ia
pmberstig
Professor R. Flenley
19
A
HISTORY OF
THE CHARTIST
MOVEMENT
A
HISTORY OF
THE CHARTIST
MOVEMENT
BY
JULIUS
WEST Ji
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY
MEMOIR BY J. G. SQUIRE
CONSTABLE & COMPANY LIMITED
LONDON
Published 1920
Prih/a/ m Greaf Britain 6y Butler & Tanner, Frome and London,
INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR
JULIUS WEST was born in St. Petersburg on March 21
(9th O.S.), 1891. In May, when he was two months old,
he went to London, where from that time onwards, his father,
Mr. Semon Rappoport, was correspondent for various Russian
papers. At twelve years of age West entered the Haberdashers'
(Aske's) School at Hampstead. He left school in 1906, and
became a temporary clerk in the Board of Trade, assisting in
the preparation of the report on the cost of living in Germany,
issued in 1908. On leaving the Board of Trade, he became a
junior clerk in the office of the Fabian Society, then in a base-
ment in Clement's Inn. (It was there that in 1908 or 1909
I first saw him.) To get to the Secretary's room one had to
pass through the half-daylight of a general office stacked
with papers and pamphlets, and on some occasion I received
the impression of a new figure beyond the counter, that of a
tall, white-faced, stooping youth with spectacles and wavy
dark hair, studious-looking, rather birdlike. The impression
is still so vivid that I know now I was in a manner aware that
he was unusual long before I was conscious of any curiosity
about him. I had known him thus casually by sight for some
time, without knowing his name ; I had known his name
and his repute as a precocious boy for some time without
linking the name to the person. He was said to read everything
and to know a lot of economics ; a great many people were
getting interested in him ; he was called West and was a
Russian, a collocation which puzzled me until I learned that
he was a Jew from Russia who had adopted an English name.
Although still under twenty, he was already, I think, lecturing
to small labour groups when I got to know him more inti-
mately. He knew his orthodox economics inside out, and was
i
ii INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR
in process of acquiring a peculiar knowledge of the involved
history of the Socialist movement and its congeners during
the last hundred years.
He was, in fact, already rather extraordinary. His educa-
tion had been broken off early, and he always regretted it ;
but I have known few men who have suffered less from the
absence of an academic training. Given his origins, his early
struggle, his intellectual and political environment, the ease
with which he secured some sort of hearing for his first small
speeches to congenial audiences, one might have expected a
very different product. It would not have been surprising,
had he, with all his intellect, become a narrow fanatic with a
revoluntionary shibboleth ; it would not have been strange
if, avoiding this because of his common sense, he had been
drawn into the statistical machine and given himself entirely
to collecting and digesting the materials for social reform. He
took a delight in economic theory and he had a passion for
industrial history : the road was straight before him. But the
pleasure and the passion were not exclusive. Although it is
possible that his greatest natural talents were economic and
historical, and (as I think) likely that had he lived his chief
work would have been along lines of which the present book
is indicative, he was in no hurry to specialize. He had a
catholic mind. Behind man he could see the universe, and,
unlike many Radicals of his generation, behind the problems and
the attempted or suggested solutions of his time, he could see
the wide and long historical background, the whole experience
of man with the lessons, moral, psychological and political,
which are to be drawn from it, and are not to be ignored. You
may find in his early writings (though not in this book) all sorts
of crudities, flippancies and loose assertions ; he was young
and impulsive, he had been under the successive influences of
Mr. Shaw and Mr. Chesterton, and lacked their years and their
command of language ; he had a full mind and a fluent pen
which, when it got warm, sometimes ran away. But at bottom
he was unusually sane ; and his sanity came in part from the
intellectual temper that I have sketched, but partly from a
sweet, sensitive and sympathetic nature which made injustice
INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR iii
as intolerable to him as it was unreasonable. He did not
always (being young and having had until the last year or two
little experience of the general world of men) realize how people
would take his words ; but I never knew a man who more
quickly or more girlishly blushed when he thought he had
said or written something wounding or not quite sensible.
Julius West's life was conspicuously a life of the mind. But
if the reader understands by an intellectual a man to whom
books and verbal disputations are alone sufficient, reservations
must be made. It is true that he was a glutton for books : he
collected a considerable library where Horace Walpole, Marx,
Stevenson, Mr. Conrad, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb and Marlowe
stood together. His father writes : "He was a great reader,
and his literary taste even as a schoolboy was remarkable.
He scorned to read books written specially for children, but used
to enjoy the reading of classical writers even at the age of
seven or eight years, and his knowledge of all Shakespeare's
dramas was astonishingly complete/' But he was restless and
roving rather than sedentary. He was capable of running
great physical risks and enduring hardships beyond his strength ;
he travelled as much as he could, and had the authorities
admitted him into the Army, he would, unless his body had
given out, have made a good soldier. He did not mistake
books for life ; but one had the feeling that life to him was
primarily a great book. His nature was emotional enough : he
fell in love ; he was deeply attached to a few intimate friends ;
and there was an emotional element in his politics and his
reactions to all the strange spectacles he saw in his last years
of life. But ordinarily what one thought of was his curiosity
rather than his emotions ; his senses not at all. If at one
moment one had peeped into his affectionate nature the next
one was always carried off into some " objective " discussion.
His curiosity about things, his love of debate, gave him a
refuge during trouble and an habitual resort in ordinary times.
He seemed incapable of any idle thing. Most of us, with
varying frequency, will make physical exertions without obtain-
ing or desiring reward beyond the effort and the fatigue ; or
we will lie lapped in the gratification of our senses, happy,
iv INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR
without added occupation, to drink wine or sit in silence with
a friend and tobacco, or encumber a beach and feel the hot
sun on our faces, or loll in a green shade without even a green
thought. Or we will travel and see men and countries, or take
part in events for the mere exhilaration of doing it. But what-
ever his physical activity, Julius West would always have been
the curious spectator, observing and learning, recording and
deducing, with history in the making around him ; and,
whatever his physical inactivity, his brain would never have
been asleep, or his senses dormant. If one walked with him,
there were few silences ; a punt on the river with him would
have meant (unless he were reading) eager, peering eyes and
speculations either about the surrounding objects, and what
people had said about them, or else about Burke, Bakunin or
some such thing. For all his energy, I never knew his ambi-
tion, or was clearly convinced that he had any other ambition
than to see and learn all he could, and produce his results.
He attempted all sorts of literary work ; parodies, short
stories, criticism. It was to be expected that the criticism
would be chiefly concerned with doctrine, and that the other
work would be defective and full of ideas. Partly, I suppose,
all this writing was the by-product of an intellectual organ
which could not stop working but demanded a change of work ;
partly his very curiosity operated : he saw what other men
had written, and he wanted to find out what it would be like
to write this, that and the other thing. But he had neither
the sensuousness nor the selfishness (if that hard word may be
used of that detachment and that preoccupation) of the artist,
nor the reverence for form that demands and justifies an intense
application to general detail which is not, to the hasty eye,
very significant. As a rule he was exclusively preoccupied
with the general purport of what he wanted to say. But it
was not unnatural that a young man with his heart, his imagina-
tive intelligence and his wide reading, should have begun his
career as an author with a book of poems. (The book published
by Mr. David Nutt in 1913 was called Atlantis and Other Poems.)
It was ignored by the reviewers and the public ; he would not
have denied that it deserved to be ; but it was very interesting
INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR v
to any one interested in him. A great part of it (remember,
most of the verses had been written by a boy under twenty-
one) was very weak ; short poems about mermaids, sunken gal-
leons, maidens, dreams, ghosts and witches, written in rhythms
which are lame, but displaying in the ineffective variety of
their form the restless ingenuity, the hunger for experiment
of this young author ; and here and there lit up by a precoci-
ous thought or phrase. A man with a greater share of the
poetic craft was likely to do better with a larger subject and a
looser structure, and much the best poem in West's book is
Atlantis, a narrative in about five hundred lines of blank verse,
with a few songs embedded in it. The blank verse is as good
as most ; few men of West's age could write better ; and he
could without contortion move in it, and make it say what-
ever he wanted it to say. He represents the Lost Continent as
dwindled to a small island and inhabited by people conscious
of their impending doom, weighed down with the memory of
what their country's forests and fields and birds were like
before the last wave. The subject offered an obvious chance as
a visible spectacle, and the poet (feeling this) made an attempt
to paint the features of the city, describing its houses and temples
and festivals. The attempt was unsuccessful ; it was when
he reached more congenial ground that West showed his
originality and his power. With one of the most alluringly
" picturesque " and melodramatic subjects in the world under
consideration, he put all the obvious things behind him and spent
his time considering what effects such a situation as that of
the doomed remnant of Atlanteans would have had upon the
minds of men. Passionate love became almost extinct :
and 'twas thought 'twas well
No helpless childish hands there were to pull
Their elders' heartstrings, making death seem hard
And parting very bitter, and the end
A bitter draft of pain, poured by a hand
Unpitying, a draft of which the old
Were doomed to drink more than a double share.
The poets
Did all but cease th' eternal themes to sing
And in their place sang songs about the End.
vi INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR
The philosophers ran to strange doctrines about the perfecti-
bility of the survivors from the next deluge or starkly expounded
the End, or were
Buffoons who sought to turn the End a thing
For jest ;
and across the city sometimes flashed a band of fanatics pro-
claiming this shadowed life to be an illusion from which those
who had courage and faith could escape. Voices spoke, sad or
resentful, of men cheated out of their due years ; one fierce
For us an aimless life, an aimless Death . . .
That I should have the power for once to live,
To be a creature strong with power to kill,
To stay, but for a little while, the strength
That hems us in ! That I might taste the joy
Of conflict with an equal force to mine,
Conflict of life and death, not purposeless,
Not vain, as we now feebly struggle on. ...
That I could have the gift of knowing hate,
Black hate that animates before it kills. . . .
O, to do aught with force, not rest supine.
In this boyish poem we can see West's mind trying to realize
Atlantis as a whole community, where characters vary and
doctrines clash ; as a vessel holding, at a certain position in
time and space, the human spirit.
Whether he would have written more poetry I do not know.
I doubt it ; at all events he had little time and many dis-
tractions, and he looked like growing confirmed in other pur-
suits. In 1913 he went into the office of the New Statesman,
for which, intermittently, he wrote reviews (usually of books
about Eastern Europe) and miscellaneous articles until he died.
He remained in the office for a few months ; then left, and
became a free lance writing for various papers, lecturing, and
starting work on the present book and others. I think his
second publication was a tract, notable for its sagacity and its
wit, on John Stuart Mill. He was busy with several books when
the war broke out, which in the end was to kill him at twenty-
seven.
I forget if it was in August, 1914, that he first tried to join
INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR vii
the Army. A layman might have supposed that both his eyes
and his lungs were too weak, but a doctor told him that he was
good for active service. Whenever it was that he volunteered
his first attempt was early, and there were others after his short
visit to Russia and Warsaw in 1914-15 he made a discovery.
He had not realized if he had ever known it the conception
had dropped out of his mental foreground that he was not a
British subject. But they told him so, and said that his
status must be settled before he could have a commission. He
had arguments : his parents were Russian subjects and he
himself was born in Russia ; but his parents were merely
visiting Russia when he was born, and he submitted that he
was at that time really domiciled in England. The argument,
it seemed, had no legal validity ; and, denied citizenship in
the only home he knew or wanted, he at once went, very set
and intent, to a solicitor's office in Lincoln's Inn Fields where
I had the odd experience of assisting, as I believed, to naturalize
a man I had never thought of as a foreigner. This, he thought,
would settle it ; he would soon be in the Army. But no. The
hierarchy at this point thought of something new. He was a
Russian, an Ally of military age ; if he wished to fight he
must join the Russian army ; we would not naturalize him here.
It would have been difficult to conceive a more grotesque
suggestion, if one knew the man. He had left Russia when a
baby in long clothes ; he spoke Russian (at that time) with
difficulty ; he looked at Russia and her institutions from an
English point of view ; he was married (he had been con-
firmed in the Church of England) to the daughter of an English
clergyman ; all his friends were English and most of them
in uniform : and it was suggested that if he really desired to
serve the Allied cause he should divest himself of all his ties
and go off to mess in the snows of Courland or Galicia with
bearded strangers from the Urals and the Ukraine. The sug-
gestion was repulsive to him, quite apart from the fact that
it might mean years of unbroken exile. He was, however,
allowed to join an ambulance corps in London.
Before long he was off to Petrograd on a flying tour as a corre-
spondent; thence to Moscow and Warsaw, within sound of which
viii INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR
the German guns were booming : Russian Warsaw with enemy
aeroplanes overhead and expensive Tsarist officers revelling in
the best hotels. He saw the Grand Duke Nicholas on November
17, 1914, in the greatest Cathedral of Petrograd at a gorgeous
service of commemoration of the miraculous preservation of the
Tsar Alexander II : that was six years ago ! He returned,
and for a year and more was in England, editing Everyman
and writing books at a great pace. Then his wife died. Another
opportunity of going to Russia offered, and a man always rest-
less took it as a means of escape from himself. He was in
Petrograd in the early months of the Bolshevik regime. He
lived (a few letters came through) in a state of high excitement,
seeing everything he could, visiting the Institute and the
Bolshevik law courts, attending meetings at which Lenin and
Trotsky spoke, dogged everywhere, for he was suspected, daily
expecting to be shot from behind. Being a democrat and a
believer in ordered progress he was very angry with the
Bolsheviks ; having a zest for queer manifestations of life he
found an immense variety of interest and amusement in their
conduct. When he returned he was full of stories of rascality.
Lenin, on the point of character, was in many ways an excep-
tion ; but he was tricked wholesale by German Jew agents
disguised as Bolsheviks. One of them, high in the Bolshevik
Foreign Office, had even judiciously edited the Secret Treaties,
the publication of which so edified the Bolshevik public and so
surprised the world. Daily great stacks of documents were
served out to the Bolshevik press, a dole for this paper, a dole
for that ; but the busy German spy had taken the last pre-
caution to ensure that the documents which involved the
Allies should come out, and that those which most seriously
compromised Germany should not. West became pretty
familiar with many of the revolutionary figures, and enjoyed
working in such an extraordinary scene. But he recognized
that his excitement was hectic and bad for him ; he suffered
to some extent from the famine conditions of Petrograd ; the
cold was terrible, and that and the indoor stuffiness which it
led to affected his chest. He had to get away. In February,
1918, he left with a party of English governesses and elderly
INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR ix
invalids. He was not an old man nor a governess ; he was in
effect an English journalist of fighting age who might be
carrying valuable information ; but he was fortified with some
lie or other, and with the rest of the pathetic caravan he went
over the ice and through the German lines. The enemy were
at that time in occupation of the Aland Islands, and West told
a romantic story of the night he and his companions spent in
a village there guarded by the German soldiers : a night filled
with snow, a silence broken by guttural voices talking of home
and the fortunes of the war in Flanders.
He got through to Stockholm and from there home, where,
unexpected and unannounced he floated in on me, keen and
volatile as ever, but looking ill. He ought then to have taken
a long rest ; but he was asked to go off to Switzerland then
a hotbed of enemy and pacifist intrigue and he thought that
with his experience and his knowledge of languages (he now knew
Russian, French, German, Dutch, and Roumanian) it was his
duty to go. But it killed him. He came back, hollow-eyed
and coughing, and went first to an hotel in Surrey, and then to
a sanatorium in the Mendips. His friends did not know how
ill he was ; he wrote cheerfully about books and politics,
asked for more books, was glad he had found an invalid officer
or two with cultivated tastes. But he just saw the war out. A
complication of influenza and pneumonia developed, and he died.
During the war he had published several books. Two
Soldiers of the Tsar and The Fountain were issued by the Iris
Publishing Company, the proprietor of which, now dead, de-
serves a book to himself. The first was a collection of sketches
written mostly in Russia in 1914 ; the second a tumultuous race
of satires and parodies probably modelled on Caliban's Guide
to Letters. The aged Reginald at the end observes :
And oh, my children, be not afraid of your own imaginations. Once
in the distant ages before our universe was born, when Time was an
unmarked desert, and God was lonely, He let the fountain of His fancies
play, and life began. Be you, too, creators, for there is none, even
among my own grandchildren, who has not in him a vestige of that
impulse which made the earth.
The book was written on this principle ; perhaps the fountain
x INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR
played too fast ; but its many-coloured spray shows how various
was the manipulator's knowledge and how active his mind.
The other books were G. K. Chesterton : a Critical Study (Seeker),
an abridged translation of the de Goncourt Journal, published
by Nelson's, and translations of three plays by Tchekoff and
one by AndreiefL The translation from the Goncourts, pro-
duced at a great pace, is really good : lively, vivid, idiomatic.
The monograph, though independent and containing plenty of
reservations, was an exposition of the theory that Mr. Chester-
ton " is a great and courageous thinker." West, though not
blind to his subject's genius as artist and humorist, character-
istically concentrated on his opinions about religion and poli-
tics ; his own were revealed en passant. " The dialogues on
religion contained in The Ball and the Cross are alone enough
and more than enough to place it among the few books on
religion which could safely be placed in the hands of an atheist
or an agnostic with an intelligence." Magic and Orthodoxy
together " are a great work, striking at the roots of disbelief."
During the war " those of us who had not the fortune to escape
the Press by service abroad, especially those of us who derived
our living from it, came to loathe its misrepresentation of the
English people. . . . Then we came to realize, as never before,
the value of such men as Chesterton." It was an impulsive
book, but there was a great deal of very acute analysis in it.
The one book, however, which has a reasonable chance of long
survival is the present History of Chartism.
Now it really is rather remarkable that this book should
have come from the same man, the same very young man, as
the works mentioned above. We still produce, and it is a good
thing we do, men who take an interest in everything and talk,
whether shallowly or with the instinct of genius, or both, about
literature, science and politics, relating them all. But if a
man does this, one can never expect him to be also a specialist
(except, rarely, in some literary subject) who is capable of
research and loves documents. An essay on Chartism we
might expect ; an exposition of its real or supposed principles ;
an idealization of the movement. But we do not expect a
man with the habits of the literary-political journalist to grub
INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR xi
for years amongst pamphlets and manuscripts in the British
Museum, and produce a chapter of history containing and relat-
ing a " mass of new facts/' But that is what West did, and he
did it concurrently with his other miscellaneous work ; editing,
reviewing, translating, speaking, and the rapid composition of
topical books. The Chartists were especially interesting as being
in some sort pioneers of the modern Labour movement in which
West had grown up ; but he might have been drawn to any
other such subject had he found another that had been so
neglected by English historians. It did not take him long to
discover that some current opinions would have to be revised ;
that the physical menace of the Chartist movement had often
been exaggerated, and its historical importance generally
ignored. But, whatever might have been his conclusions, he
loved finding things out ; almost anything would do. He had
a prodigious memory that would enable him to correct at a
moment's notice a misstatement as to the percentage of one-
roomed tenements in Huddersfield, or the name of the Chancellor
of the Duchy of Lancaster in Mr. Gladstone's first Government.
He could read anything with interest and he forgot nothing
that he read. At the British Museum he went through all the
available Chartist literature like a caterpillar. Then one day,
with great excitement and amusement, he came to tell me that
he had discovered at the Hendon annexe scores of manuscript
volumes put together by Francis Place which had never been
examined by any previous English writer. Every sort of
Chartist trifle had been " pasted up " by the industrious tailor ;
the obscurer the newspaper from which Place's cuttings came,
the greater West's pleasure. He liked them for their own sakes ;
but he retained his sense of proportion, and I do not think that
those more competent to judge than I, who read this book, will
think that West swamped his general outline with his own
lesser discoveries. And he had none of the jealous greed of the
baser kind of research worker. He would have given his re-
sults to any one. When he was nearly through his book,
there was announced a book on somewhat similar lines by
another young student, the late Mr. Hovell. West showed no
fear that his own work might be rendered worthless, but (I
xii INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR
think) volunteered to assist in preparing it for the press.
I will add no more, for his most important achievement and
his memorial are here except that the proofs of the volume have
been read by myself, no expert ; and that had he lived to revise
them himself he would probably have removed what errors
may be found.
J. C. SQUIRE.
PREFACE
THE Chartist movement occupies a position of exceptional
importance in the social history of England. The
People's Charter was the basis of the first working-class agita-
tion to take place in this country on a national scale. This
fact alone makes the movement a prominent feature in the
political education of the English people. Historians, never-
theless, have consistently refused to study Chartism, or to
see in it much more than a demonstration which attempted to
overawe Parliament on April 10, 1848, and failed ignominiously.
For the most part the standard histories of the last century
have done little more than to copy one another's inaccuracies.
Thus, Miss Martineau, Molesworth, Justin McCarthy, and
innumerable lesser writers, repeat the story that Daniel O'Con-
nell handed the Charter to Lovett, remarking solemnly,
" There, Lovett, is your Charter . . ." etc. The fact that
Lovett was the principal author of the document in point
would alone disqualify the story ; the facts that O'Connell
took no part in its composition, that his immediately subse-
quent actions belied the remaining sentiments attributed to
him, that he and Lovett were in a state of chronic mutual
dislike, condemn the tale beyond all hope of acquittal. A few
facts, a few conventional comments, and a piously expressed
gratitude that the English were not as other people in 1848,
generally complete the tale of references to Chartism. In
his preface to the English translation of The Right to the Whole
Produce of Labour, by Anton Menger, Professor Foxwell has
some striking things to say about the Chartist period and the
treatment it usually receives. "It is notorious that all the
great remedial measures which have proved the most effective
5 B
6 PREFACE
checks against the abuses of capitalistic competition are oi
English origin. Trade Unions, Co-operation, and Factory
Legislation are all products of English soil. That the revolu-
tionary reaction against capitalism is equally English in its
inspiration is not so generally known/' The great interest of
the Chartist period is the active quest for ideas which was
then being carried on, and its first results. Within a few years
working men had forced upon their attention the pros and
cons of trade unionism, industrial unionism, syndicalism,
communism, socialism, co-operative ownership of land, land
nationalization, co-operative distribution, co-operative pro-
duction, co-operative ownership of credit, franchise reform,
electoral reform, woman suffrage, factory legislation, poor law
reform, municipal reform, free trade, freedom of the press,
freedom of thought, the nationalist idea, industrial insurance,
building societies, and many other ideas. The purpose of the
People's Charter was to effect joint action between the rival
schools of reformers ; but its result was to bring more new ideas
on to the platform, before a larger and keener audience.
This teeming mass of ideas, inspired with nascent energy,
is the most striking characteristic of the Chartist movement.
To the working men who listened to William Lovett and Fear-
gus O'Connor, ideas mattered more than to any succeeding
generation. Lovett's autobiography is a curious piece of
evidence, showing its writer's obsession with ideas. More
than one-half of that substantial book consists of manifestos
and addresses drafted by its author. To Lovett the idea was
as important as the deed, He and his generation really did
believe in the prevailing power of truth.
At the present moment there is no history of Chartism in
print in the English language. R. G. Gammage's book once
held the field undisputed, but its value has diminished with
its age, as generations have arisen with no first-hand knowledge
of the subject, and therefore unable to fill in the gaps from
memory. Gammage's prolix account of meetings, personali-
ties, squabbles, and prosecutions, would be of more interest
to Chartists themselves than to those ignorant of the under-
lying forces and ideas of the movement, which the author
PREFACE 7
scarcely explains. Prof. Dolleans' massive Le Chartisme is
also more concerned with men than with ideas, and is quite
extraordinarily diffuse. Perhaps the best existing account of
the subject is contained in M. Beer's Geschichte des Socializmus
in England.' 1 Herr Schluter's Die Chartisten-Bewegung, com-
pleted, as the author alleges, in order to rectify the errors of
the former writer, is a comparatively inferior work, based upon
a smaller amount of research but an infinitely stronger senti-
mentality. Chartism has long been a favourite subject of
German students, who have produced several short works on
it, down to the inevitable philological study on Der Flugs-
chriftenliteratur des Chartistenbewegung. Other works on the
subject are to be had in Italian and Russian.
The author of the present work can claim to have one con-
siderable advantage over his predecessors, of whatever nation-
ality. This has been his access to the Place Collection at the
British Museum. It appears that in 1866, on the death of
Joseph Parkes, the Museum bought from his library 180
volumes, mainly consisting of press cuttings, which had come
into his possession on the death of Francis Place. Among
these volumes (a list of which is to be found in the bibliography)
a set of twenty-eight consists of materials for a history of
Chartism down to 1847. Place himself attempted to write
a history of Chartism, but had to give it up. This particular
set contains many otherwise inaccessible pamphlets, with
correspondence, memoranda, and annotations. The Place
Collection is at present kept in the British Museum Repository
at Hendon, and was first catalogued only in 1913. Its value
to a student of the first half of the last century cannot be over-
estimated. The Collection should not be confused with the
ninety-three volumes of the Place MSS. at the British Museum,
which have been well knowrTto historical students since the
publication in 1898 of The Life of Francis Place, by Mr. Graham
Wallas.
1 The first volume of an English translation of this work has now
appeared J.C.S.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT . . . . n
II. THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD . . 40
III. THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER .... -74
IV. THE CONVENTION . . . . . . 101
V. THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION . . . . 123
VI. IDEAS AT A PREMIUM ....... 150
VII. THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR . . .186
VIII. 1848 . . .227
IX. THE PASSING OF CHARTISM . . . . . 258
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . 297
INDEX '< . . . 301
CHAPTER I
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT
/CHARTISM is the name generally applied to a democratic
V_>< movement which came to a head in this country about
1840. It was distinguished by certain specific demands, which
came to be both its objects and its insignia. In the course of
its existence, the movement, while adhering closely to its
original ends, underwent a number of changes within itself.
