1833—APRIL 12—A meeting held at the Guildhall, Worcester, to petition Parliament on the subject of Negro Slavery. It was very numerously attended. Dr. Hastings occupied the chair, and the audience was addressed by the Rev. John Davies, Rev. George Redford, Rev. Peter Duncan, Lieutenant Davis, Colonel Davies, M.P., Rev. Thomas Pearson, Rev. R. Turnbull, Rev. Jacob Stanley, Mr. Stanley Pumphrey, Rev. Thomas Davis, Mr. J. T. Price, Captain O’Brien, Mr. William Parry, Mr. Thomas Pumphrey, Rev. Thomas Waters, and Rev. S. Webb. 1833—APRIL 18—Meeting in the Guildhall, Worcester, to petition the legislature for a repeal of the House and Window Taxes. In the absence of the Mayor, Mr. John Blackwell was called upon to preside. Mr. Prosser, architect, Mr. Greening, Mr. Wensley, Mr. Edward Hooper, Mr. Pemberton, Mr. Scott, Mr. Williams, Mr. J. Davis, Mr. Wheeler, &c., moved and seconded the resolutions, which declared that the house duty was oppressive and especially obnoxious, because of the power vested in the surveyor who levied it—that the window tax was offensive in principle and in practice—that they both pressed most heavily on the middle classes—who had, indeed, to bear everything—and that they ought to be forthwith abolished. 1834—JANUARY 20—Meeting of Dissenters at Kidderminster, Dr. Ross in the chair, to memorialise Government for the redress of grievances. The speakers were the Rev. Mr. Fry, Mr. Henry Brinton, Mr. Chadwick, Rev. Mr. Smith, Rev. Mr. Warren, Rev. Mr. Coles, Mr. W. Brinton, Mr. Charles Talbot, and Mr. Thomas Hopkins. The memorial agreed to was directed to Earl Grey, and prayed, first, for relief from Church Rates; second, the power of celebrating marriages without conforming to the Church service; third, for the right of interring their dead in parochial burial grounds by their own ministers; fourth, the right of admission to the universities; fifth, for a general system of registering births, deaths, and marriages, without regard to religious distinction. 1834—FEBRUARY 24—Meeting of laity of the Church of England at Kidderminster, to express unshaken confidence in the principles of the Establishment, and to petition Parliament in its behalf. The meeting was held in the National School-room, and was numerously attended. Abraham Turner, Esq., was called to the chair, and the resolutions were proposed by the High Bailiff, Mr. Samuel Beddoes, Mr. Woodward, churchwarden, Mr. J. Gough, Mr. Bradley, Mr. George Hooman, Mr. Thomas Hallen, Mr. Boycot, sen., Mr. Dixon, Mr. Tomkins, and Mr. Harvey. The resolutions were unanimously adopted. [The Catholic priest, displeased at some allusion made to his religion at the Dissenters’ meeting, declared that he thought a union of Catholics with the Church of England not at all impossible.]