2-791-462 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Great Meeting at the New Ground, Guernsey, 1844. Between 12,000 and 15,000 people assembled in St Peter-Port in the Channel Islands: ' ...certain injurious and unfounded imputations have lately been cast upon the loyalty of the inhabitants of the island of Guernsey; insomuch that the Government were induced, by the representations of the Governor, to despatch a number of troops to the island to suppress the imaginary insurrection. To repudiate altogether this insinuation, the islanders met in great numbers...to assure the Queen of their unshaken attachment and allegiance to her Majesty’s person and Government. The day will hereafter be a memorable one in the history of the island; for up to this period a general public meeting of the inhabitants of Guernsey was a thing unknown'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol I.