As events to mark the 200th anniversary of Peterloo (16th August 1819) are now well underway its interesting to look back on how it was remembered on the 150th anniversary in 1969.
One ‘event’ was the publication of a book by Robert Walmsley, Peterloo: the case reopened, which sought to play down the massacre and excuse the actions of the Magistrates and Yeomanry.
AJP Taylor reviewed it in The Observer and below are his concluding sentences:
The magistrates and the yeomanry were defending a corrupt system. The demonstrators were demanding their just rights even if they used sticks and stones as well as arguments. Henry Hunt spoke for the people of England and it is irrelevant that he also kept a mistress and ran a blacking business. When the defence of order leads to the killing of innocent people, the guilt always lies with the guardians of order. William Hulton* went home to an agreeable existence at Hulton Hall. John Lees died. I am on the side of John Lees. The sorrows of William Hulton wring no tears from me.
*Hulton was the Chair of the Magistrates who gave the order to send the Yeomanry in
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