5.--A great meeting of Norfolk farmers was held at the Agricultural Hall,
Norwich, at which was passed a series of resolutions affirming that they
viewed with alarm the serious loss imposed upon the nation by the
importation of live stock from countries where foot and mouth disease was
known to exist, and calling upon the Government to order the withdrawal
of existing restrictions on the removal of stock in England. On the 29th
a similar meeting, presided over by Lord Walsingham, was held at Lynn,
and a third meeting took place at Fakenham on the 31st. Deputations from
the Corporations of Norwich and Lynn waited upon the local authority at
Norwich on February 23rd to discuss what steps should be taken to effect
the re-opening of the cattle markets in the city and borough, and it was
decided to send a deputation to the Privy Council. This deputation,
consisting of representatives of the county authority, and of the
Corporations of Norwich and Lynn, waited upon Lord Carlingford on
February 28th, and asked for the immediate opening of the markets and the
removal or modification of other restrictions. At the quarterly meeting
of the county magistrates on April 10th, Mr. C. S. Read, M.P., reported
that the sum of 2,586 had been expended during the three months for
inspection and expenses in carrying out the provisions of the Act. The
Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act Amendment Bill was read a second time
on March 21st and a third time on May 3rd, and on May 19th it received
the Royal assent and became law.
20.--Died, at King's Lynn, Mr. James Fiddaman. He began life in very
humble circumstances and without the advantages afforded by education.
The son of a tailor in a small way of business, he first acted as an
assistant to his uncle, who was ostler at a tavern in Lynn. He was
afterwards ostler or "boots" at inns and hotels in neighbouring towns;
subsequently he tramped the country for a time, visiting London,
Brighton, and other places in quest of a good situation. Eventually he
returned to Lynn, took a public-house known as the Wheatsheaf, in Norfolk
Street, and made it the local centre of the sporting interest in West
Norfolk. After a time he bought the house, converted it into an hotel
and wine vaults, and rapidly made a fortune. Mr. Fiddaman was a
munificent donor to many benevolent institutions, and his private acts of
charity were numerous. An enormous concourse of persons attended his
funeral.
30.--Died, at his residence, Thorpe St. Andrew, Mr. Richard Noverre
Bacon, aged 85, probably the oldest journalist in the kingdom. At an
early age he was engaged in newspaper work under his father, Richard
Mackenzie Bacon, whom in 1845 he succeeded as proprietor and editor of
the "Norwich Mercury." A Whig of the old school, Mr. Bacon in his
editorship of the "Mercury" was tenacious in the maintenance of his
opinions, and held them with a firmness which did not always please the
more advanced section of the Liberal party--hence the establishment of
the "Norfolk News" as the representative organ of Liberal Nonconformity
in county and city. Mr. Bacon served his fellow-citizens in the Town
Council, on the Hospital board, and in other capacities, and assisted in
founding the Jenny Lind Infirmary for Sick Children. As a journalist he
was decidedly inferior to his distinguished father, and his only literary
work was his "Essay on Norfolk Agriculture," written in 1844, which won
for him the prize offered by the Royal Agricultural Society, besides
bringing him prominently forward among the agriculturists of the county,
a connection he was assiduous in maintaining to the close of his career.