murdered. They indulged their own political theories, and wished to realize their own schemes of reform and revolution on those above them. But they have had experience, in the Luddite system, of their own principle carried into effect against themselves; and if the innocent had not, in many instances, like the present, suffered with the guilty, and that demoralizing principles were encouraged in the lower classes, we should not be sorry for their claims and sufferings. These are the genuine effects of the interest the lower classes in many manufacturing places have been taught by their superiors to take, first, in the French revolution, and then in the character and exploits of Bonaparte.

19th August 1815: The Leeds Mercury responds to the Leeds Intelligencer's editorial about the Charles Sutton trial

We [illegible] a moment from more agreeable and more [illegible] pursuits, to notice a [most] violent [and impudent] attack made upon the paper by the [Editor] of the Leeds Intelligencer, who has, we [hear], [just] [arrived] from the parties of St. Giles’s, and whose language seems to be well suited to that [illegible] region. It is perhaps not known to the public, that the Editor of the Intelligencer, having written himself down, has been driven to the necessity of calling in the aid of an auxiliary, and by a very discrete choice, has, it is said, selected as his coadjutor the quondam conductor of a defunct journal, which, owing to the violence of its principal and the poverty of its talents, lately expired at Nottingham. These two negatives, which it is hoped may make an affirmative, are now uniting their wits, and it is to this promising coalition of mental energies that their small remaining stock of readers are to be indebted for the judicious, temperate, and profound observations which will in future flow from the "Intelligencer Office," and of which the last paper presents a happy specimen. Having found, from experience, that these ephemeral scribes "will die of themselves if you let them alone," we shall not be very anxious to notice their future ravings, nor would they have claimed our attention on the present occasion, had we not been inclined to put the public in possession of a secret that these combined editors, in excess of their modesty, appeared dispensed to withhold—probably from an indisposition to admit that additional aid was found requisite to prop a declining interest. As the alliance formed by these luminaries between the Leeds Mercury and the Nottingham Review, we have no objection to it whatever—they are quite at liberty to unite us with any part of the press they think proper, except with the slavish sycophants of power, the panders of ambition, and the servile tools of an existing administration. The watchfulness they have announced over the public papers, that dare to be honest in the worst of times, may recommend them to the French Minister of Police, who is just at this moment in need of a legion of censors of the press, to guard against the free discussion of political subjects; but, thanks to the glorious and successful struggles of our ancestors—thanks to the happy institutions of our country—and thanks the patriotic feeling of the present race of Englishmen, who know how to defend their best inheritance—censors of the press in this country are held in deserved detestation, and in proclaiming themselves as the fit instruments of such an office, the con-joint Editors hold themselves up to public execration. We have only further to observe, that so little are we influenced by the arrogant pretensions that have called forth these observations, that, under all circumstances, we shall keep on the even tenour of our way, and that though all the sycophants in the kingdom should be congregated to watch over us, we shall fearlessly endeavour to make the potent instrument placed in our hands administer to the liberty, the happiness, and the prosperity of our country.

14th August 1815: The Leeds Intelligencer publishes another outspoken editorial about Charles Sutton

We have promised to pay a little occasional attention to the Nottingham Review, and to shame, if anything can shame, the other paper published in that town, into the discharge of this duty, a duty, which, in such a place as Nottingham do [illegible] [illegible] print professing loyalty to the King, and attachment to the establishments of the country. But, while we spare a few "words of rebuke" to the convicted libeller of the British army, the detected instigator to outrage, murder, and insubordination of the British manufacturer, we must not entirely neglect the raving vagaries of its fraternal politician, the other weekly herald of discontent and [disapprobation], the public spirited and patriotic MERCURY of LEEDS! As these illustrious compatriots, however, even when united, are scarcely worth one's powder and [shot], we must be as sparing of our time and our ammunition as possible, and by placing them, as often as we conveniently can, together, to make to take aim at the [illegible], that we may kill both fools with one stone. The task we undertake, though loathsome, is necessary; and we shall lose no proper opportunity of [chastising] these mercenaries of a foreign tyrant, these malevolent and croaking scribblers, according to the magnitude of their respective [slur], and of arresting and beating back upon themselves, the putrid stream of moral and political quackery and delusion, with which they incessantly endeavour to annoy the Government of their country, and to poison and defile the already corrupt and feeble intellects of their infatuated disciples and admirers.

