fortified his mills with cannon and had a troop of horse in readiness.[1]
It had been generally understood that May 6, the day originally intended for the presentation of the petition, would be the critical day, the commencement of the insurrection. In Lancashire, Monmouthshire, and elsewhere the excitement, terror, and panic rose to a climax during the first week of May. On the 4th, Colonel Wemyss, in command at Manchester, reported: "Two Magistrates from Ashton-under-Lyne came into Manchester this forenoon seemingly in great alarm, and made a requisition for troops. I immediately put a squadron, a gun, and four companies of the 20th Regiment in march on the Ashton Road." It turned out that the magistrates had arrested four Chartists, but the mob had prevented them from sending their prisoners to Manchester.[2] The sending of a force of all three arms in such a case shows how great the tension seems to have been. The Manchester magistrates were not so alarmed as their neighbours in the smaller towns, owing to the presence of Wemyss and his garrison, but they sent in disquieting reports as to the accumulation of arms and the prevalence of drilling. There was a second outbreak at Llanidloes on May 7. One of the delegates for Birmingham, Powell, was arrested.[3] At Monmouth a riot was barely avoided on the arrival of Vincent and Edwards, who had been arrested on the 7th. The Convention sent down Frost to provide legal assistance, and it was probably his personal influence alone which prevented a premature outbreak.[4]
May 6, however, passed without serious events, and attention was concentrated on the Whitsuntide campaign. Napier, in his headquarters at Nottingham, was keeping the situation well in hand, though alarming reports reached him from all quarters. It seems clear from his reports that many of the Chartist rank and file were under the impression that the great Whitsuntide demonstrations were to be of a much more business-like character than the mere discussion of possible "ulterior measures." A fragment of a torn letter was put into his hands, which suggested that ideas of barricades and street warfare were about, and that Whit Monday was the day appointed to begin. At Stone, in Staffordshire, barricades were actually erected.[5] A handbill circulated in Manchester runs thus:
