Six Acts

Series of statutes passed in 1819 after the 'massacre of Peterloo' to clarify the law on public meetings and prevent further popular disturbances, which ministers at the time considered presaged revolution. They prohibited meetings for military training, authorised the issue of warrants for the seizure of arms, limited meetings to draw up public petitions to not more than 50 people living in the parish where the meeting was to be held, allowed magistrates to seize seditious and blasphemous literature, dealt with procedure for bringing cases to trial, and imposed stamp duty on certain periodical pamphlets.

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