Note 21 — Chapter I · Preliminaries.—Petitions.—Seizure of Magazines.—The Array and the Militia.—First Skirmish at Manchester.

There are a Parliamentarian paper describing the affray, two royalist tracts and an account in the "Valley of Achor" ("C.W.T.," pp. 29, 30, 31 and 113). The reference in the "Discourse," p. 6, may be dismissed as worthless; that writer is not often well informed on matters relating to Manchester. It is evident that the banquet was a pre-arranged affair in spite of statements to the contrary ("C.W.T.," p. 30), and also that the rising of the townsmen was not wholly the result of the Parliamentarian leaders' agitation. Probably each party in the town made its own arrangements entirely neglecting their effect on the other; and probably each side gave afterwards what it honestly thought to be the statement of the facts. There is an account of this affray in Burghall's "Providence Improved" (R.S., No. 19, p. 29); but it adds no new details.