How far was the Tory government's reaction to the problem of the radicals justified

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How far was the Tory government's reaction to the problem of the radicals justified?

The Radicals had formed as a reaction to the French revolution at the end of the 18th century. They demanded change of the parliament (which had been formally elected by wealthy land owners as the vote was restricted to a propertied minority) such as; a more representative parliamentary system, annual election and a secret ballot.

In 1815 - 21 the British Government faced problems from the Radicals. They witnessed an intensification of their movement, which went out of its way to win over the working class; one way in which they did this was by open air mass meetings. In this answer I am going to highlight the Radical problems which faced the government and state how they were justified.

At the time of the Radical movements there was no police force in place, as well as this they had only a limited number of troops. However there was in place a local magistrate who did impose law and order, although it had no experience of crowd control. As well as this, ministers used spies and agents to detect evidence