Of the Nottingham patriot, we have at present little to say. His feelings are so much engrossed by the issue of his trial for libel, and his ingenuity is so exercised with endeavours to persuade the public of his innocence, that he has neither time nor inclination to attend the general oppressions of the Government, nor to soothe the grievances and the miseries of his enslaved countrymen and country.—He plumes himself not a little on one part of the defence at up to him by his counsel, "that it is impossible he could be an instigator to Luddism, as he had, in strong and eloquent terms, reprobated a late outrage at Basford, in which two men lost their lives!"—But unfortunately for this last effort to establish the purity of his intentions, we are in possession of a fact which appears to have been unknown both to the Counsel for the Crown and for the Defendant. The article re-probating the conduct of the assassins in the outrage alluded to, was sent for insertion in the Review, from a certain gentleman, in Nottingham, distinguished for the moderation and liberality of his views, and holding a high office in the town, whom Mr. Sutton dared not disoblige by refusing a place to that very article, to which he now eagerly clings like a drowning man to a straw. Like the straw, it is, alas, insufficient to sustain his head above the water, and down he must go, into that abyss of ignominy and of guilt he has opened for himself; oppressed and weighed under the flood by the consciousness of the mischief he has created.—loaded with the indignation of the just, and with the reproaches of the criminals he has led astray. As a proof of the accuracy of our statement respecting the article to which we have alluded, it appeared, on the very same day, in all the three Nottingham papers; and so far was the Review from expressing any indignation at the atrocities perpetrated in its immediate neighbourhood, that it did not add a single word, not one representation, from itself, to the paragraph which it reluctantly admitted, in small and obscure print, into its columns!

As for the poor Mercury, we are almost as much disposed to pity us to quarrel with it, in the present depressed state of its idol. The swimming of Buonaparte, in the Bellerophon and Northumberland, appears to have given the jaundiced Editor a swimming in his head. He last week dwelt, with complacency, on the proofs afforded of Buonaparte's "splendid talents," by the mob assembled to gaze upon his prison-ship, paying him "the slight mark of respect of being uncovered" forgetting that he himself, (this same writer for the Mercury) only a few days ago, had discovered that all the misfortunes of the Tyrant were owing to his "want of common prudence!" In the eagerness of his zeal for "soothing the wounded honour of France"—"binding up the wounds of that unhappy country,"—and "preserving the integrity of its territory," he prophecies, that, if a "good round paring" be taken from its present frontier, Europe will be exposed to a second irruption of Barbarians from the North! The only irruption of Barbarians from the North, that has taken place in the present times, is the irruption of the honest, though rude and uncultivated COSSACKS! And Europe owes too much to these unshaved and [illegible] soldiers, who have treated their vanquished enemies with a magnanimity, unknown to "the wounded humour" of their French aggressors, not to wish that the BARBARIANS OF THE SOUTH may again be driven back by them, should an almighty Providence ever permit another irruption from southern devastators into those remote and frozen legion regions of the North, where their unburied and bleaching bones bear testimony to the extent of their ravages, and to the power of an avenging God.

7th August 1815: The Leeds Intelligencer gloats over the verdict of the Charles Sutton trial

On Monday 7th August, the Tory Leeds Intelligencer published an editorial about the recent trial of the proprietor of the Nottingham Review, Charles Sutton. It was the first of several that would appear over the coming weeks:

