In 1815 a small group of middle-class men who favoured parliamentary
reform began meeting at the home of John Potter.
Members of the group included John Edward Taylor,
Archibald Prentice, John
Shuttleworth, Joseph Brotherton,
William Cowdroy, Thomas
Potter and Richard Potter, William
Harvey and Edward Baxter. Meetings took place in John Potter's back
room and this became known as Potter's Planning Parlour. The group
strongly objected strongly to a system that denied such important
industrial cities such as Manchester,
Leeds and Birmingham,
representation in the House of Commons.
The group was also totally opposed to the Corn
Laws that had been passed in 1815.
The group favoured a gradualist path to parliamentary reform. Although
they were not opposed to universal suffrage in principal, they were
concerned about people without education receiving the vote. John
Potter's group disapproved of the methods and political style of national
Radical leaders such as Henry 'Orator' Hunt'
and Richard Carlile. The Manchester moderates
were also critical of local Radicals such as Joseph
Johnson and John Knight, who they accused
of encouraging class hatred.
One member of the group, William Cowdroy,
owned and edited the Manchester Gazette.
John Edward Taylor, Archibald
Prentice and John Shuttleworth,
all contributed regular articles for the newspaper. As well as parliamentary
reform and religious toleration, they also wrote about the importance
of Free Trade and the need to repeal the Corn
Laws.
All the men held Nonconformist religious views. One of the most common
phrases used in their speeches was that "Jesus Christ was the
Greatest Reformer". John Edward Taylor,
John Shuttleworth, Richard
Potter and Thomas Potter were all
Unitarians, Archibald Prentice was
a Presbyterian and Joseph Brotherton
was a member of the Bible Christian Church. They all supported Joseph
Lancaster and his Nonconformist
schools movement and were all strong believers in religious toleration.
George
Cruikshank was a moderate reformer
who disagreed
with the Radicals. This cartoon was published in December, 1819.
(1)
In his book, Personal Recollections
of Manchester, Archibald Prentice
explains how he became a member of John Potter's Reform Group in 1815.
I met Edward Baxter and John Edward Taylor, afterwards of the Manchester
Guardian. Baxter was a man of great energy, whose prosperity in
business had not abated his earnestness for reform, and Taylor had
a youthful ardour for liberty. Through them I became acquainted with
a little circle of men, faithful, among the faithless, to liberal
principles, who subsequently threw the shield of their protection
over the intended victims of government oppression.
Joseph Brotherton, who, then in his country cottage in Oldfield Lane,
gave quiet expression to the principles of free trade and peace, which
he afterwards boldly asserted in the House of Commons; William Harvey,
Brotherton's worthy brother-in-law; Richard Potter, afterwards an
M.P. for Wigan; Thomas Potter, afterwards Sir Thomas, and first mayor
of Manchester, benevolent, strong of purpose, and energetic, always
willing to aid the cause of reform; John Shuttleworth, afterwards
alderman, eloquent, intellectual, and bold; Absalom Watkin, giving
himself more to literature than to politics, was, nevertheless, on
the way to useful action.
John Shuttleworth and John Edward Taylor could sell their cotton to
men who could not buy it cheaper elsewhere. In like manner, Thomas
and Richard Potter could sell their fustians, Joseph Brotherton and
William Harvey their yarns, Baxter his ginghams and shirtings, and
I my fine Glasgow muslins. And yet our position was uncomfortable.
We were safe ourselves, but every day brought us report of wrong and
outrage done to our humble fellow countrymen - wrong and outrage which
we felt could not fully redress. We thought, in our own cheerful homes,
of the poor men in prison for alleged political offences - the main
offence being that they, like ourselves, were of opinion that our
representative system was susceptible of amendment. The whole aspect
of society was unfavourable. The rich seemed banded together to deny
the possession of political rights; and the poor seemed to be banding
themselves together in an implacable hatred to their employers, who
were regarded as their oppressors.
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