Behind Blue Eyes

16th August 1819

The Peterloo Massacre (or Battle of Peterloo) occurred at St Peter’s Field, Manchester, England, on 16 August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 gathered at a meeting to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.

The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had resulted in periods of famine and chronic unemployment, exacerbated by the introduction of the first of the Corn Laws. By the beginning of 1819 the pressure generated by poor economic conditions, coupled with the lack of suffrage in northern England, had enhanced the appeal of political radicalism. In response, the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group agitating for parliamentary reform, organised a demonstration to be addressed by the well-known radical orator Henry Hunt.

Shortly after the meeting began, local magistrates called on the military authorities to arrest Hunt and several others on the hustings with him, and to disperse the crowd. Cavalry charged into the crowd with sabres drawn, and in the ensuing confusion, 15 people were killed and 400–700 were injured. The massacre was given the name Peterloo in ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo, which had taken place four years earlier.

Historian Robert Poole has called the Peterloo Massacre one of the defining moments of its age. In its own time, the London and national papers shared the horror felt in the Manchester region, but Peterloo’s immediate effect was to cause the government to crack down on reform, with the passing of what became known as the Six Acts. It also led directly to the foundation of The Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian), but had little other effect on the pace of reform. In a survey conducted by The Guardian in 2006, Peterloo came second to the Putney Debates as the event from British history that most deserved a proper monument or a memorial. Peterloo is commemorated by a plaque close to the site, a replacement for an earlier one that was criticised as being inadequate as it did not reflect the scale of the massacre.

10th April 1848

Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1850. It takes its name from the People’s Charter of 1838, which stipulated the six main aims of the movement as:

1. A vote for every man twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and not undergoing punishment for crime.
2. The secret ballot. – To protect the elector in the exercise of his vote.
3. No property qualification for members of Parliament – thus enabling the constituencies to return the man of their choice, be he rich or poor.
4. Payment of members, thus enabling an honest tradesman, working man, or other person, to serve a constituency, when taken from his business to attend to the interests of the Country.
5. Equal Constituencies, securing the same amount of representation for the same number of electors, instead of allowing small constituencies to swamp the votes of large ones.
6. Annual parliaments, thus presenting the most effectual check to bribery and intimidation, since though a constituency might be bought once in seven years (even with the ballot), no purse could buy a constituency (under a system of universal suffrage) in each ensuing twelve-month; and since members, when elected for a year only, would not be able to defy and betray their constituents as now.

On 10 April 1848, a new Chartist Convention organised a mass meeting on Kennington Common, which would form a procession to present another petition to Parliament. The estimate of the number of attendees varies depending on the source (O’Connor estimated 300,000; the government, 15,000; The Observer newspaper suggested 50,000). The most likely figure is 150,000. The government was well aware that the Chartists had no intention of staging an uprising. However, they were fears that a revolution would start spontaneously and the authorities were intent upon a large-scale display of force both to counter this threat and if possible stamp out Chartism in a year of revolutions across continental Europe. 100,000 special constables were recruited to bolster the police force. In any case, the meeting was peaceful. However the military had threatened to intervene if the Chartists made any attempt to cross the Thames.

9th December 2010

A policeman who was knocked unconscious by student rioters in Parliament Square told of the terrifying moment he came under a barrage of missiles from a hate-filled mob.

Pc Jim Mansfield, 29, suffered a blow to the head from a missile which cracked his protective helmet and left him with concussion. Doctors said he could have been killed had he still been wearing the soft cap he had on earlier.

Today Pc Mansfield, a borough-based officer who volunteers for riot duty, described Thursday’s riot as “the most concerted, sustained and large-scale violence I’ve ever faced”.

A veteran of public order protests, including last year’s G20 demos in the City, he had been part of a unit guarding the Palace of Westminster but was moved to the top of Victoria Street, where some of the fiercest clashes took place.

He said: “We were under a pretty concerted attack for more than an hour. They were throwing snooker balls, paint bombs, flares, fireworks and smoke grenades. They improvised with concrete blocks and metal fences, anything they could get their hands on.

“I had been hit on the head by a few objects by that point — we all had. But then something hit me on the top of my helmet — I didn’t see what it was — and I was knocked out cold. I just fell down in the crowd.”

He was trampled on and suffered severe bruising to his knees and legs before being dragged away from the front line. His riot shield was stolen.

The officer said that for much of the time the demonstration was good-natured. Earlier he had chatted with students and shared some mints he had brought.

But the mood turned quickly when a different group arrived with hoods and masks, armed with missiles and flares. He said: “They were not protesters, these people had come prepared.”

Pc Mansfield was one of 12 police injured in the riots.