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And yet Mr. Bamford is no "physical-force man." Speaking of the Reformers of 1816, he says:

"Some of the nostrum-mongers of the present day would have been made short work of by the Reformers of that time; they would not have been tolerated for more than one speech, but handed over to the civil power. It was not until we became infested by spies, incendiaries, and their dupes,distracting, misleading, and betraying, that physical force was mentioned amongst us. After that our moral power waned; and what we gained by the accession of demagogues, we lost by their criminal violence, and the estrangement of real friends."

Mr. B. was an office-bearer in some of the Reform clubs during the period of which he writes; but from the beginning had not only cause to be suspicious of the honesty of many of the loudest professors of Radical principles, but to have all along strenuously resisted every thing like recourse to violent measures. When by the instigation of traitors and spies a number of the people of Lancashire were induced to enter upon what he calls the "blanket expedition," he exerted his good sense against its folly; an expe.. dition which undertook to march to London with the view of presenting a petition to the Prince Regent, provided only with blankets and such like rough covering, in which to bivouac by the way. We must afford a short space to the account of this enterprize.

"The appearance of these misdirected people was calculated to excite, in considerate minds, pity rather than resentment. Some appeared to have strength in their limbs and pleasure in their features; others already with doubt in their looks, and hesitation in their steps. A few were decently clothed, and well appointed for the journey; many were covered only by rags which admitted the cold wind, and were already damped by a gentle but chilling rain. Some appeared young, with health on their cheeks, every care behind and hope alone before; the thoughts of others were probably reverting to their homes on the hill sides, or in the sombre alleys of the town, where wives and children had resigned them for a time, in hopes of their return with plenty, and never more to part. Here a youth was waving his hand to a damsel pale and tremulous with alarm; yonder an attenuated being, giving back, after kissing it, a poorly child to the arms of its mother; he hastens towards his comrades with willing but feeble steps, looking back on those, so poor, but oh! how dear; the child is hushed with a caress, the mother turning it gently to her cold and nurtureless bosom ; nurtureless of every thing save deep and tender love. Her looks are still directed the way he goes! he has disappeared; and whilst her tears flow,

the

poor but cleanly mantle is drawn over the little one, and in a conflict of grief, hope, and fear, she thoughtfully wends to her obscure and cheerless abode. A body of yeomanry soon afterwards followed those simple-minded men, and took possession of the bridge at Stockport. Many of them turned back to their homes; a body of them crossed the river below and entered Cheshire, several received sabre wounds, and one man was shot dead on Lancashire hill Of those who persisted in their march it is only necessary to say, that they arrived at nine o'clock at night in the market-place at Macclesfield, being about one hundred and eighty in number. Some of them lay out all night, and took the earliest dawn to find their

way home.

Some were lodged and hospitably entertained by friends; some paid for quarters, and some were quartered in prison. Few were those who marched the following morning. About a score arrived at Leek, and six only were known to pass Ashbourne bridge. And so ended the blanket expedition."

The great meeting of the Reformers of Manchester, so distinguised by the "Massacre," consisted of persons, so Mr. B. says, who were "armed only with a self-approving conscience," such being the order issued by the leaders. We quote his account of the butchery :

:

"On the cavalry drawing up, they were received with a shout of goodwill, as I understood it. They shouted again, waving their sabres over their heads; and then, slackening rein, and striking spur into their steeds, they dashed forward and began cutting the people.... For a moment the crowd held back, as in a pause: there was a rush heavy and resistless as a headlong sea; and a sound, like low thunder, with screams, prayers, and imprecations, from the crowd moiled aud sabre-doomed who could not escape.... On the breaking of the crowd, the yeomanry wheeled; and dashing wherever there was an opening, they followed, pressing and wounding. Many females appeared as the crowd opened; and striplings, or mere youths were also found. Their cries were piteous and heart-rending, and would, one might have supposed, have disarmed any human resentment; but here their appeals were made in vain. . . . In ten minutes from the commencement of the havoc, the field was an open and almost deserted space. The sun looked down through a sultry and almost motionless air. The curtains and blinds of the windows within view were all closed. A gentleman or two might occasionally be seen looking out from one of the new houses, near the door of which a group of persons (special constable) was collected: others were assisting the wounded or carrying off the dead. The hnstings remained, with a few broken and hewed flag-staves erect, and a torn and gashed banner or two drooping; whilst, over the whole field were strewed caps, bonnets, hats, shawls, and shoes, and other parts of male and female attire-trampled, torn, and bloody. The yeomanry had dismounted: some were easing their horses' girths, others adjusting their accoutrements; and some were wiping their sabres. Several mounds of human beings still remained where they had fallen, crushed down and smothered. Some of these were groaning,-others, with staring eyes, were gasping for breath, and others would never breathe more. All was silent, save those low sounds and the occasional neighing and pawing of steeds. Persons might sometimes be noticed peeping from attics and over the tall ridges of houses, but they quickly withdrew, as if fearful of being observed, or unable to sustain the full gaze of a scene so hideous and so abhorrent."