From a purely middle-class agitation, it developed into a
working-class campaign ; woman suffrage entered to a certain
extent into the programme ; many of the present-day problems
of trade unionism, industrial unionism, and syndicalism took
shape ; and organized labour became for the first time a factor
of importance in the life of the nation.
The beginnings of a political movement may generally be
traced, with a modicum of ingenuity, to Plato's Republic by
those historians who wish to describe their subject ab ovo.
But a dawn in history differs from the dawn of the meteoro-
logist ; it may be fixed arbitrarily. So we shall place the
beginning of our movement in the year 1776, without apologies
to those numerous students who have found, and will continue
to find, Radicalism already existing before that year. Since
1776, the movement we shall describe has been continuous ;
before that date it was sporadic. When the Metropolitan
Parliamentary Reform Association came into being in 1842,
it published an Address in which 1776 was stated to be the
date of the new birth. " The first attempt," it said, " free
from all party bias, to induce the people to concur in efforts
to obtain a radical reform of the Commons House of Parlia-
11
12 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
ment, was made by the late Major John Cartwright in the year
1776, in a pamphlet entitled Take your Choice." 1 Although
students of Major Cartwright 's Life and Letters will find a
letter addressed to him by Lord Stanhope 2 (the third Earl,
the scientist and inventor with the revolutionary sympathies),
claiming that the first writing published in support of parlia-
mentary reform was by himself, in 1774, we may nevertheless
neglect his claim. The succession does not date from him, a
mere voice in the wilderness. 3
A slight glance at the state of thought during 1776 may be
helpful. Voltaire and Rousseau were in the ascendant. Adam
Smith published The Wealth oj Nations, and a part of Gibbon's
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire had appeared. The
Declaration of Independence was another event of the year.
North's Ministry was in power. Dr. Johnson still dogmatized
his listeners out of breath. Louis XVI had but just ascended
the French throne, and Turgot had not yet lost his control of
the French finances. Neither William Godwin nor Mary
Wollstonecraft had published anything. John Wilkes had
triumphed, and, after having been Lord Mayor of London,
had without opposition just succeeded in regaining his seat
as member for Middlesex. The spirit of religious toleration
had made itself felt within the Houses of Parliament ; the
Roman Catholic Relief Act was in sight. Bentham had pub-
lished his Fragment on Government, and Cartwright issued the
tract we have already mentioned.
This tract appears to have succeeded in making a certain
impression, for in 1777 we have a revised and enlarged second
edition, bearing the title The Legislative Rights 0} the Commonalty
Vindicated : or, Take your Choice / which contains Cart-
wright's replies to some arguments adduced by opponents.
That the publication was read at all is only to be accounted
for on the ground that it fell in with prevalent opinion, for,
1 Place MSS. 27,810 contains copies of this Address.
2 Edited by his niece, Miss F. D. Cartwright Vol. I, p. 82.
3 It should be noted that in April, 1776, a few months before the
publication of Cartwright's tract, Wilkes moved a reform resolution
in the House of Commons : this was negatived without a division.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 13
in common with all Cart Wright's works, it is intolerably dull,
and very long-winded. But the train had been laid.
Cartwright lived to become a figurehead among the Radical
reformers by sheer weight of years (he died in 1824, aged eighty-
four), and by dint of saying the same thing for just under
fifty years. His mind possessed a certain originality, which,
however, expended itself almost invariably upon trifling and
inessential matters. He used to invent great schemes of
national defence, based upon his ideas of what existed in
the Golden Age, which in his belief was somewhere about the
reign of King Alfred. He designed a new form of pike to
take the place of bayonets also based, of course, on Anglo-
Saxon examples and later spent some considerable energy
in inducing the Greeks to use it in their struggles against the
Turks. Francis Place refers to him as " the old gentleman." 1
He appears to have been universally loved by the younger
generation of Radicals, for the old bore possessed a childlike
simplicity that was not the mere accompaniment of second
childhood. Jlis Take your Choice put the case directly for
universal suffrage and annual parliaments two points which
remained in the forefront of the Radical programmes until
the end of the Chartist movement. The term " universal
suffrage/' the most common of all the shibboleths of this
long agitation, had not then attained to its present meaning ;
it simply meant manhood suffrage. It was never the intention
of the early Radicals to allow women to be participants in
the extended franchise. When the Dean of Gloucester (Josiah
Tucker) criticized Take your Choice on the ground that if all
men were to be given a vote, soon all the women would demand
their enfranchisement, Cartwright angrily replied in the second
edition : " For want of arguments against an equality of repre-
sentation, some authors have been driven to the sad expedient
of attempting to be witty on the subject. A dignitary of our
Church . . . has been pleased to advance that, provided this
equality be due to men, it must equally appertain to the
women . . . etc." 2 We need not proceed to quote the now
1 Wallas, Life of Francis Place, p. 63.
2 The Legislative Rights of the Commonalty Vindicated, p. 45.
14 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
familiar argument that Scripture demands that the husband
should be the head of the family. In common with certain
anti-Suffragists of our own day, Cartwright preserves a dis-
creet silence as to the spinsters and widows whom Scripture
does not appear to have inhibited from voting.
During the next few years reform ideas spread with great
rapidity, especially in Middlesex and Yorkshire. Inside the
House of Commons, Burke was labouring at schemes to abolish
sinecures and corruption, but without success. Delegate
meetings were held in many towns, and " conventions " met
at the Thatched House Tavern and the St. Alban's Coffee
House, both in St. James's Street. Pitt, Burke, and Sheridan
were among the Members of Parliament who attended these
meetings. Petitions to Parliament began to pour in, and
the whole existing system of representation was subjected to
raking criticism. A majority of the House of Commons was
returned by only 11,000 electors. 1 Sir Philip Francis, in a letter
to his sister, describes his election for Appleby in this ludicrous
strain : 2 "I was unanimously elected by one elector to
represent this ancient borough in Parliament . . . there was
no other Candidate, no Opposition, no Poll demanded, Scru-
tiny or Petition. So I had nothing to do but to thank the
said Elector for the Unanimous Voice with which I was chosen.
. . . On Friday morning I shall quit this triumphant scene
with flying colours and a noble determination not to see it
again in less than seven years . . . my Elector intends to
hang himself in November, and then I shall elect myself : and
that will do as well. " Where the electorate was more numerous
and less unanimous, bribery used to take place upon a most
expensive scale. The reformers had not to seek far for ammuni-
tion, but the enemy's defences were strong.
At a meeting held in Westminster at the beginning of 1780,
a committee was appointed to draw up a programme for the
reformers. This formulated the following demands, which
remained the basis of the Radical agitation for many years :
1 Wyvill Papers, Vol. Ill, App. 195.
2 Francis Letters, II, 493 ; quoted by G. S. Veitch in The Genesis of
Parliamentary Reform, p. 9.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 15
(i) Annual Parliaments, (2) Universal Suffrage, (3) Voting by
Ballot, (4) Equal Polling Districts, (5) No Money Qualifications
for Members, (6) Payment of Members for their Attendance.
" At this time there was no political public, and the active
friends of Parliamentary Reform consisted of noblemen, gentle-
men, and a few tradesmen. . . . Their proceedings were
neither adapted for, nor were they addressed to the working
people, who, at that time, would not have attended to them." 1
The Radical movement was essentially a middle-class move-
ment, and, although the working class was not excluded to
the extent indicated by our last quotation, when victory was
at last achieved, it was the middle class that received the
greater part of the satisfaction.
Many years before the events of 1780, a Bill of Rights Society
had been formed for the purpose of helping Wilkes with money,
and for the propagation of his opinions. This still existed ;
so also did the Constitutional Society, which had seceded from
it. This last combined the functions of a study circle, a dining
club, and a charitable body. Some of the more advanced
members of the latter body again broke away and formed the
" Society for Promoting Constitutional Information " ; its
members were to be chosen by ballot, each person on becoming
a member was to subscribe not less than one guinea, but as
much more as he pleased, and five guineas each per annum.
A considerable number of tracts were published, recommending
Annual Parliaments, Universal Suffrage, and Voting by Ballot. 2
The first President 3 appears to have been Sir Cecil Wray, M.P.
for East Retford from 1768-80, who had wrested the represen-
tation of that borough, on the nomination of the Bill of Rights
Society, from the Duke of Newcastle and the corporation.
This new Society was, as we may gather from the subscription,
scarcely proletarian either in its membership or its aspirations.
R. B. Sheridan was one of the original members, as were a
large number of Whig M.P.'s. In its first existence, from 1780
1 Address of the Metropolitan Parliamentary Reform Association.
2 Place MSS. 27,808.
3 According to Place MSS. 27,810, fo. 142, the Duke of Richmond
was the first President.
16 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
to 1783, the Society did little more than to bear witness to
the prevalence of a sentiment, and three years after its for-
mation it was shut down by the North-Fox coalition. But
the French Revolution stimulated the dead bones into an
avatar in 1791, when more was heard of it. This Society was
but one of the outward and visible signs of a movement, not
yet sufficiently conscious of its own objects to be democratic,
and not yet completely divorced from the Tory creed of the
necessity of class subordination. But in Parliament matters
were moving in a manner all the more remarkable when the
times are considered. The anti-Catholic riots of 1780, under
the leadership of the mentally defective Lord George Gordon,
were an anticipation, on a large scale, of Maf eking night.
After a week's experience of entirely unprecedented mob law,
the reformers in Parliament found their faith unshaken. On
the first day of serious rioting, Friday, June 2, the Duke of
Richmond was actually bringing in a motion in the House of
Lords in support of universal suffrage and annual parliaments.
" But no serious discussion was possible. Pale, bruised, and
agitated, with their wigs torn off, their hair dishevelled, their
clothes torn and bespattered with mud, the peers of England
sat listening to the frantic yells of the multitude who already
thronged the lobbies." 1 So Lecky describes the scene. But
no revolution was at hand. Richmond's motion was negatived
without ostentation, the riots died out, and England was her-
self again. The next positive advance of the reform movement
took place in 1782, and carried things to a point which was
not passed for almost fifty years.
On March 27 of that year, Edmund Burke became Paymaster-
General in the Rockingham Ministry, and promptly introduced
measures to abolish sinecures, to reduce the Pensions List,
and to guard against the possibility of corruption. At the
moment it seemed necessary to both Lords and Commons to
keep the Rockingham Ministry alive at all costs. Nothing
therefore was done to impede the progress of the Bill in which
these reforms were embodied, .and it passed both Houses with
1 W. E. H. Lecky, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century,
Vol. IV, p: 311.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 17
flying colours to the accompaniment of scarcely muffled exe-
crations. A few weeks afterwards/ Pitt 2 introduced an impor-
tant resolution in a powerful speech : " That a committee be
appointed to inquire into the present state of representation
of the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament, to report
the same to the House, and likewise which steps in their opinion
it may be proper for Parliament to take concerning the same."
The extent to which the myth of a perfect constitution had
gripped the imagination of all politicians is nowhere better
illustrated than in the reports of the debate which followed
this resolution. Proposals of reform were, as it were, apolo-
gized for ; they were, it was strenuously maintained, not in-
compatible with the myth. Pitt himself kotowed before
the fetish, declaring that " he was afraid that the reverence
and the enthusiasm which Englishmen entertained for the
constitution would, if not suddenly prevented, be the means
of destroying it ; for such was their enthusiasm, that they
would not even remove its defects, for fear of touching its
beauty." In the course of the debate the defenders of the
status quo were easily out-talked, but the myth won on a
division. For the resolution, 141 voted ; against, 161. This
majority of only twenty votes was not diminished till 1831.
Between 1782 and 1785, Pitt several times brought up the
subject, but in vain. His acceptance of the Premiership in
1783 made him fearful of rebuffs, and, a few years later, his
views on democracy and reform came to be overshadowed by
the fear of revolution.
In July, 1782, the Society for Constitutional Information
addressed an appeal " to the people of Great Britain of all
denominations, but particularly to those who subsist by honest
industry." This would appear to be the first invitation to
the wage-earning classes to participate in the reform move-
ment. About this date we find a large number of county
associations had sprung up, especially in Yorkshire. Here an
indefatigable clergyman, one Christopher Wyvill, was organiz-
ing middle-class opinion with remarkable success. Although
1 Parliamentary History, May 7, 1782.
2 He had only become an M.P. the previous year.
i8 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
his cloth prevented him from entering Parliament at any time,
he took a prominent part in the politics of Yorkshire, where
he owned considerable property, and as early as 1779 he became
Secretary of the Yorkshire Association, a body with reformist
objects. He then began, by correspondence and personal
effort, to secure the formation of no less than twenty-five county
associations. The six volumes of Political Papers, chiefly
respecting the Attempt of the County of York, and other
Considerable Districts, commenced in 1779, and continued
during several subsequent years, to effect a Reformation of
the Parliament of Great Britain, collected by the Rev. Chris-
topher Wyvill, Chairman of the late Committee of Association
of the County of York, contain evidence of a remarkable mass
of activities. The associated counties, however, were far
from Radical in their demands. Yorkshire in 1781 merely
required (i) support of the " economical Petition " (carried
in 1782 by Burke), (2) the addition of at least one hundred
county members, (3) duration of Parliament not to exceed
three years. Wyvill gives a list of the associations which
more or less agreed with these objects ; J they number seventeen.
Here, too, Demos does not appear to have been welcomed.
The American War had undoubtedly given these bodies a
great stimulus. Wyvill could triumphantly and frequently
point to the fact that while the county representatives approved
of the war, the county associations did not. Now, however,
that the American War was ended, that economical reform
was a fact, and that Pitt was in a position of responsibility,
Wyvill suddenly found himself deserted by his former associates
and supporters. The landed interest or that portion of it
that had once helped him crumbled away. The county
associations went to pieces.
The year 1788, the centenary of the Revolution, saw a
revival of sorts. But the revival was less in the nature of a
national movement than of a celebration. Such political impetus
as the reform movement gathered was materialized ignobly
into dining clubs. A few of the reformers Cartwright, for
example were in deadly earnest, but to large numbers reform
1 Wyvill, Political Papers, Vol. I, pp. 381-383.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 19
was merely a toast. The following year saw the outbreak of
the French Revolution. Only a few observers understood
that the National Assembly was not to be the end ; the majority
of Whigs welcomed the new development, while few, Whigs
and Tories, actually disapproved. " Cautious and reflecting
politicians like Grenville, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs
afterwards, indeed, to be swept along unresisting in the race
of political reaction looked on with the placid content of
some petty tradesman who sees his rival's premises destroyed
by fire ; and his view was typical of the prevailing orthodoxy/' 1
The first Englishman to adopt the view which afterwards
became orthodox detestation of the Revolution was Edmund
Burke. He could not sympathise with those who believed
with Fox that the taking of the Bastille was " the greatest
and the best event that ever happened in the world," and
broke his friendship with Fox on account of the difference of
opinion. Alarmed at the spread of Radical societies in this
country with avowedly revolutionary sympathies, Burke
published, in November, 1790, his Reflections on the Revolution
in France. This was, despite its name, largely a glorification
of the British status quo, alleging a perfect constitution, a wise
distribution (i.e. concentration) of property and power, and a
necessary and beneficent Church in close combination with
the sovereign power. The book evoked an extraordinary
outburst of applause and brickbats. In the dispatch of the
latter a number of those who were to give the Radical and,
later, the Chartist movements their ideas first emerged into
publicity.
An American writer 2 has counted up no less than thirty-
eight replies to Burke 's Reflections. The first in the field was
Mary Wollstonecraft, whose Vindication oj the Rights of Man
even to-day reads freshly. On sheer points of reasoning, of
keenness of assault, of clear-cut statement of contending prin-
ciples, the statesman is unmistakably second to the schoolmis-
tress. Only a few months later she followed up her attack
on the fastnesses of the conservative intellect by what must
1 G. S. Veitch, The Genesis of Parliamentary Reform, p. 112.
2 Walter Phelps Hall, British Radicalism, 1791-1797, p. 75.
20 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
be regarded (considering its time) as one of the most daring
political essays ever penned. A Vindication oj the Rights of
Woman remains a standard textbook of feminism to this day.
It contains the first plea left undeveloped, however for the
political enfranchisement of women, and much other matter
accurately calculated to shock.
The Rights oj Man, by Thomas Paine, published in 1791,
had an enormous and immediate influence. This was far less
revolutionary than Mary Wollstonecraft's reply, and is to-day
frankly out of date. But its racy style, its positive proposals
for amending the Poof Law and reducing taxation, made the
book extraordinarily popular. Paine received no less than
1,000 in royalties from the first part, which he handed over
to the Constitutional Society for the further dissemination of
the book. The second part (1792) was equally successful.
" In the end it was adopted by the Constitutional Society as
a kind of democratic Magna Charta, and sent by them to all
the Corresponding Societies in England, France, and Scotland." 1
Before Paine fled for France in September, 1792, he had
collected round himself a small circle of Radicals who were
greatly to influence the events of the coming years. Godwin
(who became Mary Wollstonecraft's husband), Home Tooke,
Holcroft (the dramatist), William Blake, John Frost, Romney,
and Lord Edward Fitzgerald were among his close friends.
Side by side with this development of Radical theory, socie-
ties had been springing up to carry the new doctrines into
effect. About this time we begin to notice the first signs of
the working-class Radical, although the movement remained
almost completely in middle-class hands. On April n, 1792,
a new body was formed, calling itself The Friends of the People,
associated for the Purpose of Obtaining a Parliamentary
Reform. 2 Erksine, the barrister who made so brilliant a
reputation by his defence of Home Tooke a few years later,
was perhaps the most important promoter of the new society.
This too was bourgeois with a vengeance. Election was by
ballot, and the annual subscription 2\ guineas. It had a
1 C. R. B. Kent, The English Radicals, p. III.
2 Place MSS. 27,808.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 21
general declaration, which was signed on admission to member-
ship. " First, to restore the Freedom of Election and a more
equal representation of the people in Parliament. Second,
to secure to the people a more equal and more frequent exercise
of their right of electing their Representatives." It is interest-
ing to note that the Friends of the People disclaimed all con-
nexion with the Society for Constitutional Information, although
their membership was largely duplicate. This Society was
to a very large extent merely a pious Whig body, and its
members, though distinguished, were never unduly strenuous.
The indefatigable Major Cartwright was, as ever, one of the
founders. A mildly reformist petition to the House of Commons
presented by this society in 1795, found only forty- two sup-
porters. 1
The society of which most was heard during this period was
the London Corresponding Society. 2 This differed essentially
from all the bodies of which we have been speaking. Its aims
were similar, but its membership was largely plebeian. The
subscription was one penny a week. The first secretary was
Thomas Hardy, an ex- shoemaker. The L.C.S. came out into
the open about the beginning of 1793. Branches sprang into
existence all over the country. The greater part of Hardy's
work consisted of correspondence with these local societies.
Leaflets were scattered broadcast. The Journal of the L.C.S.
and Hardy's incomplete manuscript history of it are in the
Place MSS. at the British Museum. They are interesting
reading, and are written with a flow of optimism for which
we to-day cannot account. The conquest of England seemed
easy to those pioneers. The trumpets had but to be blown,
and the walls of Jericho would collapse, surely enough.
" Clergy and courtiers are not so numerous as they appear,"
Hardy cheerfully remarks in a personal letter to a faint-hearted
1 The Wyvill Papers, Vol. Ill, Appendix, pp. 132-292, contains the
complete history of the Friends of the People.
2 Its original name, as recorded in its first minute book was The
Corresponding Society of the unrepresented part of the People of Great
Britain. Place MSS. 27,811, fo. 2.
c
22 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
editor. 1 The reformers of the old school, Major Cartwright
for example, had on the whole a clear notion of what reform
would mean. But not so the new enthusiasts. The London
Corresponding Society's Addresses and Resolutions (1794)
contains a large instalment of that enticing utopianism which,
in the long run, was to destroy the Chartist movement.
" Numerous as our grievances are, reform one alone and the
others will disappear. What we must have is
An Honest Parliament,
An Annual Parliament,
A Parliament where each individual will have his repre-
sentative.
Soon then we shall see our liberties restored, the press free,
the laws simplified, judges unbiassed, juries independent,
needless places and pensions retrenched, immoderate salaries
reduced, the public better served, and the necessaries of life
more within the reach of the poor." 2 This, as we shall see,
was the type of thing which the movement of fifty years ahead
suffered from, more, perhaps, than any other cause. The
Radicals accepted the constitutional myth so sedulously cher-
ished by Burke and Blackstone, and dressed it up in clothes
of their own fashioning. " Return to us the true English
constitution/' they cried, " and the Golden Age will be with
us again."
Events altered their course when, after the execution of
Louis XVI, war broke out between England and France, on
February i, 1793. Many of the Corresponding Societies had
carried their sympathy with the French Revolution farther
than was to the taste of the authorities. They had corre-
sponded with French societies ; their principal source of
inspiration, the author of The Rights of Man, had had French
citizenship conferred upon him, and had actually been elected
a member of the Convention. The Whig reformers, be it
noted, had gradually withdrawn their sympathy from the
1 Place MSS. 27,814, fo. 187.
8 P. 15-
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 23
Revolutionary cause, until the execution of Louis changed
them to active opponents. But the working-class members
of the L.C.S., numbering certainly not less than 10,000^ had
cut themselves adrift from Whig opinion. Numbers of societies
sprang up in London and the provinces, willing and anxious
to make trouble. Subscriptions were collected for the Jacobin
army, and addresses of congratulation poured in upon the
Convention. 2 The Government began to take action.
On May 21, 1792, a royal proclamation 3 had already been
issued against " seditious practices," " all proceedings tending
to produce riots and tumults," and " seditious writings/ 4 but
no deliberate efforts at repression were made for over a year.
In the meantime the movement among the working class
spread, and, as it grew, it acquired a distinct individuality,
which, allied with its Jacobin sympathies, caused in the end
the L.C.S. to be disowned by the Friends of the People. In
December, 1793, the first severe blow was struck. A " British
Convention " was held in Edinburgh, attended by a hundred
and fifty-three delegates, two of whom, Margaret and Gerrald,
had been sent to represent the L.C.S. The proceedings adopted
a French phraseology, delegates addressed each other as Citizen,
and matters were conducted with a solemnity beside which a
modern Labour Party Congress assumes an almost frivolous
aspect. But " Convention " was now a word that stank in
official noses. Margaret, Gerrald, and three Scotsmen (Muir,
Palmer and Skirving) were arrested and tried for sedition.
The unlucky five were most unfairly treated ; 4 and were
sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay for fourteen
years, with the exception of Palmer, whose sentence was seven
years. But only Margaret, the least reputable of them all,
survived the sentence and returned to his own country. It
seems fairly certain, from the line taken by the prosecution,
that the Government of the day had overestimated the quantity
of revolutionary sentiment, and sincerely believed that it
1 Hardy somewhere asserts that there were 20,000 members.
2 G. S. Veitch, Genesis of Parliamentary Reform, p. 230.
3 Annual Register, 1792, Part 2, p. 192.
4 For a full report of the case, see State Trials, Vol. XXIII.
24 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
might overflow and plunge the nation into confusion. Gerrald
had published a pamphlet in 1793, x in which he had suggested
the formation of a legislative assembly, on the lines of the
French Convention. But the Government, after all, is not
greatly to be blamed for taking the Radicals as seriously as
they took themselves. A few months later Pitt introduced a
Bill to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act. This passed through
both Houses with large majorities. It is specially to be noted
that in the speech introducing the Bill, Pitt referred at great
length to the London Corresponding Society, for whose parti-
cular benefit the measure was intended. He made the extra-
ordinary statement that the Society wished to upset law and
order, property and religion, and generally indicated a belief
in the extreme gravity of the situation.
A few days before the introduction of this Bill, thirteen
members of the London Corresponding Society had been
arrested in London on a charge of high treason. Only three
were eventually brought to trial. These were Thomas Hardy,
Home Tooke, and John Thelwall. The three were tried separ-
ately and all enjoyed the defence of the brilliant Erskine.
Hardy's case came first the report of it covers 1,208 pages
of State Trials. Erskine's cross-examination of some of the
witnesses for the prosecution practically settled the case.
They were forced to admit to such a depth of their own ras-
cality that the jury had no alternative but to return a verdict of
" not guilty. " The case of Home Tooke was far more piquant,
and less voluminous. This man was a philologist on the one
hand, and a champion of fair play on the other, and his life
appears to have been evenly divided between these two pur-
suits. He entered upon a stormy political career by embracing
the cause of Wilkes thirty years previous to the trial of which
we are speaking. He had founded the Constitutional Society
in 1771, to uphold the rights of Wilkes and the American colo-
nists. He had served two sentences of imprisonment in
connexion with his political activities. Now, in the dock,
after Erskine had once more rent to pieces the characters of
some of the witnesses for the prosecution, Tooke asked the
1 A Convention the Only Means of Saving Us from Ruin.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 25
embarrassed Prime Minister, cited as a witness, " whether or
no he had been present, with the prisoner himself, at a meeting
at the Thatched House Tavern in 1780, which was a ' Conven-
tion of delegates from great towns and counties of England,
. . . with the object of animating the people to meet in dis-
tricts and petition Parliament for a reform.' Pitt awkwardly
responded to his shrewd questioner that ' he had no distinct
recollection of the composition of the meeting/ " x And Tooke
was found " not guilty."
