When (1811) George, then Prince of Wales, became regent (S567), he desired to form a Whig ministry, not because he cared for Whig principles (S479), but solely because he would thereby be acting in opposition to his father’s wishes.  Finding his purpose impracticable, he accepted Tory rule (S479), and a Cabinet (S534) was formed with Lord Liverpool as Prime Minister.  It had for its main object the continued exclusion of Catholics from representation in Parliament (S478).

Lord Liverpool was a dull, well-meaning man, who utterly failed to comprehend the real tendency of the age.  He was the son of a commoner who had been raised to the peerage.  He had always had a reputation for honest obstinacy, and for little else.  After he became Premier, a prominent French lady, who was visiting England, asked him one day, “What has become of that VERY stupid man, Mr. Jenkinson?” “Madame,” answered the unfortunate Prime Minister, “he is now Lord Liverpool."[1]

[1] Earl’s “English Premiers,” Vol.  II.

From such a Cabinet or Government, which continued in power for fifteen years, nothing but trouble could be expected.  The misery of the country was great.  Food was selling at famine prices.  Thousands were on the verge of starvation, and tens of thousands did not get enough to eat.  Trade was seriously depressed, and multitudes were unable to obtain work.  Under these circumstances, the suffering masses undertook to hold public meetings to discuss the cause and cure of these evils; but as violent speeches against the Government were often made at the meetings, the authorities dispersed them on the ground that they were seditious and tended to riot and rebellion.

Many large towns at this period had no voice in legislation.  At Birmingham, which was one of this class, the citizens had met and chosen, though without legal authority, a representative to Parliament.  Machester, another important manufacturing town, now determined to do the same thing.  The people were warned not to assemble, but they persisted in doing so, on the ground that peaceful discussion, with the election of a representative, was no violation of law.  The meeting was held in St. Peter’s Fields, and, through the blundering of a magistrate, it ended in an attack by a body of troops, by which many people were wounded an a number killed (1819).

571.  The Six Acts (1819); the Conspiracy.

The bitter feeling caused by the “Manchester Massacre,” or “Peterloo,” as it was called, was still further aggravated by the passage of the Six Acts (1819).  The object of these severe coercive measures was to make it impossible for men to take any public action demanding political reform.  They restricted freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right of the people to assemble for the purpose of open discussion of the course taken by the Government.  These harsh laws coupled with other repressive measures taken by the Tories (S479), who were still in power, led to the “Cato Street Conspiracy.”  Shortly after the accession of George IV a few desperate men banded together, and meeting in a stable in Cato Street, London, formed a plot to murder Lord Liverpool and his entire cabinet at dinner at which all the ministers were to be present.