At Nottingham Assizes, Mr. Sutton, proprietor and editor of the Nottingham Review (the Luddite and Buonapartean Mercury of that town), has been found guilty of a libel, the intention and tendency of which were to insult his Majesty's Government, to traduce and vilify our gallant army which beat the Americans into peace: to depreciate the services of them and their late lamented leader, General Ross, whom it characterised as the younger Ned Ludd; and to vindicate and encourage that Luddite spirit of outrage and insubordination which still exists in Nottingham, and the effects of which we have had so much reason to deploy in this county. As the trial will be published at length by order of Government, we shall not occupy space with extracts from the garbled report of it sent forth by Mr. Sutton and some of his jacobin fellow-feeling contemporaries. We think his conviction the most powerful blow that Luddism could have received. There can be no doubt but that dangerous and disgraceful spirit was the offspring of one or two wicked and delusive publications, and that it was fostered, and trained to every deed of outrage and assassination, by the most artful palliations and incentives. If the conviction of Mr. Sutton, therefore, should render him and his coadjutors more guarded in their language, it will do more towards preventing outrage than could be hoped for from the operation of the most severe penal laws upon the offenders. Though found guilty of a libel of so foul a character, Mr. Sutton affects to be surprised that the article for which he has been tried should have called for a prosecution, and with all the hypocritical cant and puritanical affectation of innocence and simplicity for which the Party are remarkable, represents his own trial as one of the most oppressive, unnecessary, and extraordinary upon record. But we remember, and we beg to remind Mr. Sutton and the public of the fact, that he publicly acknowledged, in the number of his paper succeeding that which contained the libel—that he then publicly acknowledged this very article had given DISGUST to his own friends!!! and if it was so flagrantly wicked and inflammatory as to disgust them, he cannot be surprised that it excited the resentment of good men, and demanded just chastisement from those laws upon which he had so long trampled with impunity, and at length arrested the attention of that Government, which had hitherto treated with contempt his incessant but futile attempts to insult and [amuse] it. We shall resume this subject at a future opportunity.

21st October 1814: The owner of the Nottingham Review, Charles Sutton, apologises for the 'General Ludd' letter

The Nottingham Review of Friday 21st October 1814 contained a brief editorial by the owner, Charles Sutton, for the satirical 'General Ludd' letter published in the previous edition. Sutton was obviously already aware of the storm it had raised, but his apology would not draw a line under the affair:

The Proprietor of the NOTTINGHAM REVIEW, is exceedingly sorry to find that an article which appeared in his last Number has given disgust to some of his friends, who have conceived it as having a tendency to encourage the spirit of insubordination and outrage, which has been so long prevalent in this neighbourhood, and which no man laments more than himself. He will not multiply words upon the subject. He knows his own intentions, and he knows that nothing could possibly be further from his thoughts, either in that article or in any other, which at any time may have appeared in the Review.

22nd May 1813: The Leeds newspapers report on a massive petition for parliamentary reform

On Saturday 22nd May 1813, the Leeds Mercury carried a letter about a local petition for parliamentary reform:

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.

MR. Editor,—The Committee for conducting the Petition from Leeds, and its neighbourhood, praying for a reform in the Commons House of Parliament, request that you will oblige them by inserting in your next paper the following

REPORT.

The Committee have the pleasure to report, that by active perseverance in this best of public causes, they have been enabled to overcome difficulties that at first appeared insurmountable.—In the discharge of this patriotic duty, they have had to encounter the frowns, the insults, and even the threats, of the enemies of Reform; the most violent of whom they found amongst persons who, by various means, contrive to live upon other men's industry. Such characters can easily comprehend how a great deal of money should be received very little labour; but that much labour should be performed for no reward whatever, either in hand or in prospect, is to them a thing quite incomprehensible. From this cause, your Committee have frequently been stiled mischievous agitators; they have been told that their services were paid for by some "factious Reformer," and that their motives were selfish and abominable. To all the slander they had only to reply, and they challenged any man living to contradict them, that their Motives were Pure—their Services Voluntary, and their Labours Free and Unbought, and to express their fervent wish that all the Members of that Assembly, which it is the object of this Petition to reform, in rendering an account of their stewardship, should be able to lay their hand upon their heart and make the same honest declaration.

Your Committee have the pleasure further to state, that a number of their countrymen, amounting to 17,472, have placed their signatures to this Petition, which has for its object the overthrow of the Borough Faction, by whose pernicious influence the commerce of the country is paralized—its taxation increased—the price of all the necessaries of life advanced—and war and bloodshed continued.

It remains only for them to add, that the Petition which they this day transmit to the House of Commons, originated with the labouring classes, and by then it has been carried through, unaided by any persons above their own rank, with the exception of one individual, by whose patriotic kindness they were furnished with sheets for signatures, and to whom they beg to express their sincere obligations. To this service they have applied the labour of 120 days! and they trust that persons in other places, influenced by their example, and encouraged by their success, will promote similar Petitions—that the names of thousands, and tens of thousands of Parliamentary Reformers, will soon cover the Table of the Chapel of St. Stephen’s, and that, in the nervous language of the Apostle of Reform, "the Borough Faction will be made to bend like a broken reed," before the thunder of the public voice.

