=Source.=--_Life and Correspondence of Lord Sidmouth_, by Dean
Pellew. Vol. III. p. 253. London, 1847.
_Letter of Sir Wm. Jolliffe to Thos. G. B. Estcourt._
"9 St. James's Place, April 11th, 1845.
"My dear Sir,
"Twenty-five years have passed since the collision unfortunately
occurred between the population of Manchester and its
neighbourhood, and the military stationed in that town, on the 16th
of August, 1819.
"I was at that time a lieutenant in the 15th King's Hussars,
which regiment had been quartered in Manchester cavalry barracks
about six weeks. This was my first acquaintance with a large
manufacturing population. I had little knowledge of the condition
of that population; whether or no a great degree of distress was
then prevalent, or whether or no the distrust and bad feeling,
which appeared to exist between the employers and employed, was
wholly or in part caused by the agitation of political questions.
I will not, therefore, enter into any speculations upon these
points; but I will endeavour to narrate the facts which fell under
my own observation, although acting, as of course I was, under the
command of others, and in a subordinate situation. The military
force stationed in Manchester consisted of six troops of the 15th
Hussars, under the command of Colonel Dalrymple; one troop of horse
artillery, with two guns, under Major Dyneley; nearly the whole
of the 31st regiment, under Colonel Guy L'Estrange (who commanded
the whole force as senior officer). Some companies of the 88th
regiment, and the Cheshire yeomanry, had also been brought into
the town, in anticipation of disturbances which might result from
the expected meeting; and these latter had only arrived on the
morning of the 16th, or a few hours previously; and, lastly, there
was a troop of Manchester yeomanry cavalry, consisting of about
forty members, who, from the manner in which they were made use of
(to say the least), greatly aggravated the disasters of the day.
Their ranks were filled chiefly by wealthy master manufacturers;
and, without the knowledge which would have been possessed by a
(strictly speaking) military body, they were placed, most unwisely,
as it appeared, under the immediate command and orders of the civil
authorities.
"Our regiment paraded in field-exercise order at about half-past
eight, or, it might be, nine o'clock a.m. Two squadrons of it were
marched into the town about ten o'clock. They were formed up and
dismounted in a wide street, the name of which I forget, to the
north of St. Peter's Field (the place appointed for the meeting),
and at the distance of nearly a quarter of a mile from it. The
Cheshire yeomanry were formed, on our left, in the same street. One
troop of our regiment was attached to the artillery, which took up
a position between the cavalry barracks and the town; and one troop
remained in charge of the barracks.
"The two squadrons with which I was stationed must have remained
dismounted nearly two hours. During the greater portion of that
period, a solid mass of people continued moving along a street
about a hundred yards to our front, on their way to the place of
meeting. Other officers, as well as myself, occasionally rode to
the front (to the end of a street) to see them pass. They marched,
at a brisk pace, in ranks well closed up, five or six bands of
music being interspersed; and there appeared to be but few women
with them. Mr. Hunt, with two or three other men, and, I think, two
women dressed in light blue and white, were in an open carriage,
drawn by the people. This carriage was adorned with blue and white
flags; and the day was fine and hot. As soon as the great bulk
of the procession had passed, we were ordered to stand to our
horses. In a very short time afterwards the four troops of the
15th mounted, and at once moved off by the right, at a trot which
was increased to a canter. Some one who had been sent from the
place of meeting to bring us up led the way, through a number of
narrow streets and by a circuitous route, to (what I will call)
the south-west corner of St. Peter's Field. We advanced along the
south side of this space of ground, without a halt or pause even:
the words 'Front!' and 'Forward!' were given, and the trumpet
sounded the charge at the very moment the threes wheeled up. When
fronted, our line extended quite across the ground, which, in all
parts, was so filled with people that their hats seemed to touch.
"It was then, for the first time, that I saw the Manchester troop
of yeomanry: they were scattered singly, or in small groups, over
the greater part of the field, literally hemmed up, and hedged into
the mob, so that they were powerless either to make an impression
or to escape; in fact, they were in the power of those whom they
were designed to overawe; and it required only a glance to discover
their helpless position, and the necessity of our being brought
to their rescue. As I was, at the time, informed, this hopeless
state of things happened thus: A platform had been erected near the
centre of the field, from which Mr. Hunt and others were to address
the multitude; and the magistrates, having ordered a strong body of
constables to be in readiness to arrest the speakers, unfortunately
imagined that they should support the peace officers by bringing up
this troop of yeomanry _at a walk_. The result of this movement,
instead of that which the magistrates desired, was unexpectedly
to place this small body of horsemen (so introduced into a dense
mob) entirely at the mercy of the people by whom they were, on all
sides, pressed upon and surrounded.
"The charge of the hussars, to which I have just alluded, swept
this mingled mass of human beings before it: people, yeoman and
constables, in their confused attempts to escape, ran one over the
other; so that by the time we had arrived at the end of the field,
the fugitives were literally piled up to a considerable elevation
above the level of the ground. (I may here, by the way, state that
this field, as it is called, was merely an open space of ground,
surrounded by buildings and itself, I rather think, in course of
being built upon.) The hussars drove the people forward with the
flats of their swords; but sometimes, as is almost inevitably the
case when men are placed in such situations, the edge was used,
both by the hussars, and, as I have heard, by the yeomen also; but
of this latter fact, however, I was not cognisant; and believing
though I do, that nine out of ten of the sabre wounds were caused
by the hussars, I must still consider that it redounds highly to
the humane forbearance of the men of the 15th that more wounds were
not received, when the vast numbers are taken into consideration
with whom they were brought into hostile collision; beyond all
doubt, however, the far greater amount of injuries arose from the
pressure of the routed multitude. The hussars on the left, pursued
down the various streets which led from the place; those on the
right met with something more of resistance. The mob had taken
possession of various buildings on that side, particularly of a
Quaker's chapel and burial-ground enclosed with a wall. This they
occupied for some little time; and, in attempting to displace them,
some of the men and horses were struck with stones and brick-bats.
