Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/148

134 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1815- of any business. Police, special constables, yeomanry, and soldiers were prepared for the suppression of any resistance and for the dispersion of the meeting. On the fatal day vast numbers assembled ; deputations from all the surrounding districts marched into the town, with bands of music at their head, and displaying banners and caps of liberty. It was estimated that 80,000 persons were present. It was through this dense mass of human beings that the officers who were to arrest the leaders had to try and penetrate. The task was impossible. The yeomanry endeavoured to assist and to reach the hustings, but they became isolated, wedged in among the crowd, and powerless. Then the Hussars were ordered to charge, and dashed in, sabres in hand, amoitg the multitude. There was no proof, scarcely any pretence, that there had been any manifestation of violence or of opposition on the part of the meeting ; the physical impossibility of executing the warrants formed the only excuse for the massacre which followed. Bamford, the author of the " Life of a Radical," who was present, and was afterwards arrested and punished for taking part in the meeting, gives a graphic account of the scene which followed the order to the soldiers to charge the defenceless mob. "The cavalry were in confusion. They evidently could not, with all the weight of man and horse, penetrate that compact mass of human beings, and their sabres were plied to hew a way through naked up-held hands and defenceless heads ; and then chopped limbs and wound- gaping skulls were seen, and groans and cries were mingled with the din of that horrid confusion." There were five or six people killed, and the " Annual Register " says that the whole number of persons injured amounted to between three and four hundred. The thing is too horrible to dwell upon : this reply of a strong Government to the cry of a suffering people met to pray for relief and for reform. Ministers were not afraid to think of what they had done, for the return of a despatch brought to Sir John Byng, commander of the district, a letter from Sidmouth, stating that his lordship had laid befor r the Prince Regent a letter addressed to himself, and ttr