Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

Among the throng on St. Peter’s Field it was reported that some banners
were seen saying ‘Bread or Blood’, ‘Liberty or Death’ and ‘Equal
Representation or Death’. Hunt had barely made it onto the stage when
the 15th Hussars, dispatched by magistrate the Rev. Hay, later the Vicar
of Rochdale, rode, with sabers drawn, into the crowd . Eleven people
were killed and 400 injured in what became known as the Peterloo
Massacre.
18
The government of the day finally addressed the parliamentary reform
issue in 1832, by passing the Parliamentary Reform Act. Unfortunately,
for the majority of the people in Rochdale and around the country
nothing changed. The Act abolished ‘Rotten Boroughs’ and gave their
seats to new towns including Rochdale. It extended the franchise but only
on the basis of wealth to £10 householders in boroughs and £50 tenants
in the counties. In Rochdale this meant that 687 out of a population of
28,000 could now vote.
Rightly or wrongly, the mass of the working-class saw the right to vote
as a chance to influence government policy (something that continues
to be almost impossible, even with universal sufferage) and to improve
their miserable lot. A national movement known as Chartism grew up
to address this working-class discontent. It derived its name from the six
point charter that set out the demands of the organization, demands
which some were prepared to back with force if necessary:
1. Universal (male) sufferage.
2. Annual Parliaments.
3. Vote by (secret) ballot.
SHEEP IN THE ROAD : NUMBER 16