Peterloo Massacre (1819 England)

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13.75inch wide    10.00inch high    (34.92 cm wide  25.40 cm high)

16.00inch framed width   12.00inch framed height (40.64 cm framed width  30.48 cm framed height)

The meeting had been organised by the Manchester Patriotic Union Society, a political group that agitated for radical parliamentary reform and the repeal of the corn laws. They had invited a number of speakers, including Richard Carlile, John Cartwright and Henry Hunt, to a public meeting.
Local magistrates, under William Hulton, were concerned that the meeting would end in a riot or, worse, a rebellion. They arranged for a substantial number of militia yeomanry, described as "younger members of the Tory party in arms", to disperse the meeting. The troops included 600 men of the 15th Hussars; several hundred infantrymen; a Royal Horse Artillery unit with two six-pounder guns; 400 men of the Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry; 400 special constables; and 120 cavalry of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry.
A considerable crowd from all around the county of Lancashire had gathered for the meeting; modern estimates are around 60,000 or 80,000. People expected a peaceful meeting and many were wearing their Sunday clothes. Some carried banners with texts like "No Corn Laws", "Annual Parliaments", "Universal suffrage" and "Vote By Ballot." The only banner known to have survived can be seen in Middleton Public Library. It was carried by Thomas Redford who was injured by a yeomanry sabre. One side of the banner is inscribed 'Liberty and Fraternity' and the other 'Unity and Strength'.

A reverse painted mezzotint, after the work by Richard Carlile, (himself a speaker at the meeting) laid down onto glass and showing "A correct representation of the Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry dispersing the meeting that took place at St. Peters Field Manchester the 16th of August 1819...to the Radical Reformers of Manchester and adjacent towns."

gbp 1950 (Pound Sterling)

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