Peterloo masacre - Essay Example

With a vision to solve the issue the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group demanding and agitating for parliamentary reforms gathered for a meeting which was supposed to be addressed by Henry Hunt, the famous radical orator. Shortly after the commencement of the meeting, local magistrates summoned the military authorities to arrest Hunt and his associates and in order to disperse the crowd a cavalry charged with sabers was drawn which killed 15 people and injured more than 400 men. This massacre was named Peterloo massacre with an ironic tone in comparison with the Battle of Waterloo which took place four years before.

The UK Parliament is for seven hundred years old. But the tragic part of the system was that majority of the population were not allowed to vote. So the electoral procedure was unequal and the common mass did not have any right to select their representative unanimously. In the parliamentary elections of 1819 only 1.5% of the adult populace was entitled to vote, who were primarily wealthy. The demand to vote among the common people was on the rise. The demand was strongest in Manchester, which was a land with large population but less political power.

Those in power were troubled by the meeting and arranged for the four hundred special constables, fifteen hundred infantry, a thousand cavalry (Hussars and Yeomanry) and some Royal Horse Artillery equipped with six-pounder cannon (Read, 1958). On August 16th 1819, thousands of men women and children walked into Manchester from the towns and villages of the surroundings. The meeting was supposed to be addressed by the eloquent radical campaigner Hunt and his associates. Hunt’s carriage arrived at the meeting place at St Peter’s Field shortly after 1:00 pm.

By the time about ten thousand men women and children arrived at the field and the population was so dense that “their hats seemed to touch”. The