Oldham Historical Research Group

Scan and page transcript from:
Historical Sketches of Oldham by Edwin Butterworth
Pub. 1856

Historical Sketches of Oldham by Edwin Butterworth

franchise to all the four townships of the parish. Memorials to the ministry requesting the inclusion of Crompton, Royton, and Chadderton within the proposed borough, emanatd from Oldham as well as the other townships, and being supported by several members of parliament, produced the desired eifect. The bill ultimately passed a third time in the House of Commons, on the 21st of March, by a majority of 116; and passed a second reading in the House of Lords, the 13th of April, by a majority of 9. On entering the committee of the Lords, however, on the 7th of May, a motion of Lord Lyndhurst for postponing schedule A being carried, the result was the third rejection of the bill. This event created most unusual excitement in every part of the country. The ministry having resigned, vast meetings took place in all parts of the kingdom, when addresses to the King, requesting the recall of the cabinet, were voted. One of these meetings was held on the 14th of May, in the open air, on Curzon ground, Mr. John Jackson, senior, head constable, in the chair. Several resolutions, requesting the House of Commons to cease voting any further supplies until the reform bill was granted without any mutilations, were passed amidst acclamations; and before dusk the same evening, the petition for this object had received 8000 signatures. Similar proceedings being general throughout the country, the ministry resumed office on the 18th of May; and the House of Lords, alarmed at the excited state of the nation, proceeded with the bill in committee. The question whether the four townships of Oldham parish should form a borough, and as such be placed in schedule C, as entitled to elect two members, came before the House of Lords, in committee, on the evening of the 22nd of May. A lengthy discussion ensued upon the question, in which the conduct of Earl Grey was strongly animadverted upon by the Earl of Winchelsea, the Marquis of Londonderry, and Lord Kenyon. The other Lords who took part in the debate

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