Editing Peterloo Massacre (section)

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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>