w, the so-called
march of the Blanketeers took place at Manchester. The march was the
ridiculous sequel of a very large meeting got up for the purpose of
carrying a petition to London, and presenting it to the prince regent in
person. The meeting was dispersed by the soldiers and police, after the
riot act had been read, and a straggling crowd of some three hundred who
began their pilgrimage, carrying blankets or overcoats, melted away by
degrees before they had got far southward.

[Pageheading: _SIDMOUTH'S UNPOPULARITY._]

A far more serious outbreak at Manchester seems to have been clumsily
planned soon afterwards, but it ended in nothing, and the enemies of the
government freely attributed this and other projects of mob violence to
the instigation of an _agent-provocateur_, well known as "Oliver the
Spy". This man was also credited with the authorship of "the Derbyshire
insurrection," for which three men were executed and many others
transported. Here there can be no doubt that a formidable gang, armed
with pikes, terrorised a large district, pressing operatives to join
them in overt defiance of the law, and killing one who held back. Being
confronted by a Nottinghamshire magistrate named Rolleston, with a small
body of soldiers, they fled across the fields, and the bubble of
rebellion burst at a touch. Whether they were legally guilty of high
treason, for which they were unwisely tried, may perhaps be doubted, but
it would certainly be no palliation of their crime if it could be shown,
as it never was shown, that Oliver had led them to rely on a jacobin
revolution in London. What does appear very clearly is that Sidmouth
was greatly alarmed by the reports of his agents on the disturbed state
of the country, but that he was highly conscientious in his instructions
and in the use of his own powers. The great majority of those imprisoned
for political offences at this time were liberated or acquitted, but the
suspension of the _habeas corpus_ act was renewed at the beginning of
July.

Moreover, a circular was addressed by Sidmouth to the lords-lieutenant
of counties, for the information of the magistrates, intimating that, in
the opinion of the law officers, persons charged on oath with seditious
libel might be apprehended and held to bail. No act of Sidmouth called
forth such an outburst of reprobation as this; yet it is not
self-evident that instigations to outrage, being criminal offences,
should be treated by ma