value of property in the township of Royton, in 1692, was £94 4s. 91/2d., but in 1841, it had increased to £16,200, forming an increase as compared with the valuation of 1692, of 17,200 per cent. The per centage rate of increase in value in Boyton, from 1815 to 1829, was 81; and from 1829 to 1841, 72. The annual value of property in the township of Crompton, in 1692, was £293 3s. 4d.; and in 1841, £15,300, forming an increase in that period of 5,200 per cent. The annual value of property in the township of Ohadderton, in 1692, was £276 14s. 2d.; and in 1841, £13,716, forming an increase in that period of 4,900 per cent.

When peace had arrived, a few of the last years of the war having brought the nation to a state of exhaustion, "both the foreign and the home markets became languid, trade was at a low ebb, prices and wages were reduced, and the manufacturing classes involved in deep distress." These evils were imputed by a numerous body of politicians to a defective state of the national representation, and a radical reform in the constitution of the Commons House of Parliament was demanded by the labouring classes in all the principal towns. Political associations were very generally formed, in furtherance of this object; and in Lancashire the call for annual parliaments and universal suifrage was extremely loud and importunate. The first public meeting held in Oldham for the furtherance of these doctrines, took place on Bent green, September 23, 1816, Mr. John Earnshaw, surgeon, in the chair, and Messrs. John Haigh and William Brough, of Oldham, and Robert Pilkington, of Bury, speakers. After voting resolutions favourable to radical reform, the multitude separated in an orderly manner. The extremely high price of provisions, principally attributable to the corn bill of 1815, caused considerable distress amongst the poor, and subscriptions for their relief were entered into at a public meeting held for the purpose, at the Angel Inn, on the 31st of the following month, October.

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