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3 January 1820: Following Peterloo, the Rev Sydney Smith (Foston, Ryedale) tell the Whig Edward Davenport that literacy and the populist press make parliamentary reform inevitable

Saba Holland and Sydney Smith. 1855. A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, Vol. 2. Ed. Sarah Austin. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. Get it:

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Excerpt

My opinion is the same as yours upon the Peterloo business. I have no doubt everything would have ended at Manchester as it did at Leeds, had there been the same forbearance on the part of the magistrates. Either they lost (no great loss) their heads, or the devils of local spite and malice had entered into them, or the nostrils of the clerical magistrates smelt preferment and court favour; but let it have been what it will, the effects have been most deplorable… There are four or five hundred thousand readers more than there were thirty years ago, among the lower orders. A market is open to the democrat writers, by which they gain money and distinction. Government cannot prevent the commerce. A man, if he know his business as a libeller, can write enough for mischief, without writing enough for the Attorney General. The attack upon the present order of things will go on; and, unfortunately, the gentlemen of the people have a strong case against the House of Commons and the borough-mongers, as they call them. I think all wise men should begin to turn their faces reform-wards. We shall do it better than Mr Hunt or Mr Cobbett. Done it must and will be.

To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Original

My opinion is the same as yours upon the Peterloo business. I have no doubt everything would have ended at Manchester as it did at Leeds, had there been the same forbearance on the part of the magistrates. Either they lost (no great loss) their heads, or the devils of local spite and malice had entered into them, or the nostrils of the clerical magistrates smelt preferment and Court favour; but let it have been what it will, the effects have been most deplorable… There are four or five hundred thousand readers more than there were thirty years ago, among the lower orders. A market is open to the democrat writers, by which they gain money and distinction. Government cannot prevent the commerce. A man, if he know his business as a libeller, can write enough for mischief, without writing enough for the Attorney General. The attack upon the present order of things will go on; and, unfortunately, the gentlemen of the people have a strong case against the House of Commons and the boroughmongers, as they call them. I think all wise men should begin to turn their faces reform-wards. We shall do it better than Mr. Hunt or Mr. Cobbett. Done it must and will be.

214 words.

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