The autobiographer, in spite of all his caution, and desire to avoid the breach of the laws, while pursuing what he considered and still considers a right course, with some slight modifications of opinion, induced by experience, as he candidly confesses, got more than once into trouble. He was even sent a prisoner to London to be examined, on one occasion, before the Privy Council; when he was strongly affected by the leniency of the king's higher officers as contrasted with the harshness of the rural authorities. The manner of his bearing and the straightforward simplicity of his answers

before the Council, appear to have had a very favourable influence upon the Secretary of State and his colleagues; for he was soon liberated on his own recognizances. Still he was at first remanded until some additional information was to be received from Manchester, which order led to the following reply, with which we close a work that is published at the author's own risk, but which from its literary merits as well as inherent importance should find more than a remunerating circulation. This was the Radical's reply to Lord Sidmouth :

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My Lord, if you think proper to wait for information which will establish a charge of high treason against me, your Lordship may wait for ever, as I am certain that no such information will arrive. I then went on to state that my conduct had been quite opposed to treason,-that I had certainly done all which lay in my power to promote the cause of Parliamentary Reform, but I had always acted openly, and, I trusted, legally—that I did not think his Majesty's ministers were fully acquainted with the state of the country, and the condition of the people; nor did I perceive how they could be, considering the partial source from which their information must be derived, that the gentry, or what was called the higher classes, were too proud or too indifferent to examine minutely the abodes of the poor and the distressed; and that the interests of many, as well as their want of accurate knowledge, tended to elicit from them distorted or partial statements of facts. The poor, I said, would be content, could they only procure the common necessaries of life by hard labour, but they could not even do that, and, if ministers were thoroughly acquainted with the distress of the people, they would be surprised that the country was not a scene of confusion and horror, instead of being, as it was, peaceable, though discontented."

ART. XXVIII.—The Romance of Jewish History. By the MISSES C. and M Moss. 3 vols. Saunders and Otley.

SACRED History turned into romance is a mistaken idea, the attempt being to illustrate particular periods and persons already familiar to us from the matchless narratives in the Old Testament. In fact it is this familiarity, together with fixed belief and unalterable associations in the mind, that prevents us from tolerating a new version, especially one professing to be romantic and therefore fiction. The idea of profanity occurs in such a case. At the same time it is impossible to feel otherwise than that the Misses Moss have cherished a pious purpose in the production of these volumes, while they have displayed powers which if employed upon a more happily selected theme must have met with our hearty commendation. There are plenty of Jewish traditions, and sufficiently strong-marked lineaments among the "peculiar people" to furnish them with subjects capable of being romantically illustrated, without at all meddling with Scripture-men of mighty

valour.

ART. XXIX.-The Popular Encyclopedia. Vol. VII. Part 2. Glasgow: Blackie and Son.

THIS Part presents to us the conclusion of the Supplementary matter, which has been added to this beautiful edition of the famous Conversations-Dic

tionary. We have looked into some of the new papers, which bring down to the latest date the popular kind of information contained in the work, and believe it to be not unworthy of the older matter to be found in the Encyclopedia. The Part before us begins with "Dundee," and ends with "Wyatville" (Sir Jeffrey). When we consider the cheapness and elegance of the edition, and the excellence of its contents, we must pronounce it to be unrivalled amongst its class.