Lastly came the trial of Thelwall. This man was a type
altogether different from either Hardy or Tooke, although the
latter had so far recognized his abilities as to have offered his
help to Thelwall on several occasions. He became a peripa-
tetic lecturer who preached the extremest Radicalism, and
delighted in clothing his sentiments in parables. He thus
secured the applause of audiences keenly alert for the concealed
sting, while the police officers always in attendance at his
lectures listened in vain for an indisputably seditious phrase.
He had the gifts of the mob-orator to an altogether exceptional
extent. In writing to his wife he says : " Two lectures in
particular . . . have shaken the pillars of corruption till every
stone of the rotten edifice trembled. Every sentence darted
from breast to breast with electric contagion, and the very
aristocrats themselves numbers of whom throng to hear me
were frequently compelled by irresistible impulse to join in
the acclamations, however they disliked the doctrine." 2 He
had gone farther than his fellow-prisoners. His sentiments
may have been the same as theirs, but his allusions not in
the best of taste to George III and the desirability of his
removal from this earth were entirely his own. But the
witnesses for the prosecution had been discredited, Erskine
was as convincing as before, and, for the third time, the jury
returned a verdict of " not guilty." The incendiary powers of
Thelwall thus received an enormous advertisement, of which
he fully availed himself for three or four years. He then
dropped politics and taught elocution.
1 C. Cestre, John Thelwall, p. 109.
2 Life of John Thelwall, 1837, P- 3^7-
26 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
The effect of these trials was, in the first place, to direct the
attention of the country to the Radical movement. The London
Corresponding Society enjoyed an unprecedented accession of
members, Francis Place amongst them. In the second place,
the movement was made to appear as supplying the only
possible escape from the apparent economic impasse into
which the revolutionary war had already led the country.
The year 1795 was one of the most trying in the history of
England. It was during this year that the extraordinary
distress among agricultural labourers found a solution that
was no solution in the " Speenhamland Act of Parliament,"
which brought almost the whole population of the South of
England on the rates within the next thirty years. Enclosures
were also beginning their dislocation of village life. High
prices of food prevailed 1 the invariable concomitant of work-
ing-class unrest. When George III went to the House of
Lords to open Parliament on October 29, he was hooted the
whole way from Buckingham House and back again. The
mob was so dense as actually to impede the progress of the
state coach. The cries raised were, " Bread ! Peace ! " and
one man was taken up for shouting, " No King." 2 The
struggle between the Government and the Radicals was
distinctly embittered as a result of these events. 3 The fight
on the Radical side was concentrated on the London Corre-
sponding Society, for the Friends of the People evaporated in
1795, and the Society for Constitutional Information melted
away rather than face prosecution. A few great meetings
were held by the L.C.S., which insisted on demonstrating its
growing vitality. Pitt passed the " Two Acts," which ex-
tended the definition of treasonable practices, and placed
obstacles in the way of public meetings. There is no doubt
that he, and the Government generally, had been really
frightened by what appeared to them to be preparations
1 According to the Annual Register for 1795, prices had been rising
steadily during the preceding ten years, and were now at a record.
2 Annual Register, 1795, p. 38.
3 See William Pitt and the Great War, by Dr. Holland Rose, pp.
282-285.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 27
for an armed rising. The L.C.S. adroitly reconstituted itself
to escape the penalties prescribed by the new Acts. A comic
interlude is supplied by the Reeves affair the one event of
1795 at which the reformers could afford to laugh. John
Reeves was a worthy civil servant who founded and became
chairman of a comic opera Association for preserving Liberty
and Property against Levellers and Republicans. This was
all very well, but Reeves allowed his enthusiasm to make him
plus royaliste que le roi. He published an anonymous pamphlet,
Thoughts on the English Government, which was so royaliste
as to suggest the superfluousness of Parliament, all authority
resting with the King. The House of Commons regarded this
as a breach of privilege, and, praying in an undertone for
deliverance from its friends, caused Reeves to be tried for
libel. He was not convicted, however ; the jury applauded
his motive and forgave his indiscretion. But the whole case
must have been an immense source of delight to the Radicals. *
The events of the year led the L.C.S. to issue, on November 23,
An Explicit Declaration of the Principles and Views of the
London Corresponding Society.* This document is of special
interest, as showing both the theoretical position of the Radicals
and the direction into which persecution was already beginning
to force the movement. " In their ideas of equality, they
have never included (nor, till the associations of alarmists
broached the frantic notion, could they ever have conceived
so wild and detestable a sentiment could have entered the
brain of man) the equalization of property, or the invasion
of personal rights and possessions. This levelling system they
know, and all rational men must immediately perceive, to
be equally unjust and impracticable/' Having thus obliquely
dealt with Reeves, the manifesto proceeds : " Peaceful reform,
and not tumultuary revolt, is their object ; and they trust
to the good sense and candour of the nation that something
more than vague accusations and interested calumny will be
expected to discredit their protestation that They abhor alike
1 The Reeves affair was debated in the Commons from November 23
to December 15.
2 Place MSS. 27,815.
28 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
the FANATICAL ENTHUSIASM that would plunge into a sea of
anarchy in quest of speculative theories, and the Villainous Hypo-
crisy that would destroy the very essence of existing institutions,
under pretence of preserving them from destruction ! / / " Here
the existence of " Fanatical Enthusiasm " is at any rate
admitted. But, such as it was, it was certainly not fomented
by the Committee of the L.C.S. In 1796, their principal
action was the sending out of two missionaries to address
meetings (limited now by Pitt's " Two Acts " to audiences not
exceeding forty-nine) up and down the country. John Gale
Jones and John Binns both did much this year to strengthen
the provincial Corresponding Societies ; both men were
arrested in Birmingham, but when, after a long delay, they
were brought to trial, one was acquitted and the Court released
the other after he had been found guilty. This year and the
next efforts appear to have been made by the L.C.S. to obtain
the sympathy of the army and navy. But the evidence is
inconclusive ; it is tolerably certain that both services were
growing heartily sick of the war, and were consequently becom-
ing disaffected, especially in Scotland. It also appears from
recent research that the naval mutinies of 1797, off Spithead
and the Nore, were spontaneous ; and not, as was believed,
encouraged by the L.C.S. But no unqualified assertion is
possible. The Government about this time began to discover
" plots." We cannot take the evidence in support of their
existence very seriously. Pikes and battle-axes were found
in the houses of suspected persons, and were regarded as
proof positive of preparations for an attempt at armed insur-
rection. The conquest of Britain with a handful of battle-
axes may be dismissed as a notion that would appeal to a
hero of a novel by Mr. G. K. Chesterton, rather than to any
conspirator in possession of his senses. But, little by little,
the London Corresponding Society was beaten down. In 1797
a number of its more thoughtful members left it in protest
against the Committee's decision to hold meetings in defiance
of the law. * The secretarial work was conducted incapably.
Funds were low. On April 19, 1798, the Committee or
1 Place MSS. 27,808 and 27,815.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 29
what remained of it was arrested en masse, and the Society
may be said to have come to its end. Not until 1801 were
the prisoners released. By that time O'Coigley, an Irish priest,
who had attempted to reanimate the dead bones of the Society,
had been hanged for treason, and the L.C.S. was all but
forgotten. " The close of the eighteenth century marks an
epoch in the history of the Radicals. They were then at their
nadir of depression." 1 The Combination Acts of 1799,
amended in 1800, were further blows struck at political organi-
zation in general. Although the Combination Acts were in-
tended to suppress trade unions and working-class associations
in particular, yet in general they extended to all combinations
whatsoever. The intention, however, was revealed in the
administration of the Acts. During the whole epoch of
repression, whilst thousands of journeymen suffered for the
crime of combination, there is absolutely no case on record
in which an employer was punished for the same offence/' 2
With the turn of the century the whole movement changes.
Francis Place, the greatest organizer English democracy has
ever known, had retired from public life after the closing up
of the London Corresponding Society. He did not emerge
from his tailor's shop in Charing Cross at all between 1800 and
1805, but stuck to his business and built up that material
security which was later to enable him to give up his whole
energies to the movement. Major Cartwright, almost alone
of the first radical generation , kept the old flag flying. He
was now over sixty years of age, and as active and as hopeful
as ever. But his propaganda, as in former years, was confined
to the upper and middle classes. His niece illustrates his
activities and the responses they earned. " In the month
of October (1805) Major Cartwright wrote to the Dukes of
Norfolk, Northumberland, Bedford, to Lord Dundas, to the
Earls of St. Vincent and Stanhope, to Messrs. Grey, Fox, etc.,
etc., urging the necessity of calling another meeting of the
county of Middlesex ! 3 From most of these distinguished
1 C. B. R. Kent, The English Radicals, p. 157.
2 Sidney and Beatrice Webb, History of Trade Unionism, p. 64.
3 I.e., the freeholders of the county.
30 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
persons he received very flattering replies, but they seemed
generally to have adopted an opinion that it was not the time
to agitate the question, and Mr. Fox in particular observed,
that ' to stir it at that time would not only be highly prejudicial
to the interests of reform itself, but to every other measure
that could be taken for the general good, in this critical and
disastrous state of public affairs/ ' Then follows the pathetic
comment, "It is a little remarkable, that during so long a
life as that of Major Cartwright, he never, in the opinion
of some persons, found out the happy moment for agitating
a question which they acknowledged to be of the highest
importance, and that whenever he proposed any public measure,
the country should be either in a state too apathetic and
prosperous, or else too critical and disastrous." 1
A figure curiously characteristic of these disheartening times
is that of Thomas Spence (1750-1814). This man was the
author of a scheme of land nationalization and social reform,
the diffusion and acceptance of which, in view of its crudeness,
is a valuable illustration of that strange combination of mental
receptivity and uncritical outlook that was the bane of so
many of the Radical reformers. Spence wished the inhabitants
of each parish to be a corporation in whom the land should be
vested, while his scheme of social reform embraced a five-day
week. About 1780 he came to London from his native New-
castle and opened a bookstall, at which, however, the principal
commodity sold was saloop. This appears to have been a
sassafras tea, considered a sovereign remedy for drunkenness.
The books sold were frequently " seditious," and Spence was
imprisoned for a few months in 1794, and for a year in 1801.
It is curious to note that Spence invented a simplified spelling
system, on phonetic principles. But as he had a Newcastle
accent, the scheme was promptly disqualified. 2 Two years
1 Life of Major Cartwright, p. 327.
2 Attempting to improve the English language appears to have been
the recognized hobby of the early Radicals. Thelwall tried to write
poetry without the use of sibilants ; Home Tooke was, of course, a
philologist of some distinction and Burdett was his pupil. Cobbett
wrote an English Grammar, etc.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 31
after his death, evidence as to the widespread currency of
his views was furnished by the formation of the Society of
Spencean Philanthropists, which had several branches in
London. The period was one of inquiry, and in the country
of the blind, the one-eyed are leaders.
A far more exhilarating personality is that of William Cobbett
(1762-1835), who returned to England from America in 1800,
preceded by a strong Tory reputation. The same year he
started The Porcupine, a daily paper with anti-republican,
anti-Gallican, and anti-reform politics. The views expressed
in the paper were extreme ; it stood practically alone among
the opposition periodicals in deriding tfye Peace of Amiens,
which gave the country a moment's breathing-space. For
which reason Cobbett 's house was mobbed, and publication
was suspended. When resumed the paper soon had to be
dropped. " He who has been the proprietor of a daily paper
for only one month wants no Romish priest to describe to him
the torments of purgatory/' 1 said Cobbett, whose talent for
locating wasps' nests was not compensated by any power of
destroying them. Then, curiously enough, the views of
this sturdy bull-like publicist began to undergo a change.
From 1802 to 1835 he edited the Political Register, which, always
independent, veered gradually from an almost entirely negative
to an advanced reformist standpoint. After 1806, Cobbett
is perhaps the most influential exponent of the popular demand.
Between 1800 and 1806 the reform movement, with the
exceptions we have named, was all but inarticulate. Among
the people the coercive measures of Pitt's Government had
suppressed the outward signs of Radicalism. Industrial
conditions were such as to leave little room for hope in the
minds of the most ardent reformers. The price of provisions
had doubled between 1783 and 1803, and the poor rates had
more than doubled within the same period. 2 Every now and
again the police were alarmed at the possible consequences of
a popular demonstration against high prices ; the French
1 Quoted in William Cobbett, a Biography. By Edward Smith.
Vol. I, p. 278.
2 Wm. Smart, Economic Annals of the Nineteenth Century, pp. 94, 95.
32 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Revolution was still recent enough to make any popular
outbreak appear an embryonic national catastrophe. On
December 3, 1800, a royal proclamation exhorted the public
to exercise the utmost care in the use and consumption of
grain of all kinds. At the end of 1802, the Despard conspiracy,
with its chimerical projects for seizing the reins of government,
showed the extent of the terror that was beginning to brood
over the country. Not until the Napoleonic spectre had been
finally disposed of did the reform movement find the necessary
psychological atmosphere for a successful fruition. The period
provides a unique quantity of material to the student of
psychology who would attempt an estimate of the dependence
of belief upon terror, for there is no doubt that many of the
most fundamental tenets of the ruling class underwent an
essential transformation by the fear of a revolution. The
accentuated cleavage between the ruling and the ruled classes
has been observed and described * But perhaps the most
significant fact illustrating the new relationship is that the
ancient virtue of working-class thrift was discouraged in many
quarters, lest more power be added to the labourers. 2
During such a period, where all was incoherence, there is
no simple series of finger-posts to guide the direction taken
by the reform movement. Certain general tendencies are
all that can be noted ; there is little to be gained by drawing
a chart of the sporadic outbreaks that may or may not have
been connected with the reform agitation. The first fact that
is to be borne in mind is that the burden of life was pressing
with ever-growing intensity upon the working classes. 3 This
was the cause of a restlessness that, inchoate and at first
undirected, found expression at the start in a long series of
riots, and later in the reform movement. The internal history
of England, from 1795 to 1832, is virtually a long tale of riots,
the objects of which were diffused in the beginning among a
whole array of grievances, and later came to be concentrated
1 Especially well in The Village Labourer 1776-1832, by J. L. and
Barbara Hammond.
2 B. Kirkman Gray, A History of English Philanthropy, p. 256.
3 In 1812 the price of wheat per quarter rose to 6 IDS. and upwards.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 33
upon parliamentary reform. The following quotation conveys
an idea of the diversity of the irritants and the area of dis-
turbance in 1815 and 1816 alone : "In London and West-
minster riots ensued, and were continued for several days
whilst the (Corn) Bill was discussed ; at Bridport, there were
riots on account of the high price of bread ; at Bideford, there
were similar disturbances to prevent the exportation of grain ;
at Bury, by the unemployed, to destroy machinery ; at Ely,
not suppressed without bloodshed ; at Newcastle-on-Tyne, by
colliers and others ; at Glasgow, where blood was shed ; at
Preston, by unemployed weavers ; at Nottingham, by Luddites,
who destroyed thirty frames ; at Merthyr Tydvil, on a reduc-
tion of wages ; at Birmingham, by the unemployed ; and at
Dundee, where, owing to the high price of meal, upwards of
one hundred shops were plundered." * Elsewhere the enclosure
movement 2 and municipal corruption 3 were also responsible
for riots. It became a capital offence to preach reform to a
soldier or to smash a frame. The cure for all these things, in
the eyes of working-class leaders, was reform, and by degrees
they managed to convert a large number of their followers.
" Quoting scripture, we did in fact say, first obtain annual
parliaments and universal suffrage, and ' all these things
shall be added unto you.' " 4 Thus Bamford, who was at
one time a sort of link between the middle-class body of re-
formers Cobbett, Cartwright, Hunt, etc. and the trades
clubs, where annual parliaments and universal suffrage were
discussed in an atmosphere of beer and cheap tobacco. Bam-
ford (1788-1872) lived to be a patriarch of the labour move-
ment, acquiring a prestige entirely unaccountable on any
theory of deserts.
A chapter of the reform agitation that should not be over-
looked is the peculiar series of election campaigns which took
place in Westminster between 1807 and 1815. This enabled
1 Samuel Bamford, Passages in the Life of a Radical, Vol. II, p. n.
8 J. L. and B. Hammond, The Village Labourer.
3 S. and B. Webb, English Local Government, Vols. II and III.
The Manor and the Borough.
Passages in the Life of a Radical, Vol. II, p. 14.
34 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Francis Place to make his reputation as an organizer of victory,
by securing the return of Sir Francis Burdett for the consti-
tuency. Burdett was a pugnacious Whig with much wealth 1
and high principles. 2 He had to undergo a large number of
prosecutions in the course of his long parliamentary career
(1796-1844). But it has rightly been said of him, that, after
the repressive measures of the early years of Radicalism, it
was he who restored the right of free speech.
A middle-class movement with working-class ramifications
that was to achieve a great deal was the Hampden Club, which
came into being on April 20, 1812. British political move-
ments, we may note, appear generally to select a tavern for
their birthplaces. The Thatched House Tavern fathered this
one. The first Hampden Club was brought into existence
through the energies of the inexhaustible Major Cartwright,
although, as his niece tells us, he left at once on hearing that
certain influential persons were refraining from membership
because he himself was a member. The original papers of
this Society show unmistakably that its prime object was
purely to benefit the freeholding class. 3 The original Rules
and Regulations made one of the qualifications for membership
300 a year in land, or heirship to as much ; there were to be
half-yearly dinners ; and the annual subscription was fixed
at 2. The statement of principles made the wonted reference
to King Alfred. The work of the Club consisted in organizing
and financing missionary tours through the country, to get
petitions sent to Parliament. Cartwright, though not a
member, also undertook distant journeys with the same pur-
pose. More popular Hampden Clubs were opened on the
model of the original.
The Annual Register for 1816 is largely a list of riots. The
best known of these was the Spa Fields meeting on December 2,
1 He had married Miss Coutts, whose name will be sufficient.
* See Graham Wallas, Life of Francis Place, chap, ii, " Westminster
Politics."
3 The British Museum contains a number of these papers in volume
form, as presented by Thomas Cleary, the first secretary, to Joseph
Hume in 1854.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 35
noteworthy because it seems to have been the first deliberate
effort of the Whig reformers to obtain the support of the work-
ing classes. It was addressed by Hunt, 1 Cartwright, and an
inflammatory doctor named Watson, and his son. The mili-
tary and the police assembled in large numbers, whereupon
the meeting dispersed into small gangs, which spent the night
in terrifying the City. 2 Another such fiasco in the early part
of 1817 was followed by a second suspension of Habeas Corpus.
Incidentally the Seditious Meetings Act was hurried through
both Houses, and made all public meetings and most lectures
illegal. This measure, introduced by Castlereagh, stiffened
up all the preceding legislation of repression, but, in the end,
overreached itself by its severity. However, the danger of
being known to be a Radical became so great that Cobbett
promptly fled to America. But when the Act came to be
put into operation, the patent vindictiveness of some of the
prosecutions, no less than the calibre of one of the accused,
resulted in a temporary reaction against the Government. 3
A climax was reached in 1819. During the early months of
this year numerous mass meetings were held all over the
country, especially in Lancashire and the Midlands. The
crowds present were frequently very large ; one meeting near
Leeds is said to have been attended by 35,000 persons. We
have the authority of the Annual Register whose bias at this
time was distinctly Tory for the somewhat striking statement,
in view of the line taken by the Government, that : " Not the
slightest breach of the peace occurred on any of these occasions,
for the leaders were strenuous in their exhortations to the
people to preserve an inoffensive demeanour. " 4 A meeting was
organized to take place at St. Peter's Fields, Manchester, on
August 1 6, with Hunt in the chair. The magistrates decided
to prohibit the meeting, then, finding this impossible, to arrest
the speakers. Large numbers of soldiers and special con-
1 Late parliamentary candidate for Bristol ; later M.P. for Preston.
2 Annual Register, 1816, p. 190.
3 Lord Ellenborough, Lord Chief Justice, resigned in disgust at the
triple acquittal of Hone, who was tried for " seditious libel."
4 Annual Register, 1819, p. 103.
36 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
stables were assembled, and made virtually to surround the
place of meeting. No sooner had Hunt stepped to the front
of the hustings than the military began to clear the square.
Although it is improbable that bloodshed had been intended
from the outset, yet the soldiers, as usual on such occasions,
got out of control. Five or six lives were immediately lost,
some thirty persons were seriously wounded, while at least
forty others required medical assistance for their injuries.
Hunt was arrested with some others ; Bamford, who had
been present, was also taken up, a week later. After much
delay Hunt was sentenced to two years' and Bamford to one
year's imprisonment. The principal outcome of the " Manches-
ter Massacre," or of " Peterloo," as the affair came to be called,
was that reformers of all shades of opinion coalesced into an
unanalysable conglomerate. Whig Radicals, 1 incipient Char-
tists, Socialists, Spenceans, and the most Utopian of dreamers
were forced into association, from the sheer necessity of self-
defence. To this day traces remain of the cohabitation of
Socialist and Chartist. Adult suffrage, an invariable item of
Socialist programmes, obviously proceeds from the time when
franchise and freedom were held to be synonymous. In point
of fact, it is fairly certain that Socialism would stand to gain
less from the granting of adult suffrage than the other political
parties.
About 1818 the woman suffrage movement appears to have
first taken root. At a small reform meeting in Yorkshire,
addressed by Bamford, the women present were invited, on
his initiative, to take part in the vote on the resolution. The
men present made no objection, and the women were much
pleased with the suggestion. After this, the participation of
women in votes, and even in discussions, became general. 2
Although Bentham, the " Grand Old Man " of Philosophic
Radicalism, was a supporter of woman suffrage, Cobbett
1 Strictly speaking, the term Radicals only came into general use
about this time. See Harriet Martineau, History of the Peace, Vol. I,
p. 292.
2 Bamford, Passages, Vol. II, p. 141.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 37
violently dissented. 1 But the most startling development of
this side of the reform movement is that which the Annual
Register for 1819 describes, with bated breath, as follows : 2
" An entirety novel and truly portentous circumstance was the
formation of a Female Reform Society at Blackburn, near
Manchester, from which circular letters were issued, inviting
the wives and daughters of workmen in different branches of
manufacture to form sister societies, for the purpose of co-
operating with the men, and of instilling into the minds of
their children ' a deep-rooted hatred of our tyrannical rulers.'
A deputation from this society attended the Blackburn reform
meeting, and, mounting the scaffold, presented a cap of liberty
and an address to the assembly. The example of these females
was successfully recommended to imitation by the orators of
other meetings."
In terror at the possibilities of an operative Habeas Corpus
Act, 8 Sidmouth, then Secretary of State for Home Affairs,
rushed the Six Acts through Parliament in the autumn of
1819. At no other time have Englishmen ever been deprived
of so many of their privileges. The possession of arms, and
military training were both interdicted. Public meetings were
only to be held subject to extremely difficult conditions, until
1824. Seditious libels could be punished by banishment, a
stamp duty was imposed upon small pamphlets, and powers of
summary judgment were given to magistrates. The discovery
of the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820, the object of which was
the assassination of George IV, only a few months after his
accession, and the execution of Thistlewood, the chief conspira-
tor, embittered the situation still more, as Thistlewood was
well known as a Spencean and the organizer of the Spa Fields
demonstration in 1816. About the same time the authorities
were frightened by the reports of attempts to force a revolu-
tion, which had been taking place in Scotland. Something
like a pitched battle took place at Bonnymuir, between cavalry
and Radicals, ending in the capture of several alleged conspira-
1 Martineau, History of the Peace, Vol. I, p. 264.
a P. 104.
8 The Act had come back into operation in 1818.
D
38 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
tors and the execution of three of them. Before we pass on
to another subject it may be added that at the end of 1819
Cobbett had returned to England, to continue his campaign.
Incidentally he had, at the time, added enormously to the
gaiety of nations by bringing back with him the bones of
Thomas Paine. Cobbett would have given sepulture on a
national scale to the corpse, but everybody refused to take
him seriously, and Paine's relatives themselves professed to be
annoyed.
The reform movement after 1820, as far as the working
classes were concerned, sank underground for a time. Cobbett
continued to influence his readers to an extent which has been
equalled by few subsequent journalists. The greatest event
between the years of suppression and the passing of the Reform
Act was the repeal of the Combination Laws in 1825. The
credit for this is very largely due to Place. He played his
moves with the deadly accuracy of a champion chess player
who meets a novice, and with the assistance of Joseph Hume
and a handful (a small one) of M.P.'s this revolutionary measure
was carried. Combinations of workmen were now permitted,
and the right of collective bargaining was recognized. The
story of the way in which the strings were pulled is contained
in the Place MSS. in the British Museum. 1 This measure, the
increasing prosperity of the country, and the prominence given
to reform by Whig Members of Parliament, together took the
edge off the working-class agitation. And it remained off.
As 1832 drew closer it was the middle-class campaign that
stimulated the working-class agitation back into life. The
Annual Register from 1825 to 1831 mentions no serious insur-
rectionary outbreaks. The economic justification of such
movements had receded from its former prominence. The
working classes looked with approval and admiration upon the
conduct of the struggle in Parliament by Lord John Russell,
Brougham, Hume, and others. Not until the Reform Bill
was very nearly an accomplished fact do we once more have
signs of organized working-class participation in the reform
movement. And that is so largely due to the influence of a
1 No. 27,798.
THE EARLY RADICAL MOVEMENT 39
new generation that we may defer the consideration of this
new factor until the next chapter, which will, in effect, largely
deal with the new doctrines.
There is no need to describe the final victory of the middle-
class Radical reformers. The Reform Act of 1832 is, of course,
a landmark of the first importance, but the details of its passing
do not concern us here. The tactics, the excitements, the
failures of 1830-32, the studied histrionics of Brougham, and
the ineffectual opposition of Wellington, have little immediate
relation to the working-class movement which is our subject.
