Catalogue description Folio(s) 46-50. Letter from William Villers and Theodore Price, Birmingham magistrates,...

Folio(s) 46-50. Letter from William Villers and Theodore Price, Birmingham magistrates, and Thomas Lane and [Nathaniel Gooding Clarke], Staffordshire magistrates in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, enclosing a subversive handbill calling the people to arms against the government. They report that proclamations offering rewards for discovery have been stained with a paint resembling blood and have had the reverse effect from that hoped for. They are deeply concerned that the public dissatisfaction as it appears in public houses now extends to the middle classes. The price of wheat is now 20 shillings per bushel, and local subscriptions are being got up to organise soup kitchens for the poor. It is a desperate situation in which the national government should act. The local militias, which were formerly popular, are now exposed to constant insults.

Enclosed: Handwritten notice dated 30 September starting 'To Arms Countrymen to Arms'.

Also enclosed: Notice dated Birmingham 3 October, signed by Millward, Constable, offering a reward of 100 guineas on conviction of the author of any of a number of treasonable and seditious papers recently stuck up or dropped in the streets of the town.