On this day in 1819 a meeting was organised by the Manchester Patriotic Union. The meeting was held at St Peters Field in Manchester and it was to be addressed amongst others, by the radical orator Henry Hunt.
60,000 people, many of whom were women and children turned up to attend the meeting, a meeting which was being held in response to the disastrous imposition of the Corn Laws. Calls for electoral reform were also to be made at the meeting.
The authorities were nervous when they heard this meeting was being planned as they feared it could radicalise the neediest in society to a point where they might openly rebel against their masters and the system which had subjugated them for so long. As a precaution the authorities placed regular soldiers and irregular yeomanry on standby. As the crowd continued to grow and as Henry Hunt mounted the platform to speak local magistrates read the riot act ordering the speakers to be arrested and the crowd to disperse.
The cavalry charged into the crowd to execute the arrests and what ensued become known as the Peterloo Massacre.
Many people from Tameside attended and were injured on that infamous day. The Stalybridge Old Band were at Peterloo on the day of the massacre and no deaths or injuries were reported. Less fortunate were:
Joseph Brierly of Charlestown, Ashton who was badly wounded by Sabre or shot.
John Britland who was trampled by horses.
70 year old Joseph Buckley from Dukinfield who received a sabre cut to the head and a crushed right leg.
John Clayton from Ashton a 53 year old weaver who received cuts to his arms and legs as well as being crushed under foot by the panicked and stampeding crowd.
Joseph Collins from Dukinfield who was knocked down and trampled by the constables horses which caused “dreadful bruising”
Ellen Garside, Ashton. Trampled on by Yeomanry horses.
Edmund Garside, Ashton. Trampled by horses, injured shoulder and leg.
Thomas Gobert, Ashton wounded by truncheons.
William Goddard, Ashton Hurst. Arm put out.
Thomas Knott, Ashton. Bruising caused by truncheons.
Joshua Prestwick, Droylsden. Severely sabred.
74 year old John Seal of Hurst Brook, Ashton. Knocked down and trampled.
Robert Seal of Hurst Brook, Ashton. Knocked down by trumpeter - injured knee.
Samuel Stafford, Ashton. Knocked down from a blow from a constable.
John Stanfield, Ashton. Knocked down and crushed by cavalry.
James Street, aged 70 of Ashton. Thrown down and sabred by cavalry.
Daniel Taylor, Haughton near Ashton. Severe sabre wound to the head.
Ann Taylor, Little Moss, Ashton. Trampled upon by cavalry.
William Thornley, Droylsden. Sabred in the head.
John Travis, Ashton. Wounded in the head by sabre or shot.
Henry Whitehead, Ashton. Sabred very severely in head, back and leg.
James Whitworth, Ashton. Knocked down and vomited blood.
Joshua Whitworth, Hyde. Shot in the head by a musket ball, since dead.
There are more names from Tameside which could be added to the list but I think it is clear from the injuries described that one can quite easily picture the scene on that terrible day.
There has been debate ever since the event as to whether or whether not ‘massacre’ was the correct word to use when describing the events that took place in Manchester on this day in 1819. In my opinion it was a massacre in every sense of the word. The professional soldiers, who themselves revelled in the slaughter, had to intervene on a number of occasions to quell the excesses of the irregular yeomanry which consisted largely of landed gentry along with mill and shop owners. Many of these people used this occasion to settle scores with radicals who they viewed as a threat to their own privileged status in society and expressed their outrage in acts of savagery not witnessed in England since the Civil War.
During last weeks riots and looting in Manchester, not too far away from where the Peterloo Massacre occurred, we saw a different approach to law enforcement. Whereas the peaceful and innocent meeting attendees at St Peters Field in 1819 were mercilessly hacked to pieces and brutalised, in Manchester last week we witnessed violent criminals running amok without any fear of the law.
This brings me to my final point on the subject. At the height of last weeks disorder I was queuing for a baked potato at Hyde market when I overhead a conversation between two strangers in the same queue regarding the previous nights trouble. A man in his 30’s said the police are too soft and they should have used plastic bullets to quell the rioting, an older man in his 50’s replied “never mind plastic bullets they should have used steel bullets” the younger man nodded in agreeance.
I was already nearing the end of a book I was reading entitled The Casualties of Peterloo by Professor Michael Bush when I overheard this conversion and I looked at both men casually chatting away about potentially massacring hundreds of people. People who were guilty of nothing other than crimes against property, which while deplorable, certainly didn’t warrant death.
As I listened to them I pictured the magistrates reading the riot act at St Peters Field and wondered if they knew or cared what the consequences of their words would be if they had the authority to unleash the modern day ‘yeomanry’ and I wonder what judgement history would have passed on them nearly two centuries after the event?
20 comments:
A somewhat confused piece. Peterloo was a political demonstration met with extreme violence. The riots and looting in Manchester were pure criminality carried out by brainless scum.
The policy of shooting looters in America works because a couple of corpses has a massive deterrent effect on the others, thios maintains order. The British policing model, particularly as evidenced in London, allowed ten hours of total chaos because the rioters/looters had no fear-based respect for the forces of law and order.