The generation that had achieved the Reform Act differed
entirely in its personnel from the pioneers who had struggled
for the suffrage in the years immediately following the French
Revolution. Thomas Hardy, the secretary of the London
Corresponding Society, just lived to see the Reform Act carried,
and died four months afterwards, aged 'eighty years. Cart-
wright had also passed away in 1824, aged eighty-four. Only
three years before his death the indomitable old man had
managed to get himself fined 100 for sedition. The working
life of Bentham, the philosopher of the movement, exactly
coincides with the agitation. He had published his first book
in 1776 ; he died two days after the Reform Act had been
carried through the House of Lords, and on the eve of the
Royal Assent.
An older generation had led men's attention to certain theo-
ries of government ; economic distress had emphasized their
teachings. Born of the industrial revolution, a new type of
man was arising who was to attempt to put the theories into
practice. Chief among them was Robert Owen.
CHAPTER H
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD
WE have seen that Labour, scarcely organized, had at
this time a political programme too heterogeneous
to be practicable, an inchoate mass of aspirations, and was
at the same time faced by the triumphant philosophy of the
successful middle classes, the laissez faire-creed, to which the
answer was not yet understood. Consequently personalities
came to matter more than theories. They at any rate provided
something tangible even if inconsistent.
It would be useless to attempt to understand the history
of this period without taking into account the life and ideas
of Robert Owen. Although he was not directly concerned
with the Chartist movement, yet Owen's views were a perma-
nent feature in the background of industrial politics for many
years after his death. He always held a patriarchal position :
a " thing to wonder and admire." He was born in 1771,
began to earn his living at an extremely early age, exercised
his intelligence, and by the time he was nineteen years of age
found himself in charge of a cotton mill employing five hundred
persons. Improvements suggested by him enormously in-
creased the output of his firm, then he went into business on
his own account, and by 1800 he had become principal partner
and manager of mills at New Lanark. Here he proceeded to
put into practice his theories of education and management,
although it was not until 1814 that he had bought out the
other partners and could do what he liked. He established
infant schools, reduced hours of labour and succeeded in greatly
strengthening the financial position of his business. By 1824
40
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 41
he had left New Lanark to give full play to his theories. In a
vague sort of way Owen had anticipated most if not all of the
theories which have been under discussion since his time. But
so far as political economy was concerned, Owen was entirely
uneducated. His views were of the crudest. He believed
that labour was the standard of value and made a local effort
to supersede currency by paper ' ' labour notes. He attempted
to found self-supporting communities in Scotland and the United
States, and reaped the inevitable failure which comes to those
who try to bring Socialism about by private enterprise. The
peculiarity of many of his views he was antipathetic to all
religion and privately believed that marriage was an unnecessary
institution caused him to quarrel time and again with those
who were most inclined to aid him in his schemes. Yet with
all his theoretical crudities and practical failures, he succeeded
in influencing the Socialist and Co-operative movements as
no other man has done. He was on the whole inclined to
deprecate the value of political action ; hence he was not
directly connected with Chartism. His peculiar glory lies
in two things : first, he upset the theory of laissez-faire by
making a fortune under conditions the reverse of those advo-
cated by the philosophers of that unholy doctrine ; in the
second place, he produced a body of ideas, which came to
be superseded, it is true, but which nevertheless gave people
a clue to the future of working-class movements at a time
when such a clue was badly needed. 1
An illustration of the material bent of Owen's theories is
afforded by his cordial reception of phrenology. " There can
be no doubt whatever that Phrenology is founded in fact :
the functions and manifestations are truly found in present
society to the extent represented ; the question, however, is,
how we came by them, and whether with or without the know-
ledge of Phrenology it is not practicable so to train human
beings from infancy upwards, that in all the ordinary instances
of organization they shall become highly intelligent and greatly
conducive to their own and to others' happiness ? The Phreno-
1 There are two excellent books on Owen : Life and Labours of Robert
Owen by Lloyd Jones, and Robert Owen by Frank Podmore.
42 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
legists probably will not dispute this, but may insist further
that their science will make such result the more certain,
forasmuch as they bring into operation additional facts to
assist the development when weak, and to correct where it
is most liable to deviation." 1 These sentiments are, of course,
only those to be expected of a paper which bore on its title-
page the motto " The character of man is formed for him
not by him."
At New Lanark Owen had been brilliantly successful. He
had anticipated in experiment what is being done in our own
day. He made New Lanark a kind of Bourneville under
infinitely more difficult conditions than those which Messrs.
Cadbury had to overcome. His educational schemes have a
touch of the Montessori Method, and we have not yet caught up
with his views on the treatment of crime. Between Owen's ex-
periments and his theories a sharp line draws itself. Owen saw
the world as a larger New Lanark, to be managed on much
the same lines. His ideas ran away with him. He insisted
that " circumstances " or what we now call environment
determined everything in the life of the individual, and that
it was therefore impossible for improvement to come as the
gradual outcome of individual efforts. In other words, the
method of political democracy was not likely to give results
as efficacious as those of informed and benevolent autocracy.
Perhaps this needs a little qualification. The force of " cir-
cumstances " could be altered by education, and Owen never
ceased to persuade all with whom he came in contact to adopt
some system of education. The pages of the numerous periodi-
cals conducted by Owen are full of the need for universal and
free education.
The early Radicals made occasional endeavours to gain
the support of Owen. But his aloofness from working-class
politics was unconquerable. He was by nature an autocrat,
longing to impose a system upon the world, and not in the
least anxious that the world at large should have the oppor-
tunity of examining it before its wholesale imposition. He
regarded the middle and governing classes as his most natural
1 New Moral World for August 13, 1836, p. 335.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 43
audiences. The annual subscription to the Institution in the
Gray's Inn Road was a guinea and upwards, well above what
a working man would be likely to pay. 1 This criticism is
contained in a few tactful phrases in a letter to Owen from
Bronterre O'Brien, dated May 27, 1832, begging him to use
his influence to stimulate working-c'ass opinion in London in
favour of the Reform Bill. The letter goes : " To you who
know human nature so well, and whose writings afford abundant
evidence that you are as well conversant with the nature of
existing governments, I need not say that these governments
have ultimately no other basis of support than public opinion.
Be they ever so complicated or simple, be they monarchical
or Republican, they stand or fall, move retrograde or forward,
solely in obedience to Public Opinion. It is therefore of
vital importance to gather up this Public Opinion, to concen-
trate it on the social system and make it bear irresistibly on
the government, by the weight, unity of direction and simul-
taneous action of all its parts. With this view I respectfully
suggest that the Association in Gray's Inn Road should be
made of a more popular character. I would in fact recommend
you to . . ." 2
It need hardly be said that the writer's suggestions for the
democratization of Owen's Institution were not attended to.
Owen would almost certainly have refused to accept the theory
that Public Opinion greatly mattered. He considered it Ms
mission to change rather than to convert, to mould the public
and let its Opinion look after itself.
The word Socialism, as far as can be ascertained, originated
in 1837, an d was used as label for the whole bulk of Owen's
theories. His followers annexed the use of the word Socialists
to themselves, in contradistinction to the believers in political
reform, especially of the franchise, who had long been known
as Radicals* The two sections soon began to show signs of
1 Podmore, Life of Robert Owen, Vol. II, p. 426.
2 Ib., quoted from letter in Manchester collection.
3 It is important to remember that the words Radical and Socialist
were not invented in order to make such a contradistinction. The first
use of the word Socialist in the English language appears to be in a
44 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
divergence, although to the outside world Radicals were Social-
ists, and Socialists were Chartists for many years to come.
A leading article in Owen's New Moral World l declares that
the Radicals blame the Socialists for not exerting themselves
in obtaining universal suffrage, etc., as a part of the objects
they have in view, or a step towards the realization of these
objects. But, " when the Socialists know that the whole
jar of sweetmeats could more easily be obtained, by persever-
ance in their measures, than a few of the sweetmeats could
be wrung from the grasp of enemies of freedom, by the pro-
ceedings of the Chartists when they knew that the whole
journey can be accomplished, with far less time and fatigue,
by the superior roads they propose, than by the obstacle-
encumbered roads to universal suffrage knowing this, would
it be wise in them to consume in pursuit of the fraction, more
time and energies than would suffice to place them in possession
of the whole ? We say, without fear of refutation, that, if
the individuals who are now straining every nerve in the
righteous cause of giving to the working classes those rights
and privileges which have so long been most unjustly withheld
from them were to apply their zeal and energies to the
establishment of Union among the workng classes them-
selves with the co-operation of the numerous bodies from
the other classes who are willing to make common cause with
them for the purpose of establishing communities they possess
amply sufficient of talent and influence to secure the accom-
plishment of that great object ; and by so doing, to obtain at
once far more than all the advantages which they are now
struggling for, by more difficult and circuitous proceedings."
Owen, in fact, believed in the possibility of changing the
whole composition of human society and the abolition of every
signature to a letter in The Poor Man's Guardian, August 24, 1833 ;
it appears to have been in use in France a year or two earlier. Radical
is some years older. The earliest example of its use, supplied by the
New English Dictionary, is from an article in the Morning Post, June 17,
1809; and there is another somewhat unsatisfactory reference to its
employment in 1802.
1 March 2, 1839.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 45
human evil at a single stroke. The two-and-a-Jialf sentences
quoted above, however, contain a promise to the Radicals.
For Owen's invincible optimism and his faith in the ready
malleability of humanity communicated itself even to his
opponents. If the " whole jar of sweetmeats " was to be
obtainable virtually for the asking, not all his ponderous
eloquence could make a Chartist believe that one particular
sweetmeat could not be had. Owen's unfaith in political
evolution as we now regard the idea made him regard the
creation of political societies much as his contemporaries
regarded the creation of the animal world. A society, like
an elephant, entered the world as the outcome of an order
given by a higher authority. The idea of time as a factor
necessary for the stability of political changes had not yet
been formed. Just as Plato was quite prepared for the accept-
ance of the constitution of his Republic by any State, so
Owen readily believed that the transition from the " Old
Immoral World " to the " New Moral World " would be a
mere shifting of scenery between the acts of a drama. The
Chartists shared his absence of a sense of time, probably
acquiring the mental characteristic subconsciously from Owen.
This explains their keenness, their faith in the vast and radical
changes to be instantly effected by universal suffrage, and
their willingness to sacrifice themselves for its achievement.
And because their belief in the instant and permanent change-
ability from one state of civilization to a very different one
was implicit and nor brought out and argued about, it was
tacitly accepted by the enemies of Chartism and embittered
their opposition.
About the time of the Reform Act, Owen's life was being
spent mainly in the delivery of interminable addresses on what
he called Co-operation, a theory bearing a distant relation,
which we need not stop to examine, with the practice of the
co-operative movement of to-day. These lectures attracted
to themselves all the young men in whose minds ideas of social
and political betterment were beginning to arise. These
came, listened, met one another, found congenial spirits, and
substituted for their attention to Owen's theories the founda-
46 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
tion of their own. One little group of young men who had been
brought together by an interest in Owen's lectures became,
as we shall see, the intellectual centre of the Chartist movement.
Their names were Lovett, Hetherington, Cleave, Watson, and
a young man named Richard Moore. They came together
from all ends of England, attracted to London and to one
another through a variety of reasons.
Some time in the second decade of the eighteenth century
a young man named Richard Carlile had come up to London
from his native village in Devonshire, and earned his living
as a tinman. Extreme radicalism and atheism soon claimed
him for their own. Carlile began to sell unstamped periodicals
and to publish anti-Christian works. This, in 1817, cost him
eighteen weeks' imprisonment ; and in 1819 he was sentenced
to three years' imprisonment and a fine of 1,500. As he
was unable to pay this amount, Carlile remained in prison
until 1825. His publications, his works composed in his
cell, and the report of his three days' trial, gained him a wide-
spread popularity, and the sympathy of innumerable persons
who had never even seen him. During his second incarceration
his business was carried on by his wife and sister. In 1821
the Government, after a period of quietness, took up the pro-
secution of blasphemy with greater vigour than ever. Carlile,
fearing that his business would now certainly succumb, called
for volunteers to serve in the bookshop. The first to sacrifice
himself in this manner was promptly arrested and sentenced
to eighteen months' imprisonment. The second volunteer
was James Watson, a young man of twenty-three. A few
months afterwards he was arrested and sentenced to one
year's imprisonment, during which he read prodigiously, Soon
after his release he returned to Carlile's shop, and managed
it until its master's liberation at the end of 1825. These
experiences determined Watson's subsequent career. To the
end of his long life he fought, in every possible manner, for
the freedom of the press. Through the kindness of Julian
Hibbert, who held the same views, Watson was able subse-
quently to set up as a printer and publisher, specializing, of
course, in Radical and freethought works. He became note-
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 47
worthy as a publisher who took special pains with the type
and appearance of the works (mostly pamphlets) he put on
the market.
In 1825 Watson was introduced into Owenist circles, 1 and
gave up his whole time from April, 1828, to May, 1830, in the
propagation of Owen's co-operative associations. During the
first year of his employment in this capacity, he was agent of
the Co-operative Store at 36, Red Lion Square.
In the course of this work, Watson must have become
acquainted with William Lovett. Born in 1800, a cabinet-
maker by profession, Lovett came to London from Cornwall
at the age of twenty-one, and soon found himself in touch with
Owen and his followers. He also met many of the more
serious working-class leaders of the time. His allegiance
seems to have been peculiarly divided between Owenism
and Radicalism for some years, and his autobiography contains
little to enable us to understand the evolution of Lovett's
political views earlier than 1833 or so. He was a man of
extraordinary tenacity of purpose and of thorough sincerity.
From him proceeded many of the ideas which dominated the
moral-force Chartists, a few years later. Lovett gained the
friendship and confidence of Place, and had great discussions
with him, opposing the opinions he had acquired from Owen
to those which Place had inherited from Bentham. The follow-
ing is an extract from, one of those few letters of Place which
lead one to conclude that his character had its softer side.
" You can hardly sufficiently appreciate the pleasure I should
receive on observing that you were happy. I conclude that
the causes of your disposition towards despondency date from
two causes : (i) Your health not being robust, (2) that you dwell
too much on the misfortunes and miseries of your fellow-men." 2
Watson had two great friends, with whom he " made up an
inseparable triad." 3 These were Richard Moore (who subse-
quently married Watson's niece), a woodcarver, born in 1810,
and Henry Hetherington. The latter was the eldest of the
1 W. J. Linton, Life of Watson, p. 21 (1880 edition).
* British Museum, Place MSS. 35,150, fo. 224.
3 W. J. Linton, Memories, p. 38.
48 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
three, having been born in 1792. He was a printer and, like
the others, an atheist. Like Watson, he opened a small shop,
and sold the same class of wares. In evading the Stamp Acts
he displayed wonderful ingenuity, which did not save him,
however, from several imprisonments. In 1832 he shared a
cell with Watson for six months for the usual offence. Another
member of this group, who does not appear to have joined it
before 1830, was John Cleave, who carried on the same type
of business at i, Shoe Lane, E.C., and was on closer terms of
friendship with Watson than with the others. He had been
a sailor, and later, the keeper of a coffee-house (as Lovett had
also been for a time). " He was a sturdy fellow, and totally
devoid of fear, and, like Lovett, ready to undergo any persecu-
tion, to bear any punishment. He was not, however, so well
informed or so placed a man as Lovett, he on the contrary was
passionate and revengeful and not at all scrupulous as to the
use of any means of accomplishing his purpose, the end of
which was improving the condition of the working people.
His notions were all vague." 1 Such is Place's verdict. Holy-
oake, on the other hand, tells us that Cleave did not convey
the impression that he was prepared to take risks. There
was a meeting held in 1830 to form a Metropolitan Political
Union ; on its council Cleave, Hetherington, Lovett and
Watson all had seats. 2 In a sense these men had collected
together because of Richard Carlile. This very fact brought
them indirectly into touch with the leaders of philosophic
Radicalism. Carlile's " mission was to afford a test case of
liberty of thought ; and, in that view, the advanced Liberals
stood up for him. Bentham came forward in his behalf.
John Mill's first appearance in print was to denounce the
persecution of him and his wife. I have reason to believe that
he received substantial aid in his long imprisonments from
the Bentham circle." 3 Yet the interests of this circle were
by no means limited even to the numerous ones provided by
the agitations for freedom of thought, an unstamped press,
1 Place MSS. 27,791, fo. 67-68.
* Id. 27,822.
3 Bain, James Mill, a Biography, p. 435.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 49
Owenist Socialism, the individualistic Radicalism of Place,
and the Reform movement. Given such teachers and such
pupils, the existence of a spirit of inquiry is not to be wondered
at. By 1830, when this little group was complete, its members
had educated themselves in the teachings of all the heterodox
economists of the day, and it so happened that these, especially
Hodgskin and Thompson, were on the side of social revolution.
It is not intended to convey the impression that Lovett, Wat-
son, Hetherington and Cleave held identical views on every-
thing. Cleave, it is fairly obvious, assented rather than
believed. Lovett did not share the militant atheism of the
others, and was a strong feminist. They agreed, however,
on certain basic ideas. In the first place, definitely rejecting
Owenism, they upheld working-class political action. They
accepted Owenism, however, to the extent of refusing to regard
laissez-faire as the highest limit of political wisdom. They
shared strong views on freedom of thought and of the press.
Their co-operation at first was based on this last common
article of belief. They united in the fight for an " unstamped
press/'
In 1831, Hetherington started a weekly paper, The Poor
Man's Guardian, which lived until 1835, in spite of endless
prosecutions. Its raison d'etre was the abolition of the " taxes
on knowledge " which made newspapers a luxury the poor
could not hope to enjoy. The newspaper tax had been
steadily rising. It began in 1712 with a penny per copy,
rose to i%d. in 1756, 2d. in 1789, 2%d. in 1795, 3%d. in 1804, and
4^. in 1815. In 1836 a reduction to id. took place, and this
was finally removed in 1855. As may be expected, infringe-
ments of the law between 1815 and 1836 were sufficiently
numerous. They were also of a unanimously revolutionary
tendency. Seditions and blasphemies were freely propagated
by the publishers of the " unstamped " papers, who knowing
that prosecutions were in any case inevitable, resolved to make
the most of their delicts. The Poor Man's Guardian was
pugnacious and provocative. It described itself as " A Weekly
Newspaper for the People. Established, contrary to Law, to
try the Power of ' Might ' against ' Right/ " and was sold for
50 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
a penny. It was studiously offensive to the representatives
and upholders of established things, and contained frequent
references to " Miss V. A. Guelph " and " Mr. and Mrs. William
Guelph."j| There is a reference to the " profligate hypocrisy and
unchristian pride of old mother church J>1 this as a gentle
comment on an official Church pronunciamiento against the
paper. With its fifth number its price was changed to " Lent
to Read, without Deposit, for an unlimited period. Charge,
one penny." In it first appeared a little poem which is quoted
continually in Socialist literature a proclamation of faith
and an embryonic political programme. 2
Wages stiould form the price of goods ;
Yes, wages should be all,
Then we who work to make the goods
Should justly have them all ;
But if their price be made of rent,
Tithes, taxes, profits all,
Then we who work to make the goods
Shall have just none at all.
One of the Know-Nothings.
This little poem contains, in a succinct form, the whole
case for " the right to the whole product of labour."
The Poor Man's Guardian was very largely concerned with
the doings of the various Radical working men's societies of
the time, of which a large number came into existence between
1829, and the passing of the Reform Bill.
The most important metropolitan society was the National
Union of the Working Classes. This was in a sense a grandchild
of Robert Owen. Several of his followers, among them Lovett,
Cleave and Hetherington, had in 1829 founded the British
Association for promoting co-operative knowledge in order
to give currency to his ideas. But Owen's anti-parliamentarian-
ism made him see in the reform agitation merely an obstacle
to his own schemes for saving the human race, and he there-
fore quarrelled with some of his strongest admirers. The
National Union was founded while Owen was in America. 3
1 August 6, 1831. 2 January 7, 1832.
3 Place MSS. 27,791, fo. 243.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 51
As soon as he returned the original British Association broke
up, and its remaining members formed the General Metropolitan
Trades Union, which later merged into the National Union of
the Working Classes. It will be seen that here, as it were
within the four corners of a handkerchief, trade unionism,
co-operation, and working class politics are united as closely
as they ever have been in the course of their history. The
objects of the Metropolitan Trades Union, while it lasted, were
two : " first to obtain for all its members the right of electing
those who make the laws which govern them, unshackled and
uninfluenced by any property qualification whatsoever ; its
second object, to afford support and protection, individually
and collectively, to every member of the Metropolitan Trades'
Union ; to enhance the value of labour by diminishing the
hours of employment ; and to adopt such measures as may be
deemed necessary to increase the domestic comfort of working
men." The National Union of Working Classes, we find a
little later, differed from the National Political Union. Benbow,
a member of both, once moved at a Committee meeting of
the former, 1 " that the Whig Union of which Sir Francis Burdett
was at the head was a Jesuitical attempt to cajole the working
classes to employ their moral and physical force in support
of the Whig Reform Bill, and that no union deserved or ought
to receive the support of the working people which did not
declare its purpose to be the attainment of Annual Parliaments
and Universal Suffrage." Cleave, another pluralist, and others
disagreed, and Benbow withdrew the resolution at the following
meeting. But the changing temper of the resolution is signi-
ficant, especially in view of Benbow's subsequent career. A
few days later, Burdett, Benbow's bete noire, resigned from the
National Political Union.
The Metropolitan Reform Society, consisting " almost
wholly of working men/' 2 was holding crowded meetings.
Unparalleled depression in trade and agriculture prevailed at
the time, and added fuel to the agitation. Moreover, the
gloomy cast of things had led to searchings of heart in
1 Place MSS. 27,791, fo. 94. 2 Id. 27,789, fo. 137.
52 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
unexpected quarters. " The pension lists were dissected,
the Scotsman, the Times, the Morning Chronicle, the Examiner,
and several other ably-conducted newspapers made such
extraordinary exposures of abuses as tended greatly to keep
up the excitement and promote the demand for reform of
Parliament. ' ' 1 On March 8, a Metropolitan Union was founded.
Its personnel is interesting, its influence nugatory. Daniel
O'Connell was in the chair, and Hunt was among the speakers
and was appointed treasurer. " This appointment ruined the
Union . . . nobody would subscribe money to be put under
the control and care of Mr. Hunt, and the Union was soon
extinguished from want of money to pay its current expenses." 2
Another body of sufficient importance to warrant its mention
was the National Political Union, with which Sir Francis
Burdett was at first connected, but which he left just before
the passing of the Reform Bill whether on account of an
honest misunderstanding, or of the enfeebling Toryism of
senility, is open question. This association repudiated the
extreme Radicalism, verging on Republicanism, of some of
the existing bodies, and was more frankly bourgeois. So it
fell out with the Birmingham Union, which in spite of the
more numerous social strata from which its members were
derived was, in fact, far less democratically governed. The
N.P.U. was founded on October 31, 1831, and had amongst
its original members, besides Burdett, Thelwall, W. T. Fox,
Cleave, Place, Lovett, Benbow, and Erskine May. 3 Its tone
may be gathered from the following resolution, adopted unani-
mously at a meeting of the Council on November 16, 1831.'
1. That all true reformers ought to rally round the throne
at the present crisis, and support the King in his attempt to
wrest the liberties of the people from the Boroughmongers'
grasp.
2. That the increasing stagnation of trade, and the nearly
exhausted patience of the nation, occasioned by the rejection
of the Reform Bill, convince this Council, that it is more than
ever imperative to support His Majesty's Ministers in effecting
1 Place MSS. 27,789, fo. 157. * Id. 27,789, fo. 145.
8 Id. 27,791, fo. 99.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 53
the great measure by which they have pledged themselves to
stand or fall.
3. That if the arts of a faction should have triumph over a
patriot King, and his present Ministry, this Council will not
listen to any illusory promises of Reform that a Tory or any
other Ministry may proffer to a disappointed people.
4. That if the enemies of this country should succeed in
producing anarchy and confusion, this Council will devise
means by which the Members of the Union may effectually
protect their own lives and properties and establish the liberties
of the country.
London was not the only centre of this kind of activity.
The nine bulky volumes of Place's manuscript Narratives of
Political Events in England, 1830-35, x give us an extended
view of such doings all over England. Care is needed in
reading these documents. Place's anxiety to record every
available fact took precedence of all considerations of pro-
portion or relevance. His tedious prolixity and his humourless
and-none-too-condensed summaries of innumerable unimportant
speeches impede the reader's understanding of those matters
reported by him which really deserve attention. Yet his MSS.
are the best contemporary history of their subject, for the
contemporary historians overlooked the origin of democracy,
while the popular press of the time was too deeply concerned
in fighting the battle for its own existence to serve as an
altogether reliable record of passing events. Cobbett, for
example, as energetic an editor as ever lived, made no attempts
to supply his readers with news. If any was forthcoming,
so much the better, otherwise the paper consisted of editorial
matter, generally signed, comments, abuse, and advertise-
ments of Cobbett's books. Cobbett was a master of the
" straight talk." His readers bought the paper to enjoy his
heart-to-heart chats on whatever subjects he wished to ex-
pound. For news they went elsewhere.
