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