I was on the left; and as soon as I had passed completely over
the ground, and found myself in the street on the other side, I
turned back, and then, seeing a sort of fight still going on on
the right, I went in that direction. At the very moment I reached
the Quaker's meeting-house, I saw a farrier of the 15th ride at a
small door in the outer wall, and, to my surprise, his horse struck
it with such force that it flew open: two or three hussars then
rode in, and the place was immediately in their possession. I then
turned towards the elevated platform, which still remained in the
centre of the field with persons upon it: a few struggling hussars
and yeomen, together with a number of men having the appearance
of peace officers, were congregating upon it. On my way thither
I met the commanding officer of my regiment, who directed me to
find a trumpeter, in order that he might sound the 'rally' or
'retreat.' This sent me again down the street I had first been in
(after the pursuing men of my troop); but I had not ridden above
a hundred yards before I found a trumpeter, and returned with him
to the Colonel. The field and the adjacent streets now presented
an extraordinary sight: the ground was quite covered with hats,
shoes, sticks, musical instruments, and other things. Here and
there lay the unfortunates who were too much injured to move away;
and this sight was rendered the more distressing by observing some
women among the sufferers.
"Standing near the corner of the street where I had been sent in
search of a trumpeter, a brother officer called my attention to
a pistol being fired from a window. I saw it fired twice; and I
believe it had been fired once before I observed it.
"Some of the 31st regiment, just now arriving on the ground, were
ordered to take possession of this house; but I do not know if it
was carried into effect.
"I next went towards a private of the regiment, whose horse had
fallen over a piece of timber nearly in the middle of the square,
and who was most seriously injured. There were many of these
pieces of timber (or timber trees) lying upon the ground; and as
these could not be distinguished when the mob covered them, they
had caused bad falls to one officer's horse and to many of the
troopers'.
"While I was attending to the removal of the wounded soldier, the
artillery troop, with the troop of hussars attached to it, arrived
on the ground from the same direction by which we had entered the
field: these were quickly followed by the Cheshire yeomanry. The
31st regiment came in another direction; and the whole remained
formed up until our squadrons had fallen in again.
"Carriages were brought to convey the wounded to the Manchester
Infirmary; and the troop of hussars, which came up with the guns,
was marched off to escort to the gaol a number of persons who had
been arrested, and among these Mr. Hunt. For some time the town was
patrolled by the troops, the streets being nearly empty, and the
shops, for the most part, closed. We then returned to the barracks.
I should not omit to mention, that, before the men were dismissed,
the arms were minutely examined; and that no carbine or pistol
was found to have been fired, and only one pistol to have been
loaded. About eight o'clock p.m., one squadron of the 15th Hussars
(two troops) was ordered on duty to form part of a strong night
picket, the other part of which consisted of two companies of the
88th regiment. This picket was stationed at a place called the New
Cross, at the end of Oldham Street. As soon as it had taken up its
position a mob assembled about it, which increased as the darkness
came on: stones were thrown at the soldiers; the hussars many times
cleared the ground by driving the mob up the streets leading from
the New Cross. But these attempts to get rid of the annoyance were
only successful for the moment; for the people got through the
houses or narrow passages from one street into another, and the
troops were again attacked, and many men and horses struck with
stones. This lasted nearly an hour and a half; and the soldiers
being more and more pressed upon, a town magistrate, who was with
the picket, read the Riot Act, and the officer in command ordered
the 88th to fire (which they did by platoon firing) down three of
the streets. The firing lasted only a few minutes: perhaps not
more than thirty shots were fired; but these had a magical effect:
the mob ran away, and dispersed forthwith, leaving three or four
persons on the ground with gun-shot wounds.
"At four o'clock in the morning the picket squadron was relieved
by another squadron of the regiment. With this latter squadron I
was on duty; and after we had patrolled the town for two hours, the
officer in command sent me to the magistrates (who had remained
assembled during the night), to report to them that the town was
perfectly quiet, and to request their sanction to the return of the
military to their quarters.
"On the afternoon of the 17th I visited, in company with some
military medical officers, the infirmary. I saw there from twelve
to twenty cases of sabre wounds; several persons that were severely
crushed, and, among these, two women, who appeared not likely to
recover. One man was in a dying state from a gun-shot wound in the
head; another had had his leg amputated: both these casualties
arose from the fire of the 88th the night before. Two or three were
reputed dead; one of them, a constable, killed in St. Peter's
Field; but I saw none of the bodies.
"As shortly as I could, I have now related what fell under my own
observation during these twenty-four hours.... I trust that I have,
at least in some degree, complied with your wishes; and I beg you
will believe me, my dear Sir, yours most truly,
"WILLM. J. HYLTON JOLLIFFE."
"To Thomas Grimston Bucknall Estcourt,
"Esq., M.P."