To begin, then, with 1830, we find that, on January 25,
' The largest meeting ever assembled in this Kingdom within
the walls of a building took place at Mr. Beardworth's Horse
1 27,789-27,797-
B
54 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
and Carriage Repository . . . there were at least from 10,000
to 15,000 persons present/' 1 That those present meant
business may be inferred from the fact that the meeting began
at 10.30 and went on till nearly 5 p.m. The Birmingham Union
was formed, having for its first object, " To obtain by every
just and legal means such a Reform in the Commons House of
Parliament as may ensure a real and effective representation of
the lower and middle classes of the people in that house." The
principal speaker was Thomas Attwood, to whom, more than
to anybody else, the foundation of the Union may be attri-
buted. This was unfortunate, as Attwood belonged to the
genus politician, species currency crank, and his odd and
well-known views on money held off many sympathizers with
reform from joining the Union, as it was believed that he
would use it to propagate his own doctrine. The Birmingham
Political Union, it will be seen, was Radical in the modern
sense. Attwood began as a Tory, but, apart from his views on
currency which always kept him on the circumference of any
movement he supported, his opinions underwent a process of
democratization as he grew older. When the Reform Bill
passed he had become enormously popular with the working
classes, especially in London and Birmingham. He entered
Parliament immediately after the Bill had passed into law,
and remained there for seven years. Attwood was the member
for the town who was most popular with women. When he
was canvassing they were abundant in the courts and streets.
He not only kissed the children he kissed their mothers. At
one election he was reported to have kissed 8,000 women." 2
On the whole Thomas Attwood was the most influential
extra-parliamentary protagonist of Reform. His methods were
summed up in his motto, " Peace, Law and Order." In order
to demonstrate to the House of Lords that the public enthusiasm
in favour of the Bill had not abated, Attwood determined to
astonish the world with the unprecedented spectacle of 100,000
undisciplined men assembled together. . . . Hitherto no one
1 Place MSS. 27,789, fo. 136.
2 Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life. By G. J. Holyoake. Vol. I.,
p. 36.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 55
had supposed it possible to bring together so huge a mass of
men without the inevitable result of riot and bloodshed, but
Attwood knew his power, he knew the men he had to deal
with ; he decided to make the magnificent experiment, and
complete success fully justified his boldness." 1 This was the
meeting held on October 3, 1831, to which J. S. Mill refers in
the letter to Sterling quoted above. The total number of
those present was officially given as 150,000 ; whether or not
this is an exaggeration, there is no doubt of the immense moral
effect of so large and so orderly a demonstration. In 1831,
be it remembered, monster gatherings of this description were
not, as now, an almost weekly affair, to which only a limited
attention is paid.
We shall meet Attwood later in the course of this narrative
acting as parliamentary spokesman for the Chartists.
About the same time as Thomas Attwood was agitating in
Birmingham, his brother Charles was stirring up Newcastle-
on-Tyne to the same ends, and less distinguished men were
exciting the rest of the country. Political Unions were being
formed everywhere. A check was placed on the multiplica-
tion of these bodies by royal proclamation issued on November
22, 1831, within a few weeks of the formation of the National
Political Union. This scarcely affected existing bodies, as it
held up for reprobation and declared to be " unconstitutional
and illegal " only bodies which " under the denomination of
Political Associations " were " composed of separate bodies,
with various divisions and sub-divisions, under leaders and
with a gradation of ranks of authority, and distinguished by
certain badges, and subject to the general control and direction
of a superior committee or council." The National Political
Union pointed out that this did not apply to them, or, for the
matter of that, to the great majority of unions in existence. 2
Why was the Government so nervous ? Throughout the
whole course of the working-class agitation for enfranchisement
there was always a section, varying in its importance, belonging
1 Life of Thomas A ttwood. By C. M. Wakefield. (Printed for private
circulation only, 1885.)
2 Annual Register, 1831, p. 297.
56 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
to what later came to be known as the " physical force party."
These, like the franchise- seekers of a later day, were more or
less completely to pin their faith to militant methods. At the
time of which we speak these men were in a small minority,
and counted for little in the councils of the Radicals. As a
whole the political unions stood for peaceful methods, while
their militant members must have been fully aware that while
Wellington was in existence any insurrectionary outbreaks
would be dealt with drastically. The farm labourers' revolt in
1830, so graphically described by Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Hammond, 1
must have still been fresh in the men's recollections, and Wel-
lington had then identified himself with the landed interest
with an enthusiasm that approximated to ferocity. It was in
connexion with this revolt that Cobbett secured his greatest
triumph. Tried in July, 1831, for publishing articles in the
Political Register alleged to have had an incendiary influence
on the agricultural labourers, Cobbett put up an unexpectedly
smashing defence, and he emerged from the trial unconvicted,
with his influence enhanced enormously. But Sir Robert
Peel and the Duke of Wellington had shown their teeth in
the most unmistakable manner, wherein lay a lesson for the
Radicals and understood by them. For which reasons the
agitation, widespread as it was, undertaken during a period
of intense industrial depression, and with an intensely exagger-
ated importance attached to it by so many of its keenest parti-
cipants, was nevertheless conducted on strictly constitutional
lines. There were, of course, exceptional occurrences, which
we shall consider, but they were never the rule. The battle
for reform was not won by militancy.
John Stuart Mill, a young man of twenty-five, in a letter to
Sterling, says : "I am convinced that we are indebted for the
preservation of tranquillity solely to the organization of people
in political unions. All the other unions look to the Birming-
ham one, and that looks to its half-dozen leaders, who conse-
quently act under a most intense consciousness of moral respon-
sibility, and are very careful neither to do nor say anything
without the most careful deliberation. I conversed the other
1 The Village Labourer, 1760-1832, chapters xi and xii.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 57
day with a Warwickshire magistrate, who told me that the
meeting of 150,000 men a few days previous would have done
any thing without exception which their leaders might have
proposed. They would have passed any resolutions, marched
to any place, or burnt any man's house. The agricultural
people are as determined as the manufacturers. The West
is as exalte as the North. Colonel Napier made a speech at
the Devizes meeting the other day for the express purpose (as I
hear) of letting the men in the North perceive that the West is
ready to join in any popular movement if necessary ; and since
that speech (which the leaders in vain attempted to prevent
him from delivering) he has received numbers of letters from
all parts of the country saying that they all look to him as
their leader, and are ready to place themselves under his
command." 1
Yet a fortnight before Mill wrote this letter, riots had taken
place in Derby and Nottingham as a result of the rejection of
the Reform Bill of 1831. At Derby a mob attacked the city
gaol and released the prisoners, and a few lives were lost. At
Nottingham the Castle was burnt down, for which, early in
1832, three men were hanged. In London demonstrations
took place. A few anti- Reform peers were recognized and
mobbed, and the windows of Apsley House, the Duke of
Wellington's residence, were smashed for the second time that
year, but no bloodshed seems to have occurred. Mill, in fact,
was a trifle too optimistic. A week after his letter had been
posted, the Bristol riots broke out. This affair has been con-
sistently held up during the last few" years as a justification of
militancy, and it is therefore advisable to survey what really
happened, and whether the riots were, in fact, justified by their
results.
The M.P. for Bristol in 1831 was Sir Charles Wetherell,
Attorney-General and Recorder of Bristol. He had throughout
the struggles in the House of Commons for reform shown him-
self a determined opponent of parliamentary reform, university
reform, law reform, municipal reform, and Catholic emancipa-
tion. He had come to be accepted as a symbol of the status
1 Letters of J. S. Mill, Vol. I, p. 7, October 20-22, 1831.
58 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
quo, a sort of embodiment of a past that refused to die. He
had never swerved from the path of resistance to proposed
changes, although once, in 1817, he brilliantly defended James
Watson when he was tried for high treason after the Spa Fields
affair. 1 On October 29 he made a state entry into Bristol to
open the assizes. Wether ell's reputation among the local
working classes was an emphatic one, and he knew it, but he
came nevertheless out of bravado. On his arrival at the city
he was greeted by large crowds, but nothing more exciting
than a few hoots appeared to have been emitted. As the
procession made its way towards the Guildhall, a few stones
were thrown, and one constable was struck. The assizes were
opened in the usual way, the public being restive, but tractable.
After Wetherell had returned to the Mansion House, the
constables bethought themselves of the stone-throwers and
made several rushes upon the crowd. The crowd, numbering
about 10,000, gradually became wilder. After four hours of
skirmishing, its temper approximated to fury, while, on the
other hand, some of the constables were sent home. The
Riot Act was then read by the mayor, who threatened to call
out the troops. That was the last straw. The Mansion House
was immediately attacked and all the windows and outer
doors broken. The ground floor was invaded and the furniture
smashed. Wetherell wisely beat a retreat and fled from the
city. The soldiers arrived an.d by midnight both troops and
mob had got out of hand and a few of the latter were killed
and wounded. The next day, Sunday, the mob returned to
the Mansion House, and gained admittance to the upper
floors and to the cellars. Here a large quantity of wines and
spirits were found and immediately consumed. Numbers of
men and women, maddened by drink, continued the work of
destruction. When the troops arrived, the mob was on the
offensive (on the previous day it had been merely on the
1 The James Watson of the Spa Fields affair (1766-1838) should
not be confused with the James Watson (1799-1874) who was ar-
rested during the demonstration of March 21, 1832 (see p. 35), or
with the other James Watson of Newcastle who attended the 1848
and 1851 Conventions.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 59
defensive), and a good deal of bloodshed took place. Later
on, the New Gaol was attacked, the governor's house sacked,
and the prisoners set free, and the building fired. Two other
prisons, the Gloucester County prison and the Bridewell, were
similarly treated. The bishop's palace was next attacked and
burnt to ashes. After this, nothing less than a general con-
flagration appeared sufficient to the insatiable mob, and a
whole block of buildings in Queen's Square was destroyed. By
Monday morning the riot had begun to subside and the military
cleared all the streets. About a hundred had been killed or
wounded. 1 The Bristol riots provided those who believed
Reform was a precursor of revolution with a strong argument,
of which full use was made during the final debates on Reform.
The author of the Greville Memoirs merely expresses what was
in many minds when he says : " The spirit which produced
these atrocities was generated by Reform, but no pretext was
afforded for their actual commission ; it was a premature out-
breaking of the thirst for plunder and longing after havoc and
destruction, which is the essence of Reform, in the mind of
the mob." 2 About the same time other less important riots
were also taking place, in Worcester, Coventry, and Bath, but
they were of insignificant size when compared with the Bristol
affair.
It must be conceded that these affrays did not win the
Reform Act. They were engendered, for the most part, by
unemployed labourers, driven to riot by the futile hope of
frightening the class they held responsible for their economic
distress into granting some measure of alleviation. In these
riots they had not the support of the political unions. The
Poor Man's Guardian has neither praise nor blame for the
Bristol rioters. It has never been shown that any connexion
existed between the political unions and the actions of the
rioters. Nor has it been shown that the Reform Act was
expedited by these methods. Indeed, it was claimed by Sir
Francis Burdett, on behalf of the National Political Union,
that " The Riots, Conflagrations, and Bloodshed at Bristol
1 For fuller account see Annual Register, 1831, pp. 171-177.
* Greville Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 214.
60 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
have been at length arrested. By whom ? By the Bristol
Political Union, to whom the Magistrates had delegated their
authority, and whose members have been sworn in as Special
Constables/' 1
Apart from the demonstrations against the Duke of Welling-
ton and the anti- Reform peers, London kept cool, and in doing
so disappointed those who hoped that a conflagration would
provide an opportunity for suppressing the always constitu-
tional National Political Union and the other Radical bodies.
There is no doubt that in November, 1831, Wellington anti-
cipated violence especially from his own side. A factitious
terror was widely advertised ; it could have had no other
motive than the encouragement of mob-violence. The King
and Queen were to have driven through the City to the Lord
Mayor's banquet on November 9, on Wellington's advice the
royal visit was postponed. " In the end the disturbances in
the metropolis proved so trifling that Ministers had to stand
ridicule, more deadly to an administration than any hatred,
for their unfounded apprehensions/' 2 A few months later
something more nearly approaching an act of provocation took
place, with ludicrous results.
In 1831 an outbreak of cholera took place, with the result
that several hundreds of persons died : almost all of the working
class. As the plague gave no promise of abatement, a general
fast was proclaimed on February 6, 1832, to take place on
March 21. The suggestion met with ribaldry from a large
number of Radicals, who saw the cause of the disease in the
chronic deprivation of food under which so many of the work-
ing classes existed. Thus, a contemporary unstamped journal,
Figaro in London, published this epigram, which The Poor
Mans Guardian duly reprinted.
Found lately dead, a bishop (quite aghast),
Verdict The prospect of a general fast.
The same papers organized a protest against the fast, a " general
feast/' A procession was to be formed and to walk round
1 jFrom a leaflet in Place MSS. 27,791, fo. 76.
2 Maxwell's Life of Wellington, p. 256.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 61
London in an orderly way, then disperse to various places
and eat large dinners. According to The Poor Man's Guardian
100,000 gathered, but this is an obvious exaggeration ; it is
fairly certain that not more than 1,000 took part in the march.
These walked through various streets and were frequently
turned aside by the police, who appeared to wish to keep the
demonstrators off the main road. At no point where the
police interposed was there a scrimmage. However, three
arrests were made, of Benbow, Lovett, and Watson the most
prominent of the processionists. Benbow was tried, enjoyed
himself a great deal making frivolous replies to his interroga-
tors, and was finally found " not guilty." The same verdict,
of course, was delivered in the other cases.
These arrests, and the general behaviour of the Government,
are only to be explained by the theory that everybody believed
that anything might happen at any time.
We find it difficult to-day to realize the position of the
reformers of the eighteen-thirties in the face of such strange
facts as that stated by Holyoake in his autobiographical
Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life. " Only Unitarian ministers
at that time would pray for Liberals, or would pray
among them." 1 It is not easy to reconcile the fervent faith
of so many reformers " Mr. Owen this day has assured me,
in the presence of more than thirty other persons, that within
six months the whole state and condition of society in Great
Britain will be changed, and all his views will be carried fully
into effect " 2 with the apathy with which the Government
treated Oastler's pleas for the factory slaves. Remedies and
diagnosis both were at fault.
Cobbett in his Register cursed Parliament for having
caused prices to fall. " Such a picture of ruin no eyes ever
beheld before ; no war, none of the causes of ruin in trade
was ever equal in effect to the acts of this Parliament. If the
acts had been passed for the express and avowed purpose of
producing ruin, they could not have been more effectual." 3
1 Vol. I, p. 30.
2 Place MSS. 27,791, January, 7, 1836.
8 Aug. 17, 1831.
62 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
He then goes on to show how the prices of hardware, manu-
factured in and near Birmingham, have fallen. A quantity
of ironmongery, which in 1818 fetched 15 155. iod., was now
sold for only 6 I2s. 6%d. Cobbett demanded a paper currency
to remedy this " ruin." But, apart from such impracticable
prescriptions, which abounded, the sense of political perspective
appears to have vanished. Long years of conflict had ex-
aggerated the views both of the supporters and opponents of
Reform. Both parties had come to expect that revolutionary
changes would be the outcome of the Reform Bill. Democracy
came to be synonymous with revolution. Wellington resisted
the Bill almost to the bitter end, saying, on one occasion, that
distribution and enfranchisement would lead to the election
of " a democratical assembly of the worst description." The
events of 1789 were near enough to be insistent reminders of
what a revolution might involve, and yet sufficiently distant
to be considerably exaggerated while the Revolution of 1830
stimulated the elements of both Radicalism and Toryism.
Thus John Stuart Mill, in a news letter to John Sterling in the
West Indies, wrote : "If the Ministers flinch or the Peers
remain obstinate, I am firmly convinced that in six months a
natural convention, chosen by universal suffrage, will be sitting
in London. Should this happen, I have not made up my mind
what will be best to do. I incline to think it would be best to
lie by and let the tempest blow over, if one could but get a
shilling a day to live upon meanwhile ; for until the whole
of the existing institutions of society are levelled with the
ground, there will be nothing for a wise man to do which the
most pig-headed fool cannot do much better than he. A
Turgot even could not do in the present state of England what
Turgot himself failed to do in France mend the old system.
If all goes at once, let us wait till it is gone ; if it goes piece by
piece, why, let the blockheads who will compose the first Parlia-
ment after the Bill passes do what a blockhead can do, viz.,
overthrow, and the ground will be cleared. . . . You will
perhaps think from this long, prosing, rambling talk about
politics that they occupy much of my attention ; but, in fact,
I am myself often surprised how little I really care about
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 63
them. The time is not yet come when a calm and impartial
person can intermeddle with advantage in the questions and
contests of the day." * If a " calm and impartial person "
reared in the frigid atmosphere of Utilitarianism was thus
contemplating the immediate overthrow of the established
state of things, what must have been the feelings of less, dis-
ciplined minds ?
Another circumstance may be alluded to here. The Radical
movement, and later on, and far more emphatically, the Chartist
movement, were looked upon as anti-religious by the orthodox
Tories, and this to a certain extent explains the bitterness of
the opposition. In those days, too, it must be borne in mind
that atheism was a far rarer, and also a far more strongly
reprehended point of view than it is to-day. To the orthodox
mind, unseasoned by any knowledge of economic fact, the
French Revolution was the triumph of atheism. And it so
happened that a very large number of the most prominent
Radicals and Chartists were atheists, while not a few were
Unitarians, who were almost as obnoxious to the orthodox.
Place, Owen, Bentham and the Mills made no secret of their
atheism, while of the generation that preceded them, Godwin
and Paine had gone so far as to put their atheism before their
Radicalism, instead of keeping it, like their successors, decently
in the background. One of the results of these divergencies
was that the prominent middle- class Radicals were regarded
by the working-class leaders with virtual hostility, as a body
of self-seekers, from whom nothing was to be expected.
The gulf between the working-class and middle-class Radicals
is nowhere better illustrated than in the tone of The Poor Mans
Guardian. In July, 1831, a dinner was held in honour of Major
Cartwright, the particular occasion of the celebration being
the erection of a statue to him in Burton Crescent, where he
lived and died. 2 " Hunt is the only man in the House of
Commons whom Cartwright would have called ' consistent ' ;
he would have been ashamed to own, as his colleagues,
1 Letter of J. 5. Mill, Vol. I, p. 7.
2 Now Cartwright Gardens, near Judd Street, King's Cross.
64 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
such a crew of apostates as Burdett, Hume, O'Connell, Jones,
Brougham, Grey, Denman, etc." 1
Working-class disapproval of the Reform Bill, in fact,
began to show itself long before that measure was passed. An
eruption of political associations took place from 1830 onwards,
far more Radical in their objects than those supported by
the main body of Whig M.P.'s. When the Bill was passing and
was passed, Cobbett's Weekly Political Register broke into no
salvos of applause ; it merely printed an article with a list
of those " Die-hard " peers who had fought Reform to the
bitter end, employed a great quantity of the characteristic
causticity which Cobbett wielded so effectively, and passed
on to the consideration of more pressing subjects. The Poor
Man's Guardian took the new Act with equal calmness, suggest-
ing " the following pledges to the consideration and adoption
of such of our readers as will obtain the right of being repre-
sented under the Reform Bill." 2 These may be regarded, in
a sense, as the original Labour programme, and are as follows :
1. Will you pledge yourself to propose or support a measure
to obtain for the nation an effectual reform in the Commons
House of the British Parliament : the basis of which reform
shall be short parliaments, extension of the suffrage to every
adult male, vote by ballot, and especially No Property Quali-
fication for Members of Parliament ?
2. Will you propose or support the total abolition of all
taxes on knowledge ?
3. Will you propose or support the total abolition of tithes
and the dissolution of the alliance between Church and State :
thus leaving every man to adopt and pay for that religion which
he most approves ?
4. Will you propose or support a measure to restore to the
people the right of electing Sheriffs and Magistrates ?
5. Will you propose or support a Bill to exclude from the
House of Commons placemen and pensioners ?
6. Will you propose or support a measure that will render
1 Saturday, July 23, 1831.
2 Poor Man's Guardian, July 21, 1832.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 65
justice cheap and expeditious, so that the poor man may no
longer continue the victim of oppression ?
7. Will you propose or support the abolition of all monopo-
lies, the repeal of the corn laws, and of all the taxes pressing
upon the necessaries and comforts of labouring men ?
It will be seen that this programme included not only the later
Chartist proposals (except payment of members and equal
electoral districts) but also several industrial reforms. The
absence of factory legislation or of free education is somewhat
surprising ; but none of the reforms demanded, it will be noted,
call for a centralized administration, which would be needed by
the two desiderata we have suggested. The first factory
inspectors were appointed in 1833, before which date control
from London was an impossibility.
During the years which immediately followed the Reform
Act, the Government showed itself at least concerned in the
state of the country. The propertied classes had had their
attention occupied for so many years with the wars, and had
then been so distracted by the exaggerated importance given
to the Reform Agitation, that they suddenly found themselves
in 1832 in a state of mind very similar to that of the working
classes. They found themselves confronted with a new indus-
trial England different in all respects from the almost wholly
agricultural country of seventy years earlier. They clutched
at such doctrines as seemed simplest, and the views of " Parson
Mai thus " were invoked to help them out of their difficulty
of dealing with an immense proletariat with powers that might
well be dreaded, though they were not yet understood. Almost
the first action of the reformed Parliament was the appointment
of a Poor Law Commission, which reported two years later,
and on the strength of the recommendations of which the
Poor Law was drastically reformed. The next year the
Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, removed some of the out-
standing abuses of town life. The Poor Law Amendment Act
by no means pleased the working classes. It became the
subject of much vituperation in The Poor Man's Guardian
and elsewhere. In Bedfordshire there were numerous riots :
a pamperized agricultural population rose up in revolt at out-
66 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
door relief being given in kind instead of in money as previously. *
At Henfield, Sussex, an attempt to limit outdoor relief resulted
in a riot which necessitated calling up the military.
Cobbett died in June, 1833, having been a member of Parlia-
ment just long enough to betray an utter incompetence in
political matters. His only success was the unmasking of
Popay, an agent provocateur who had actively incited to violence
against the Government the members of two political unions
in South London. Less than two years later another veteran
died. This was Henry Hunt, M.P. for Preston since 1832.
In the opinion of their common biographer, Robert Huish,
" it is scarcely possible to mention two failures more decidedly
confirmed than the parliamentary career of Hunt and Cobbett."
This condemnation, however, must be discounted by the fact
that Huish regarded the House of Commons as " the most
enlightened assembly in the world," 2 but it is clear that the
two agitators were somewhat out of place there, and conse-
quently ineffective. Moreover, they were in the difficult
position of having no distinct political programme to guide
them.
The Reform Act, having become law, appears to have exer-
cised a curious psychological influence upon working-class
thought. For many years, almost for generations, Reform
had been the one subject of propaganda ; the sheer lapse of
time had given it some of the features of an established tra-
dition. And now the tradition had been killed, beyond all
hope of resurrection. Although it was perfectly true to say
that the Reform Act had not given the working classes what
they demanded, or, indeed, anything at all, yet many who
noticed the jubilations caused by the passing of the Act, as
well as the fear-stricken opposition it had encountered,
must have felt a keen sense of disappointment, a subtle dis-
content due to impotence. The thousands who shouted with
Attwood must have experienced this feeling when they realized
that the middle classes alone were to benefit by the measure.
The organized working men were in the unfortunate position
1 Annual Register, 1835, Par t 2, p. no. Ib. p. 139.
2 Life of Henry Hunt, Vol. II, p. 496.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 67
of a savage tribe which has captured, at considerable cost to
itself, a supposed wonder-working idol, only to find that it
was a completely useless golliwog. Some of the exasperation
found a safety-valve in amorphous discontent. In April, 1833,
the National Union of Working Men indulged in a series of
fierce debates, and wound them up by a fiery resolution,
denouncing in the same breath " the pretended reformed House
of Commons " and cursing " a pampered Monarchy, an indolent
Aristocracy, and a bloated Hierarchy/' This explosion proved
to be a swan-song, for the Union shortly disintegrated. Its
low subscription (2s. per annum) doubtless contributed to its
decease. The greater part of the zeal for reform, however,
did not roam about in the void, but attached itself to other
causes, of which there were several competing for popularity
at the time. Oastler had begun his agitation for a ten-hour
day, Hetherington and Cleave exerted themselves to procure
the abolition of naval and military floggings, and the Corn
Law agitation began to show its head. On August 6, 1832,
the Macclesfield Political Union passed a series of resolu-
tions demanding manhood suffrage, etc., and with this
clause :
" That we further request of the electors to demand from
candidates, if they are returned, that they will not absent
themselves from their duty in Parliament without sufficient
cause ; and when in their seat in Parliament, that they will,
to the utmost of their influence or power, have the following
obnoxious laws repealed, namely, the law of Primogeniture,
the connexion between the Church and State, the Tithes,
the Corn Laws, the East India Company's Charter, the
Bank Charter, all Taxes on Knowledge, and all useless Places
and Pensions under the Crown, and all other abuses, whether
in Church, State, or Law, that are injurious to the people of
these realms." 1 A further resolution, we should add, declared
a consumers' boycott of doctors, grocers, publicans, butchers,
bakers, flour dealers, innkeepers, drapers, barbers, and all
others who were known to assist any candidate who would
not pledge himself to the above. We see therefore that a
1 Poor Man's Guardian, August 18, 1832.
68 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
political programme was gradually coming into being. A
method of enforcing these demands also came into existence.
This was the General Strike. Even before the Reform Bill
had passed into law, one William Benbow had urged this
method of securing the inclusion of working men within the
Bill. On August 31, 1831, a large meeting of the National
Union of the Working Classes took place at the Rotunda,
Blackfriars Road. Benbow is reported to have said, inter
alia, 1 that "he hoped to see a cordial co-operation among the
unwashed artisans, and when so united, they had only to say,
' We must be free/ and they would be so two days after.