The root of this problem is the liberal establishment that does not believe in the ideas of punishment or individual reponsibility. The people in charge of the government and police (ACPO is infested with such types) learned at university that nothing is anyone's fault and society was to blame.
They've all done plenty of tough talking since the riots but the sentences handed down have been of the usual ultra lenient type.
In short, they've learned nothing, and until they do British civilisation will continue to disintegrate.
A classic poem in the English radical tradition - which was regularly reproduced in early socialist newspapers such as the The Red Republican and The Northern Star.
"Men of England"
Men of England, wherefore plough
For the lords who lay ye low?
Wherefore weave with toil and care
The rich robes your tyrants wear?
Wherefore feed and clothe and save
From the cradle to the grave
Those ungrateful drones who would
Drain your sweat—nay, drink your blood?
Wherefore, Bees of England, forge
Many a weapon, chain, and scourge,
That these stingless drones may spoil
The forced produce of your toil?
Have ye leisure, comfort, calm,
Shelter, food, love’s gentle balm?
Or what is it ye buy so dear
With your pain and with your fear?
The seed ye sow, another reaps;
The wealth ye find, another keeps;
The robes ye weave, another wears;
The arms ye forge, another bears.
Sow seed—but let no tyrant reap:
Find wealth—let no imposter heap:
Weave robes—let not the idle wear:
Forge arms—in your defence to bear.
Shrink to your cellars,holes,and cells—
In halls ye deck another dwells.
Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see
The steel ye tempered glance on ye.
With plough and spade and hoe and loom
Trace your grave and build your tomb
And weave your winding-sheet—till fair
England be your Sepulchre.
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Good points enforcement, Greater Manchester Police put the boot in far more, for one reason: It's OK to police aggressively against whitey. Softly softly in Tottenham at the first demonstration against the death of a gang member and crack dealer (personally I'd have shook the police's hand for getting rid of him) led to the ensuing chaos on the streets of what used to be London.
Hoepfully a few of the dumb Southern apologists and liberals might have learnt a lesson, about where their beacon cosmopolitan city is headed.
I’m sorry you find the article somewhat confusing Enforcement. I suppose after reading it again it is a bit of a disjointed ramble.
What I did intend to do was help keep the memory of the Peterloo Massacre alive. People often forget the struggles our forefathers went through to bring about the things many take for granted such as universal suffrage.
You correctly describe the people who recently sacked Manchester as “brainless scum” then go on to explain about the ‘deterrent’ effect and how a couple of corpses, presumably shot by law enforcement officers can help to maintain order.
Supposing you were in charge of policing during the recent riots in Manchester. Would you have ordered your officers to open fire and massacre those guilty of smashing windows and stealing property from shops?
(and before pip-squeak pipes up and accuses me of being Enforcement and therefore guilty of arguing with myself I will put this disclaimer in now guaranteeing you I am not)
The crimes committed by the rioters may be relatively minor but the kind of person who would behave in such a way without any fear of the law or respect for the livelihoods of others aren't the kind of people we should allow to live.
The underclass created by Thatcher and continued and allowed to thrive by Blair and Brown are given everything on a plate and encouraged to spawn their ugly, dumpy looking children in large numbers.
To kill the rioters would be merely an exercise in eugenics, the toughest and quickest thinking amongst them will get away anyway. We would be rid of plenty of criminal foreigners and rid of the backward undesirables of our race.
For all the talk of White Nationalists about increasing the number of white children, we have to remember the calibre of many of the white children who populate the inner cities.
Is it true that John Taylor did time in Borstal? Alegedly, he set fire to his school. So it would appear he is taking the moral high ground on the riots, when he is just as bad.
If the person in charge of the riots had ordered a few looters shot, the spineless liberals in government would have crucified him/her.
It's the law that needs changing so that it is LEGAL to shoot looters/rioters etc. However the whole British criminal justice system is rotten with inconsistency, endemic leniency and above all is based on weak kneed, irrational 'social theory' that holds society, not individuals are responsible.
ANYONE fortunate enough to live in Britain, which is paradise compared to the large number of hell holes in the world, should have an absolute responsibility to behave within the law. You might be a moronic, unemployable scumbag but all that's required is, don't break the law. That's obviously too much to expect of the human detritus that now infest our inner cities.
The solution is to return to a punishment and deterrent based criminal justice system with the death penalty at its core. The rot took hold in 1965 when the establishment lost its bottle and abolished hanging, which was the foundation stone of the old, supposedly unenlightened, system, and civilised standards and order have been in decline ever since.
I do applaud you for drawing attention to such an important event in our local history.
Nick Clegg has a conviction for arson, some room to talk there then.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz1iAZUSTU8
If the Met in London had gone in hard against the initial rioters then it would have stopped it there and then... but that would have meant atttacking black demonstraters which in the modern paradigm is a non-starter
TonyDJ, I am aware you are a keen military historian and you may find it interesting that on the day of the meeting the Royal Horse Artillery were present and brought along two six-pounder guns which thankfully were not used. What were they thinking bringing such fearsome weapons to a public meeting?
