But I must return to my Chronicle. There were Reform Meetings everywhere. The evils in the Representation of the people were patent to every body who would see, but the Regent was not gifted with that perspicuity of vision that is suitable to a Ruler of Men, and his blindness led to deplorable results, which, after all, were probable benefits, inasmuch as they hastened the passing of the Reform Bill. Things were beginning to look ugly. In some districts the people were beginning to drill, and they were not of the best class. _Vide_ the following-- "MANCHESTER, Aug. 15.--The circumstances of parties going out to drill, having been much talked about here, _viz._, John Shawcross, of Blossom Street, Salford, and James Murray, of Withy Grove, Manchester, set out this morning, about one o'clock, for the purpose of ascertaining this fact. On their way towards Middleton, these two persons passed several squads who were in regular Marching Order, and they heard a great many more parties calling to each other, and, from the answers being more distant, every time they were repeated, supposed the fields for some extent, contained different parties. "The place appointed for a general muster was Whitemoss, betwixt Middleton and Oldham. When Murray and Shawcross arrived at this spot, there were at least five hundred men at drill; the greater part were drilled in a body; there were also detached squads of fifteen or twenty each." The two men were found, pounced upon as spies, and nearly kicked to death. I give this passage, as it shows that armed men were preparing themselves for a conflict with the civil power, which they certainly thought imminent, yet like all cowardly English Mobs, they howled most valiantly, and complained of the butchery, when they came into conflict with even Citizen Soldiery. There are some people still who regard "Peterloo" as a massacre of the innocents: they must be either very wrong-headed, or very badly informed. Let me give the shortest, and most succinct, contemporaneous account of that memorable day.