The clubs were regarded with suspicion by the authorities , which saw them as breeding grounds for the growing radicalism of the times . On 9 February 1817 a secret Parliamentary Committee report concluded that the real object of the Hampden Clubs and similar institutions was to foment " an insurrection , so formidable from numbers , as by dint of physical strength to overpower all resistance " . The government began to introduce legislation , such as the Seditious Meetings Act 1817 , and it became more difficult for political clubs to meet . For example , the Birmingham Hampden Club , founded in September 1816 and boasting 300 regular attendees by the following January , had a moderate ethos and publicly condemned violence after a local riot , but struggled to find venues as publicans were pressured not to permit club meetings on their premises . Private rooms were found , but by April 1817 , in an atmosphere of suspicion and with the government spy and '' agent provocateur '' Oliver active in the city , regular club meetings were suspended . In Manchester the movement 's leaders were targeted by the city 's deputy constable , Joseph Nadin , who arrested many of them , including Samuel Bamford , after the unrest of March 1817 and sent them to London in irons , where some spent months in prison before their release without charge . With the Hampden clubs stifled , the Lancashire leadership formed the Patriotic Union Society , and it was this body that called the 1819 public meeting for political reform that became the Peterloo Massacre
Peterloo Massacre
Peterloo Massacre
Hampden Clubs