6th July 1816: The Leicestershire MP, George Legh Keck, urges an increased reward & protection for informers

Stoughton Grange

My Lord

Since I last had the honor of addressing you I have been requested by The Magistrates now engaged in the Investigation carrying on relative to the late Outrage at Loughborough to enquire whether your Lordship would not feel the propriety of an Offer of [reward] on the part of Government for the discovery of The Offender. At present a reward of £500 is offered by Messrs Heathcote & Co, & a pardon by Government on discovery of The Offenders. It is believed by those who have the best local means of judging that if Government was to make some considerable addition & the previous Offer it would have the best effect; & though I am myself not so sanguine on this head I am convinced that as a proof of anxious exertion on the part of Government it would have a most salutary result.

I am however desired further to represent that in addition to any reward it would be especially necessary that an Informer should receive from Government such employment remote from his ordinary residence as should afford him the future means of Subsistence proportionate to his Character & Abilities, for we well know that his life here would be utterly forfeited. And I need not press this point with your Lordship who will recollect what has already occurred on a similar Occasion; & some employment in the Colonies or elsewhere would be well earned by such a service. & I shall have much satisfaction if by my own means of local Communication I can assist the Good Cause by the development of so dangerous a System of Proceedings.

Your Lordship will be good enough to instruct me as to the answer which will be given to the Magistrates at whose desire I have submitted these Considerations to your Lordship; & I can not conclude without repeating my thorough Conviction that a Cavalry force at Leicester is essentially necessary for the Publick Tranquillity of this district.

Would to God that the severe & general distress now experienced did not offer so wide a field to any mischievous & daring Individuals, but I feel it my duty to state the fact & your Lordship knows that I would not mislead you.

I have the honor to remain

My Lord

Your Ob. Hble. Servt.

[Legh Keck]

July 6th

4th July 1816: The Leicestershire MP, George Legh Keck, is concerned about nocturnal meetings

Stoughton Grange

My Lord,

I had yesterday the honor of receiving your Letter in which the early establishment of a Cavalry force at Leicester is considered; and I feel it my duty to communicate to your Lordship that nocturnal meetings held between Leicester & Hinckley by very considerable numbers now out of employment have, since I had the honor of last addressing you, led to an application from Magistrates in that quarter for such assistance as our Yeomanry Corps can afford.

I need not assure your Lordship that no portion of this will be wanting: but it is impossible that such assemblages under the present Circumstances of the Hosiery Trade can long continue without some serious mischief as in the Case at Loughborough, & my firm Conviction is that a regular force will tend much to the prevention of those Outrages which, experience has shewn [are] committed are scarcely open to [discovery] according to the Luddite system—

As yet no actual Outrage has occurred, & I do believe that the probability of even those distressed persons who may have been brought to these nightly meetings are not mischievously disposed but rest assured, my Lord, that the Appearance of a Military force is necessary to support the Publick Tranquillity which at this moment is open & [Interruption] at the very suggestion of any daring individual amongst them—

& I need not point out to your Lordship that it is now more easy to deter these folks from Riot, than it will afterwards be to dissolve their systematick cause or to check their practices once seriously engaged in—

We know from past Proceedings what these people are capable of; & I am confident that not a moment should be lost in the most effectual measures for either prevention or counteracting the prevention of their Plans—

I feel this strongly that I should ill discharge my duty if I did not communicate the State of this district to Your lordship & remain

My Lord
your Obt Hble Servt

[Legh Keck]

July 4th

To
The Visct. Sidmouth

29th June 1816: The MP for Leicestershire, George Legh Keck, writes to the Home Office about the 'Loughborough Job'

Stoughton Grange

My Lord

The Information which your Lordship will of [course] have received respecting the late destruction of the Lace frames at Loughborough renders it unnecessary [to say] more on that lead than that the precise [Arrangement] & dispatch manifested upon that Occasion prove a mischievous Activity of spirit & a System which require the earliest & most decided attention, & under this conviction I beg to recall & your Lordships [Recollection] past [scenes] which originated there a [illegible] – for probably Nottingham may be regarded as the Head Quarters of General Ludd who, it seems is neither dead nor sleepeth – but the General state of the Hosiery Trade is now such as to preclude the Employment of its workmen, & they are consequently doubly open to [reduction] by hundreds at this time.

In truth their distress is very great & as I mentioned to Beckett before I left Town the urgent Expediency of sending some dragoons at Leicester so I can not feel to press this Suggestion on your Lordships earliest consideration as the [essential] means of preventing disturbances which the absence of any force at the moment like the present seems about to merit.

The [Adjutant] of our Yeomanry Corps informs me that he was yesterday requested to be at home in case he should be [wanted], & I need not point out to your Lordship how impossible it would be at this Season of the year to expect any continued [Service] from a Yeomanry Corps without the most serious Sacrifice of their Individual Interests, to which I am confident your Lordship does not mean to expose them—

The Local Authorities in Leicester & [throughout] this Instant are doing all which zeal & prudence can do, but the times are really  such as require not only every measure of [Precaution], but the immediate means of meeting the Evils which at any moment may occur—

Deeply impressed with the [Conviction] I can not but communicate the same to your Lordship & remain

My Lord
Yours Very Truly
[Legh Keck]

June 29th

To
The Viscount Sidmouth
&c &c &c