By 1819, the allocation of Parliamentary constituencies did not reflect the distribution of population. The major urban centres of Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Blackburn, Rochdale, Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham and Stockport, with a combined population of almost one million, were represented only by their county MPs; and very few inhabitants had the vote. Lancashire (in which all the above other than Stockport lay) was represented by two members of parliament (MPs), with voting restricted to the adult male owners of freehold land valued at 40shillings or more—the equivalent of about £80 as of 2008[2]—and votes could only be cast at the county town of Lancaster, by a public spoken declaration at the hustings. Stockport fell within the county constituency of Cheshire, with the same franchise, but with the hustings held at Chester. Many MPs were returned by "rotten boroughs" (Old Sarum in Wiltshire, with one voter, elected two MPs,[3] as did Dunwich in Suffolk, which by the early 19th century had almost completely disappeared into the sea.[4]) or "closed boroughs" (with more voters, but dependent on a local magnate). More than half of all MPs were elected by boroughs under the control of a total of just 154proprietors[3] who therefore had a hugely disproportionate influence on the membership of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. These inequalities in political representation led to calls for reform.
Publication
The newspaper was formed by a group of radicals that included John Knight, John Saxton and James Wroe. It pioneered a popularist form of articles, with an editorialship agenda aimed at the growing literate working-class. Within twelve months it was selling 4,000 copies per week to its local audience.[1][5]
Its style resulted in sales outside its core geography, and by late 1819 it was being sold in most of the booming industrialised cities—Birmingham, Leeds, London, Salford—that were calling for non-conformist reform of the Houses of Parliament. Hunt stated:[1][5]
The Manchester Observer is the only newspaper in England that I know, fairly and honestly devoted to such reform as would give the people their whole rights.
The articles within the non-conformist agenda, combined with a racy-popularist style, often resulted in the principal journalists—T. J. Evans, John Saxton and James Wroe—constantly being sued for libel. When found guilty, particularly for writing articles critical of Parliament's structure, they were often jailed. This, however, only managed to raise circulation.[1][5]
But, despite its popularity, association with its radical agenda was seen as bad for sales by traditionalist conformist-Tory business people, and hence advertising revenue was low.[1] Resultantly, with often only one of its 24 columns filled by adverts, the Observer was always in financial difficulties.[1][5]
At the start of 1819, Joseph Johnson, John Knight and James Wroe all of the Manchester Observer formed the Patriotic Union Society (PUS). All the leading radicals and reformists in Manchester joined the organisation, including members of the Little Circle. The objective of the PUS was to obtain parliamentary reform.[1]
PUS decided to invite Henry "Orator" Hunt and Major John Cartwright to speak at a public meeting in Manchester, about the national agenda of Parliamentary reform, and the local agenda to gain two MPs for Manchester and one for Salford. To avoid the police or courts banning the meeting, PUS stated on all its materials as did the Observer in articles and editorial that it was "a meeting of the county of Lancashire, than of Manchester alone."[1][5]
Following the massacre, Wroe as then editor of the Observer was the first journalist to describe the incident at the Peterloo Massacre, taking his headline from the Battle of Waterloo that had taken place only four years before.[1][5] Wroe subsequently wrote pamphlets entitled "The Peterloo Massacre: A Faithful Narrative of the Events". Priced at 2d each, they sold out each print run for 14 weeks, having a large national circulation.[1][5] Saxton, having been on the hustings with Hunt, was arrested and imprisoned. He stood trial with Hunt at York Assizes, but his defence that he was present as a reporter, not as a participant in the meeting, let alone a member of the hustings party, was successful.
On 28 August the Observer printed an article claiming that Manchester Royal Infirmary had been emptied of patients, including one whose leg had been amputated the previous day, before the massacre to prepare to receive the wounded, and that all the surgeons had been summoned to attend on 16th. This was held to be evidence that "something was previously arranged". The Board of the infirmary vigorously denied this. The only amputee discharged on 16th had been in the hospital for 6 weeks since his amputation.[6]
Closure by repeated prosecution
The Liverpool government instigated repeated prosecutions of the Manchester Observer and those associated with it.[1] Vendors of the Manchester Observer were prosecuted for seditious libel,[7] and a total of fifteen charges of seditious libel were brought against Wroe, his wife and his two brothers. Publication of the Observer was temporarily suspended in February 1820,[8] when Wroe relinquished ownership of the copyright,[9] but resumed under the last proprietor of the Manchester Observer (Thomas John Evans). On trial Wroe was found guilty on two specimen charges, all the other charges against him, against his wife and his brothers being allowed to lie, provided the publication of libels ceased. On one charge he was sentenced to six months imprisonment and fined £100; on the other he was given a further six months, and bound over to keep the peace for two years, to give a surety of £200 and to find two other sureties of £50 each. The specimen charges related not to anything in the Observer, but to articles in Sherwin's Weekly Political Register, which Wroe had sold.[10]
The sentences were said to have been reduced because of the distressed state of the Wroes:[10] his successor Evans was subsequently (June 1821) convicted on one charge of seditious libel (and one of libel on a private individual) by the Observer, imprisoned for eighteen months and bound over for three years in the sum of £400, two other sureties of £200 to be found.[11][12] By then the 11 members of the first Little Circle excluding William Cowdroy Jnr. of the Manchester Gazette had helped a then cotton merchant John Edward Taylor found The Manchester Guardian (Taylor was editor of the Guardian until his death, following a liberal agenda, and the Little Circle members wrote for it);[1] the Manchester Observer had ceased publication, its final editorial recommending its readers to read the recently founded Manchester Guardian:[5]
I would respectfully suggest that the Manchester Guardian, combining principles of complete independence, and zealous attachment to the cause of reform, with active and spirited management, is a journal in every way worthy of your confidence and support.
