Mr. Edward Bamford, senior head constable, presided. The speakers on this occasion were Messrs. James Mellor, John Clegg, Jonathan Mellor, James Holladay, James Hawkshead, Alexander Taylor, William Knott, Elijah Hibbert, Charles Harwar, John Knight, John Haigh, and the Rev. T. F. Jordan, Baptist minister. The meeting unanimously agreed upon memorial to government, requesting the grant of a member or members to Oldham, and appointed Messrs. Jonathan Mellor, sen., James Mellor, John Halliwell, and Edward Bamford, as a deputation to represent to the ministry the claims of Oldham to a share in the representation of the country. Meetings in support of the ministerial plan of reform became general in almost every township and village. In a few days after the second reading of the first reform bill in the House of Commons, March 21, and in the commencement of April, the ministry assured the deputation from Oldham that their claims to representation should be immediately considered. On the 10th of June following, a public meeting of the inhabitants of the three townships of Crompton, Royton, and Chadderton, was held at the Unicorn Inn, Royton, for the purpose of taking measures to secure the inclusion of those townships within the proposed borough of Oldham. Mr. John Robinson, of Shaw, presided. A memorial to government on the subject was adopted, and Messrs. Joshua Milne and William Fitton were appointed a deputation to represent to the ministry the claims of the places in question to parliamentary attention. Accordingly on the first reading of the second reform bill in the House of Commons on the 24th of June, Oldham was inserted in schedule D as a proposed borough, entitled to elect one member of parliament, and all the four townships of the parish were included within the parliamentary limits. Such was the extreme opposition to which this national measure was subjected, in the committee of the House of Commons, that its third reading did not take place till the 21st of September, when it passed by a majority of 109. The bill was,

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