ABSTRACT
Written from a conservative point of view, this newspaper account summarises a meeting of reform-minded labourers and their speakers’ orations about the ‘distress of the country’. It includes their statement entitled ‘Appeal to the Nation’. Only a few weeks before Peterloo, this piece portends the violent role of the yeomanry and standing army in repressing such meetings. The tone of the appeal is much more contentious than others in the petitions featured in this section, showing the labourers had even lost ‘confidence’ in Parliament to address their needs. The speakers also refer to the ‘physical force’ argument, that is, that if Parliament refused to make necessary changes as a result of the workers’ ‘moral force’ approach, the radical movement would consider violence to achieve their goals. Military hero Major Cartwright (1740–1824) took up the radical cause, and in this case, presented this appeal to Parliament.