Leeds, May 14, 1813.

Two days later, the Tory Leeds Intelligencer responded in acerbic fashion, linking reform with Luddism:

"WHAT! are You not contented YET?"

See page 48, proceedings at York, Jan. 1813.

Can any man in his senses be still ignorant of the nature of that political reform which is likely to be brought about by seventeen thousand labourers? Can any man in this Riding "above the rank" of a labourer, in the teeth of recent transactions, countenance the iniquitous practice of incessantly repeating to the ignorant and unthinking, the declarations that "bad trade, taxation, the high price of the necessaries of life, and war," are all the effects of Borough influence, and other corruptions of Government, which some theoretical reform is to cure—and yet hold up his head in the presence of men of reflection and principle?

Did not one individual above the rank of a labourer appear publicly in Lancashire immediately after certain trials at Lancaster? Did not the same individual appear at Huddersfield immediately after certain trials at York, expressly to repeat these notions, and to rally the spirits of baffled reformers? ‘Tis readily enough granted that this conduct cannot be encouraged by any but the most grovelling minds, yet the countenance of these low and wicked proceedings is not confined to Labourers.

I ask again, what is the direct, natural tendency of that unqualified censure which is daily poured forth upon the measures of our country’s rulers?—If we think it no sin to "despise dominion," are we still blind to our own private and personal interest?—Do we still imagine that " ‘tis only the obnoxious shearing-frames?" only the rotten Boroughs?—Are we absolutely stupefied by [pettiso], party prejudices, and narrow calculations? where is the cool deliberation, the enlarged views, the foresight and prudence, the manly spirit, the generous candour, the religious firmness of Britons?

The gasconading strut of so many thousand names to a popular petition, is of itself contemptible enough, more especially when it is considered that dozens and scores of these names have been affixed without moving a yard, and that not one of the persons in a score, has any conception what the petitions mean. But the infamous use that is made of such petitions, to inflame the worst passions of the unguarded multitude, should be openly discountenanced by every friend to society and government.

Our whining peaceable philanthropists will soon teach these 17,000 united labourers, the vast proportion they bear to the population of the neighbourhood in which they live; the multitude of their affiliated brethren in other places; the aggregate importance in the State; their wisdom; their strength; and, of course their right to insist upon attention to their humble voice. Are we so dull as not to see the consequences?

E.

26th April 1813: The Leeds Intelligencer publishes a last word on 'Attentive Hearer' row

On Monday 26th April 1813, the Leeds Intelligencer published a final editorial on the row that had taken up column inches over the past 3 months, ever since the execution of George Mellor. The Leeds Mercury never published a response, and the pseudonymous 'Attentive Hearer' never wrote to the Intelligencer again.

If the "Printer" will be at the trouble to read the "Attentive Hearer's" last letter, he will perceive that his last week’s challenge, is by no means declined. The Attentive Hearer is most willing to go into the proposed investigation when it is rendered necessary;  i.e. so soon as the Printer shall prove what he has twice asserted: "that the "Attentive Hearer" has published a false report of evidence."—If the report he has published be correct, there can be no doubt of the confession of Mellor. If false, let it be proved so; and the "Attentive Hearer" will, with the greatest readiness, immediately accept the Challenge of his Opponent.

24th April 1813: The Leeds Mercury publishes a final editorial on the row with 'An Attentive Hearer'

An Attentive Hearer has declined the challenge we last week gave him to close the dispute, by submitting the evidence on both sides, fairly and candidly collected by impartial persons, without note or comment, to the tribunal of public opinion. The inference is irresistible. He was conscious that such an appeal would admit of no sophistry or false colouring, and that the preponderance of evidence against him would have been overwhelming. But we shall indulge in no exultation, much less repeat the coarse and virulent language that disgraces his last letter; it is the language of an irritated mind writhing under the pangs of defeat. We have no such feeling to gratify; Truth alone was our object, and having secured its triumph, to the satisfaction of every impartial mind, we quit the ungracious subject for ever.

