The bitter feeling caused by the "Manchester Massacre," or "Peterloo,"
as it was called, was still further aggravated by the passage of the
Six Acts (1819). The object of these severe coercive measures was to
make it impossible for men to take any public action demanding
political reform. They restricted freedom of speech, freedom of the
press, and the right of the people to assemble for the purpose of open
discussion of the course taken by the Government. These harsh laws
coupled with other repressive measures taken by the Tories (S479), who
were still in power, led to the "Cato Street Conspiracy." Shortly
after the accession of George IV a few desperate men banded together,
and meeting in a stable in Cato Street, London, formed a plot to
murder Lord Liverpool and his entire cabinet at dinner at which all
the ministers were to be present.
The plot was discovered, and the conspirators were speedily disposed
of by the gallows or transportation, but nothing was done to relieve
the suffering which had provoked the intended crime. No new
conspiracy was attempted, but in the course of the next ten years a
silent revolution took place, which, as we shall see later, obtained
for the people that fuller representation in Parliament which they had
hitherto vainly attempted to get (S582).