§ MR. ESCOTT, referring to the accounts in the newspapers that large bodies of people in Exeter and Taunton and some other towns in the west of England had proceeded to the markets, and compelled the dealers in provisions, both corn and meat, to sell them at such prices as those bodies of people chose to fix, begged to ask the Home Secretary whether those accounts were authentic, whether there was occasion for that alarm which certainly prevailed throughout the western parts of England, and whether there was any information upon the subject which he was prepared, consistently with his duty, to lay before the House?
§ SIR G. GREYhad received communications from the Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, and from the civil authorities of Exeter, giving an account of some disturbances which had occurred in the latter part of the week at Exeter and in its neighbourhood, and in several parts of the east of Cornwall, alleged to be in consequence of the high prices of provisions; from Taunton, however, he (Sir G. Grey) had received no official representation of any such disturbances, although he had seen statements respecting them in the newspapers and in private letters. But he was happy to state, that in consequence of the prompt and judicious measures adopted by the local authorities, order had been restored; and he hoped that there was no cause for alarm with respect to the future.