Related Research Articles
The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.
Henry "Orator" Hunt was a British radical speaker and agitator remembered as a pioneer of working-class radicalism and an important influence on the later Chartist movement. He advocated parliamentary reform and the repeal of the Corn Laws. He was the first member of parliament to advocate for women's suffrage; in 1832 he presented a petition to parliament from a woman asking for the right to vote.
Richard Carlile was an important agitator for the establishment of universal suffrage and freedom of the press in the United Kingdom.
The Blanketeers or Blanket March was a demonstration organised in Manchester in March 1817. The intention was for the participants, who were mainly Lancashire weavers, to march to London and petition the Prince Regent over the desperate state of the textile industry in Lancashire, and to protest over the recent suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. The march was broken up violently and its leaders imprisoned. The Blanketeers formed part of a series of protests and calls for reform that culminated in the Peterloo massacre and the Six Acts.
Hugh Hornby Birley was a leading Manchester millowner and Tory who is reputed to have led the fatal charge of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry at the Peterloo Massacre on 16 August 1819.
Sir Thomas Potter was an English industrialist and Liberal politician, and the first Mayor of Manchester.
Joseph Brotherton was a reforming British politician, Nonconformist minister and pioneering vegetarian. He has been described as the first vegetarian member of parliament.
The Manchester and Salford Yeomanry cavalry was a short-lived yeomanry regiment formed in response to social unrest in northern England in 1817. The volunteer regiment became notorious for its involvement in the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, in which as many as 15 people were killed and 400–700 were injured. Often referred to simply as the Manchester Yeomanry, the regiment was disbanded in 1824.
Manchester has historically influenced political and social thinking in Britain and been a hotbed for new, radical thinking, particularly during the Industrial Revolution.
Absalom Watkin (1787–1861), was an English social and political reformer, an anti corn law campaigner, and a member of Manchester's Little Circle that was key in passing the Reform Act 1832.
The Little Circle was a Manchester-based group of Non-conformist Liberals, mostly members of the Portico Library, who held a common agenda with regards to political and social reform. The first group met from 1815 onwards to campaign for expanded political representation and gain social reform in the United Kingdom. The second group operated from 1830 onwards and was key in creating the popular movement that resulted in the Reform Act 1832.
The Manchester Gazette was a conformist non-Tory newspaper based in Manchester, England.
James Wroe (1788–1844), was the only editor of the radical reformist newspaper the Manchester Observer, the journalist who named the incident known as the Peterloo massacre, and the writer of pamphlets as a result that brought about the Reform Act 1832.
Richard Potter (1778–1842) was a radical non-conformist Liberal Party MP for Wigan, and a founding member of the Little Circle which was key in gaining the Reform Act 1832.
Mary Fildes was president of the Manchester Female Reform Society in 1819, and played a leading role at the mass rally at Manchester in that year which ended in the Peterloo massacre. She was also the grandmother of the artist Luke Fildes through her son James.
James Norris was an English lawyer, notable for his role in the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. Appointed stipendiary magistrate of Manchester in March 1818, his reports to the Home Office, describing unrest and (alleged) paramilitary activity amongst the populace, have been described as "full of excessive alarms" and may have coloured the attitude of troops sent to maintain order. Much of this correspondence was collated in a report to Parliament by John Edward Taylor, founder of the Manchester Guardian newspaper. Nevertheless, his career suffered little in the aftermath of the massacre, and he was appointed as Chairman of Quarter Sessions for Salford Hundred in 1825, retaining that post until his death in 1838. Despite links with the Middleforth district of Penwortham, where he inherited a mansion built by his family in the Tudor era, Norris was the only magistrate involved in the Peterloo Massacre who actually resided in Manchester at the time.
Manchester Female Reform Society was formed in July 1819. Based in Manchester, England, its aim was to spread democratic ideals among women.
Peterloo is a 2018 British historical drama, written and directed by Mike Leigh, based on the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. The film was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the 75th Venice International Film Festival. The film received its UK premiere on 17 October 2018, as part of the BFI London Film Festival, at HOME in Manchester. The screening marked the first time that the festival had held a premiere outside London. Leigh said he was delighted that Peterloo would be premiered "where it happened".
Charles Wickstead Ethelston, also given as Wicksted (1767–1830) was an English cleric, now remembered for the part he played in his role as magistrate on 16 August 1819, ahead of the Peterloo massacre.
William Robert Hay (1761–1839) was a British barrister, cleric and magistrate, one of the Manchester group associated with the Peterloo Massacre.
References
Stanley Harrison (31 October 1974). Poor Men's Guardians: Survey of the Democratic and Working-class Press. Lawrence & W; 1st Edition. ISBN0-85315-308-6.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Stanley Harrison (31 October 1974). Poor Men's Guardians: Survey of the Democratic and Working-class Press. Lawrence & W; 1st Edition. ISBN0-85315-308-6.
↑ Brockbank, William (1952). Portrait of a Hospital. London: William Heinemann. pp.50–52.
↑ "Manchester – Salford Sessions – Trials for Libel connected with the Manchester Transactions". Morning Post. 31 January 1820.
↑ "Manchester Feb 18". Morning Chronicle. 22 February 1820.
↑ "Varieties". Leicester Chronicle. 19 February 1820. – attributed to Leeds Mercury
1 2 "Lancaster Assizes". Leeds Intelligencer. 10 April 1820.
↑ (events of May)"24 – Court of King's Bench". The Scots Magazine. 1 July 1821.
↑ "Mr Scarlett – Figuring away in the North". Cobbett's Weekly Political Register. 21 April 1821.
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