Most of the paintings contain Hogarthian satire ( in contrast to Bell Scott 's works ) . In the first picture the wife of the Roman general wearing a blond wig distracts him from his work ; their son – a Caligula in the making – kicks an African servant . The painting that seems to celebrate industrial technology , '' John Kay : Inventor of the Fly Shuttle '' , depicts the hysterical inventor fleeing from an unruly mob which is bent on destroying the machine . Instead of culminating in the achievement of modern Manchester , the sequence concludes with a rustic scene in a small village . According to Codell , history is portrayed as fragmented , contested , and as ending in a " penultimate " moment . This may be related to Brown 's interest in anarchism and William Morris 's utopian socialism at the time , but it also arises from disputes about the more modern subjects . Paintings depicting the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 and the end of the Lancashire Cotton Famine in 1865 had been proposed , but were rejected by the council 's committee as too controversial
Peterloo Massacre
Peterloo Massacre
The Manchester Murals