Who was to blame for the battle of peterloo?

Answer 1

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The Peterloo Massacre of August 16, 1819 was the result of a cavalry charge into the crowd at a public meeting at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, England. It is also called the Manchester Massacre or sometimes the Battle of Peterloo. Eleven people were killed and over 500 were injured.

The meeting had been organised by the Manchester Patriotic Union Society, a political group that agitated for radical parliamentary reform and the repeal of the corn laws. They had invited a number of speakers, including Richard Carlile, John Cartwright and Henry Hunt, to a public meeting.

Local magistrates, under William Hulton, were concerned that the meeting would end in a riot or, worse, a rebellion. They arranged for a substantial number of militia yeomanry, described as "younger members of the Tory party in arms", were also ordered to disperse the meeting. The troops included 600 men of the 15th Hussars; several hundred infantrymen; a Royal Horse Artillery unit with two six-pounder (2.7 kg) guns; 400 men of the Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry; 400 special constables; and 120 cavalry of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry, relatively inexperienced militia recruited from among shopkeepers and tradesmen.

A considerable crowd from all around the county of Lancashire had gathered for the meeting; contemporary estimates varied from 30,000 up to 150,000; modern estimates are around 60,000 or 80,000. People expected a peaceful meeting and many were wearing their Sunday clothes. Some carried banners with texts like "No Corn Laws", "Annual Parliaments", "Universal suffrage" and "Vote By Ballot." The only banner known to have survived can be seen in Middleton Public Library. It was carried by Thomas Redford who was injured by a yeomanry sabre. One side of the banner is inscribed 'Liberty and Fraternity' and the other 'Unity and Strength'. The main speakers did not arrive until after 1:00 p.m., and Hunt was invited to speak first at 1:15 p.m.

Source(s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo

Answer 2

Watch "Family Guy", and find out for yourself.

Answer 3

Thomas Crapper...?

Instead of making a joke, I could have gone to Wikipedia and cut and pasted a bunch of information, but I figured you could have done that yourself and would know better than to assume anything on Wikipedia is to be taken as Gospel.

I humbly apologize for attempting to lighten the mood around here today, but I'm giving that 70s guy a thumbs up, so there.