Three Accounts of Peterloo by Eyewitnesses: Bishop Stanley, Lord Hylton, John Benjamin Smith; with Bishop Stanley's Evidence at the TrialStanley, Edward
History
Three Accounts of Peterloo by Eyewitnesses: Bishop Stanley, Lord Hylton, John Benjamin Smith; with Bishop Stanley's Evidence at the Trial
Stanley, Edward
Manchester (England) -- History; Peterloo Massacre, Manchester, England, 1819
From the hustings?--From all the mob.
You say when he was addressing the mob, you did not hear his words, "but I
think, whatever his words were, they excited a shout from those
immediately about him, which was re-echoed with fearful animation by the
rest of the multitude"?--Certainly, that is the impression on my mind;
those were my own words.
It was tremendous--the shout?--It was not so tremendous as the shout with
which Hunt was received on the ground; the first was the loudest shout.
And the most appalling?--The first, when Hunt was received on the ground;
I never heard so loud a shout.
"Terrific," was your word?--I should say terrific.
You say that the people who were immediately contiguous to the hustings
heard what Hunt said?--I cannot say.
You inferred that from their shouting?--Certainly.
Then that shout was re-echoed by the mob at a distance?--I conceived so.
What proportion, do you think, of the mass of the people, with their eyes
up, and mouths open, looking at that man during the time, could hear one
word he said?--I should think no one beyond ten yards from the hustings,
in the bustle of such a day--that is guess.
I daresay it is a good guess, too; how do you think they would carry the
resolutions at the outside, at the right flank, the left flank, and beyond
the ten yards, upon the propositions made by this orator?--I have no
opinion to give about that.
It certainly is a difficult point. It appeared to you that Hunt, as far as
his voice could reach, had a pretty absolute control over his friends;
they shouted as he spoke; it appeared that he was
commander-in-chief?--The thing never occurred to me; I cannot speak
positively.
Have not you an opinion that he was head and leader of the party?--My
opinion certainly is, that he was.
And now, I will ask you this question, as a clergyman, and as a man of
character, which I believe you to be--I ask you, upon your oath, whether,
in your judgment, the public tranquillity and the peace of Manchester were
not endangered by a mob of that description, composed in that manner, and
having such a man as Hunt at its head--Hunt and Carlile, for
instance?--Hunt and Carlile are dangerous people, and any mob under their
control must be dangerous.
Re-examined by Mr. SERJEANT BLACKBURNE:
Do you know, Mr. Stanley, whether this meeting was under the command of
either Hunt or Carlile?--No.
When you say there was a shout given on the Manchester Yeomanry coming
into the field, was there any other shout besides that given by the
multitude?--There was.
Whose shout was that?--The Manchester Yeomanry, the special constables,
and the people round the pavement in front of our house.
May I ask you whether you were terrified by those shouts?--Personally,
certainly not.
Mr. JUSTICE HOLROYD: Explain what you mean by that?--I myself was not
alarmed about them.
Mr. SERJEANT BLACKBURNE: And whether it did not create terror and
alarm?--Not to me individually, certainly not.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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