The Peterloo Massacre - Manchester 16th August 1819
'The Story of Peterloo' by F.A. Bruton, Pub. 1919 Page 42 As he rode back across the square, Lieutenant Jolliffe had noticed, lying here and there, "the unfortunates who were too much injured to move away, and the sight was rendered more distressing by observing some women among the sufferers". On the following afternoon he "visited the lnfirmary in company with some military medical officers. l saw there from twelve to twenty cases of sabre-wounds, and among these two women who appeared not likely to recover ... One man was in a dying state from a gunshot wound in the head; another had had his leg amputated; both these casualties arose from the firing of the 88th the night before. Two or three were reported dead, one of them a constable killed in St. Peter's fields, but l saw none of the bodies." It was not till half-past ten on Wednesday morning that the Prince Regent's Cheshire Yeomanry, in their blue jackets, with silver-braid ornament, scarlet cuffs and collar, and plated buttons - having spent one night patrolling the town, and another "lying at their horses' heads in St. Peter's fields" - mounted and rode away home, where they were warmly welcomed. Many of them had made their wills before they had set out for Manchester two days earlier, with serious misgivings. Such is the story of Peterloo. "After Peterloo" is a story in itself. lnto the details of that story - the meeting held at the Star lnn a few days later, to vote the thanks of the "Inhabitants of Manchester" to the Magistrates and the Military - the indignant "Declaration and Protest," bearing some 5000 signatures, which followed immediately, and showed incontestably that that meeting was private and quite unrepresentative - Mr. Francis Phillips's ably written "Exposure of the Calumnies circulated against the Magistrates and the Yeomanry " - Mr. John Edward Taylor's spirited "Reply" to this - the Thanks of the Prince Regent to the Magistrates and the Military, sent at the instigation of Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary, whose first remark on hearing of the tragedy was that he "trusted the proceedings at Manchester would prove a salutary lesson to modern reformers " - the "Papers relative to the internal state of the country" presented to Parliament in the autumn, containing the correspondence between the Magistrates and the Home·Office - Mr.. E. Taylor's "Notes and Observations" on these, which Sir A. W. Ward has pronounced to
'The Story of Peterloo' by F.A. Bruton, Pub. 1919 Transcribed here by Sheila Goodyear 2019 |
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