17th April 1813: The Leeds Mercury issues another challenge to "An Attentive Hearer"

An “Attentive Hearer" is at his usual work again. He has not, as was required of him, published the words of the person referred to, but he has published expressions foisted into their mouths by others. He had, we know, the testimony of one or more of our witnesses written and signed by themselves, in which it is positively declared that Mellor did not use either of the expressions imputed to him; but this he has suppressed, and substituted in its stead declarations, artfully framed, that they did not write, and that some of them, very prudently, refused to sign! This is what every man of plain dealing, will call a falsification of evidence. He has not, he says, applied to two of the persons we referred him to, because they are parties! What party could the Clergyman who attended the criminals to their last moments be in this dispute? or what possible interest or motive could he have for publicly and positively contradicting an Attentive Hearer, except a wish to prevent the public being imposed upon by fabricated dying speeches? This was, no doubt, the motive that actuated his conduct, and no men of common sense, or of common candour, will attribute to him any other. But the subterfuges of this Attentive Hearer are endless, and if there be a single individual in the county who can still retain a doubt on the subject, we see only one way left to remove such doubt, and to relieve the public from the further annoyance of this uninteresting dispute.

The mode of affecting so desirable a purpose is this:—He shall give up his authorities, and we will give up ours, to two perfectly impartial persons, and they shall, without any leading questions, but in a fair and honourable manner, obtain the testimony of the parties; that testimony, pro and con, with the places the witnesses occupied at the time of the execution, and the official situations they held, if any, shall be published in both the Leeds papers, without "note or comment;" the public will then be able to form an unbiased judgment, and there the matter shall rest. If he accepts this proposal, it will, we are persuaded, appear as we at first stated, that as to one of the expressions an Attentive Hearer was mistaken; and that from a similarity of terms, a few, and only a very few, other spectators, principally standing at a distance of 50 or 60 yards, fell into the same error. But as to the other expression it will be manifest, even on the shewing of his own witnesses, that it is a mere invention. This will appear if he ventures in the way we now propose fairly and finally to commit the point at issue to the decision of the public; but should he shrink from this unexceptionable test, the inference will be obvious, and we shall then feel ourselves absolved from taking any further notice of effusions that affect so much, and exhibit so little of the Gentleman.

On this subject, we last week received a Letter from a Gentleman at York, who was present at the execution, and who heard, distinctly, every word that was uttered, in which the writer says:—"Pray, Sir, who is the Attentive Hearer that has so long insulted the ears of the West-riding with his notorious falsehoods? He is ashamed to sign his name, and well he may; I am astonished at his impudence."

3rd April 1813: The Leeds Mercury taunts 'An Attentive Hearer' in an editorial

An "Attentive Hearer" is more invincible than Dr. Goldsmith’s Village Schoolmaster. His witnesses, he says, in his last letter, speak positively. Do they, indeed!—Is it not, then, positively to deny one half of what he produced them to prove, and thereby to cast discredit upon the other half? And has he not, by referring to these witnesses, fixed upon himself, incontestably, the imputation of having put words, and very remarkable words too, into the mouth of a dying man that he never used? Let him answer these questions, and let the answers he is obliged to give, prove to him that he is not quite infallible, and teach him to be [less] dogmatical and more circumspect in future. [Of] the seven witnesses produced by him one, he says, speaks of his knowledge and belief and [illegible] the other six declare that they "cannot positively say how it was." This we know to be an incorrect report of the result of his enquiries; it is, in fact, a falsification of the evidence; and to proof of this, we challenge him to publish the verbal and written testimony of those seven witnesses, and thus to give the public an opportunity of judging how much his assertions are to be relied upon, whether they regard the expressions of the dead or of the living.

27th March 1813: The Leeds Mercury publishes an editorial about 'an Attentive Hearer'

It must be admitted on all hands that an Attentive Hearer "dies game," or after the figure he has already cut, he would never have written another letter of half column, turning upon a mere verbal quibble—a distinction without a difference. If he he not extremely ignorant of the nature of evidence, he must know that the testimony of witnesses speaking "according to the best of their knowledge and belief" is regularly received in our courts of justice. Indeed knowledge and belief are the only grounds on which a man can with certainty aver any thing. Will his authorities say that his assertions are true according to the best of their knowledge and belief? He knows they will not. But it is vain to reason with a man who has lost both his cause and his temper, and who is now evidently contending not for truth, but for the last word. The public have long been convinced that he is in error, and if any thing would have fixed upon his own mind the same conviction, it would have been the fact of his having produced, with no small difficulty, five witnesses to support his dogmatical assertions, three of whom contradicts one half of what he says! a fourth could not distinctly hear!! and the fifth was not present!!!

