Six Acts

In Britain, following the Peterloo Massacre of August 16, 1819, the British government acted to prevent any future disturbances by the introduction of new legislation, the so-called Six Acts aimed at suppressing any meetings for the purpose of radical reform.

Élie Halévy considered them a panic-stricken extension of “the counter-revolutionary terror...under the direct patronage of Lord Sidmouth and his colleagues” ; later historians have tended to see them as relatively mild gestures towards law and order, only tentatively enforced.

Following the Yeomanry killing of unarmed men and women in St Peter's Field (Peterloo), a wave of protest meetings swept the North of England, spilling over into the Midlands and the Lowlands, and involving in all some seventeen counties. Local magistrates appealed in the face of the protests for central support; and in response the Parliament of the United Kingdom was reconvened on 23 November and the new acts were introduced by the Home Secretary, Sidmouth. By 30 December the legislation was passed, despite the opposition of the Whigs to both their principles and many of their details.

The acts were aimed at gagging radical newspapers, preventing large meetings, and reducing what the government saw as the possibility of armed insurrection. During the Commons debates, each of the parties appealed to the example of the French Revolution to make their case, the Tories pointing to the weakness of the French forces of law and order, the Whigs conversely to the need for the safety valve of free speech and a free press. Strengthened by their success at the 1818 elections, the Whigs were able to make three significant amendments to the bills as originally proposed: public meetings were to be allowed behind closed doors, and the ban on outside meetings was to be limited in time; transportation of Press offenders was made more difficult; and the curtailment of legal delays was extended to include prosecution as well as defendant. Nevertheless the Six Acts were eventually passed by prime minister Lord Liverpool and his colleagues, as part of their repressive approach focused on preventing a British revolution.

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