Editing Peterloo Massacre (section)

==Reaction and aftermath==

===Public===
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|{{center|PETER LOO MASSACRE ! ! !}}{{pb}}Just published No. 1 price twopence of PETER LOO MASSACRE Containing a full, true and faithful account of the inhuman murders, woundings and other monstrous Cruelties exercised by a set of INFERNALS (miscalled Soldiers) upon unarmed and distressed People.<ref name="MarlowP6">Marlow (1969), p.&nbsp;6.</ref>
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|colspan=3 style="text-align:center;" |— 28 August 1819, ''Manchester Observer''
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|As the 'Peterloo Massacre' cannot be otherwise than grossly libellous you will probably deem it right to proceed by arresting the publishers.<ref name="MarlowP6" />
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|colspan=3 style="text-align:center;" |— 25 August 1819, Letter from the [[Home Office]] to Magistrate [[James Norris (died 1838)|James Norris]]
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The Peterloo Massacre has been called one of the defining moments of its age.{{sfnp|Poole|2006|p=254|ps=none}} Many of those present at the massacre, including local masters, employers and owners, were horrified by the carnage. One of the casualties, Oldham cloth-worker and ex-soldier John Lees, who died from his wounds on 9 September, had been present at the [[Battle of Waterloo]].{{sfnp|McPhillips|1977|pp=22–23|ps=none}} Shortly before his death he said to a friend that he had never been in such danger as at Peterloo: "At Waterloo there was man to man but there it was downright murder."{{sfnp|Reid|1989|p=201|ps=none}} When news of the massacre began to spread, the population of Manchester and surrounding districts was horrified and outraged.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Donald |first=Diana |title=The Power of Print: Graphic Images of Peterloo |journal=Manchester Region History Review |volume=3 |year=1989 |pages=21–30 |url=http://www.mcrh.mmu.ac.uk/pubs/pdf/mrhr_03i_marlow.pdf  |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513012501/http://www.mcrh.mmu.ac.uk/pubs/pdf/mrhr_03i_marlow.pdf |archive-date=13 May 2008}}</ref>

After the events at Peterloo, many commemorative items such as plates, jugs, handkerchiefs and medals were produced; they were carried by radical supporters and may also have been sold to raise money for the injured.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Chris |last=Burgess |chapter=The objects of Peterloo |title=Return to Peterloo |publisher=Carnegie |editor=Poole, Robert |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-85936-225-9 |location=Manchester |pages=151–158 |oclc=893558457}}</ref> The [[People's History Museum]] in Manchester has one of these Peterloo handkerchiefs on display.<ref>{{citation |title=Collection highlights, Peterloo Handkerchief |publisher=People's History Museum |url=http://www.phm.org.uk/our-collection/peterloo-handkerchief/ |access-date=13 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113222408/http://www.phm.org.uk/our-collection/peterloo-handkerchief/ |archive-date=13 January 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> All the mementos carried the iconic image of Peterloo; cavalrymen with swords drawn riding down and slashing at defenceless civilians.{{sfnp|Bush|2005|pp=30, 35|ps=none}} The reverse of the Peterloo commemorative medal carried a Biblical text, derived from [[Psalm 37]] ([[s:Bible (King James)/Psalms#37:14|Psalm 37:14]]):

{{blockquote|The wicked have drawn out the sword, they have cast down the poor and needy and such as be of upright conversation.<ref>illustrated (facing p. 44) in {{harvnb|Bruton|1919}}</ref>}}

Peterloo was the first public meeting at which journalists from important, distant newspapers were present and within a day or so of the event, accounts were published in London, Leeds and Liverpool.{{sfnp|Frow|Frow|1984|p=8|ps=none}} The London and national papers shared the horror felt in the Manchester region, and the feeling of indignation throughout the country became intense. [[James Wroe]], editor of the ''Manchester Observer'', was the first to describe the incident as the "Peterloo Massacre", coining his headline by creating the ironic [[portmanteau]] from St Peter's Field and the Battle of Waterloo that had taken place four years earlier.<ref name=Harrison/> He also wrote [[pamphlet]]s entitled "The Peterloo Massacre: A Faithful Narrative of the Events". Priced at 2d each, they sold out every print run for 14 weeks and had a large national circulation.<ref name=Harrison/> Sir [[Francis Burdett]], a reformist MP, was jailed for three months for publishing a [[seditious libel]].<ref>{{EB1911|wstitle=Burdett, Sir Francis|volume=4|pages=809–810|first=Arthur William|last=Holland|inline=1}}</ref>

