142

Frost speech down at the meeting in my pocket book - I had attended
a meeting prev-y, at Palace Yard in London - I thought them
a dangerous sort of people, & I wanted to see what they were about,
The mem-da is as follows "The 1st of Jan-ry I attended a meeting
convened by printed placards at Pontnewynidd in this Parish held
for the purpose of passing the peoples Charter & electg. a representative
Delegate to the National Convention, to be sent in conjunction
with Newport & Caerleon - After parading the Town with a band
& Banners, the Speakers & Associatn. arrived on the ground at one
o'Clock - The meeting was held in the open air & the Speakers
were accommodate on a temporary hustings erected for the purpose
A man by the name of Edwards was called upon to preside, who
it appeared was a Master Baker at Newport After the usual
introduction & 2 or 3 speeches had been delivered a Gentleman was
introduced to the meetg as Jno Frost Esq a Magistrate for the Boro
of Newport - Frost said the Privy number about 130, receive more
of your money in pensions & other ways than the whole of the

amount of the direct taxes paid by the Counties of Monmouth Glamorgan
& Brecon - they re-ce 630,000 annually between a hundred & thirty of
them - a very pretty thing - At another part of his speech he said
"Now just look at the Queen's household - she has an income of
510,000 annually of your money, besides carriages servants palaces
besides she has 12 Lords of the Bed Chamber, aye 12 Lords of the Bed
Chamber - Now what wo'd any of you say if your Wife or your Sister
had 12 great strapping chaps about their Bed Chamber - I think you
wo'd be ready to discard your Sister or look out for another Wife - I
know I should & each of these fellows receive a thousand a year
Again he said "& this is not all - She (the Queen) has 12 Grooms
of the Bed Chamber , aye 12 Grooms of the Bed Chamber - Now if
any of you hear of a Gentn. having a Groom, you know that that
Gentn. wants them to clean his horses - but whatever these fellows
do for the Queen I can't tell you" - All this was rec-ed with cheers &
great applause - Mr. Vincent said he was ready to suffer death or
imprisonment in the cause of the Charter - He said the House of
Commons was a long room with a chap up one end of it with a bag
wig on, singing out order! order! order! with a lot of fellows sitting round

140 [encircled]

[Annotations in left margin:]
xd
[with emphasis agst lines 16-27]
Frost
Speech
Vincent