But the panic was not (as has been suggested) the panic of bad horsemen hemmed in by a crowd. It was the panic of class hatred. It was the Yeomanry—the Manchester manufacturers, merchants, publicans, and shopkeepers on horseback—which did more damage than the regulars (Hussars). In the Yeomanry (a middle-class reformer testified) “there are … individuals whose political rancour approaches to absolute insanity.”1 These were the men who pursued the banners, knew the speakers by name and sought to pay off old scores, and who mustered and cheered at the end of their triumph.
