Manchester Observer
| Founder(s) | John Knight, John Saxton, James Wroe |
|---|---|
| Editor | James Wroe |
| Founded | 1818 |
| Political alignment | Non-conformist Liberal |
| Language | English |
| Ceased publication | 1821 |
| Headquarters | Manchester |
The Manchester Observer was a short-lived non-conformist Liberal newspaper based in Manchester, England. Its radical agenda led to an invitation to Henry "Orator" Hunt to speak at a public meeting in Manchester led to the Peterloo Massacre, and the shutdown of the newspaper.
By 1819, the allocation of Parliamentary constituencies did not reflect the distribution of population. The major urban centres of Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Blackburn, Rochdale, Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham and , with a combined population of almost one million, were represented only by their county MPs; and very few inhabitants had the vote. Lancashire (in which all the above other than Stockport lay) was represented by two Members of Parliament (MPs), with voting restricted to the adult male owners of freehold land valued at 40 shillings or more – the equivalent of about £80 as of 2008 – and votes could only be cast at the county town of Lancaster, by a public spoken declaration at the hustings. Stockport fell within the county constituency of Cheshire, with the same franchise, but with the hustings held at Chester. Many MPs were returned by "rotten boroughs" (Old Sarum in Wiltshire, with one voter, elected two MPs, as did Dunwich in Suffolk, which by the early 19th century had almost completely disappeared into the sea.) or "closed boroughs" (with more voters, but dependent on a local magnate). More than half of all MPs were elected by boroughs under the control of a total of just 154 proprietors who therefore had a hugely disproportionate influence on the membership of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. These inequalities in political representation led to calls for reform.
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