A Cabinet has just been held, and it is proposed to send a battalion of Guards by the railway this evening. The 16th of August (Tuesday next) is the anniversary of a conflict which took place in Manchester in the year 181969 between the Yeomanry Cavalry and the populace, and it is feared that there may be a great assemblage of persons riotously disposed on that day.
Under these circumstances it appears desirable to your Majesty's confidential advisers that a proclamation should be immediately issued, warning all persons against attendance on tumultuous meetings, and against all acts calculated to disturb the public peace. It is necessary that a Council should be held for the issue of this proclamation, and important that it should arrive in Manchester on Monday.
These considerations have prevented Sir Robert Peel from giving previous notice to your Majesty, and having your Majesty's sanction for the holding of a Council. On account of the urgency of the case, he has requested a sufficient number of Privy Councillors to repair to Windsor this evening, in order that should your Majesty be graciously pleased to hold a Council, the proclamation may be forthwith issued. The members of the Privy Council will be in attendance about half-past six o'clock, as Sir Robert Peel has considered that from that time to half-past seven will probably be the least inconvenient to your Majesty.
He writes this immediately after the breaking up of the Cabinet.
Footnote 68: The disturbances of this month, which originated in a strike for wages in Lancashire, were inflamed by agitators, and rapidly spread through Cheshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Yorkshire, eventually extending to the populous parts of Scotland and Wales. Several conflicts took place between the populace and the military, and there was much loss of life and property, as well as aggravated distress.
Footnote 69: On 16th August 1819, a great popular demonstration in favour of Parliamentary Reform, presided over by Henry Hunt, the Radical, had taken place in St Peter's Fields, Manchester. A riot ensued, and the Yeomanry charged the populace, with some loss of life. The affair was afterwards known as the Peterloo massacre.
Sir James Graham to Queen Victoria.
CHARTIST DISTURBANCES
Whitehall, 15th August 1842.
Sir James Graham, with humble duty, begs to lay before your Majesty the enclosed letter from Major-General Sir William Warre70 in command of the Northern District.