[[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] was in Italy and did not hear of the massacre until 5 September. His poem ''[[The Masque of Anarchy]]'', subtitled ''Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester'', was sent for publication in the radical periodical ''The Examiner'', but because of restrictions on the radical press it was not published until 1832, ten years after the poet's death.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Sandy |first=Mark |title=The Mask of Anarchy |encyclopedia=The Literary Encyclopedia |publisher=The Literary Dictionary Company Ltd |date=20 September 2002 |url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=213 |access-date=1 April 2008 |archive-date=5 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805042117/http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=213 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=cocel>{{Cite book |editor-last=Cox |editor-first=Michael |title=The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2004 |isbn=0-19-860634-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/conciseoxfordchr00coxm}}</ref>

===Political===
The immediate effect of Peterloo was a crackdown on reform. The government instructed the police and courts to go after the journalists, presses and publication of the ''Manchester Observer.''<ref name=Harrison/> Wroe was arrested and charged with producing a seditious publication. Found guilty he was sentenced to 12 months in prison and fined £100.<ref name=Harrison/> Outstanding court cases against the ''Manchester Observer'' were rushed through the courts and a continual change of sub-editors was not sufficient defence against a series of police raids, often on the suspicion that someone was writing a radical article. The ''Manchester Observer'' closed in February 1820.<ref name=Harrison>{{cite book |last=Harrison |first=Stanley |title=Poor Men's Guardians: Survey of the Democratic and Working-class Press |edition=|publisher=Lawrence & W |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-85315-308-5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Poole |first=Robert |date=2019 |title=The Manchester Observer: Biography of a Radical Newspaper |journal=Bulletin of the John Rylands Library |volume=95 |issue=1 |pages=31–123 |doi=10.7227/BJRL.95.1.3 |doi-access=free |ref=none}}</ref>

Hunt and eight others were tried at York Assizes on 16 March 1820, charged with [[sedition]]. After a two-week trial, five defendants were found guilty, on a single one of the seven charges. Hunt was sentenced to 30&nbsp;months in [[Ilchester]] Gaol; Bamford, Johnson, and Healey were given one year each, and Knight was jailed for two years on a subsequent charge. A civil case on behalf of a weaver wounded at Peterloo was brought against four members of the Manchester Yeomanry, Captain Birley, Captain Withington, Trumpeter Meagher, and Private Oliver, at Lancaster Assizes, on 4 April 1822. All were acquitted, as the court ruled their actions had been justified to disperse an illegal gathering and that the murders were nothing more than self-defence.<ref name=Civilaction1822>{{cite book |title=Manchester Meeting, sixteenth of August, 1819. A Report of the Trial, Redford against Birley and others for an assault, etc |date=1822 |publisher=James Harrop |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kddhAAAAcAAJ |access-date=4 May 2020 |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729224312/https://books.google.com/books?id=kddhAAAAcAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Peterloo poster.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Ban on military exercises|Notice "to the inhabitants of the [[Salford (hundred)|Hundred of Salford]]", published by the magistrates the day after the massacre]]
The government declared its support for the actions taken by the magistrates and the army. The Manchester magistrates held a supposedly public meeting on 19 August, so that resolutions supporting the action they had taken three days before could be published. Cotton merchants [[Archibald Prentice]] (later editor of ''[[The Manchester Times]]'') and [[Absalom Watkin]] (a later corn-law reformer), both members of the ''Little Circle'', organised a petition of protest against the violence at St Peter's Field and the validity of the magistrates' meeting. Within a few days it had collected 4,800&nbsp;signatures.{{sfnp|Reid|1989|p=195|ps=none}} Nevertheless, the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, on 27 August conveyed to the magistrates the thanks of the Prince Regent for their action in the "preservation of the public peace."<ref name="County of Lancs: Manchester"/> That public exoneration was met with fierce anger and criticism. During a debate at Hopkins Street [[Robert Wedderburn (radical)|Robert Wedderburn]] declared "The Prince is a fool with his Wonderful letters of thanks&nbsp;... What is the Prince Regent or King to us, we want no King&nbsp;– he is no use to us."{{sfnp|Poole|2000|p=154|ps=none}} In an open letter, Richard Carlile said:
{{blockquote|Unless the Prince calls his ministers to account and relieved his people, he would surely be deposed and make them all REPUBLICANS, despite all adherence to ancient and established institutions.{{sfnp|Poole|2000|p=154|ps=none}}}}

For a few months following Peterloo it seemed to the authorities that the country was heading towards an armed rebellion. Encouraging them in that belief were two abortive uprisings, in [[Huddersfield]] and [[Burnley]], the [[Yorkshire West Riding Revolt]], during the autumn of 1820, and the discovery and foiling of the [[Cato Street conspiracy]] to blow up the cabinet that winter.{{sfnp|Poole|2006|p=272|ps=none}} By the end of the year, the government had introduced legislation, later known as the [[Six Acts]], to suppress [[radicalism (historical)|radical]] meetings and publications, and by the end of 1820 every significant working-class radical reformer was in jail; civil liberties had declined to an even lower level than they were before Peterloo. Historian Robert Reid has written that "it is not fanciful to compare the restricted freedoms of the British worker in the post-Peterloo period in the early nineteenth century with those of the black South African in the post-[[Sharpeville massacre|Sharpeville]] period of the late twentieth century."{{sfnp|Reid|1989|p=211|ps=none}} Peterloo is also partially credited for pushing the British government to pass the [[Vagrancy Act 1824]], and for the creation of the [[Metropolitan Police|London Metropolitan Police]] (sometimes described as the first [[Police|police department]]).<ref>Vitale, Alex S. ''The end of policing''. Verso Books, 2021.</ref>

