Editing Peterloo Massacre (section)

===August meeting===
Against this background, a "great assembly" was organised by the Manchester Patriotic Union formed by radicals from the ''[[Manchester Observer]]''. Johnson, the union's secretary, wrote to Henry Hunt asking him to chair a meeting in Manchester on 2 August 1819. Johnson wrote:

{{blockquote|Nothing but ruin and starvation stare one in the face [in the streets of Manchester and the surrounding towns], the state of this district is truly dreadful, and I believe nothing but the greatest exertions can prevent an insurrection. Oh, that you in London were prepared for it.{{sfnp|Reid|1989|p=115|ps=none}}}}

Unknown to Johnson and Hunt, the letter was intercepted by government spies and copied before being sent to its destination, confirming the government's belief that an armed rising was planned.

[[File:Samuel Bamford.png|thumb|right|[[Samuel Bamford]] led a group from his native [[Middleton, Greater Manchester|Middleton]] to St Peter's Field. Following his [[imprisonment]] for "inciting a riot", Bamford emerged as a prominent voice for radical reform.]]

The mass public meeting planned for 2 August was delayed until 9 August. The ''Manchester Observer'' reported it was called "to take into consideration the most speedy and effectual mode of obtaining Radical reform in the Common House of Parliament" and "to consider the propriety of the 'Unrepresented Inhabitants of Manchester' electing a person to represent them in Parliament". The government's legal advice was that to elect a representative without a royal writ for an election was a criminal offence, and the magistrates decided to declare the meeting illegal.{{sfnp|Poole|2019|loc=Ch. 11}}

On 3 August however the Home Office conveyed to the magistrates the view of the Attorney-General that it was not the ''intention'' to elect an MP that was illegal, but the execution of that intention. It advised against any attempt to forcibly prevent the 9 August meeting unless there was an actual riot:

{{blockquote|even if they should utter sedition or proceed to the election of a representative Lord Sidmouth is of opinion that it will be the wisest course to abstain from any endeavour to disperse the mob, unless they should proceed to acts of felony or riot. We have the strongest reason to believe that Hunt means to preside and to deprecate disorder.<ref name=Sidmouth4Aug>{{cite web |last=Hobhouse |first=H. |title=A letter sent to Manchester on behalf of Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary, 4 August 1819 (Catalogue ref: HO 41/4 f.434) |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/politics/transcript/g4s1t.htm |website=National Archives: Education: Power, Politics and Protest: The growth of political rights in Britain in the 19th century |publisher=National Archives |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304054408/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/politics/transcript/g4s1t.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

The radicals' own legal advice however urged caution, and so the meeting was accordingly cancelled and rearranged for 16 August, with its declared aim solely "to consider the propriety of adopting the most LEGAL and EFFECTUAL means of obtaining a reform in the Common House of Parliament".<ref name=JETNotes />

[[Samuel Bamford]], a local radical who led the [[Middleton, Greater Manchester|Middleton]] contingent, wrote that "It was deemed expedient that this meeting should be as morally effective as possible, and, that it should exhibit a spectacle such as had never before been witnessed in England."{{sfnp|Bamford|1844|loc=Ch. 30}} Instructions were given to the various committees forming the contingents that "Cleanliness, Sobriety, Order and Peace" and a "prohibition of all weapons of offence or defence" were to be observed throughout the demonstration.{{sfnp|Frangopulo|1977|p=31|ps=none}} Each contingent was drilled and rehearsed in the fields of the towns around Manchester adding to the concerns of the authorities.{{sfnp|McPhillips|1977|pp=22–23|ps=none}} A royal proclamation forbidding the practice of drilling had been posted in Manchester on 3 August{{sfnp|Reid|1989|p=125|ps=none}} but on 9 August an informant reported to Rochdale magistrates that at [[Tandle Hill]] the previous day, 700 men were "drilling in companies" and "going through the usual evolutions of a regiment" and an onlooker had said the men "were fit to contend with any regular troops, only they wanted [i.e. lacked] arms". The magistrates were convinced that the situation was indeed an emergency which would justify pre-emptive action, as the Home Office had previously explained, and set about lining up dozens of local loyalist gentlemen to swear the necessary oaths that they believed the town to be in danger.{{sfnp|Poole|2019|loc=Ch. 11}}