13th March 1813: A Leeds Mercury editorial attempts to settle the dispute about George Mellor's last words

THE POINT AT ISSUE.

A dispute of little interest perhaps, except to the disputants, has for some weeks been maintained to the Leeds Newspapers which we hope now to bring to a close, and to this end it is necessary to take a short review of the circumstances in which it originated. It is well known to the public, that on Friday the 8th of January, George Miller, William Thorp, and Thomas Smith, who had on the Wednesday preceeding, been convicted on the clearest evidence of the atrocious murder of Mr. Horsfall were executed at York; at that awful scene, a person from the office of this paper attended, and the report made by him through the columns of the Mercury was that "George Mellor confessed in general the greatness of his sins, but that he made no confession of the crime for which he suffered." This statement an anonymous writer, under the signature of "an Attentive Hearer," contradicted in the Intelligencer on the Monday following, by asserting that Mellor confessed himself a murderer at the place of execution, and that he also used this remarkable expression, "not die game." On such conflicting testimony, a controversy arose in which an Attentive Hearer continued to maintain that Mellor used both these expressions; and in his second letter he insinuated that the Editor of the Mercury had private reasons, "prudent motives" was his expression for concealing the truth; and this attack at once absurd and unfounded, was entirely unprovoked, as a reference to the papers up to that time will show. To contend in person with an adversary without a name, and who had made so free and use of his ægis, and of his spear was to oppose a substance to a shadow; we therefore saw it proper to place the combatants on equal grounds, and with that view, to take the signature of "A Diligent Enquirer." Under these designations the contest continued for some weeks, when by way of bringing this tedious dispute to an issue, the Attentive Hearer was challenged by his opponent to an exchange of authorities, which being accepted, this exchange took place, and the result of the inquiries to which it has given rise, we now submit to the public.

The names of the persons produced by a Diligent Enquirer in confirmation of his assertions amount to seven in number, consisting of the Gentleman who officiated as Under-Sheriff, the Governor of York Castle, the Reverend Gentleman who attended the prisoners in their last moments, and two Sheriff’s Officers, who all stood upon the platform, one of them at a distance of more than three or four yards from Mellor, and some of them at his elbow; in addition to these five authorities, the Diligent Enquirer also verified his assertions by the names of two persons who stood in the place usually occupied by spectators, and all of whom had declared to him, that to the best of their knowledge and belief, the words in question were not used, and to these he might have added the names of a number of other persons, the principal part of whom stood upon the platform; but he selected these as evidences of the most unexceptionable kind, and as amply sufficient to satisfy any man open to conviction.

The authorities produced by an Attentive Hearer amounted to five in number, only one of whom stood on the platform, and such of the others as were present, at a distance of 40 or 50 yards.

The first of these, he that stood upon the platform, says, that he did hear Mellor use the words, "us poor Murderers," but he heard no such words as "not die Game." The second and third make the same declaration. The fourth says, that he thinks he heard the word murderers used in a confessional sense, but he cannot be quite certain, as he stood at so great a distance, that he could only hear a sentence now and then; but as to the words "not die game" he heard no such expression. The fifth and last of an Attentive Hearer's authorities is a Reverend Gentleman at York, and he says, that he was he was never present at an execution in his life, and consequently that he was not present at the execution of Mellor, nor did he ever say that the account given by an Attentive Hearer "was correct."

Such are the authorities by which the assertions of the contending parties are supported, and on a comparison of this evidence, we think no man that will exercise his understanding can fail to arrive at a just conclusion. We have no more doubt that the persons who say Mellor used words amounting to a confession so understood him, than we have that Mellor and his fellow-sufferers were guilty of the crime for which they were executed, but do believe they were murderers, and this belief we ground on the testimony of those whose stations the place of execution gave them an opportunity of hearing distinct every word that fell from the lips of the culprits, and whose official duties required that they should be particularly watchful over the expressions of men dying under such circumstances, and none of whom, it is universally allowed, had up to the moment they came to the fatal tree, made any confession of their guilt, express or implied.

