The Peterloo Massacre - The struggle for Democracy in C19th Britain

On August 16th 1819, a public meeting was held at St Peter's Fields in Manchester, a traditional venue for public meetings. The meeting would end in tragedy, becoming known as The Peterloo Massacre, making it one of the most significant, though often ignored events in British history.

UPDATES

[You can listen click here to a BBC radio broadcast from 2005 about the Petrloo Massacre.]

Memorial Campaign

A campaign has been launched to ensure that there is a fitting memorial  to these martyrs for democracy. You can find out more information about the campaign at PeterlooMassacre.org

Many of the electoral districts were corrupt, (so called 'rotten boroughs'). The semi derelict village of  Old Sarum, for example, had 11 voters and 2 MPs. Whilst the industrial towns (in 1819 the industrial revolution was in its early stages, and the bulk of the population, still lived and worked in the countryside), Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds had none.

The England of Jane Austen so beloved of the promoters of 'heritage england' was far from being a democratic country.

Following the end of the Napoleonic War, with the battle of Waterloo in 1815, England had gone into economic decline. The reluctance of the Government to revise the Corn Laws, which regulated the price of corn and thus the price of bread, the staple diet of the ordinary people served to make this situation worse.   

So by August 1819, there was a widespread and popular sense of injustice compounded by the economic situation and a government policy that preferred to protect agricultural profits rather than alleviating poverty, by lowering the price of corn.

The spectre of revolution, republican revolution haunted the government mind, and political agitation was feared, as being just the first step. Inevitably they were therefore inclined to repression rather compromise.

The meeting on August 16th was to be addressed by among others Henry 'Orator' Hunt.

Hunt was undoubtedly the most popular orator of his day, when he spoke at a meeting hundreds if not thousands of people would turn out to listen to him. If you had to compile a list of the most popular orators in the C19th whilst you could argue about who the others might be Hunt would certainly be in the top half dozen.

The estimates of the number of people who attended the meeting vary between 30,000 and 150,000. The local authorities concerned that meeting could lead to a riot decided it would be prudent to take security precautions.

These included

a regular army force of 600 cavalry men and several hundred infantryman

an artillery unit of  2 six-pounder guns

over 500 men from local the militia

and over 100 special constables

At about 1.30 in the afternoon the authorities, decided that they could not allow the meeting to continue and consequently 'Read the Riot Act' (yes that's what that saying originally meant), requiring the crowd to disperse, and orders where given for the organizers to be arrested.

The Deputy Chief Constable, asked the military commander to provide assistance. 60 cavalry men of the local militia advanced, allegedly many were drunk. Some of the demonstrators tried to prevent them reaching the speaker's platform by linking arms. The militia responded by attacking them with their sabers (swords).

When they reached the platform they arrested Hunt and others including some journalists.

Then the militia turned attacking the crowd striking down their flags and banners.

The local magistrate who was in charge of security, interpreted the crowd's behaviour as resistance and ordered the regular army cavalry unit to intervene.

Within 10 minutes they had cleared the field ….the time was now 1.50pm.

11 people including 1 policeman, 1 woman and a child were killed

500 people including 110 women were injured many having been trampled under foot by the horses of the mounted troops.

In a subsequent newspaper report the phrase "Perterloo Massacre" was coined - an ironic reference to the Battle of Waterloo.

The Government's reaction to these events was to introduce legislation restricting both the right to hold public meetings and the freedom of the press, but in response to public pressure they were forced to hold a public inquiry in 1820.

Public reaction to the massacre served only to strengthen popular support for reform, out of which the Chartist movement was to evolve. 

That reaction is best expressed in the sonnet by Shelley

'England 1819'

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn, mud from a muddy spring,
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leech-like to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,
A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,
An army, which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godless -- a book sealed;
A Senate, -- Time's worst statute unrepealed,
Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.