, to rescue them and
disperse the mob. Four troops of the hussars then made a dashing charge,
supported by a few of the yeomanry; the people fled in wild confusion
before them; some were cut down, more were trampled down, and an
eye-witness describes "several mounds of human beings" as lying where
they had fallen. Happily, the actual loss of life did not exceed five or
six, but a much larger number was more or less wounded, the real havoc
and bloodshed were inevitably exaggerated by rumour, and a bitter sense
of resentment was implanted in the breasts of myriads, innocent of the
slightest complicity with sedition, but impatient of oligarchical rule,
and disgusted with so ruthless an interference with the right of public
meeting.

It would have been wise if Sidmouth and his colleagues had recognised
this widespread feeling, had seen that famine and despair were at the
bottom of popular discontent, and had admitted error of judgment, at
least, on the part of the Lancashire magistrates. On the contrary, they
felt it so necessary to support civil and military authority, at all
hazards, that they induced the prince regent to express unqualified
approbation of the course taken, and afterwards defended it without
reserve in parliament. Even Eldon expressed his opinion privately that
it would be hard to justify it, unless the assembly amounted to an act
of treason, as he regarded it; whereas Hunt and his associates were
prosecuted (and convicted in the next year) not for treason, but only
for a misdemeanour. At all events, the storm of indignation excited by
this sad event, and not confined to the working classes, powerfully
fomented the reform movement. Large meetings were held over all the
manufacturing districts, and a requisition to summon a great Yorkshire
meeting was signed by Fitzwilliam, the lord-lieutenant, who attended it
in person. For these acts he was properly dismissed, but, in spite of
inflammatory speeches, nearly all the meetings passed off quietly and
without interference. Nevertheless, the government thought it necessary
to hold an autumn session, and strengthen the hands of the executive by
fresh measures of repression. These having been passed in December after
strenuous opposition, were afterwards known as the six acts, and
regarded as the climax of Sidmouth's despotic _regime_.

Two of the six acts, directed against the possession of arms and
military training for unlawful purposes, cannot be considered