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X.

1819.

24.

crease of

in the coun

and the demagogues were not slow to turn to the best CHAP.
account this unexpected turn of fortune in their favour.
Mr Cobbett said afterwards, that the moment he heard in
America of the resumption of cash payments in Great Rapid in-
Britain, he prepared to return to this country, as he felt disaffection
certain that the cause of Reform in Parliament could not try.
long be averted; and the result proved that he had cor-
rectly scanned the effects of that measure. The disaf-
fected, under the direction of their able and intelligent
leaders, changed the direction of their tactics. They no
longer confined their operations to the breaking of mills
or destruction of machinery; political changes became
their object; and their method of effecting them was
by making displays of vast multitudes of men, in a cer-
tain degree disciplined, and closely banded together in
feeling. At a great meeting of 30,000 or 40,000 per-
sons, which took place at Glasgow on 16th May, called

upon prices, must be immediate, and, therefore, as he finds the Bank issues a
shade higher in August 1819 than they had been in February of that year, he
concludes that there was no contraction to account for the distress, and that
it arose entirely from overtrading.-(TOOKE On Prices, ii. 96, 113.) He takes
no account of the prodigious drain on the metallic currency which brought
the bullion in the Bank down from £12,000,000 to £3,500,000, nor of the con-
traction of £5,000,000 in the country bankers' issues, from the passing of the
act. But, in truth, his notion that there is an immediate connection between
currency and prices if there is any, is entirely erroneous. Sometimes, doubt-
less, the effect is very rapid, but in general it is the work of time. If a sud-
den panic is either produced or arrested by legislative measures, the effect
may be instantaneous; but in other cases it is by slow degrees, and by work-
ing through all the ramifications of society, that a contraction or expansion of
the currency acts upon the interests of society. If five millions additional
are thrown into the money market, or gradually withdrawn, it by no means
follows that there is to be an instantaneous effect on prices. The effect takes
place gradually, in consequence of the extended speculations and undertakings
which are set on foot in the one case, or ruined or contracted in the other.
The effect of the contraction of the currency, which began in 1819, continued
through the whole three following years, till it was arrested by an expansion
of it in 1823, which soon landed the nation in another set of dangers on the
opposite side. The speculation of 1818 was doubtless considerable, and would
probably, in any event and with the best regulated currency, have led to a
check and a temporary fall of prices, just as an abundant harvest for a season
lowers the price of grain. But it is quite chimerical to suppose that the long-
continued distress, from 1819 to 1823, was owing to the importations of 1818.
If they were excessive, that evil would speedily check itself, and restore prices
to their average and healthful state. But that they were not excessive, and
VOL. II.
2 C

X.

1819.

CHAP. to petition the Prince-Regent for relief and means to emigrate to Canada, an amendment was proposed, and carried by an overwhelming majority, that no good was to be expected but from annual parliaments, universal suffrage, vote by ballot, and diminished taxation. They now, for the first time, assumed the name of RADICAL REFORMERS, and began to use, as their warcries, the necessity of annual parliaments, universal suffrage, vote by ballot, and the other points which have since been combined in what is called the People's Charter. The leaders of the great meetings which took place, much to their credit, strenuously inculcated upon the people the necessity of keeping the peace, and abstaining from all acts of intimidation and outrage; and, considering the immense multitudes who were con

should not, if the currency had been let alone, have terminated in anything like disaster, is decisively proved by the fact that they were not half as great, relatively to the population of the empire, as they have since become in years not only unaccompanied by disaster, but marked by the most unequivocal prosperity. This distinctly appears from the following table of exports and mports:

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-PORTER'S Parl. Tables; and ALISON's Europe, Appendix, chap. cxvi.

It is true, several of these prosperous years terminated in disaster; but that was the necessary effect of the system of currency established in the empire, which rendered periods of disaster as necessarily the followers of prosperity as night is of day.

X. 1819.

gregated together, amounting often to 30,000 and 40,000 CHAP. persons, it was surprising how generally the directions were followed. Aware from the symptoms in the political atmosphere of an approaching storm, but wholly Martineau, unconscious that it had proceeded from their own acts, i. 225; Life Government strengthened themselves by the admission of the Duke of Wellington into the Cabinet as Master- Ann. Reg. General of the Ordnance, on his return from the com- 106. mand of the Army of Occupation in 1819.1

of Lord Sid

mouth, iii.

245, 248;

1819, 104,

Peterloo.

