'These are the people, all tattered and torn'

From William Hone, 'The Political House that Jack Built' (1819), a response to Peterloo.

British Museum Image



Full text from http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/hone/vpeople.htm

'These are THE PEOPLE all tatter'd and torn,
Who curse the day wherein they were born,
On account of Taxation too great to be borne,
And pray for relief from night to morn;
Who, in vain, Petition in every form.'


The picture, drawn by George Cruikshank, shows the poor people in despair, and in the background, an echo of his representation of the Manchester Yeomanry hacking down the reformers at Peterloo.





Attack on George III's coach in October 1795 - link to a Guardian article on the event.


Attack on the Prince of Wales:

Leeds Mercury, 1 February 1817, on the attack on the Prince Regent's Coach during the state opening of parliament, 28 January 1817:

 'The multitude was vociferous - and the most outrageous epithets were applied to His Royal Highness as he passed along in the State Carriage, guarded on both sides by a strong escort of guards and constables. On the return of His Royal Highness from the Lords' Chamber of Parliament, the crowding, clamour and insults increased. ...After the calvacade had entered the park, at the Horse Guards, and that it had processed about half way down the Mall, one of the windows of the state carriage in which His Royal Highness was placed...was shattered in two places by stones or some missiles, from a hand unseen'.
Lord Liverpool's government responded to the attack by passing the Seditious Meetings Act, which limited public political meetings to 50 people. Habeas Corpus was suspended on 3 March 1817 in response to the Spa Fields mass radical meetings.

This blog has an interesting comparison with present events - http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/

Comparison with 1641 on Mercurius Politicus blog

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