The Peterloo Massacre also influenced the naming of the 1821 [[Cinderloo Uprising]] in the [[Coalbrookdale Coalfield]] of east [[Shropshire]]. The uprising saw 3,000 protesting workers confronted by the [[Shropshire Yeomanry|South Shropshire Yeomanry]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Gladstone|first=E.W.|title=The Shropshire Yeomanry 1795–1945, the Story of a Volunteer Cavalry Regiment|year=1953|publisher=The Whitethorn Press|pages=21–22}}</ref> leading to the deaths of three crowd members.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/telford/2018/10/06/the-riot-that-telford-forgot--new-group-trying-to-raise-awareness-of-cinderloo-uprising/ |title=The riot that Telford forgot: New group trying to raise awareness of Cinderloo uprising |last=Growcott |first=Mat |date=6 October 2018 |website=Shropshire Star |access-date=18 July 2019 |archive-date=23 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223132232/https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/telford/2018/10/06/the-riot-that-telford-forgot--new-group-trying-to-raise-awareness-of-cinderloo-uprising/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Fatal Riot |date=9 February 1821 |work=Shrewsbury Chronicle}}</ref>

One direct consequence of Peterloo was the foundation of ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' newspaper in 1821, by the [[Little Circle]] group of [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|non-conformist]] Manchester businessmen headed by [[John Edward Taylor]], a witness to the massacre.<ref name="Guardian 2007-08-13">{{Cite news |title=Battle for the memory of Peterloo: Campaigners demand fitting tribute |last=Wainwright |first=Martin |newspaper=The Guardian |date=13 August 2007 |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/aug/13/britishidentity.artnews |access-date=26 March 2008 |archive-date=5 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705035053/http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/aug/13/britishidentity.artnews |url-status=live }}</ref> The prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that it would "zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty&nbsp;... warmly advocate the cause of Reform&nbsp;... endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy and&nbsp;... support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, all serviceable measures."<ref>{{cite web |title=The Scott Trust: History |url=http://www.gmgplc.co.uk/the-scott-trust/history/ |access-date=26 March 2012 |archive-date=30 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630020858/http://www.gmgplc.co.uk/the-scott-trust/history/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Events such as the [[Pentrich rising]], the March of the [[Blanketeers]] and the [[Spa Fields riots|Spa Fields]] meeting, all serve to indicate the breadth, diversity and widespread geographical scale of the demand for economic and political reform at the time.{{sfnp|Davis|1993|pp=32–33|ps=none}} Peterloo had no effect on the speed of reform, but in due course all but one of the reformers' demands, annual parliaments, were met.{{sfnp|Reid|1989|p=218|ps=none}} Following the [[Great Reform Act 1832]], the newly created [[Manchester (UK Parliament constituency)|Manchester parliamentary borough]] elected its first two MPs. Five candidates including [[William Cobbett]] stood, and the [[British Whig Party|Whigs]], [[Charles Poulett Thomson]] and [[Mark Philips (politician)|Mark Philips]], were elected.{{sfnp|Prentice|1853|p=25|ps=none}} Manchester became a [[municipal borough]] in 1838, and  the [[manorial rights]] were purchased by the borough council in 1846.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Farrer |editor-first1=William |editor-last2=Brownbill |editor-first2=John |title=The Victoria history of the county of Lancaster. – Lancashire. Vol. 4 |chapter=Townships: Manchester (part 2 of 2) |orig-year=1911 |chapter-url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol4/pp230-251 |access-date=24 August 2019 |year=2017 |publisher=University of London |archive-date=16 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190516224842/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol4/pp230-251 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On the other hand, R. J. White has affirmed the true significance of Peterloo as marking the point of final conversion of provincial England to the struggle for enfranchisement of the working class.

{{quote|"The ship which had tacked and lain for so long among the shoals and shallows of [[Luddite|Luddism]], hunger-marching, strikes and sabotage, was coming to port"}}

{{quote|"Henceforth, the people were to stand with ever greater fortitude behind that great movement, which, stage by stage throughout the nineteenth century, was to impose a new political order upon society"}}

{{quote|"With Peterloo, and the departure of [[Regency era|Regency England]], parliamentary reform had come of age."{{sfnp|White|1957|pp=191–192|ps=none}}}}