ART. XXX.-The Playfair Papers; or, Brother Jonathan, “the smartest nation in all creation." Illuminated by ROBERT CRUIKSHANK. Three Vols. London: Saunders and Otley.

THESE are rough and often vigorous sketches of Brother Jonathan—of American manners and character. But they are also frequently coarse and hackneyed.

ART. XXXI.—The Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland

THE Knighthood of the Garter, the Bath, the Thistle, St. Patrick, &c., with lists and notices of a biographical character.

ART. XXXII.-The Forester's Offering. By SPENCER T. HALL, a Native of Sherwood Forest.

MR. HALL is a working printer at York, but is a native of the Forest. The handsome volume, of which he is not only the author but the typographer, consists both of poetry and prose, descriptive of the "merry green wood," with notices of the inhabitants and their occupations, now and heretofore. Mr. Hall will not have it that Robin Hood made free with other people's goods, and his vindication is spirited. Indeed there is freshness and health throughout the volume, and the sentiments are those not only of a generous but a poetic mind.

ART. XXXIII.-Lectures on the English Comic Writers. By WILLIAM HAZLITT. Third Edition. Edited by his Son.

FEW will be able to appreciate or relish fully the wit and humour of our comic writers, without Hazlitt's company and criticism. His goût for the productions of these masters was most hearty; it was also nice and most discriminating. In this reprint we have some new matter from several of the author's fragmentary pieces. The volume is one of a series of Hazlitt's works, by the same competent editor, who inherits much of his father's fine

taste.

ART. XXXIV.-The Scientific and Literary Treasury. By SAMUEL MAUNDER. Longman.

THIS "New and Popular Encyclopædia of the Belles Lettres," hardly requires another word to be said of it, than that is by the author of "The Treasury of Knowledge," &c., being a dictionary equally crammed, not

merely with condensed but digested information about men and things, as well as the meaning of words; information too nowhere else to be met with in one book, seldom or ever so briefly yet distinctly given.

ART. XXXV.-Mora: a Fragment of a Tale. Saunders and Otley." In the Byron style of story-telling: it has vigour as well as fluency.

ART. XXXVI.-Spinal Diseases, with an Improved Plan of Cure. By J. H. ROBERTSON. M.D.

MANY are the publications which appear relative to Spinal affections, showing that this class of diseases is numerous. According to Dr. Robertson's. experience the preponderance of these complaints on the side of the males or the females varies at different stages of life. Then as to the classes of society that are most liable to, or most affected by the complaint, his opinion differs considerably from that of other writers and practitioners. His work ought to be extensively consulted on these and other points by the medical profession. But as the publication is intended for popular circulation, we have to say of it that its details and descriptions are perspicuous, while the views whichit discloses of life in the illustration of his doctrines, are striking and frequently original. Some of the hardships of the poor, the labourious, and the canstantly toiled, are brought to light by him in forms perhaps never before made the subject of a medical book. Just hear how the style of church accommodation may affect the hard-working man,

"Very many of the class of patients who are during the week engaged in some occupation employing most of their time, have assured me that they could not attend church on Sunday from the pain and fatigue they experienced there; but were obliged to lie in bed the greater part of that day, to recover from the fatigues of the preceding week, and to enable them to bear those of that to come. The absurd upright position of the backs of seats in most of our churches is one cause of this. Were they more inclined backwards, as in new churches they could easily be made, and indeed in many are now making, it would not only be productive of much comfort to many, at present constant attenders upon church, but would enable many to attend there who at present cannot remain so long in the all but upright position, without a continued sensation of fatigue and pain, followed by difficulty of breathing, swelling in the throat, beating of the heart, ringing in the ears, giddiness, and ultimately fainting."

But church-pew carpenters or designers are not the only bungling and unreasoning mechanicians. Says the Doctor,

"Some time ago, being dissatisfied with most bandages I saw, I waited upon certain makers, and said that having many patients with weak and diseased backs, I would be happy to send them to them, provided they could show me any pattern, plan, drawing, or made bandage, that I could conscientiously approve of as likely to be of service to those intrusting their cases to my care.

"I was much surprised to find that they had neither pattern nor bandage made, plan to describe, nor drawing to exhibit. Upon expressing my won

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