There was a very curious case connected with these agrarian riots, which occurred at the Special Commission at Salisbury, where Isaac Locker was indicted for sending a threatening letter to John Rowland, in these words-- "Mr. Rowland, Haxford Farm.--Hif you goes to sware against or a man in prisson, you have here farm burnt down to ground, and thy bluddy head chopt off." Some evidence was produced to show that the prisoner, in his conversation, had justified the machine-breakers and fire-raisers, and that the magistrates and military, who disturbed the proceedings of the mobs, were the only breakers of the peace; but the case turned on the question, whether the letter was in the handwriting of the prisoner. Locker was found _guilty_, and the judge, in spite of the man's asseverations of his innocence, sentenced him to transportation for life. The judge and jury retired for some refreshment, and in their absence, the man's son, Edward Locker, came forward and declared that he had written that and other letters. The judge expressed his surprise that this evidence had not been brought before him previously, and proceeded to try the prisoner on two similar indictments, when his son got into the witness box and testified that the letters were in his handwriting. The trial ended in the father's acquittal on those two counts, and the judge said that he would lose no time in getting the former conviction and sentenced quashed. An indictment was immediately prepared, and found against the son, to which he pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to transportation for seven years. The Special Commission ended its labours on the 15th of January, having hanged many rioters, and sentenced very many more to long terms of transportation. Besides Cobbett, there was a noted atheist, named Richard Carlile, who is still looked upon as a persecuted martyr by Freethinkers. On the 10th of January, he was indicted at the Old Bailey for having written and published two seditious libels--one tending to bring the Crown into disrepute, and the other, which was addressed to the insurgent agricultural labourers, tending to produce an insurrection among the labouring and agricultural population. He was acquitted on the first, but found guilty on the second count, and he was sentenced to pay a fine to the King of £200, be imprisoned in the Compter of the City for the space of two years, and at the expiration of that time, to find sureties for ten years to come, himself in £500, and two sureties in £250 each, and to be imprisoned until such fine was paid, and such sureties provided. The question of the reform of Parliament was now taken in hand seriously, and it was not before it was needed. The expenses attendant on elections were something enormous. The _Leeds Mercury_, quoted in the _Times_ of August 30, 1830, speaking of the county of Yorkshire, says--