These political meetings were general in all the manu- 25. facturing towns of England and Scotland during the Meeting at whole summer of 1819, and the leading topics constantly Aug. 16, dwelt on were the depression of wages and misery of the 1819. poor, which were invariably ascribed to the Corn Laws, the weight of taxation, the influence of the boroughmongers, or holders of nomination boroughs, and the want of any representation of the people in Parliament. The speeches, which were often eloquent and moving, acquired additional force from the notorious facts to which they could all refer, which were too expressive of the general distress which prevailed. No serious breach of the peace occurred till the 16th August 1819, when a great assemblage took place at Peterloo, near Manchester. As it was known that multitudes were to come to that meeting from all the towns and villages in that denselypeopled locality, great apprehensions were entertained by the local authorities, and extraordinary precautions taken to prevent a breach of the peace, in conformity with a circular from the Home Office on 7th July, which recommended the utmost vigilance on the part of the local magistracy, and the adoption of prompt and vigorous Ann. Reg. measures for the preservation of the public tranquillity. 106; MarThe yeomanry of the county of Cheshire, and a troop of tea, i Manchester yeomanry, were summoned; and the military, of Lord Sidconsisting of six troops of the 15th Hussars, two guns, 234, 237; and nearly the whole of the 31st regiment, were also on Letter. the spot and under arms.2 A large body of special con

2

1819, 104,

233; Life

mouth, iii.

Mr Joliffe's

CHAP. stables was sworn in, and, armed with their batons, surrounded the hustings where the speakers were to be placed.

X.

1819.

26.

citement,

of the meet

ing.

The avowed object of the first proposed meeting, which Great ex- had been called by regular advertisement, was to elect “a and objects representative and legislatorial attorney" to represent the city of Manchester, as had already been done at Birmingham, Stockport, Leeds, and other places. This meeting was called for the 9th August; but as the magistrates, feeling such an object to be illegal, had intimated it would be dispersed, the next or adjourned meeting, which was called for the 16th, was simply to petition for a reform in Parliament. Drilling had been practised in many places in all the country round; and large bodies of men had met on the hills between Lancashire and Yorkshire, in the grey of the morning, to go through their evolutions, though without having any arms. The consequence was, that they marched into Manchester from every direction for thirty miles around, six abreast, with bands of music and colours flying. On these were inscribed, "No Corn Laws;"" Annual Parliaments; "Universal Suffrage;" "Vote by Ballot; " " Equal Representation or Death;" Liberty or Death;""God armeth the Patriot "-with a figure of Wallace. Two bands of female reformers were among them, one numbering 150 members, with light-blue silk flags: they added much to the interest and excitement of the scene. Mr Hunt was the person who Radical, ii. was to address the multitude, and before he arrived on Martineau, the ground it was computed that 60,000 persons were Life of Lord assembled, chiefly from places around Manchester, a large iii. 254,258. proportion, as usual in such cases, being women, and not a few children.1

1 Life of a

197, 204;

i. 228, 230;

Sidmouth,

27.

sion by the

66

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The magistrates of Manchester, deeming such a meeting Its disper- for such an object to be illegal, resolved to prevent it by military. arresting Mr Hunt, its avowed leader, before the proceedings had begun. He arrived about noon in an open carriage, and made his way with some difficulty to the hustings erected on the centre of the ground, amidst cheers

X.

1819.

which rent the air. A warrant was immediately made CHAP. out to arrest him, and put into the hands of Mr Nadin, the chief constable, with orders to execute it immediately. He declared, however, that he could not do so; which was evidently the case, as the crowd was so dense that it was physically impossible to force a passage through the throng up to the hustings. Upon this they directed the military to be called up to clear the way-and notes were despatched to the commanders of the yeomanry and the military to advance to the support of the civil officers who were to execute the warrant. The Manchester yeomanry were nearest at hand, and, coming up, adopted the unlucky resolution of advancing two by two at a walk. A loud shout was set up when they appeared, and as they continued to move on, they were speedily detached from each other, hemmed in, and some of them unhorsed. Upon seeing this, the commanding officer of the hussars said to Mr Hutton, the chief magistrate, "What am I to do?" "Do you not see they are attacking the yeomanry?-disperse the crowd," was the answer. Upon this the word "Forward" was given; the hussars came up at a trot, and, forming on the edge of the throng, the trumpet sounded the charge, and the horsemen, advancing, wheeled into line, and speedily drove the multitude before them. The dense mass of human beings forced forward was instantly thrown into the most dreadful alarm; numbers were trod down, and some suffocated by the pressure; and although the hussars acted with the utmost forbearance, and struck in general only with the flat side of their sabres, yet four or five persons, including one woman, were pressed to death, and about twenty injured by sabre wounds. About seventy persons in all were more or less hurt during this unhappy affray, including one special Lord Sidconstable ridden over by the hussars, and one yeoman 256, 261; struck from his horse by a stone from the mob.1 Mr i. 229, 234; Hunt and ten of his friends were arrested and committed, Account first on a charge of high treason, and afterwards of con

1 Mem. of

mouth, iii.

Martineau,

Mr Jolliffe's

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