Ever since the public meeting held on the 27th of June, to consider of the proceedings to be adopted in Manchester, for celebrating the Coronation of his Majesty George the Fourth, the Committee have been indefatigable in their exertions to complete the arrangements necessary for giving to the day a high degree of interest and importance.
On Monday the oxen and sheep designed for distribution amongst the populace, having been decorated with ribbons, were paraded through the principal streets of the town. They appeared to be very fine cattle; but this exhibition of them seemed to be regarded with considerable distaste. It was not possible to avoid thinking how soon the poor animals were to be slaughtered; and the seeing of them decorated for death like the victims of old for the altar, presented to many minds the carnivorous propensities of our race, under circumstances of more than ordinary repulsiveness.
On Wednesday morning, preparations for the approaching gala day commenced in every quarter. On the outskirts of the town, in fact, whatever opportunity presented itself, from the Crescent in Salford to Ardwick Green, stands and stages were erecting for the accommodation of spectators. We were quite surprised to see the number of these, and looked with considerable dread at the slight construction of many of them. It appeared, however, that they had excited the attention of our municipal officers, and that proper persons were appointed to take care that they were effectually secured.
At the New Market, in Shudehill, at Camp Field, and at the Salford Cross, men were busily engaged in putting up the grates where the oxen and sheep were to be roasted, whilst others were busily employed in spitting the animals, and disposing the ale for distribution. In various quarters of the town, the innkeepers and publicans were exhibiting sheep, which they purposed roasting on the following day, whether for their own benefit, or that of their customers, it is not for us to decide. Some of these exhibitions were worth notice, for the ludicrous incongruity of the devices by which they were accompanied. One publican hung out, at a three story window, a black-faced sheep, with its horns gilded – a tobacco pipe, and a silver tankard in its mouth.
It was at midnight, for the clock had but just struck twelve, when the celebration of the day commenced by the firing of cannon; and the cheers of some nocturnal revellers were echoed far amid the silence of the hour. The bells presently struck up a merry peal, and, with the cannon, which were continually discharged, served as larums to rouse our immense population to prepare for the enjoyments of the day. At a very few minutes past six, the children of the different charity schools, attended by their teachers and friends of the institution, and those of the Established church by a number of the clergy, began to assemble in St. Ann’s Square. Precisely at half past seven they set out for Ardwick.
The children entered the Green and were arranged within the rails, on the margin of the canal, in the order which they had held in the procession. The girls of the different schools, or interests, preceded the boys throughout. When they had all taken their stations, the children gave several cheers, the effect produced by which was novel and interesting. They then sang in very good style and with great effect, the song of “God save the King;” after which, they returned to their respective School Rooms, where refreshments were given to them.
We have seldom witnessed a scene which gave us so much pleasure, as that which we have now been faintly attempting to describe. The immense number of the more humble class of our fellow subjects in this vicinity, who are receiving from the care and charity of their wealthy and benevolent neighbours, a valuable and well grounded education – the important moral advantages which this education involves – the cleanly appearance of the dress, both of boys and girls, but particularly of the latter – and their quiet and orderly demeanour – all these together gave birth to a train of reflections, and hopes of a most gratifying and animating character. He, indeed, who could look upon such a scene without emotion, must have been more or less than man.
The Guardian – founded two months previously and running to only four pages – covered George IV’s coronation in London and Manchester’s grand procession, and bemoaned the ‘disgraceful scenes’ that followed the distribution of meat and beer.
