Universal Suffrage or the Scum Uppermost

In 1819 around 2% of Britain’s population had the right to vote and Manchester did not have its own Member of Parliament (MP). Wages had halved since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and rising food prices left many unable to afford basic foods like bread. The people wanted a voice and the demand for representation in parliament was growing.

This engraving was printed one month before the Peterloo Massacre. It was designed to warn of the dangers of giving more people the vote and potential revolution. The monster in the print represents radical reform; it stands victorious over the cherished British institutions of the arts, royalty and religion.

Hostility and fear was growing amongst those loyal to the government and opposed to reform. On 21 July 1819 the Manchester magistrates announced the formation of a Loyal Association to combat ‘the attempts of seditious men to overturn the Constitution and to involve us in the miseries of a Revolution’.

Part of the national commemorations marking 200 years since the Peterloo Massacre, this object featured in the Disrupt? Peterloo and Protest exhibition at People’s History Museum in 2019 to tell the story of Peterloo and highlights its relevance today.