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The Chartists have commenced drilling practices, though without arms, at Newtown. There is a possibility that, trade being indifferent and provisions high, these people may be driven to violence. They receive letters from one Charles Jones of Welsh Pool, whom they call their delegate and who is now in London. The mischief makers are mostly residents of Llanidloes, whose imprisonment would mean the end of the movement in Newtown.

Reply to No. MB1/30.

Advises him to train his corps to be in readiness at short notice. Draft.

A special constable was stabbed in the back with a pike; the windows of the hotel were smashed; David Evans, mayor of the town, failed to get admittance and was badly abused; deponent, after a conversation with Abraham Owen, one of the prisoners, came on horseback to Newtown, thence to Major Pugh, Llanerchydol, and thence to the Lord Lieutenant.

Encloses the report of Wm Garret, of the London police, on the state of affairs at Llanidloes. Newtown is also in great disorder. Families have left the neighbourhood, the market was cancelled, and the two banking establishments have transferred their cash to Pool.

He has interviewed Armishaw, the police officer from Welsh Pool, who has now returned from Llanidloes sadly bruised. Special constables, the officer says, will be of no service against such a mob. A gun was fired in the room of the hotel. The number of the rioters was supplemented by about 300 miners from the country. A strong body of regular soldiers will be needed to capture the offenders. Newtown is also in a state of unrest; and there are upwards of 100 Chartists in Welsh Pool. Charles Jones, junior, has left Welsh Pool for Birmingham, presumably to communicate with the party there.

Reminds him that, owing to the events of yesterday, he has omitted to reply to Mr Davies of Aberhafesp. Special constables will be sworn in today at both Welsh Pool and Montgomery.

Encloses the affidavits of the two members of the Metropolitan police and others touching the outbreak at Llanidloes.

Acknowledges the receipt of a letter of the 30th ult. Entirely approves of his calling out the Yeomanry Cavalry to assist the civil authorities. A force of eighty Infantry men at Brecon have been instructed by Lord Hill to await orders from Llanidloes.

Request from G. A. Evors and R. J. Davies, magistrates of Montgomeryshire acting for the hundreds of Newtown and Llanidloes, to the Commandant of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry Cavalry, to assist in the preservation of the peace during a 'tumultuous and riotous assembly ... to be held at Caersws on the 25th'.

Copy letter from T. Edmund Marsh [from Llanidloes] to Viscount Clive at Shrewsbury. The mayor contemplates leaving the town. Hughes says that his men will commit no further excesses provided they are left alone.

Left Newtown yesterday, spent the night at a farm house two miles from Llanidloes, and entered the town this morning. Everything is calm. The Trewythen Arms Hotel has been wrecked. Door panels and window frames have been demolished, furniture destroyed, and robbery committed, chiefly by women, 'but no ale and spirits taken'. Blankhorn [of Newtown] was dreadfully abused, but the Metropolitan officers escaped miraculously and hid themselves in a hay loft. The windows in his own house and that of the Vicar were broken. [Both J. E. Samuel, Dowlais, in The Montgomeryshire Chartist Riots, in Cymru Fu, Aug. 1889, and Edward Hamer in A Brief Account of the Chartist Outbreak at Llanidloes in the year 1839, state that no robbery was committed].

Encloses communications which he has received [Nos MB1/41-42]. Will persuade the mayor to leave the town.

Copy deposition of Andrew Breese, sheriff's officer, and Charles Thomas Woosnam, attorney at law, both of Newtown, respecting the riot at Llanidloes. The former, who was sworn in as a special constable, gives an account of the capture of three offenders, the destruction of the hotel, and his own ill- treatment. Both deponents proceed to relate a conversation with one Thomas Powell of Welshpool, who, though an avowed Chartist, did not approve of the riotous conduct of the Llanidloes people, who 'were most unmanageable and desperate'. It will be impossible, they consider, to recapture the prisoners without the assistance of a military force. Newtown, they add, has been for some time past paraded at night by bands of persons in military order.

Report on the outbreak at Llanidloes. His account is similar to that which he gives in No. MB1/42, but adds that a son of Ty-cerrig has been stabbed in the back.

The mayor has left the town and will not return until the situation is relieved. He himself had contemplated leaving, but has decided to remain. A meeting convened by the dissenting ministers of the town to negotiate a settlement has been a failure. The Unionists did not attend, being engaged in quarrelling among one another. Would like to know when the military forces are expected to arrive, as their appearance will render the place too hot for him. Nos MB1/44-8, all transcripts, are packed together to form one bundle which is endorsed: 'Originals forwarded to Lord J. Russell'.

Reply to No.MB1/39. Is of the opinion that troops from Chester travelling by the Ellesmere and Chester canal would arrive as soon as and certainly with less fatigue than those marching from Brecon.

Has taken the liberty to wait upon Major Pugh, who has arranged to dispatch two troops to Newtown on Monday to await the orders of the magistrates on the following morning. Thirty-five special constables have been sworn, and the number will probably be increased to fifty. The rioters apparently propose to march to Caersws with flags and music, and will undoubtedly cause great excitement.