Riot Act felt uncertain of their power to take action to stop the riots without a reading of the Riot Act. After the riots, Lord Mansfield observed that the Riot Act did not take away the pre-existing power of the authorities to use force to stop a violent riot; it only created the additional offence of failing to disperse after a reading of the Riot Act. The Riot Act was read prior to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, as well as prior to the Bristol Riots at Queen's Square in 1831. Both are held to be related to the Unreformed House of
Myall Creek massacre they like to think he did so out of a guilty conscience. The importance of the Myall Creek massacre is mainly political, as this was the only massacre of its kind in colonial Australian history after which some white people were brought to justice and subsequently executed . The Myall Creek massacre was by no means outstanding in terms of numbers killed; it was simply just one of many massacres that took place in that district (the Liverpool Plains) around that time. There were also many other massacres that took place right across the colony of New South Wales as