Peterloo Massacre: 200 Years On

This summer’s troubles in Hong Kong call to mind similar occurrences in Britain, 200 years ago today. Working class people from Lancashire gathered at St Peter’s Fields in Manchester to demand parliamentary reform. Back then, Manchester and the great mill towns had no MPs but those two who represented the entire county of Lancashire. The only Lancastrian towns to have their own voice at Westminster were Lancaster and Clitheroe. That meant that huge swathes of the population had effectively no representation. Furthermore, those eligible to elect a Member had to own land earning 40 shillings' annual rental or more, again excluding most of the populace. MPs often lived well outside their constituency and some represented rotten boroughs- ancient or medieval settlements with little population. For example, Old Sarum in Wiltshire had 3 houses and only 7 voters yet warranted its own MP. In contrast, Manchester had a population of over 70,000, but had no MP save the two county Members. At this point, I would observe that good Oliver Cromwell appointed Charles Worsley to be an MP for Manchester in 1654, but the constituency was abolished at the Restoration.

On 16th of August, 1819, 60,000 Lancastrians gathered at Manchester to hear ‘Orator’ Henry Hunt making the case for the reform of Parliament. The local magistrates, who had rented a room overlooking the ground, panicked, dispatching arrest warrants for the platform party. They read the Riot Act, unheard by everyone but themselves. They had already summoned 600 men of the 15th Hussars, plus infantry, 400 men of the Cheshire Yeomanry, 400 special constables and 120 cavalry of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry. Yeomanry were part-time, retained soldiers upon whom the state could call in times of need. Special constables still exist, being part-time, unpaid police officers. The Justices of the Peace ordered the troops and police into the crowd, slashing with sabres and shooting with muskets. The constables beat and whacked with truncheons and staves, indiscriminately. The yeomanry had already been drinking and were the most vicious; the professional Hussars were more restrained. By the day’s close, over 600 were injured and fifteen killed, including two women and a child. The leaders were afterwards gaoled for sedition but journalists from Manchester and London witnessed the day’s horrors, writing sympathetic accounts in their newspapers. The left-leaning Guardian newspaper was founded in the aftermath. In 1832, a Whig (Liberal) government reformed Parliament, scrapping rotten boroughs and extending the vote to the middle classes, but not yet the working folk. Peter’s Fields and the bloodshed they saw were re-christened Peterloo, in mocking reference to the famous Waterloo battle some four years before, in which Wellington defeated Bonaparte. This time, King George’s troops had been used against King George’s own people.

I write this as reports circulate of Chinese soldiers amassing on the Hong Kong border. A senior Chinese spokesman is reported saying “those who play with fire will perish by it”, while the UK’s Independent newspaper reports that 12,000 Chinese police are performing anti-riot drills. Yang Guang, a spokesperson for China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said the protests are pushing the city towards a “dangerous abyss” and punishment is “only a matter of time”. Ominously, he wrote “I would like to warn all of the criminals: don’t ever misjudge the situation and mistake our restraint for weakness.” I hear in these statements the frenzied voices of Rev. Ethelston, William Hulton, Thomas Tatton and Colonel Fletcher, some of the Lancashire JPs who unleashed such terrible violence on that Manchester crowd. The state will always seek to preserve itself, for it rightly fears anarchy above all else. Though I understand Honkongers’ concerns about the recent extradition legislation, I more fear what the Chinese government will do in the next few days and weeks.

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 

1 Timothy 2:1-2