A Poster About The Reform Meeting In Sheffield, 1838
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A Poster About The Reform Meeting In Sheffield, 1838
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The poster was distributed throughout Sheffield and Rotherham; it also appeared on the front page of the Iris newspaper Tues Sep 18th 1838.
For a full report on how the meeting went, please see the Ebenezer Research Foundry article The Sheffield Charter
POPULAR RIGHTS PUBLIC MEETING To Saml. Hadfield, Esq. Master Cutler
Sir, We the undersigned
Householders, Inhabitants of the Borough of Sheffield, being convinced
that the REFORM BILL has failed to secure to the People of these
Realms, a full, fair, and true Representation of the Commons House of
Parliament; request you to convene a PUBLIC MEETING to consider
the propriety of petitioning Parliament for a RADICAL REFORM in our
REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM, as emphasised in the
NATIONAL PETITION
AND THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER
The Master
Cutler having declined to call a Meeting for the above purpose, we, the
Requisionists, hereby appoint a PUBLIC MEETING, to be held on Roscoe
Field, near St Philip's Church, on TUESDAY Sept. 25, 1838, at 12
o'clock at Noon.
Deputations from Birmingham, London,
Manchester, Leeds, and other places are invited.
The Order of Procession will be announced hereafter.
After the
Meeting, a SOIREE or TEA PARTY will be held in the BATH SALOON,
Victoria Street, Glossop Road at which EBENEZER ELLIOTT will preside.
Single tickets, 1s 3d each; for a Lady and Gentleman, 2s -
To be had at the IRIS OFFICE, Fargate; Mr LINGARD's, Stationer,
Division St; Mr BEIGHTON, stationer, Gibraltar Street; and of Mr J.
LITHERLAND, Secretary to the Sheffield Working Men's Association, No
241, Allen Street.
Tea to be on the Table at Six o'clock. NB - Persons desirous of taking Tickets are requested to do so immediately as only a limited number can be issued, and none will be Sold after Friday, Sept 21st. |
It would be interesting
to have seen what response was made by the Master Cutler to the request
for a public meeting. Did he respond in writing or were the
"revolutionaries" summoned to a meeting? When the requisitioinsts
decided to go ahead with a meeting anyway, did the Master Cutler and
his circle discuss calling out the troops? We can be sure they would
have been very hostile to anything which ignored their authority.
The SOIREE or TEA PARTY looks an amusing idea. Was the use of the word "soiree" meant to raise the tone of the evening and to re-assure the "respectables" who might be put off by the thought of a bun fight? And note also that the posh word soiree had to be translated to make sure that everyone knew what the word meant. A ticket costing 2s for a couple would be around £6 today. You would hope that they enjoyed some refreshments with their tea! Very likely the price of the tickets was to cover the costs of advertising the meeting. And the soiree would be used to talk over the success of the meeting and to discuss ways forward.