He never did nor would recommend violence of any kind,
and at the approaching conference he would advise the working
classes that produces everything, and gets only the husks,
to dress themselves in their Sunday clothes, and all and every
one of them to take a month's holiday, and they might rest
assured their rights would be quickly restored. (Great cheer-
ing.) " On November 2 he repeated his proposal, which is
reported to have evoked (tremendous cheering). 2
Benbow, in fact, has a strong claim to be regarded as the
inventor of the General Strike. Owen was spending an appre-
ciable part of his energies at the time in deprecating strikes, 3
on the grounds that they were wasteful, and that if only the
strikers wished it they could do without employers. Let
them but adopt Owen's plan of a " Labour Exchange " and
all would be well. Benbow, on the fringe of the whirling social
movement of which Owen was the centre, was thrown off
centrifugally and produced a theory flatly opposed to the
latter 's. Little is known about Benbow. He appears to have
been, in 1831, the keeper of the " Commercial Coffee House,
205, Fleet Street, London." His address and his occupation
lead one to suggest the probability that Vincent, Hetherington,
Cleave and Watson were known to him. In 1831 he himself
printed a pamphlet, Grand National Holiday and Congress of
the Productive Classes. This contains the General Strike scheme.
1 Poor Man's Guardian, September 3, 1831.
2 Ib., November 5, 1831.
3 E.g., In the Crisis, July 27, 1833.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 69
The whole of the " productive classes " were to take a month
' ' off . " This ' ' holiday ' ' was to be organized by local committees
all over England, who were to see that holiday-makers behaved
with proper respect to economy and sobriety. " The working
classes cannot lay in provisions for a month ; this is not
wanted, but every man must do his best to be provided with
food for the first week of the holiday. Provisions for the
remaining three weeks can be easily procured. As for wearing
apparel, since the holiday will take place in the summer, there
can be no great difficulty in being provided with sufficient
covering for one month." 1 During the first week, the local
committees were to act ; " they will be enabled to inquire
into the funds of their respective cities, towns, villages and
parishes, and to adopt means of having those funds, originally
destined for their benefit, now applied to that purpose."
Finally, " When all the details of the above plans are put into
execution, the committee of each parish and district shall
select its wise men to be sent to the National Congress. A
parish or district having a population of 8,000 shall send two
wise and cunning men to Congress, a population of 15,000
four, a population of 25,000 eight, and London fifty wise and
cunning men. The advice of the different committees to be
taken as to the most convenient place for conference. It
should be a central position and the mansion of some great
liberal lord, with its outhouses and appurtenances. The only
difficulty of choice will be to fix upon a central one, for they
are all sufficiently vast to afford lodging to the members of
the Congress, their lands will afford nourishment, and their
parks a beautiful place for meeting. It may be relied upon
that the possessor of the mansion honoured by the people's
choice will make those splendid preparations for the representa-
tives of the people that are usually made for the reception of
a common sovereign." 2 Then, the Congress was to reform
society. The agenda for the Congress needed too much
discussion and explanation to find a place at the end of a
pamphlet, so Benbow produced a weekly paper, the Tribune
of the People, in order to elaborate the proceedings at length.
1 Op. cit. p. ii. 2 Ib. p. 13.
F
70 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
The first number was published on June 17, 1832, and does
not appear to have had many successors. This is unfortunate,
for the early issues contain the imperfectly redeemed promise
of a series of articles exposing Owen. 1
Although Hetherington was nominally the editor of The
Poor Man's Guardian, much of the actual work was done by
a young man named James O'Brien, who wrote elsewhere over
the nom de plume " Bronterre," and subsequently came to be
known as James Bronterre O'Brien. He was born in 1805,
and came to London to study law twenty-four years later.
Here he fell in with Cobbett and Hunt, and soon Lincoln's
Inn knew him no more. In his own words, written in 1837 :
" About eight years ago, I came to London to study law and
Radical reform. My friends sent me to study law ; I took
to Radical reform on my own account. I was a very short
time engaged in both studies, when I found the law was all
fiction and rascality, and that Radical reform was all truth
and matter of dire necessity. Having a natural love of truth,
and as natural a hatred of falsehood, I soon got sick of law,
and gave all my soul to Radical reform. ... I feel as though
every drop of blood in my veins was Radical blood, and as
if the very food I swallowed undergoes at the moment of
writing a process of Radicalization." 2
While he was working on The Poor Man's Guardian, Bron-
terre O'Brien also contributed largely to the innumerable and
ephemeral journals which voiced the democratic opinion of the
time. He was one of the few among the Chartists who had
had the advantage of a good education, and his intellectual
powers were among the greatest assets of the movement. As
an orator, Bronterre O'Brien seems to have been effective,
1 Benbow was also the author of The Crimes of the Clergy (1823),
a compilation of crimes committed by Protestant priests in the United
Kingdom during two centuries, and a pamphlet, A Scourge for the
Laureate (1825), an attack upon Southey in reply to a letter by him
in the Times of December 13, 1824, attacking Byron. In the preface
to the first of these works, Benbow describes himself as a Christian.
It appears that he had been present at Peterloo.
a Bronterre' s National Reformer, January 7, 1831.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 71
but not overwhelmingly so ; he lacked the irresistible fury
of Feargus O'Connor, or the easy style of Henry Vincent. On
this point it is worth while remembering that " down to about
this period, with the single exception of the time of the Conso-
lidated Trades Union, even the more enlightened of the working
class had been but little accustomed to public speaking.
The platform had been almost exclusively occupied by the
upper and middle classes, and it could hardly be expected that
the working men, deprived in a great measure of educational
advantages, would become adept speakers in a day." 1 This
to a certain extent accounts for the success of educated sym-
pathizers among the Chartists.
Bronterre O'Brien appears to have spent the interval between
the closing down of The Poor Man's Guardian and the appear-
ance of the Charter by translating Buonarotti's History of
Babeufs Conspiracy, and by gathering material, here and in
France, for a Life of Robespierre, of which the first volume,
published in 1837, showed that his object was to clear the
memory of the Jacobin from the calumnies of such writers as
Montgaillard, Mount joye, and Desodoards. In January, 1837,
he started a weekly paper, Bronterre's National Reformer.
This only ran for eleven weeks, but is nevertheless of interest
as showing the revolutionary cast of O'Brien's views. The
object of the journal is "To promote a radical reformation in
Government, Law, Property, Religion, and Morals," practically
the whole paper was the work of the editor, who signed his
articles, even when they only extended to a single paragraph,
with the pen-name " Bronterre." Long letters to the editor,
signed " Philo Bronterre," appeared in every number, including
the first, obviously the work of O'Brien himself. The National
Reformer anathematized vigorously, interjecting short articles
annexed from other papers, on such diverse subjects as the
History of Influenza in Europe, and the Amazing Strength of
the Whale. The new Poor Law was of course strenuously
assailed. The Petition of the Working Men's Association was
printed in full in the issue of February n, and approved in
1 Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement, p. 17.
72 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
the leading article. After that, for the remaining month of
its life, the new programme received the lion's share of the
journal's attention. This was symptomatic of the future
concentration of O'Brien's energies on the Chartists' demands.
If in later years Chartism came to be popularly identified with
Socialism, the reason is to be found in the intellectual leadership
of Bronterre O'Brien. All the theories and most of the shibbo-
leths bound up with Marxian Socialism are to be found in his
pronouncements. The characteristic Marxian denunciation
of the role of the middle class is O'Brien's. He asks : " Does
the artisan or labourer receive a farthing of wages, save through
the middle class ? Can the landlord receive a farthing of
rent, save through the middle class ? Does not the Govern-
ment receive almost all the taxes through the middle class ? " x
Place, commenting on an article written to the greater glory
of O'Connor by O'Brien early in 1839, calls it " a rhodomon-
tade " and its author a " three-parts insane and savage man."
He also adds in a footnote that when these two Irishmen quar-
relled, a little later, they " abused each other to an extent
as well as to time and in as bad language as perhaps never
before had been done by any two men since newspapers were
first published." 2
We can perhaps best realize this period, as it appeared to
the Radical working man of the time, by presenting to our-
selves a picture of a crowd dominated by two great giants,
Wellington and Owen, the Ahriman and Ormuzd of a long-lived
generation. The Duke represented force, corrupt monarchy,
flogging in the Army, opposition to reform of whatever char-
acter. Owen typified the energies which, if rightly used, could
make the depressing world of William IV blossom as the rose.
Lovett was one of the sanest of men, but even he could not
completely resist the vision. Perhaps the extreme limit of
his adherence to Owenism is indicated in a speech delivered
at the Co-operative Congress held in London on April 23, 1832,
Owen being in the chair. Lovett concluded this oration by
1 Northern Star, April 17, 1841.
2 Place MSS. 27,821, fo. 22.
THE FOLLOWERS TAKE THE LEAD 73
declaiming that " the system which they sought to establish
was the reverse of the competitive it was all for each, and
each for all ; and if carried into execution would sweep away
all this world's cares and troubles, and make it bloom like a
terrestrial paradise. (Continued cheers.)" 1
1 The Crisis, Vol. I, p. 12.
CHAPTER III
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER
FOR a year or two after the passing of the Reform Act,
a distinct working-class reaction took place against
political intervention. In December, 1833, Owen formed the
Society for National Regeneration, 1 which became the focus
of the energies of the more intelligent manufacturers and
factory reformers. This on one side, and the sudden growth
of the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union on the
other, gave a strong impetus to trade union organization, at
the expense of political organization. The monstrous sentence
of seven years' transportation was inflicted in March, 1834,
upon six Dorchester farm labourers for simply belonging to
a trade union. In spite of the effort of many of the Radical
M.P.'s and the activity of the London Dorchester Committee,
the unfortunate men had to serve four years of their sentence.
After a short series of strikes, the Grand National ceased to
exist by the end of 1834. The following year was filled with
the agitation for the repeal of the newspaper stamp. As the
result of this the tax was reduced from fourpence to one penny.
The Poor Man's Guardian came to an end after 750 persons,
it is said, had been prosecuted for selling it, and a court had
finally decided that it was not a newspaper at all, " within the
meaning of the Act."
The Place Manuscripts, to which frequent references have
already been made, were not the only legacy left by the inde-
fatigable tailor of Charing Cross to future historians of his
days. In a warehouse in Hendon, a stone's throw from what
is facetiously called the " Flying Ground," the British Museum
1 Webb, History of Trade Unionism, p. 143.
74
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 75
has caused to be stacked the files of such provincial and other
papers as human investigation is unlikely to require for its
purposes. Among these impressive and saddening monuments
to journalistic effort lies what the authorities call the Place
Collection. Here are 180 large volumes of papers, mainly
printed, newspaper cuttings, manifestos, etc., gathered to-
gether and preserved by the energy of Francis Place. A set
of twenty-nine volumes tells the story of the Chartist movement
from 1,836 to 1847. The first of the volumes of this set con-
tains a long introduction in Place's handwriting, in which he
summarizes so far as the most prolix of men could summarize
the " Proceedings, principally of working men, to procure a
reform in the House of Commons. " In the following pages
we shall follow Place's own account, but not in his words, which
are too many.
Dr. John Roberts Black, of Kentucky, being desirous of
helping the British working man, formed a committee, of
which he acted as chairman, to pay the fines imposed on
Hetherington and Cleave for printing and selling unstamped
periodicals, especially Hetherington' s Twopenny Dispatch, and
C leave's Police Gazette. This committee, having achieved its
original object, decided to keep going and to wage an agitation
for the complete repeal of the " taxes on knowledge." He there-
fore made the committee the nucleus (" under my direction/ 1
as Place takes care to explain in a marginal note) of a body
first called the Association of Working Men to procure a
cheap and honest press. The ostensible purpose of the Associa-
tion was the instruction of working men in the three r's and
a little more. The purpose which lay nearer the hearts of Place
and Black, however, was the political education of their stu-
dents. The notion was being spread by the working-class
agitators of the day that " every kind of property belonged
solely to the working people . . . and that the land belonged
to them in common." Place regarded this doctrine as perni-
cious. So also did he consider the existing state of society.
The agitators, however, attempted to unite their forces and
adopt a simple programme. On June 10, 1836, five or six
persons met in London, and called themselves a " General
76 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Meeting of the Central Committee of the Metropolitan Radical
Unions " ; as Place acidly explains in a footnote, " there were
no such unions in existence at this time." These persons
decided to form the Working Men's Universal Suffrage Club.
Feargus O'Connor was appointed treasurer, and John Russell,
secretary. Various other persons (notoriety hunters, says
Place) soon joined O'Connor. Augustus Harding Beaumont
was one of the most prominent of these ; he was the editor of
the weekly Radical, had been through the Belgian revolution
of 1830 and had written a book about it, and was nearly
insane. Daniel O'Connell, M.P., also gave the new body his
blessing. Place was asked to join, but refused tactfully. The
working classes, however, refrained from welcoming the Club.
The subscription, to tell the truth, was the reason. A working
man could not be expected to pay i yearly, in addition to
an entrance fee of five shillings. After the end of June, conse-
quently, no more was heard of the Club.
Place, however, seems to have promptly picked up the
pieces of this unsuccessful venture and united them with his
Association, which, after August, developed into a propagandist
body and called itself the Working Men's Association for Bene-
fiting Politically, Socially and Morally the Useful] Classes.
The Association, probably in ignorance of its originator,
unanimously elected Place an honorary member, and in equal
ignorance of his views, conferred the same honour upon Feargus
O'Connor and Robert Owen.
The Working Men's Association was formally established
on June 26, 1836, when a prospectus and rules were submitted
and agreed to. The prospectus began as follows :
" Among the causes that most contribute to the perpetuation
of abuses and corruptions in every department of the State,
and the indifference manifested towards the interest of the
millions, none have been more pregnant with evil than the divi-
sions and dissensions among the working classes themselves." 1
The prospectus continues in this strain throughout, and the
objects are to the same effect. The Association, it would
appear was to concentrate on the industrial salvation of the
1 British Museum, Additional MSS. 37,773.
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 77
working classes. Members were to belong to the " industrious
classes " ; others might be elected, but they were to be mere
honorary members not of the working classes. The original
list of members contained thirty-three names. William Lovett
was the first secretary, Henry Hetherington the first treasurer.
By October 18 the Association had decided or been persuaded
by Lovett to decide that they had " no confidence in either
Whig or Tory government, believing both parties to be alike
the enemies of just legislation and obstacles in the way of
establishing peace and happiness in this country." They had
not gone so far as to demand the establishment of a Labour
Party, in spite of their distrust of the powers that were. All
that was demanded was " Universal Suffrage, the Protection
of the Ballot, Annual Parliaments, Equal Representation, and
No Property Qualification for Members." 1 The same declara-
tion objurgates the " men under the guise of reformers . . .
etc. . . . And who, to complete the catalogue of their iniquity,
have passed, supported, and landed the infamous Poor Law
Bills."
On November 15 Feargus O'Connor was elected an honorary
member ; three weeks later, Robert Owen was also elected
At the end of February 28, the W.M.A. held a meeting at
the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in order to submit a petition for
presentation to Parliament demanding Equal Representation
(200 electoral districts of equal size), Universal Suffrage (males
over the age of twenty-one, residential qualification six
months), Annual Parliaments (general election every June 24),
No Property Qualification (but 200 supporters required to nomi-
nate), Vote by Ballot (to take place in the Church buildings),
and Payment of Members (400 a year). This petition was
submitted to a public meeting at the " Crown and Anchor," in
the Strand, on February 28, 1837, and approved. This was
the " nucleus of the far-famed People's Charter, which may be
said to have had its origin at this meeting." 2
The petition also contained, by way of preamble to the
demands, a number of abstract propositions. In these, as
1 Fo. 17. 8 William Lovett : an Autobiography, p. 102.
78 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
may be expected, natural rights are assumed without qualifi-
cation. Thus we are told : " That any constitution or code
of laws formed in violation of men's political or social rights
are not rendered sacred by time nor sanctified by custom." 1
On May 31, 1837, a meeting was convened by the Working
Men's Association at the British Coffee House in Cockspur Street.
This was attended by several M.P.'s, 2 who had been invited
in order that the Association might see to what extent they
might be relied on to give parliamentary support to the petition.
J. A. Roebuck (1801-79), tne philosophic Radical M.P. for
Bath, was to present the petition to the House. These
members, however, unanimously declared that they could not
support all the principles laid down in the petition, on various
grounds. Lovett appears to have protested with some warmth
that the " gentlemen thought more of their seats in Parliament
than they did of their principles," whereupon Daniel O'Connell
" began a warm and very eloquent philippic." Peace, how-
ever, was restored, and the meeting adjourned for a week.
O'Connell then brought forward a series of motions, all of
which were agreed to, and then the following resolution was
carried :
" That a committee of twelve persons be appointed to draw
up a Bill or Bills in a legal form embodying the principles
agreed to, and that they be submitted to another meeting of
the Liberal members of Parliament and the Working Men's
Association/ 1
The committee appointed on the strength of this resolution
consisted of :
O'Connell, Roebuck, Leader, Hindley, Thompson, and Craw-
ford (M.P.'s).
Hetherington, Cleave, Watson, Lovett, Vincent, and Moore
(W.M.A.).
The death of William IV immediately after this meeting,
1 A copy of this petition is in the British Museum, with the inscrip-
tion " The Prayer of this Petition was the origin of the People's Charter.
W. L." (Lovett). 1838. A. 55(10).
a Joseph Hume, Daniel O'Connell, Dr. Bowring, J. T. Leader, Col.
Thompson, B. Hawes, W. S. Crawford, and Charles Hindley.
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 79
and the consequent stir of a general election, postponed the
operations of the committee.
The election dealt hardly with the members of Parliament
who had gone as far as we have just described. Roebuck and
Thompson lost their seats, while Daniel O'Connell antagonized
the W.M.A. by furiously attacking trade unionism. When the
committee was at last to meet Roebuck was suddenly drawn
away by his interest in the Canadian troubles of 1837-8.
Finally it fell to Lovett alone to draw up the Bill. He made
an effort, and took the result to Roebuck, who suggested that
Lovett should show it to Francis Place, who made several
suggestions, which were immediately adopted. Then the
committee of twelve met, and various alterations were made
at the instance of Hume and Roebuck. The first draft con-
tained a provision for woman suffrage, " but as several members
thought its adoption in the Bill might retard the suffrage of
men, it was unfortunately left out." l That is Lovett's account.
An MS. statement by Francis Place as to the origins of the
Charter 2 does not even mention Lovett and is even more explicit.
" You will recollect, " he tells the future historian, " that
three or four years ago there were a number of weekly news-
papers conducted by A. Beaumont, O'Brien, John Bell, O'Con-
nor, Bernard, and several others, the purpose of which was
(to) excite insurrections against property, which, under the
name of capital, they denounced as the principal cause of low
wages and the depression of the people, and the poor law as
the production of the higher and middle classes, the ' plunder-
ing ' classes, for the purpose of robbing and keeping in ignorance
the productive class, who alone were entitled to all the produce
and all the commodities in the country. . . . There was
foolishOwenism, too, opera ting to some extent and great mischief
was done. As, however, the doctrines of each of these men
differed in some particulars, so the people were formed into
many different squads, but all believing or hoping that a change
in their favour was about to take place. . . . But some among
1 Life and Struggles of William Lovett, p. 170.
2 P. 160, 27,835, dated August 2, 1839.
8o A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
the Working Men's Association were displeased with this
state of things and persuaded that it would be much better
that a plan should be adopted in which all might concur, and
by concurring call the people off from these absurdities, and
they proposed Annual Parliaments, Voting by Ballot, Universal
Suffrage, etc. The proposal was laid before the Society and
unanimously adopted. A correspondence was opened with
several members of the House of Commons, and it was agreed
to call a public meeting for the purpose of adopting a plan to
obtain Annual Parliaments, etc., etc. The meeting was held
at the British Coffee House. Several M.P.'s attended it. The
meeting, after some time spent in speech making, was adjourned
for a week, when about a dozen M.P.'s attended, and a com-
mittee of six M.P.'s and six Working Men was appointed to
draw up a Bill for Annual Parliaments, etc., each of the twelve
signing his name to the resolutions. The M.P.'s, however,
never gave themselves any further trouble in the matter ; time
went on, nothing was done and the men became dissatisfied.
After a time they came to me, and I agreed to draw up the
outlines of a Bill for them : (i) because if it was left to them
it was probable that it would not be a creditable production ;
(2) because Roebuck, who had undertaken to draw it, was in
very bad health, and occupied with parliamentary business to
an extent which induced him to promise that if I would draw
the Bill he would look over the draft and perfect it ; (3) a
genuine promise being made to me that the Working Men's
Association would give up the writers before alluded to and
would take no further cognizance of the poor law."
How are these two accounts to be reconciled ? Both Lovett
and Place were men of sterling honesty. An explanation is
suggested by two documents in the Place Collection. When
Lovett was starting his National Association in 1841, he sent
the rules in proof to Place for his advice. The Collection
contains the rules in proof, with all Place's suggested emenda-
tions marked on it, and a copy of the rules as finally printed.
By comparing the two we see that Lovett adopted virtually
none of Place's suggestions. This leads one to suppose that
in the authorship of The People's Charter Place was responsible
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 81
for less than he, in perfectly good faith, claimed as his own
work. 1
On the title page of the thirty-six-page pamphlet which
bore the name of The People's Charter, we find in the place of
the author's name, " Prepared by a Committee of Twelve
Persons Six Members of Parliament and Six Members of
the London Working Men's Association and addressed to
the People of the United Kingdom." The names of the M.P.'s
are not divulged ; while the short introduction is followed by
the signatures of thirteen working men, the Committee of the
Association, with Hetherington as treasurer, and Lovett as
secretary. There is a frontispiece showing elaborately how
voting in secret is to be conducted. The introduction is partly
historical, otherwise it is an expansion of the thesis that " self-
government by representation is the only just foundation of
political power the only true basis of Constitutional Rights
the only legitimate parent of good laws." The preamble
repeats this in different words.
The practical proposals of the Charter then follow. First
come the qualifications for an elector. He must be male, a
British subject, " twenty-one years " (presumably not less
than that age), not declared insane by a jury, unconvicted of
felony, bribery at elections, personations, or forgery of election
certificates. The next clause deals with electoral districts, of
which there are to be 300 in the United Kingdom, each contain-
ing " as nearly as may be," an equal number of inhabitants,
according to the figures of the last census. Each electoral
district is to return one member, and the Home Secretary to
be responsible for the delimitation of the districts after the
passing of the Charter into law, and after every subsequent
decennial census. The expenses of these operations to be paid
out of the public treasury. The next clause deals with regis-
tration and returning officers. These are to be elected every
three years at the same time and in the same manner as the
member of Parliament for the district. He is to appoint a
deputy, to receive nomination, to proclaim the state of the
1 Lovett is described on his tombstone as "the author of the
People's Charter."
82 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
ballot, to keep the list of voters, and decide whether a man is
eligible to vote or not. He is to be paid 500 per annum out
of the public treasury, and may be dismissed by a committee
of the House of Commons, numbering seven, on proof of incapa-
city or corruption. The first election is to be conducted by
returning officers appointed temporarily ad hoc by the Home
Secretary. The deputy returning officers will preside at each
balloting place, and will make local arrangements and be
responsible for the conduct of each voting station. He is to
be paid three guineas for his day's work. Voting is to begin
at 6 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. on the same day. Subsequent
clauses explain the method of registration through the parish
clerks. To avoid frivolous candidatures, a hundred electors
are required to nominate. They are to present their requisitions
to the local returning officer, between the ist and loth of May
in each year, and he is to exhibit the names of the candidates so
nominated not later than May 13. A similar arrangement
is suggested in the event of seats falling vacant by the death
of their holders, etc. If there is more than one candidate,
the returning officer " shall, at any time between the loth and
3 ist of May (Sundays excepted), appoint such times and places
(not exceeding) as he shall think most convenient to the electors
of the district for the candidates to appear before him at mid-
day, then and there to explain their views, and solicit the
suffrages of the electors." The returning officer is to make
the arrangements for these meetings, and " for the purpose of
keeping good order and public decorum, the returning officer
shall either take the chair at such meetings himself, or appoint
a deputy for that purpose." The election day is to be the first
Monday in June. Further 'regulations prescribe the exact
course of action to be taken by the returning officer and his
subordinates. The House of Commons is to meet on the third
Monday in June of each year, and is to be prorogued on the
first Monday of the following June. A register of the daily
attendance of each member is to be kept, and published at
the end of each session. Members are to be paid 500 a year.
The last section of the Charter is a list of penalties for register-
ing in more than one district, forging certificates of residence,
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 83
personating voters, bribery canvassing (one month's imprison-
ment for the first offence, two months for the second), etc.
We may nowadays laugh at the state of mind which could
contemplate with equanimity, indeed with pleasure, the
prospect of an annual general election, involving electioneering
excitements over a period of about five weeks. We may criti-
cize the Chartists for that palpable lack of subtlety in political
thought which hindered them from foreseeing those difficulties
in the system of direct representation for which the advocates
of Proportional Representation profess to have found a remedy.
We may wax cynical over their naive belief that uneducated
humanity would immediately seize the new machinery of
government for the amelioration of its own lot. The fact
remains that the external symbols of democracy had lost
none of their exaggerated importance since 1776, but that
rather the French* Revolution had given democratic ideas a
new impetus.
