During this period of growth, Royton's parliamentary representation was limited to two members of parliament for Lancashire, and nationally, the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had resulted in periods of famine and chronic unemployment for textile weavers. By the beginning of 1819 the pressure generated by poor economic conditions, coupled with the lack of suffrage in northern England, had enhanced the appeal of political Radicalism in the region. The Manchester Patriotic Union, a group agitating for parliamentary reform, began to organise a mass public demonstration in Manchester to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. Organised preparations took place, and a spy reported that "seven hundred men drilled at Tandle Hill as well as any army regiment would"; a few days later, on 3 August, a royal proclamation forbidding the practice of drilling was posted in Manchester.