Fear The underlying motives of the upper classes and leading to the Peterloo Massacre was fear It was a starving French populace that had started the French Revolution leading to large numbers of upper and middle classes being sent to the Guillotine Here were the same circumstances of a hungry population getting very restive Who knows where such a situation might lead a mass hanging of the upper classes Such gatherings as that at Peterloo had to be crushed with immediate effect militarily if neccessary