An English Uprising

 A review by Ben Soton

  

Peterloo by Robert Poole, Hbk, 480pp, illus., Oxford University Press 2019, £25.00

I was once told to read the book then see the film.  In this case I would be forgiven as the film Peterloo was released in 2018.  The book is a study of the period and gives an insight into the events resulting in the Peterloo Massacre.

The 1810s, or late Regency England coincided with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.  Instead of women getting engaged to some posh bloke in tight trousers it was the time of the dark satanic mills of the Industrial Revolution.  According to Poole this era marks the end of the Long Eighteenth Century (1688 – 1832) in British history – a period beginning with William of Orange’s Glorious Revolution and ending with the Great Reform Bill. 

The Massacre took place in Manchester where the contradictions of this period were sharpest.  Manchester was an area of the expanding cotton industry, making it one of the most developed places in Britain if not the world.  Meanwhile administratively it had changed little for centuries.  Manchester was run by a clique of high-Tory landowners and clergy who lived outside the township.  These issues combined with economic hardship and even a period of bad weather created a perfect storm that led to the Peterloo Massacre.   

There are many histories about the good guys – Levellers, Chartists, Suffragettes and Communists.  Poole rightly gives coverage to the other side.  He discusses the political trend known as Loyalism; the idea of subjects actively supporting the Establishment.  Meanwhile there were occasions when Tory magistrates intervened to stabilise bread prices; Loyalism is paid for with Paternalism – think government handouts near election time.  It was also the ideological basis for the network of spies that reported back to the Home Secretary Lord Sidmouth.  Loyalism is the foundation of far-right and fascist movements to this day; a few years ago, the English Defence League threatened to attack public sector strikers.   

 Poole goes into considerable details about the opposition movements of the day.  He discusses their tactics, political theories and key figures.  The tactic of printing multiple petitions and distributing them across the country is still used by left-wing activists today.  The idea was developed by William Cartwright (1760-1824).  He also championed the idea of the franchise being extended to all tax payers; rather than just men of property.  As most goods were taxed this would have effectively meant universal suffrage; whilst property qualifications existed until the early 20th century.  

The book would be incomplete without an account of the massacre in which 15 people were killed and hundreds more injured when armed cavalry attacked a pro-democracy rally in the heart of Manchester, Poole uses a range of eye witness accounts and newspaper reports to describe the events of the day.  The attacking Yeomanry would later parade the reformers’ banners as trophies in the same way a victorious army would display enemy colours. 

The actual events of the massacre are best shown through the medium of film.  However, the book provides you with an insight into the background to the events and politics of the day making it a good companion to the film.  Although not possible in this case I now know why you should read the book first.    

 

Peterloo: A very British massacre

Review

By New Worker Cinema Correspondent

Peterloo (2018). Director: Mike Leigh. Stars: Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake and Neil Bell. 214

minutes. PG-13.

Waterloo – a field in Belgium where in 1815 the armies of Britain, Prussia and other European powers defeated the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte. St Peters Field – a square in Manchester where on 19 August 1819 cavalry charged a crowd of unarmed protesters killing around 20 people.  The closeness of the two events led to the latter being called the Peterloo Massacre; an event now the subject of a feature film, Peterloo, directed by Mike Leigh.  The events in the field in Belgium were made into a film almost 50 years ago, in a film entitled Waterloo. A film about the events closer to home is long overdue.

Peterloo starts on the field of Waterloo where a bewildered soldier stares at the carnage around him; it them moves to the House of Lords where the Prime-Minister Lord Liverpool calls for a sum of £700,000 to be paid to the Duke of Wellington for his services to the nation.

The film brings up the issue of history. Whose history? Do we celebrate the aristocratic victory in a field in Belgium or commemorate the working-class victims of a massacre in our own country by an unrepresentative government? It is sympathetic to the largely working- and lower middle-class reform movement. In 1819 only landowners (male ones) could vote in elections, ordinary people suffered the effects of both a downturn in the economy and from the Corn Laws, a tariff in on imported grain that put up the price of bread, introduced by a government dominated by landed interests.

Peterloo features an array of British actors, including Rory Kinnear as the suffrage campaigner Henry Hunt and Maxine Peake as a matriarchal figure and mother of the soldier seen at the start of the film.

Leigh uses her character’s narrative to explain contemporary economic and social problems. Peake has made a success of playing prominent, working-class female characters and has sponsored a number of progressive campaigns.

The film portrays Hunt, a Wiltshire squire, as a pompous character with an exaggerated sense of his own importance. He insists on being the only speaker at the rally and demands that no armed men are present. The arms in question were little more than pieces of gardening equipment as opposed to the sabres and muskets used by the attacking soldiers.  Anyone who has been on a demonstration in recent years would understand that these men would have acted as stewards and their presence may have reduced loss of life.

Leigh captures the events of 14^th August well. He portrays the rally as a family day out with protesters coming from across Lancashire. The massacre involved three separate regiments: the Manchester & Salford Yeomanry, a largely irregular group of cavalry who are shown as violent and dangerous drunks; the more disciplined 14 Hussars; and an infantry regiment garrisoned in the town.

The Manchester & Salford Yeomanry are portrayed as the real villains of the event, which is the view of historians of the period, whilst the infantry, although armed with rifles, were the most vulnerable.

The magistrates, mostly local landowners, who bear ultimate responsibility are portrayed as pompous reactionaries with a sense of entitlement who view the lower orders with a mixture of fear and contempt. It shows them as provoking the massacre; a magistrate reads the Riot Act written on what looks like a post-it note from the window overlooking the square when no one is listening or even able to hear.

We see unarmed members of the crowd killed with sabres; one of whom is the soldier shown at the start of the film. Historic records state show that one of the victims of the attack was John Lees, a veteran of Waterloo.

Peterloo raises the issue of patriotism. An informant who offers his services to the government describes himself as a patriot. At the end of the film Lord Liverpool and the Home Secretary Lord Sidmouth inform the Prince Regent of the events in Manchester; the three of them start mumbling the word “England” over again as if in some kind of trance.  How much of a force for good is it in a country not facing foreign domination?

This leads us to the issue of what should be taught in schools, the events in a field in Belgium or those in a square in Manchester? There is a public house about a mile from my home; I have frequently enjoyed a pint of ale, or two there. It is called the Waterloo Arms – maybe it’s time that its name was changed to reflect our history not theirs.