Are you aware of any other event in our history where the British military have turned their guns on the civilian population?
Tameside Labour!
Thanks for that report on Taylor's dirty filth talk.
Not a surprise to me.
Spoke to a taxi drive thats knows Taylor.
He's known for putting himself about in that area of life.
Maybe its time the British people turned weapons onto the British Military, them and the state sponsored thugs in blue stand in the way of the British people becoming the masters of their own destiny.
Aux armes, citoyens,
formez vos battaillons,
marchons, marchons!
qu'un sang impur,
abreuve nos sillons!
Brilliant song that, better than our slavish devotion to some fat auld German cow.
Besides the RHA there were the 11th Light Dragoons (later 11th hussara of Light Brigade fame) and the 88th foot (Connaught Rangers).
Military firing on civil population? Most rebellions involved civilian rebels so we have Sedgemoor (1685)but if we are talking about riots the big one was the anti-catholic Gordon Riots of 1781. In Ireland we have the shootings in Croke Park by the Black and Tans in 1920.
Ladysmith barracks was built in 1845 to house cavalry in times of civil unrest. In 1875 troops had to be brought by train to Ashton from Bury to quell a riot in protest at new drinking laws which closed pubs on Sundays at 9pm instead of 10pm. The mob was going to attack the house of Hugh Mason MP in the West End.
The troops from Ashton Barracks couldnot be used as they were leading the mob!
According to the latest official figures the UK's population grew by 409,000 in 2010. The vast majority of this increase was caused by immigration and extremely high fertility rates amongst certain immigrant groups. Nearly all will come to England, which with its population density of 1023 per square mile was already one of the most populous countries in the world. Compared to France at 296 per sq mile England is 350% more densely poulated.
The 409,000 UK increase accounted for 33% of the ENTIRE EU population growth, illustrating that immigration into Britain is totally out of control.
All this in the middle of a recession. There are still large numbers of idiots out there who think the coalition government is actually going to do something about this disastrous situation. Labour's traitorous, destructive, floodgates open immigration policy began the work of finishing Britain as a nation State and the coalition are continuing on the same path. They haven't the brains or courage to do anything meaningful about it. The truth is time is rapidly running out for Britain.
An illustration of how far things have deteriorated is that the cost to the British taxpayer for housing the virtually unemployable Somali community alone is currently £2 billion a year.
Dear Tameside Labour.
I'm amazed at the Taylor's pointing the finger at others in the Community.
Check out Joan Taylor's family background.
She comes from a well known criminal family.
Check out John Taylor's violent nature for yourself.
Ask yourself why is John Taylor always sniffing around Karen Wright.
I see them together most of the time.
John Taylor won't take anyone to court, if they bring up the subject of car clocking.
He prefers to send the police round, yet it's not a police matter.
John Taylor is scared of his past being brought out in court.
As I said, you only need to check out Joan Taylor's family.
They known all about criminality.
John Taylor is reformed character and he does good work in Tameside (when he is not persecuting dog walkers or bringing far left thugs into the borough) so leave him alone.
Labour is infested with criminals. Read about Councillor Stephen Govier
who is exposed in the news today after it was discovered he was involved in drug shooting and jailed for six years.
Also in the news today is Cllr John Scott but he has yet to be convicted unlike Labour councillor John Holden who was today jailed for 12 month for stealing £43,000.
Closer to home Labour councillor Fred Walker has been forced to resign after claiming three years expenses totalling £20,000 in one go.
I have been aware of the deep corruption at the heart of the Labour Party for a long time but the real eye opener for me was the Hyde by-election a couple of years ago where the Italian woman stood as a BNP candidate. I personally witnesses Labour councillors meeting with and directing far-left agitators during the campaign.
All the above are the news today. If you want daily updates on the criminal activities of Labour councillors go to a number of search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo and type in Labour Councillor and then hit the news button. You will then get a list of all Labour councillors in the news that day.
Anon said
If you want daily updates on the criminal activities of Labour councillors go to a number of search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo and type in Labour Councillor and then hit the news button. You will then get a list of all Labour councillors in the news that day.
How about;
If you want daily updates on the criminal activities of Conservative councillors go to a number of search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo and type in Conservative Councillor and then hit the news button. You will then get a list of all Conservative councillors in the news that day.
Or
If you want daily updates on the criminal activities of Liberal Democrat councillors go to a number of search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo and type in Liberal Democrat Councillor and then hit the news button. You will then get a list of all Liberal Democrat councillors in
the news that day.
And on and on and on and on
Re the 2009 Hyde Newton by-election, there were 27500 smear leaflets put out by a far left organisation funded by Labour to try and reduce the BNP vote.
This practice of funding third party groups to try and cheat was rightly illegal until 2001 when the Labour government changed the law. These groups ONLY turn out in Labour areas when their vote is threatened. 10,000 of the leaflets were illegal as they were unattributable. The response of Tameside's electoral overseers was to do nothing.
Thanks for the replies TonyDJ and Enforcement.
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