followers visited Caermarthen, and in
open day proceeded to attack the workhouse. In the midst of their work
of demolition, however, the military arrived, and the whole force was
compelled to decamp, leaving behind them about one hundred, who
were taken prisoners. The insurrection, notwithstanding this, still
continued, and even assumed a more malignant aspect. Houses in which
persons lived who were obnoxious to the rioters were attacked; and
a growing feeling of alarm and insecurity pervaded the peaceable and
well-disposed portion of the community. One poor woman, who kept
the Hendy turnpike-gate, on the confines of Glamorganshire and
Caermarthenshire, was barbarously murdered by the rioters; and such
was the influence of fear exercised over the minds of the jurymen who
investigated the case, that they brought in a verdict to the effect,
"That the deceased died from suffusion of blood, which produced
suffocation, but from what cause is to the jurors unknown." By the
continuance of these outrages, government at length sent down to Wales
a large body of troops, under a general officer, who was to take the
command of the disturbed districts. At the same time a strong body of
the London police was sent to exercise their skill in ferreting out the
rioters, who had long escaped detection. These measures did not wholly
prevent violence under cover of night; but, in a short time, some of
the more active leaders of the riots were captured in an affray with the
county police, on the borders of Glamorganshire; and from this event,
and various other causes, the spirit of disturbance, towards the close
of the year, began to decline. Perhaps the most effectual cause of
this decline was a prospect of the redress of those hardships which had
formed the theme of so much complaint. In October government sent down
a commission, which was to examine into the operation of the
turnpike-laws, and other alleged grievances of the country. From the
report of this commission, poverty and the hardness of the times had
more to do with the outbreak than any other specific cause; but, at the
same time, the inquiries instituted, and the report itself, showed
that the turnpike-laws as administered in Wales did afford a real and
substantial ground of complaint.

DISPUTES WITH AMERICA.

During last year the boundary question, which had formed a subject of
dispute between England and America, had been happily adjusted by Lord
Ashburton, who had