It was, however, in 1819 that the conflict between the government and
the new popular forces culminated. Distress was acute; and in the
manufacturing towns mass meetings were held to discuss a remedy, which,
under the guidance of political agitators, was discovered in universal
suffrage and annual parliaments. The right to return members to
parliament was claimed for all communities; and since this right was
unconstitutionally withheld, unrepresented towns were invited to
exercise it in anticipation of its formal concession. At Birmingham,
accordingly, Sir Charles Wolseley was duly elected "legislatorial
attorney and representative" of the town. Manchester followed suit; but
the meeting arranged for the 9th of August was declared illegal by the
magistrates, on the strength of a royal proclamation against seditious
meetings issued on the 30th of July. Another meeting was accordingly
summoned for the undoubtedly legal purpose of petitioning parliament in
favour of reform. On the appointed day (August 16) thousands poured in
from the surrounding districts. These men had been previously drilled,
for the purpose, as their own leaders asserted, of enabling the vast
assemblage to be conducted in an orderly manner; for the purpose, as the
magistrates suspected, of preparing them for an armed insurrection. An
attempt was made by a party of yeomanry to arrest a popular agitator,
Henry Hunt; the angry mob surged round the horsemen, who found
themselves powerless; the Riot Act was read, and the 15th Hussars
charged the crowd with drawn swords. The meeting rapidly broke up, but
not before six had been killed and many injured. The "Manchester
Massacre" gave an immense impetus to the movement in favour of reform.
The employment of soldiers to suppress liberty of speech stirred up the
resentment of Englishmen as nothing else could have done, and this
resentment was increased by the conviction that the government was
engaged with the "Holy Alliance" in an unholy conspiracy against
liberty everywhere. The true tendency of Castlereagh's foreign policy
was not understood, nor had he any of the popular arts which would have
enabled Canning to carry public opinion with him in cases where a frank
explanation was impossible. The Liberals could see no more than that he
appeared to be committed to international engagements, the logical
outcome of which might be--as an orator of the Opposition put it--that
Cossacks would be encamped in Hyde Park for the purpose of overawing the
House of Commons.