6s] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



These speakers appear in a few in- 

 stances to have been checked by 

 some of their associates, but their 

 sentiments were for the most i)art 

 received with strong marks of ap- 

 plause and concurrence. 



Arrangements for the march 

 were also pointed out at these 

 meetings. It was recommended 

 to those who intended to join 

 in it to provide themselves with 

 blankets, shoes, and knapsacks, as 

 well as with money and food. 

 Those who remained to work were 

 to assist with their subscriptions. 

 Every ten men were to choose one 

 for a leader ; and one was to be 

 .set over every hundred. Strong 

 intimations were also given of the 

 propriety and necessity of their 

 providing themselves with arms ; 

 but these do not appear to have 

 been acted upon, except perhaps 

 in a few instances. 



On the 10th of March the pro- 

 posed meeting took place, to the 

 amount, as is supposed, of from 

 10,000 to I'J.OOO persons at the 

 least. Although some of their 

 leaders had been previously ai- 

 rested, and others were appre- 

 hended on the spot, the purpose 

 was not abandoned ; and laige 

 numbers of these deluded people 

 marched otf towards London. 



A considerable body of them 

 was stopped on the road to Stock- 

 port : some hundreds are stated 

 to have passed through Leek: and 

 one party proceeded as far as Ash- 

 bourne ; but the activity of the 

 magistrates in dispersing the meet- 

 ing, and in stopping the progress 

 of these bodies, effectually pre- 

 vented the execution of a design, 

 which could not probably have 

 failed to disturb the peace of the 

 counties through which so nu- 



merous an assemblage was to have 

 passed : and which, if prosecuted 

 to its fidl extent, must have led 

 to consequences highly dangerous 

 to the public tranquillity. 



The discomfiture of this attempt 

 does not, however, appejir to have 

 materially discouraged those who 

 had planned it : their measures 

 were uninterruptedly pursued. 

 A\'itliin a very short time after 

 this failure, fresh meetings were 

 held in smaller numbers ; they 

 weie composed, either wholly or 

 in part, of delegates from the 

 neighbourhood of Manchester, 

 from the borders of Derbyshire, 

 and from the manufacturing dis- 

 tricts of Yorkshire. At some of 

 these meetings reports were made 

 of the quantity of pikes, or fire- 

 locks, and of bullets which could 

 be provided for the intended rising. 

 Communications were held about 

 this time with Nottingham, Shef- 

 field, and Birmingham, by dele- 

 gates, who were to give intelli- 

 gence of the plans in contem|)la- 

 tion, to excite the people of those 

 places to similar attempts, and to 

 a'^cei tain the state of picparation 

 to which they had advanced. In 

 these proceedings the pretence of 

 parliamentary reform ajjpears to 

 have been almost wholly dis- 

 caided ; they evidently point to 

 nothing short of revolution ; and 

 it affords a dreadful proof of the 

 extent to which the minds of many 

 of those who attended these meet- 

 ings have been intlamed and cor- 

 rupted, that in public speeches 

 the necessity of doing away with, 

 or disposing of (as they term it), 

 the persons most obnoxious to 

 them, has often been openly and 

 unreservedly announced ; and that 

 on one occasion it is stated to have 



been 



