Reformers step up attacks on Liverpool ministry

Henry Hunt and William Cobbett have spearheaded renewed radical demands for reform of Parliament, the political system and public finances.

‘Orator’ Hunt made his first major appearance since being released from gaol late in 1822 at a county meeting at Wells in Somerset. He had served 30 months for offences related to the pro-democracy meeting broken up by troops in Manchester in 1819 that became known as Peterloo

Mr Hunt said the time for half-measures had passed, and he successfully urged the Somerset meeting to back a call for universal male suffrage and the secret ballot.

DUBLIN: The trial of members of the Protestant Orange Order over their involvement in disturbances at a theatre attended by Ireland’s lord lieutenant in December has collapsed, with no verdict being reached. The prosecution had previously dropped a charge of conspiracy to murder Marquess Wellesley in the so-called ‘bottle riot’.

LONDON: Female activist Susannah Wright has been jailed for 18 months for selling blasphemous publications at a London shop owned by the radical publisher, Richard Carlile. Mrs Wright defended herself at her trial last July for selling pamphlets written by Mr Carlile to an agent of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. She was held on remand pending sentencing and gave birth while in prison.

GOWER PENINSULA: The skeleton of a man who is believed to have died thousands of years ago has been found in the Paviland or Goat’s Hole cave 15 miles south-west of Swansea. The discovery was made by Oxford academic, William Buckland, who uncovered a burial site, with bones and associated objects stained red with ochre. The remains are being taken to Oxford for examination. о