In 1812 , he initiated the Hampden Clubs , named after John Hampden , an English Civil War Parliamentary leader , aiming to bring together middle class moderates and lower class radicals in the reform cause . To promote the idea , he toured northwest England later in 1812 , in 1813 ( getting arrested in Huddersfield ) and in 1815 . He recruited John Knight who founded the first Hampden Club in Lancashire . In 1818 , Knight , John Saxton and James Wroe formed the reformist and popularist newspaper the '' Manchester Observer '' . In 1819 , the same team formed the Patriotic Union Society , which invited Henry " Orator " Hunt and Major Cartwright to speak at a reformist public rally in Manchester , but the elderly Cartwright was unable to attend what became the Peterloo Massacre . Later in 1819 , Cartwright was arrested for speaking at a parliamentary reform meeting in Birmingham , indicted for conspiracy and was condemned to pay a fine of £ 100
Peterloo Massacre
Peterloo Massacre
John Cartwright (political reformer)