This pamphlet, we may add, was widely read, and passed
through several editions, being slightly amended in view of
various suggestions made by its readers. In the preface to
the third edition, we find this significant paragraph :
" Among the suggestions we received for improving this
Charter is one for embracing women among the possessors
of the franchise. Against this reasonable proposition we have
no just arguments to adduce, but only to express our fears of
entertaining it, lest the false estimate man entertains for this
half of the human family may cause his ignorance and prejudice
to be enlisted to retard the progress of his own freedom. And,
therefore, we deem it far better to lay down just principles,
and look forward to the rational improvement of society, than
to entertain propositions which may retard the measure we
wish to promote. 1 '
We have heard all this repeated very recently.
It is important to remember, nevertheless, that the ideas and
proposals contained in the Charter was but the crystallization
of a body of thought held in solution by two generations of
Radicals. The word Charter itself was probably suggested by
unconscious memory rather than by inspiration. About the
84 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
year 1832 there flourished an anonymous pamphleteer who
actually brought out a booklet, entitled The People s Charter,
in which every one of the Six Points was anticipated. It
would be interesting, were it possible, to have the identity of
the writer established. He wrote a fair-sized book, The Rights
of Nations (1832), which began as an attack on monarchy, but
developed into a political programme in which opposition to
aristocracy and religion were the principal factors. The
author had a touching faith in the power of the facial angle to
indicate the level of intelligence, and published an amusing
array of portraits on this assumption, showing that the profile
of Ferdinand VII had a facial angle half-way between that of an
orang-outang and that of Jeremy Bentham. The People's Charter
was virtually a condensation of this book, the first half being
anti-monarchical, and the second, the " Principles of Represen-
tative Government/' expressed as a number of postulates, with
comments and illustrations. In the same year, the author
brought out The Reformer's Catechism, " in which the principle?
of The Rights of Nations are reduced to question and answer,
adapted to the capacities of youth, and rendered a substitute
for the mind-destroying trash too generally taught at an early
age." The memorizing of a catechism running to 139 pages,
consisting mostly of either statistical or theoretical affirmations,
it is feared, would frustrate this amiable desire to preserve the
youthful mind from unnecessary damage. There were several
catechisms, generally shorter than the one just mentioned, on
the market during the last years of the Reform agitation.
We find in them all, generally speaking, partial anticipations
of the Chartist programme, and occasional bursts of humour.
Quotations from Byron are a characteristic feature of these
publications. The more revolutionary Shelley does not appear
to have struck the Radical imagination to any appreciable
extent.
References have already been made to Feargus O'Connor,
to whom a full-length introduction is now advisable. This
character, who plays the most conspicuous part in the Chartist
drama, had most of the qualities of a great demagogue, and
all the defects of the lower-grade politician. Like so many of
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 85
those who have swayed great masses of working men, he came
of another class. His father, Roger O'Connor (1762-1834),
had been an active member of the United Irishmen, and was
not completely sane. A brother of his father, Arthur O'Connor
(1763-1852), had also belonged to the United Irishmen, and
had been tried with O'Coigley in 1798. On his liberation in
1803 he went to France as the authorized agent in that country
of the Irish revolutionists, and was made a general by Napoleon
in the following year, although neither before nor after his
promotion did he see active service. In 1818 he was naturalized
in France, and remained there until his death. Feargus O'Con-
nor therefore could always enjoy the feeling that he came of
a family of revolutionaries ; this, when communicated, added
to his prestige and was a great asset, especially when counsel-
ling moderation. He was born in 1794, and, naturally enough
considering his heredity and environment, attached himself
to the " Liberator," Daniel O'Connell. His youth was divided
between farming and skirmishing. When the Reform agita-
tion entered Ireland, O'Connor enlisted in its support in his
native county, Cork, and was rewarded by being returned to
Parliament for the county at the General Election of 1832.
His energies were now distributed between Ireland and Radical-
ism, both causes being attended to with a keen eye to possible
leadership. In 1835 he quarrelled with O'Connell, and shortly
afterwards was unseated on account of some question of pro-
perty qualification. When Cobbett died in the same year,
O'Connor contested the vacant seat, having decided that, on
the whole, an English spring-board promised the more striking
flight. His candidature merely succeeded in splitting the vote
of Cobbett 's son, and so allowed Oldham to go over to the Tory
party. After this adventure O'Connor spent nearly two years
in touring the country and addressing meetings. He had a
fine commanding presence ; he stood more than six feet high,
and was broad in proportion. He had a thunderous voice
and gigantic physical strength, both of which he could display
to great advantage. The need for factory legislation, Radical
principles in general, and virulent abuse of the new Poor Law
were the raw material of his oratory. O'Connor possessed in an
G
86 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
extraordinarily developed degree, sharpened by vast practice,
the gifts of the mob-orator. Although a poor humorist, he
could raise prodigious laughter on the least attractive basis.
His speeches read poorly, for the intellectual element is very
thinly diffused in them, but it is obvious that given the right
delivery, and a suitably uncritical audience, they would have
enormous effect. It was not long before O'Connor realized
that the English working class was to be his master and his
servant, and he therefore chose a deliberately ostentatious
manner to break with middle-class reformers.
On April 20, 1837, a meeting was held at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern to raise a subscription to erect a monument to
the " Scottish Reform Martyrs " of 1794-5, Muir, Margarot,
Skirving, Palmer, and Gerrald. Virtually all the speakers
were Whig M.P.'s, among them Joseph Hume, Sir William
Molesworth, and Colonel Thompson. Things went fervently
and unanimously until Feargus O'Connor rose to speak. Francis
Place has preserved for us three contemporary newspaper
reports of the riotous subsequent proceedings. In the intervals
during which speech was possible O'Connor moved a long
amendment to the original resolution, the gist of which was
that " this meeting recognize universal suffrage as the only
basis of a free constitution." 1 This, after a speech by Henry
Vincent applauding, on the part of the W.M.A., the monument
proposal, could not be regarded as anything but an effort to
break up the meeting, in the name of democracy.
In the same year he quarrelled with the leaders of the W.M. A.,
and attempted to wreck the society by starting the London
Democratic Association as a rival body. He also founded
The Northern Star, basing its fortunes on his personal popularity
in the factory districts. The following account is given of its
start : " J. Hobson, Mr. Hill, and others in Yorkshire, seeing
the want of a newspaper, as an organ for the rising movement,
had succeeded in raising a few hundreds of pounds, 2 by shares,
to establish one. O'Connor persuaded them that they would
not be able to get the necessary amount, and that the mixed
1 Place MSS. 27,816, fo. 430-440.
8 According to Gammage, 800 was the amount.
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 87
authority of a committee would hamper the editor, and make
the paper inefficient. He proposed that the shareholders
should lend him the money raised, for which he would guarantee
interest, and that he would find the rest of the capital, and
commence the paper at once ; and that Hobson should be
the publisher and Hill the editor. . . . There is every reason
to believe that at that time he had no capital, and that the
money of the shareholders was the only money ever invested
in the paper. Fortunately for him it soon rose to a very large
circulation, reaching at least to some 60,000 a week." 1 For
that matter, all O'Connor's financial operations are wrapped in
mystery, owing to his non-possession of any arithmetical sense,
rather than to frequently-alleged but never-substantiated dis-
honesties. The headquarters of the paper was in Leeds, and
its sale, considering the price was 4%d., is truly remarkable.
The editor was the Rev. William Hill, a Unitarian minister and
a writer of some ability. The Northern Star gave the utmost
publicity to O'Connor's speeches and, in fact, to everything
that was said on the Radical side, provided, of course, that it
emanated from quarters which were approved of by the dicta-
torial orator. Thus, when the Charter was actually published,
O'Connor neglected to pay it any attention for some months.
This course was probably dictated by his dislike of the W.M.A.,
which called him " the great I AM of politics " 2 in a reproachful
letter, which he published in his own paper, in accordance with
his usual custom. Little by little, however, O'Connor allowed
himself to be converted to Chartism, owing to the virtual
identity of its " Six Points " with his own tenets, and for the
purely physical reason that he was unable to write the whole
paper himself and had therefore to allow his contributors a
certain scope. Oastler was one of these, and wrote up the
grievances of the factory-workers in a fiercely indignant series
of signed articles. Bronterre O'Brien became a sort of London
correspondent, sending every week a curious, spluttering mix-
ture of statistics and socialism, diluted with abuse of the Gov-
1 Quoted by Lovett from the Temperance Weekly Record in his auto-
biography, p. 173.
2 Northern Star, February 24, 1838.
88 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
eminent, with occasional excursions into the merely topical.
The year 1835 contained enough to infuriate a milder team
of contributors than those associated with O'Connor. Prices
had suddenly leaped upwards ; employment had as suddenly
become scarce, especially in the North. O'Connor began to
look about him for a programme, and decided to give his backing
to Radicalism. He began the 1838 campaign by declaring for
rejecting secret voting, and continued by accepting a panacea.
" In our last we threw away the scabbard, the Ballot ; l
we now draw the sword, which is Universal Suffrage. At no
period of the history of this country was there a greater
necessity for a strong manifestation of popular moral force
than at the present moment. For now more than five years
of the reformed era have we been looking in vain to the
promised produce of that tree. ..." The article ends :
" Laws, made by all, would be respected by all. ... Uni-
versal Suffrage would, at once, change the whole character of
society from a state of watchfulness, doubt, and suspicion,
to that of brotherly love, reciprocal interest, and universal
confidence/'
By the time the People's Charter came to be published,
O'Connor's enthusiasm for Universal Suffrage was barely
controllable. In the week in which the Charter was issued, he
came out with the following :
" Away, then, with the whole system at once : the wound
is too deep to be healed by partial remedies ; the nation's
heart's blood is flowing too rapidly to be stopped by ordinary
stypticks. Talk not to us of your Eleven Hours Bill ; the
demand will regulate the supply, and if we have now two
hundredfold the producing power which we recently had, either
the producers must work in proportion, or else those who talk
of over-population must create a sufficient population to require
the increased produce. Give us, then, the only remedy for
all our social and political maladies ; make every man in his
artificial state as he might be in his natural state, his own
1 Northern Star, February 17, 1838. The point of the leading article
of the previous week was that the Secret Ballot would be an obnoxious
innovation in the actual state of the franchise law.
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 89
doctor, by placing the restorative in his hand, which is UNIVER-
SAL SUFFRAGE ! ! ! " 1
Harney, as in duty bound, echoed him. A letter 2 drafted
by this man, the secretary of the London Democratic Associa-
tion, " to the Democrats of Great Britain and Ireland," pro-
claimed the objects of the Association. These were to be
Universal Suffrage, Equal Representation (i.e., also constituen-
cies to be of the same size), Annual Parliaments, No Property
Qualification, and Payment of Members. To these Chartist
demands were added the abolition of the taxation of the Press,
and " the total and unqualified repeal of the infamous New
Poor Law Act, and a restoration of the spirit of the 43rd of
Elizabeth, with such improvements as the circumstances of
the country may require." Hours of labour in factories and
workshops were to be shortened to a maximum of eight, and
child labour to be entirely abolished. The remainder of the
programme amounted to no more than an expression of opinion
that trade unionism and education (especially in political
matters) were desirable.
The Charter was published on May 8, 1838. For some ;
months after that date its supporters entirely gave themselves
over to the task of propaganda. Even O'Connor, though he
abstained, as we have pointed out, from recognizing the Charter
as a document, nevertheless preached it as a creed with all
the immense energy at his command. The practical propa-
gandists of this time rise into importance. Three especially
deserve to be noted.
The first of these is George Julian Harney. When O'Connor
had created his London Democratic Association he appointed
Harney to its secretaryship. He was a fiery young man of
twenty-one at the time, and had already won himself a certain
distinction by having undergone short periods of imprisonment
for selling unstamped papers. He had been employed by
Hetherington as shop-boy to sell pamphlets and take round
parcels. 8 He and O'Connor preached revolutionary tenets,
1 Northern Star, May 12, 1838.
2 Ib., July 21, 1838.
3 Place MSS. 27,821, fo. 5.
90 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
talked largely of a probable insurrection, and of death as the
only alternative to reform. At a time of great distress they
found eager listeners, and it soon began to appear that their
avowed intention of beating down the W.M.A. was made in
no idle spirit. Only three months after the publication of
the Charter, O'Connor had arrived at the logical conclusion of
his own and his disciples' doctrines and began to talk of the
application of physical force.
The two others who did much to stir up public opinion at
this time were Richard Oastler, and Joseph Rayner Stephens.
Both these men described themselves as Tories.
The name of Oastler (1789-1861) is now known to a far
larger body of students than was the case a generation ago.
He was one of the first to agitate for the legal protection of
children engaged in factories and mines, and for a ten-hour
day. Between 1830 and 1836 Oastler had stubbornly fought
for the cause of the children, producing appalling revelations
of their ill-treatment, and of the nugatory effects of the laws
intended to protect them. The magistrates supposed to enforce
the laws made them a dead letter, and it was only when Oastler
began to threaten organized sabotage on a large scale that his
representation began to receive the attention of the authorities.
By the time the Charter was published he had gained the moral
support of the working men of the North of England, who
applauded also his inflexible opposition to the new Poor Law.
Unfortunately this opposition cost him his job (he was the
steward of a large estate at Fixby), and in 1840 he was impri-
soned for debt. This, as we shall see, by no means put an end
to his usefulness. 1
The Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens (1805-1879) began life
as a Wesleyan clergyman and was appointed at an early age
to a mission station in Sweden. He returned to England in
1830, but four years later he was cast off by his sect for having
mingled politics too freely with his religious instruction. He
had, in fact, absorbed Oastler's ideas and lost no opportunity
of spreading them. He always regarded himself as a strictly
constitutional Tory, but he was regarded by Lovett as belonging
1 Northern Star, March 31 to April 21, 1838, contains his biography.
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 91
to the " physical force " Chartists, with Bronterre O'Brien
and Feargus O'Connor, and a few specimens of his eloquence
given us by Gammage certainly somewhat discredit his pacific
claims. Thus, at a meeting held in Newcastle on January i,
1838, four months before the publication of the Charter, that
is to say before Chartism could be described as a movement at
all, Stephens declared that he " was a revolutionist by fire,
he was a revolutionist by blood, to the knife, to the death." 1
We may concede that Stephens did " protest too much " with-
out ceasing to believe that he anticipated that moral suasion
would be insufficient to bring his views into operation. Another
quotation supplied by Gammage represents Stephens as saying :
" If the rights of the poor are trampled under foot, then down
with the throne, down with the aristocracy, down with all
rank, all title, and all dignity." The extraordinary thing is
that in spite of having expressed such sentiments, Stephens
continued to describe himself as a Tory, and to deny that he
was a democrat. In point of fact he always denied that he
was a Chartist himself, even though his energies were so largely
spent on the spread of Chartist principles.
While we are enumerating the various towers of strength at
the disposal of the physical force party, it should not be supposed
that the W.M.A. was deficient in oratorical weight. Hether-
ington was a fine, convincing speaker, and Lovett could hold
his own in argument. The best orator of the Association,
however, was Henry Vincent, one of the six working men on
the committee from which the Charter emanated. He was
born in London in 1813, was a journeyman printer by profes-
sion, and had spent his boyhood in Hull. The Revolution of
1830 had roused his interest in politics, and Vincent soon found
himself a Radical ; he came to London about 1835, and made
friends with the Lovett- Watson group within a year or so. A
description of him, written a few years later, may be quoted :
" In figure Vincent is rather below the average height ; he is
firmly and handsomely built, and dresses with neatness and
good taste. His complexion is clear, fresh, and ruddy ; his
hair light and flowing ; and his eyes, keen and animated, are
1 Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement, p. 56.
92 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
of a dark blue. His head is large, and well developed in the
intellectual regions ; his features are finely cast and expressive
of much feeling, benevolence, and good humour. In his moral
character we believe Vincent to be unimpeachable." 1 At the
age of twenty-five, he was already the " Demosthenes of
Chartism." It may be added that Vincent was a Christian,
had hankerings after respectability, and shared Lovett's femi-
nist opinions. Vincent, Hetherington and Cleave became the
missionaries of the W.M.A., journeying over England to pro-
pagate universal suffrage.
Independently of either the W.M.A. or of O'Connor, Bir-
mingham was awakening to life. Thomas At t wood, one of
its M.P.'s, continued the battle for reform. A piece of exagger-
ated verbosity gained the attention of the young Benjamin
Disraeli and so, indirectly, of the country. It became generally
understood among the Radical reformers that much was to
be expected of Birmingham, and the movement gained in
strength in consequence. On January 18, 1836, Attwood
addressed a meeting in the Birmingham Town Hall, urging the
completion of the measures of Corporation Reform brought
forward during the previous years, " a substantial but judicious
and safe Reform of the House of Lords/' and the Reform of
the Irish Church. In the course of his address he threatened
he would raise twenty million men and bring them down upon
his opponents. Three days later Disraeli published his third
Letter of Runnymede, the exuberant verbiage of which must have
done much to advertise Attwood. The first paragraph is
worth quoting it is so quintessentially Disraelian : " Sir,
You may be surprised at this letter being addressed to you ;
you may be more surprised when I inform you that this address
is not occasioned by any conviction of your political importance.
I deem you a harmless, and I do not believe you to be an
ill-meaning, individual. You are a provincial banker labouring
under a financial monomania. But amidst the seditious fan-
faronnade which your unhappy distemper occasions you perio-
dically to vomit forth, there are fragments of good feelings
1 Cheltenham Free Press, November 5, 1842, quoted from Leeds
Times,
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 93
which show you are not utterly denationalized in spite of being
' the friend of all mankind/ and contrast with the philanthropic
verbiage of your revolutionary rhetoric, like the odds and ends
of ancient art which occasionally jut forth from the modern
rubbish of an edifice in a classic land symptoms of better
days, and evidences of happier intellect/'
After which Disraeli proceeds to belabour the " mystical
yet expeditious means by which 20,000,000 men are brought
into the field by a modern demagogue," for the total number
of adult men in the country was but 4,000,000.
Attwood, however, had revised the Birmingham Political
Union, and by the time Victoria had become Queen it had
regained its old qualities of royalist Radicalism, with, of course,
the distinctive Attwood views on currency. In 1837, a month
before her accession, the Princess Victoria was presented by
Attwood and Scholefield with an expression of loyalty and
admiration on the part of the Radical Reformers of Birming-
ham. In the course of the same year Lord Melbourne received
three separate memorials on the currency question from the
B.P.U. 1 It is said that such was his popularity in Birmingham
about this time that on the day of the proclamation of the
Queen in that city, " a most extraordinary and unprecedented
compliment was paid by the people to Thomas Attwood. As
soon as they caught sight of him walking in the procession, the
young and interesting Queen was entirely forgotten, and the
whole affair was turned into a gigantic demonstration in honour
of him, to the infinite disgust of the Tories, who were com-
pelled to walk about for three hours listening to deafening
shouts of ' Attwood for ever ! ' "
" Birmingham soon became the centre from which all poli-
tical proceedings emanated, but the very same causes which
gave it this influence divided its power and at length put it
at least into a state of abeyance. Mr. Feargus O'Connor .-*.
had become the working people's orator ; he was indefatigable
in travelling from place to place, and everywhere he went
great crowds assembled and to them he said whatever seemed
to him useful for his own purpose, with very little sense and
1 Wakefield, Life of Thomas Attwood, p. 305.
94 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
even less judgment, but with a volubility, a clear good voice
and a manner which was sure to carry his much less informed
hearers along with him. In this business he was mainly assisted
by A. H. Beaumont, Dr. Taylor, Oastler, Stephens, Vincent,
Harney, and several others, all of them ill-informed, outrageous,
mischievous persons. Thus was Mr. Attwood and his especial
friends pushed into the background. These men (O'Connor,
etc.), by their earnestness, their confident way of predicting
events, and especially their repeated assurances of a speedy
overthrow of all our social institutions and the establishing
in their places a much more rational and consequently just
system which should give to each of the producing, ' the only
useful class/ all the wealth in the country, the complete control
for the future, with treble wages and never-failing employment,
yet not exceeding eight hours a day, by these means they became
the acknowledged leaders of the masses of the working people
in many thickly populated places, at least of all those who
were at all willing to interfere in public matters, and these,
who must have been nearly the whole of them, were more at
their command than they or their fellows had ever before
been to anything like the same comparative extent. This, in
proportion as it excited the people, made their leaders crazy
and they committed wonderfully foolish extravagances." 1
In Birmingham a virtual contest took place for the leadership
of the local Political Union between Attwood and O'Connor.
Both men talked largely, attempting to outdo each other in
violence. In the end both O'Connor and Attwood were dis-
credited. The rhetoric of the Irishman frightened the Council
of the B.P.U., who could hardly bring themselves to believe
O'Connor's statement that he never invoked any force more
physical than public opinion. 2 Attwood was growing dis-
inclined to take a strenuous part in politics, and so the Birming-
ham movement lost both leaders. In May, 1839, we nn d Att-
wood complaining that he had " set the whole machinery in
1 Place Collection at the British Museum (Hendon), set 56, Vol. 2,
preface to newspaper cuttings.
2 Northern Star, November 17, 1838.
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 95
motion," but that his followers refused to follow. 1 Whatever
Birmingham thought of its leaders, it at any rate listened to
them. At an open-air meeting held on August 6, 1838, 200,000
persons are said to have been present. 2
We see, therefore, that no sooner was the Charter published
than three bodies of opinion, differing in several important
respects, were ready to take it up. These were first the mem-
bers of the W.M.A., led by Lovett, Hetherington, Cleave,
Watson, and Vincent, who took care not to adulterate the
pure doctrine of the Charter by any admixture of other social
reforms. This party was composed largely of atheists ; its
leaders had all been concerned previously in the agitation for
an unstamped press ; they were deliberately plebeian, believed
in peaceful methods, and were centred in London. The second
party was led by Attwood, Scholefield, and Muntz ; its mem-
bers belonged to the Birmingham Political Union, and were
more or less committed to Attwood's monetary reform pro-
posals, and were extremely loyal to the Queen, and generally
constitutional. Finally, in the north were the readers of The
Northern Star, the followers of O'Connor, Oastler, and Stephens,
who held views on factory legislation and the Poor Laws, and
did not bind themselves to the letter of the Charter. These
believed in the use of physical force, and were represented in
London by the Democratic Association, led by Harney. One
additional line of demarcation might be furnished by the atti-
tude of these three parties towards the repeal of the Corn Laws,
but we omit this, believing that this was accidental rather
than essential. Around the three parties veered the uncertain
figure of Bronterre O'Brien.
" Before consenting to draft the Charter, Place made the
leaders of the W.M. A. promise that they would prevent speeches
against the New Poor Law or for Socialism from being de-
livered on their platform." 3 The promise was frequently
broken ; naturally enough, the frequency of its infraction varied
1 Wakefield, Life of Attwood, pp. 344, 345.
2 Ib. p. 327.
3 Quoted by Wallas in Life of Francis Place, from MSS. 27,835
(160, 6).
96 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
directly with distance from London. Outside London the
W.M.A. had little influence, and the self-denying ordinances of
its leading members could not be expected to have any binding
effect upon the Radical propagandists of the North. The Rev.
J. R. Stephens, for example, hated the New Poor Law with a
bitterness that this century, even at war, cannot parallel. In
Northumberland and Durham he was the most prominent
and the most strenuous supporter of the Charter. Was it to be
expected of him that he should renounce an end for the sake
of a new means to it ? Obviously not. The singleness of
purpose, therefore, for which Place strove was never completely
realized. In so far as it was realized, it is perhaps open to
argument that the extravagant hopes to which the Charter
gave birth, and the utopianism of so many of its less-educated
supporters, were due to this deliberate attempt to isolate and
to strive for one thing only. Its very segregation from other
political tasks accentuated its value.
The shadow of the Physical Force party was visible very
soon after the publication of the Charter. The Northern Star
published 1 a series of extracts from speeches by O'Connell in
which force was invoked. Those quoted were concluded with
a few words on the subject of Feargus O'Connor. " I declare
the man who attempts to marshal physical force to be a
coward and a traitor. In every instance where it has been
resorted to, the dupes always consider the last shot and murder
as the completion of their object, whereas it is the commence-
ment of their misery. Moral power is the deliberative reasoning
quality in man's mind, which teaches him how to bear, and
when forbearance becomes a crime. Never will I acknowledge
that you have used your full moral power till every man works
as I have done, and has the vanity to consider that himself,
and himself alone, has gained the point ; and then, should
moral power fail, I will lead you on to death or glory."
Three months later, the irrepressible Harney was beginning
to foam at the mouth in a somewhat dangerous manner. 2
The breach between O'Connor and the B.P.U. was ostensibly
1 Northern Star, August 25, 1838.
2 Ib., November 17, 1838.
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 97
closed. It had been complicated by what seemed an alliance
between the B.P.U. and the hated O'Connell. Feargus O'Con-
nor published a recantation, written more in sorrow than
in anger. l He pleaded his past services to the Radical cause.
" I led you for three years under the fire of the press, the scorn
of the respectables, and the denunciation of the interested. . . .
I have been arraigned as a physical-force man, when I can
confidently appeal to all who have heard me that in my speeches
and writings I have been the first to portray the horrors of
confusion and civil war. I have never said to the people so
much as arm yourselves. ..." But the very number of The
Northern Star in which this appeared had another article, also
signed by O'Connor, headed " Physical Force," with a discon-
certingly different moral. The possession of weapons by a few,
he said, was bad, but " the arming of the whole community
capable of bearing arms would be the finest means of preserving
peace abroad, and harmony and satisfaction at home. . . .