On the other terms are remarkable and so improbable—we mean the expression "not die game," an Attentive Hearer is in effect contradicted by all his own authorities, excepting only that which was not present. Here at least he must admit that he is in error, for not to make that admission would be to impeach the testimony of his own evidence; and this circumstance will, we hope, be useful to him in future life, by inculcating the necessity of being less confident in his own opinions, and more disposed to defer to the opinions of others.

30th January 1813: The Leeds Mercury reprints the Reverend Brown's letter about George Mellor's last words

The following Letter, addressed to the Editor of the Leeds Intelligencer, by the Rev. G. Brown, Chaplain of the Castle of York, is decisive of the point at issue between the “Attentive Hearer” and the “Diligent Enquirer,” and can indeed leave no room for further discussion or doubt upon the subject. It is hardly necessary to observe, that the situation of the Rev. Divine who remained on the fatal platform, close to the prisoners, during the whole of the mournful ceremony, must render his authority, as to what was said by the Prisoners, infinitely superior to that of any hearer, however attentive, necessarily placed at a considerable distance, and where words imperfectly heard might be easily misconceived. And if the “Attentive Hearer” possesses a single particle of candor, he will hasten publicly to retract his confident assertions, and apologise for an insinuation most unfounded, and which can only be protected from the charge of malice by successive folly and absurdity.

25th January 1813: The Leeds Intelligencer suggests liberal newspapers are to blame for Luddism

It requires no extraordinary acuteness of penetration nor clearness of judgement to perceive, that, from the first appearance of open violence in Nottinghamshire, down through the whole of the successive stages of disorders, mischiefs and outrages in the more Northern counties, to the late awful executions at York, the labouring part of the community, who really are in distress, as well as those who imagine themselves deprived of those comforts, or of that affluence which they suppose themselves entitled to possess, have been uniformly taught, by certain Newspapers, that the evils they suffer, or imagine they suffer, are to be attributed to the fault of their Governors. The same Newspapers have led these people to think it their duty to unite in opposition to the measures which are represented to them as the oppressive needless acts of their own unwise or unfeeling Government. They are told, that if they will but persevere they must ultimately succeed, and after they have been induced to desire and expect from Government such things as it would be unwise, dangerous or impossible to grant, still they are taught to consider themselves as injured, and oppressed, and encouraged to persevere. What then can they suppose themselves urged to do, but to proceed to actual violence, in such ways as to themselves may seem most likely to accomplish their absurd wicked withes. It is an insult to common sense and common observation, for those who encouraged them to any thing, which, in their own misguided estimation, was right or necessary, but the accomplishment of which is likely to lead on to acts of violence—to say that we never intended them to destroy property or life. If they are to unite of persevere till their object be obtained, they must bind themselves to each other—when bound they must proceed. Hence illegal oaths, illegal practices, and every mischief.

There is much reason to hope that the proceedings of the late Commission in this country, under which such just firmness, severity, and well-directed clemency have been mingled with so much wisdom and discernment, that fresh lustre has been added to the brightness of our unrivalled code of Laws, and to the firm, discreet and temperate manner in which they are executed in our courts of justice, will have the effect so ardently desired by every friend to society and humanity, unless that desirable effect be prevented and set aside by the same injurious and cruel means by which the late lamented disgraceful events were originally fomented and encouraged.

But to what purpose, we ask, is it again insinuated that the perpetrators of the late atrocious crimes were men who have been urged to commit them by the privations, the want of employment, and consequent difficulties and distresses which have been wilfully brought upon the country in general, and upon these offenders in particular, by what are represented as to the impolitic, unnecessary measures of Government. To what purpose, we ask, are these misrepresentations renewed, if it be not to re-foment and keep alive in the minds of the populace the same false unjust prejudices, which have led to the outrages we have witnessed.

Shall we implicitly credit the representation that all is perfectly free from any Political bearing, when we remark the extreme caution in all the parties concerned, as to the extent of the information given by the witnesses who know most, and the confessions of those who suffered?

X.