Peterloo Massacre a meeting in Manchester on 2 August 1819. Johnson wrote: Unknown to Johnson and Hunt, the letter was intercepted by government spies and copied before being sent to its destination. The contents were interpreted to mean that an insurrection was being planned, and the government responded by ordering the 15th Hussars to Manchester. 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
Peterloo Massacre a seditious libel. Percy Bysshe Shelley was in Italy and did not hear of the massacre until 5 September. His poem, "The Masque of Anarchy", subtitled "Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester" was sent for publication in the radical periodical "The Examiner" but because of restrictions on the radical press, was not published until 1832, ten years after the poet's death. The immediate effect of Peterloo was a crackdown on reform. The government instructed the police and courts to go after the journalists, presses and publication of the "Manchester Observer." Wroe was arrested and charged with producing