By reference and speeches and writing it will be found that I
have never so much as said ' arm/ But now I say, ' arm ' ;
and I having said it, the fulfilment shall rest with the whole
people. ' Arm ' ; but in nowise use those arms offensively
nor defensively as individuals. . . . They must in nowise
be used against the constitution, even in your united strength."
The behaviour of Attwood is also curiously inconsistent. At
a meeting got up by the Birmingham Political Union on January
8, 1839, ne an d Joshua Scholefield recommended the use of
physical force. 2 On the I4th of the same month, at a meeting
of the Council of the B.P.U., with himself in the chair, Attwood
denounced physical force and rhetorically held forth on the
certainty of its leading to "an iron despotism." 3
As the result of these agitations Political Unions were revived
all over the country, differing widely in promise, though agreeing
on their principles. The Manchester Political Union (formed
in 1838) was perhaps an extreme example of the strictly con-
stitutional Chartist organization. Peace and goodwill fairly
saturated its objects and rules. There were seven objects in
1 Northern Star, December 15, 1838.
2 Place MSS. 27,821, fo. 10. 3 Do. fo. 19.
98 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
its Regulations, etc., and every one of them laid stress on
legality. Seven duties were prescribed for the members of the
Manchester Political Union, and these are worded in an equally
law-abiding spirit. The last two of these are counsels :
" To bear in mind that the strength of our Society consists
in the Peace, Order, Unity and Legality of our proceedings,
and to consider all persons as enemies who shall in any way
invite or promote violence, discord, or division, or any illegal
or doubtful measures.
" Never to forget that, but for the exercise of the above
qualities, we shall produce the peaceful display of an immense
organized moral power which cannot be despised or disregarded ;
but that, if we do not keep clear of the innumerable and intricate
Laws which surround us, the Lawyer and the Soldier will
probably break in upon us, and render all our exertions vain."
The eight duties of the members of the Political Council are
in a similar strain. 1
The Charter had been suggested, and drafted as a com-
promise, ( a common basis for Radical action. Launched upon
the world at a period of great excitement, it was itself a cause
of quarrels and divisions, though not at first acute. We may
realize how bitter the feelings of reformers were in those days
from the introduction to an article.
" At a time when the rights of industry have received a
dangerous, not to say mortal stab, in the persons of the five
Glasgow cotton spinners at a time when O'Connell has
avowedly joined the middle-class conspiracy to put down
Trades' Combinations at a time when the artisans of Dublin
are threatened with a new police, which is to be so vigilant
and effective that ' not two working-men can walk and talk
together in the streets without its being know what they are
about ! ' at a time when the producers of the nation's wealth
are told that they must not meet to consult on the interests
of their respective trades, except in the presence of a constable
or other constituted spy of the ruling classes at a time when,
in consequence of these nefarious proceedings, every workman
in the United Kingdom is threatened with the utter extinction
1 Manchester Political Union, 1838, Regulations, etc.
THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER 99
of his social rights as well as of his civil, and when he is thrown
back as it were on the laws of nature for self-preservation at
a time when, to facilitate the execution of this foul and fiendish
plot against the interests of labour, the New Poor Law Act is
being forced down the people's throats at the point of the
bayonet (Bradford and Huddersfield, to wit) at a time of
horrors like these, when every moment that the producers can
steal from their tasks and meals ought to be religously con-
secrated to plans of mutual defence against the enemy at
such a time, gentlemen, it does verily vex me to have to with-
draw their attention for even one hour from the immediate
perils which encompass them." 1
Into this sentence Bronterre O'Brien, before going on to
write about Canada, compresses all the grievances which the
Reformers of 1838 were attempting to remove. The passage
quoted, however, merely summarizes things as they were at
the beginning of the year. Yet compared with the immediately
preceding years, 1838 was a hubbub of movements and excite-
ments. Opposition to the New Poor Law and the " Bastilles "
animated even the least political members of the working classes.
Neither the King who had just died nor the young Queen who
had succeeded him enjoyed the confidence or even the respect
of the people. Radical organizations suddenly began to come
into existence all over the country. An eruption of manifestos
from all Radical quarters caused attention to be concentrated
in the possibility of immediate political action. Monster
meetings were held in every part of England, Wales, and the
southern half of Scotland. The Northern Star, begun late
in 1837, boomed prodigiously. Petitions to Parliament,
calling for the prompt repeal of the New Poor Law, were
presented in large numbers. The Charter was published.
Two events of the year, not of great importance in them-
selves, attracted an enormous amount of attention and were
the centres of crystallization of much Radical sentiment. The
Dorsetshire labourers, who had been so unjustly deported in
1834, were allowed to return in 1836, but did not actually
arrive until 1838. The tumultuous reception offered them
1 Northern Star, January 31, 1838.
ioo A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
gave a new impetus to the trade-union spirit and to forces
working in opposition to aristocratic government. The other
incident was the adventure of an ex-brewer named Thorn, or
Tom, of Canterbury, who went mad and proclaimed himself
to be Sir William Courtenay, Knight of Malta, King of Jerusa-
lem, and the Messiah. In the last capacity he preached various
doctrines, one of which was the destruction of the Poor Law.
Here was something the Kentish labourers understood only
too well. An armed force came to the help of Thorn. A
march was made upon Canterbury, shots were fired, the garrison
replied, and finally, Thorn and many of his followers were killed,
and the remainder captured. The significance of the affair,
which caused an enormous sensation at the time, lies in the
fact, now made obvious, that the peasantry and the working
classes were ready to risk their very lives on the chance of
getting rid of the Poor Law, even under lunatic leadership,
if no better were forthcoming.
But we have now arrived at the end of a period, and the
beginning of an episode.
CHAPTER IV
THE CONVENTION
Chartist campaign had begun with a tussle for leader-
X ship. The various Radical parties had agreed to sink
their political differences, and fought for precedence by
exaggerating their personal disagreements. An exchange of
tactical moves took place between the W.M.A. and the B.P.U.
The latter, in effect, accepted the People's Charter on condition
that the former accepted the Birmingham Political Union's
Petition, and the policy which this implied. In this way each
organization succeeded in making impossible the hegemony of
the other.
The petition was a document drawn up by R. K. Douglas,
editor of the Birmingham Journal ; x it was published only
eleven days after the appearance of the Charter. This some-
what windy screed began on a note of national self-congratu-
lation : " We your petitioners dwell in a land whose merchants
are noted for enterprise, whose manufacturers are very skilful,
and whose workmen are proverbial for their industry. The
land itself is goodly, the soil rich, and the temperature whole-
some. . . . ?or three-and-twenty years we have enjoyed a
profound peace." Then follows the other side of the picture.
' Yet with all these elements of national prosperity, and with
every disposition and capacity to take advantage of them, we
find ourselves overwhelmed with public and private suffering.
We are bowed down under a load of taxes . . . our traders are
trembling on the verge of bankruptcy ; our workmen are
starving, capital brings no profit, and labour no remuneration
..." etc. Then comes the remedy, arrived at by a process
1 Lovett, Life and Struggles, p. 201.
101 H
102 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
of deduction. " We have looked on every side, we have
searched diligently in order to find out the causes of distress
so sore and so long continued. We can discover none in nature,
or in Providence. Heaven has dealt graciously by the people ;
but the foolishness of our rulers has made the goodness of God
of none effect." And so on, in a tone of deepest disappoint-
ment. The Reform Act of 1832 is then described, it " has
effected a transfer of power from one domineering faction to
another, and left the people as helpless as before. Our slavery
has been exchanged for an apprenticeship to liberty, which has
aggravated the painful feeling of our social degradation by
adding to it the sickening of still deferred hope." Then the
tone becomes severe. " We come before your Honourable
House to tell you, with all humility, that this state of things
must not be permitted to continue . . . and that if by God's
help and all lawful and constitutional appliances, an end can
be put to it, we are fully resolved that it shall speedily come
to an end. We tell your Honourable House that the capital
of the master must no longer be deprived of its due reward ;
that the laws which make food dear, and those which by making
money scarce, make labour cheap, must be abolished ; that
taxation must be made to fall upon property, not on industry ;
that the good of the many, as it is the only legitimate end,
so must it be the sole study of the Government. As a preli-
minary essential to these other requisite changes, as a means
by which alone the interests of the people can be effectually
vindicated and secured, we demand that those interests be
confided to the keeping of the people. When the state calls
for defenders, when it calls for money, no consideration of
poverty or ignorance can be pleaded in refusal or delay of the
call. . . . We perform the duties of freemen ; we must have
the privileges of freemen." Then, at last, come the demands,
each of them annotated and explained by corollary propositions.
With these we are familiar. It should be pointed out that
in this petition only five of the six points of the Charter are
mentioned. Equal electoral districts are not demanded ; we
find this omission in a great many Chartist documents. It is
the only point of which the entire feasibility is open to doubt,
THE CONVENTION 103
and the Chartists themselves probably felt that five-sixths of
their programme mentioned in the petition would yield at
least ninety-nine hundredths of their expectations.
The next things on the programme were the collection of
signatures to the Petition, and the arrangement of its presenta-
tion to Parliament, and decision as to subsequent action, should
any be required. In order to obtain the signatures, the Peti-
tion was brought forward at Chartist meetings all over the
country after its publication. It figured conspicuously at the
great meeting in Birmingham on August 6, which has already
been mentioned. The enormous size of this gathering and its
apparent assent to the physical force sentiments and currency
theories enunciated by several speakers seriously alarmed the
W.M.A. It was at once decided to hold a monster meeting in
London, by way of counterblast. About the same time the
idea of holding a Convention appears to have been accepted.
It was intended that the various Chartist organizations, the
Working Men's Associations and Political Unions, should elect
forty-nine delegates (an assembly of fifty might constitute a
meeting and be illegal), who should meet in London, superin-
tend the final stages of the Petition, present it to Parliament,
and decide on further action. The Convention was to raise a
fund for its own subsistence, and for the purposes of the cam-
paign. This was to be known as National Rent. Each delegate
was to be responsible for the National Rent of his own consti-
tuencies, and was to be paid at the rate of ten shillings a day
for his attendance. The allocation of seats in the Convention
appears to have been left to chance. The B.P.U. elected eight
delegates, the W.M.A., with a membership of only 400, elected
seven. The Birmingham delegates, on the whole, were middle-
class men. They included the two Muntz brothers (one of
whom became Attwood's successor in the House), R. K.
Douglas, Glutton Salt, John Collins (a Sunday-school teacher),
and J. George Edmonds, who was afterwards Town Clerk of
Birmingham.
The meeting, to which the W.M.A. had attached the hope of
the downfall of O'Connor, was held on September 17, in Palace
Yard, Westminster. But how was O'Connor to be kept out ?
104 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
After all there was a nominal truce between the various sections,
and O'Connor was undeniably among the leaders. The speakers
were consequently heterogeneous as to views and expression.
J. T. Leader, M.P., was in the chair. Lovett and Hetherington,
Ebenezer Elliott, Cleave, Douglas, Colonel Thompson, and
O'Connor were among the speakers. Elliott and O'Connor
metaphorically foamed at the mouth, and the meeting took on
itself a hue not expected by its organizers. O'Connor, claiming
to represent " forty or fifty towns in Scotland and England,"
thrust himself forward as a figurehead. From the point of
view of numbers, the meeting was not to be compared with
the Birmingham demonstration. Only 30,000 are said to
have been present, although their earnestness was such as to
enable proceedings to last five hours. 1 On the following day
the Anti-Corn Law League was established. The mere fact
that it, too, was to call for working-class support, for purposes
similar to those for which the People's Charter had come into
existence, made Chartism and Free Trade into rival move-
ments.
As the year 1838 drew to an end, the leaders maintained their
ostensible truce and their unspoken feud. At the end of
December, the Rev. J. R. Stephens was arrested for seditious
language. He was speaking of the factory system, not of the
Charter, but the Chartists felt his arrest to be very personal
to them. Early in the year The Northern Star had described
him as " our pride ; pur boast ; our glory ; and our Radical." 2
The movement now felt that it had incurred the anger of the
_ ^'Government ; i;t was truly revolutionary ; in the modern
phrase, it had touched reality. In January, 1839, Lowery,
Harney and Dr. Taylor were chosen delegates to the General
Convention at a big meeting at Newcastle-on-Tyne. Harney,
addressing the crowd, assured them, as the representative of
the London Democratic Association, that that body had little
> faith in the coming Convention. " There were too many men
in the Convention who felt no other interest in the movement
than their own popularity." 3 This was virtually a hint that
1 Gammage, p. 47. 2 Northern Star, February 10, 1838.
3 Place MSS. 27,821, fo. 5.
THE CONVENTION 105
Newcastle need expect no unanimity and that Harney's party
(i.e., O'Connor's) did not mind how uncomfortable they made
it for their opponents.
It is difficult in these days to realize what hopes were enter-
tained by the organizers of the National Convention of its
ultimate effects. There was magic in the very word convention ;
its connotation was revolutionary and legislative, although its
actual meaning was no more than conference. But in 1839
the very right of public meeting and the liberty to carry on
Radical agitations had not yet been completely established,
and the thrill of committing an action in defiance of existing
governments could be easily earned at the price of attending
a Chartist meeting. Some of the Chartists understood the
psychological attraction of this aspect of their movement and
skilfully exploited it by means of midnight meetings, torch-
light processions, and all the paraphernalia of insurrection,
inspired and made real by the utterances of the " physical
force " party. Thus Dr. John Taylor was able so far to lose
his sense of proportion as to declare this debating society " the
most extraordinary experiment in politics which was ever
presented in the history of any country," and to compare it
with other assemblies with which it had nothing in common
save its title. Thus Conventions have been more than once
held in England, and on several occasions have performed all
the functions of Government. Such was the Convention which
declared the Throne vacant on the abdication of James, and
presented the crown to William ; and another was the Conven-
tion which recalled Charles II ; but there was this difference
between their position and that of the late Convention, viz.,
that in their case there existed no other Parliament, while in
ours both Lords, and Commons were in full and mischievous
operation. From which it would appear that the good doctor
actually believed that the National Convention possessed a
degree of legislative authority equal to that of the other bodies,
although it had not the same power. The Northern Star went
even farther, contrasting the impotence of Parliament with
the omnipotence of the Convention. "The Convention has
met ; and never did the eye of freeborn man light upon a more
io6 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
heavenly spectacle. . . . The first sight of the Convention
has amply repaid us for years of toil." 1 Even that cooler
organ, The Charter, declared that, " The aptitude for business
the acuteness the knowledge the comprehensiveness of
purpose the singleness of mind and, above all, the deep and
genuine sympathy evinced for the people by the delegates who
compose the Convention, would do honour to any body of
men, however high the artificial distinctions of society may
have placed them, and reflect credit on any constituency
by whom they had been selected for the trust confided to
them." 2
The impetus given by the interest in the Convention to the
growth of Chartism is indicated by the sudden appearance of
several journals. Place says that early in 1839 nine such papers
were running. On January 27 the W.M.A. started its own
weekly paper The Charter, edited by Carpenter. On February 2
a rival called The Chartist made its first appearance. Place
tells us that Carpenter obtained the backing of the W.M.A.
by making false representations, and criticizes the make-up
of the paper rather harshly. From a bundle of letters in the
first volume of The Charter in the Place collection it is, however,
to be concluded that he subsidized the unworthy organ with
considerable generosity in the evil days which befell it early
in 1840. There was no permanent chairman, partly because
no single delegate could claim to have the confidence of all
the others, partly because a permanent chairman meant a
permanent body, which was possibly illegal. For this reason
the Convention always solemnly adjourned from day to day,
and the members took it in turns to occupy the chair. The
number of delegates was originally fixed at forty-nine, in view
of the Act (one of the Six Acts) which made fifty the minimum
size of a prohibitable^ seditious meeting. Although fifty- three
delegates were elected, 3 in point of fact as many as forty-nine
1 Northern Star, February 9, 1839.
2 The Charter, February 17, 1839.
3 Northern Star, March i6and October 26, 1839, contains the official
list. Accounts differ as to the exact number. Lovett's figure and that
given by the official list agree with the number we have given.
THE CONVENTION 107
were never gathered together at any one time. The methods
of their election appear to have been various ; and as far as
one can gather from the incomplete and inconsistent accounts
of what happened, the utmost elasticity seems to have prevailed.
Thus, some constituencies elected more than one delegate ;
other constituencies, to save expense (so Gammage assures us),
combined for the purpose of electing a joint representative.
The Chartist plan of equal constituencies and secret voting
appears to have been abandoned entirely. The actual election
was carried out by the acclamation of a huge crowd, perhaps
the most undemocratic method of selection conceivable. The
delegates were a curiously mixed body. Besides the leaders
of the movement, who, naturally, were elected en masse, there
were three magistrates, six editors, one Church of England
clergyman, one Nonconformist minister, and two doctors.
There was a publican, and several working men. The rest
were almost all small tradesmen. Several were not appointed
until the Convention was actually sitting. 1 According to
Place, twenty-nine of the delegates did not work for wages,
while the remaining twenty-four did so work.
An examination made by Place of Lovett's monthly report
on the attendances for March shows that twenty-nine of the
fifty-three delegates were middle-class men and twenty-four
working-class men. Thirteen never attended at all and six
deserted. Of these nineteen useless members, only five were
working-class men.
The Convention met on Monday, February 4, 1839, at the
British Coffee House in Cockspur Street, London. Craig, an
Ayrshire delegate, took the chair. Proceedings began appar-
ently by an announcement from the chairman that 500,486
signatures had been obtained for the Petition, and that 967
of " National Rent " had been collected. There are three
separate accounts of the proceedings of the Convention. One
is that of Francis Place, 2 who was not a delegate. The second
was that of Dr. John Taylor, who represented Renfrewshire,
1 Place MSS. 27,821, fo. 143.
a Ib. MSS. 27,821.
io8 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Dumbartonshire, Alva, Tillicoultry, Northumberland, Westmor-
land and Cumberland at the Convention, and reported its
doings subsequently for The Northern Star. The third and
best is the report in The Charter. The first day's proceed-
ings were short ; it is sufficient to quote from the official
minutes.
The Rev. Arthur Wade, 1 LL.D., opened the proceedings by
a solemn prayer.
On the motion of Messrs. Collins and Moir, Wm. Lovett
was elected secretary for the day. It was resolved that any
person, whose election is known to two of the delegates present,
be considered provisionally a member of the Convention ;
but that such person be required to bring a petition and money
within a month, to constitute him a permanent member.
It was resolved that the individual expenses of the delegates
be a question between them and their constituents.
That Messrs. O'Brien, Vincent and Lovett be appointed a
committee to look out for a proper place to meet in, and that
they report to-morrow.
Another committee was appointed to draw up rules, etc.,
and a further committee to draw up an address to the people
of Great Britain.
The second day's business consisted of some formal matters,
and the adoption of a report recommending that the Hall at
Doctor Johnson's Tavern, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, should be
the scene of subsequent meetings. It was also resolved " that
the delegates present form themselves into sub-committees
for the purpose of waiting upon every Member of Parliament,
to induce them to support the National Petition and the People's
Charter, and that such committees make a written report to
the Convention." We find that some members protested
against this resolution, declaring that they would not degrade
themselves by recognizing the House of Commons in any way.
Harney wrote to his " constituents " in March saying : " I have
refused to visit members of Parliament to solicit their support
of the people's Charter, and why ? Because it is a miserable
farce because it is an absurd waste of time, and, moreover, de-
1 The delegate for Nottingham.
THE CONVENTION 109
grading to the characters of free-chosen representatives of the
people. Think ye, Englishmen, that these usurpers can be
convinced or converted by mere words ? No ; they uphold
their usurpation by brute force, and only will they be com-
pelled to listen to our petitions only will they grant our
demands, by force, or the fear of force/' 1
The subsequent days' proceedings of the Convention were
devoted to the preparation of a huge Petition to be presented
to Parliament a course of action, it will be noted, hardly
compatible with much of the revolutionary verbiage which
had preceded the formation of the body. Indeed, in answer to
a question in the House of Commons, Lord John Russell, the
Home Secretary, stated that the National Convention was " a
body for the sole purpose of preparing and presenting petitions
to Parliament." 2 The collection of funds was another of its
functions. Much of the business of the Convention was of
an indescribably petty nature. A committee is appointed to
select a doorkeeper. Its report is considered and the delegates
who were to reform the universe give a lengthy assent to the
employment, at thirty shillings a week, of Mark Crabtree, as
doorkeeper and messenger. Yet the delegates kept up their
enthusiasm, addressing meetings when they were not addressing
one another, still dreaming of the golden days to come when
universal suffrage was an established fact say in three months'
time. O'Connor still has the same conceit of himself and his
colleagues, writing in his Northern Star leader. 3 " The eyes
of the whole world are now of necessity directed to the People's
Parliament, and it is worthy of universal contemplation."
O'Connor, in fact, probably did a great deal to keep up the
delusion of the importance of the Convention by harping on
the possibilities of its illegal activities. At a public meeting,
for example, at which he was the last speaker, he concluded
the process, ably started by the previous speakers, of raising
the audience to a frenzy of enthusiasm in the following words. 4
" Suppose then, that on the morrow the Convention, in the
1 Northern Star, March 30, 1839.
2 Hansard, February u, 1839, pp. 219-220.
3 February 16, 1839. * Do.
no A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
discharge of their sacred duty ,were to be illegally arrested for
if they should be arrested it would be illegally what would they
(the meeting) do ? " Here the whole meeting, numbering about
3,000, yelled as one man, " We'd rise ! " and cheered ecstati-
cally. O'Connor, with enormous demagogic skill, declared
, that he was " hard of hearing," and asked the audience to
repeat its promise. And the meeting concluded with deafening
cheers and the deep- throated assertion that " We'd rise, we'd
fight ! "
So the Convention proceeded, but by degrees even its warmest
admirers began to show signs of the qualities which lie between
enthusiasm and boredom. The Northern Star reporter soon
finds it advisable to condense. Much of the discussion to which
he listened seems to have impressed him as merely peevish.
" A long and desultory conversation ensued, occupying nearly,
or fully, two hours. MI Much time was occupied in the endeavour
to induce the people of Ireland to take a share in the doings
of the Convention, to which they had elected no delegates.
Speeches were made about Ireland and her problems, and a
manifesto was drafted and discussed. All this took up a
great many days. The Convention, hoping against hope, took
legal advice as to its own legality. The solicitor consulted
gave as his opinion that there was nothing illegal about the
Convention so long as it remained free from the responsibility,
direct or indirect, of illegality.
. The tendency towards the advocacy of physical force gradu-
ally grew. On April 9 Richardson moved the appointment of
a committee to draw up a case to be submitted to the Conven-
tion relative to the power of the people to arm themselves. 2
He named thirty-one authorities " all of whom spoke in univer-
sal terms as to the fact that the possession of arms was the
best proof of men being free, and the best security for their
remaining so." Lovett cautiously supported this motion,
which was all too mild for the majority. Dr. Fletcher moved
as an amendment, " That we should not take any legal advice
on the subject ; but that this Convention is fully convinced
1 Northern Star, February 23, 1839.
2 Ib., April 13, 1839.
THE CONVENTION in
that all constitutional authorities are agreed in the undoubted
right of the people to possess arms." This was carried after
a warm debate. Richardson's motion had but four supporters,
the " previous question " found six, while Fletcher's amendment
had nineteen.
When the petition sheets came to be examined after about
a month's session it was found that several populous parts of
this country had apparently not been touched by the Chartist
propagandists, and missionaries were accordingly sent out,
and the presentation of the Petition was deferred. In the
meantime the delegates talked. The Secretary of the Conven-
tion himself observes, with a sigh : "In fact the love of talk
was as characteristic of our little house as the big one at
Westminster." 1 As was only to be expected, severe skirmishes
took place between the advocates of " physical force " and the
constitutional Chartists. G. J. Harney was doing his best
to outdo the object of his emulation by flourishing daggers
about at the meetings he addressed, by wearing a red cap, and
by apostrophizings such as this :
" Hail ! spirit of Marat I Hail ! glorious apostle of equal-
ity ! ! Hail ! immortal martyr of Liberty ! ! ! All Hail !
thou whose imperishable title I have assumed ; and oh ! may
the God of Freedom strengthen me to brave, like thee, the
persecution of tyrants and traitors, or (if so deemed) to meet,
like thee, a martyr's death." 2 Thus G. J. Harney, forced by
the apathy of the authorities to ever more extreme flights of
rodomontade.
The Convention itself endeavoured to put a stop to these
histrionics. Harney attempted to get three resolutions passed
as follows :
That if the Convention did its duty, the Charter would be
the law of the land in less than a month.
That no delay should take place in the presentation of the
National Petition.
That every act of injustice and oppression should be immedi-
ately met by resistance.
1 Life and Struggles of William Lovett, p. 204,
2 The London Democrat, No. i, April 7, 1839.
ii2 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
These resolutions meant, of course, the endorsement of
" physical force " by the Convention.
James Whittle, the editor of The Champion, a paper uphold-
ing the Cobbett tradition, brought forward a resolution that
Harney and two other members of the Convention who shared
his views should apologize for and disclaim the three resolutions
quoted above. They refused, whereupon Whittle threatened
a resolution expelling them from the Convention. They then
climbed down and apologized as required. But that was not
the end of the mischief. At a public meeting held on March 16,
Bronterre O'Brien announced that 1,200,000 signatures to the
Petition had already been obtained, 1 and hinted at " an equal
number of pikes." Harney predicted universal suffrage and
death within the year. In consequence of these and similarly-
intentioned declarations, 2 three of the Birmingham delegates
resigned Salt, Douglas, and Hadley. J. P. Cobbett, the
son of William Cobbett, and Dr. Wade had already unostenta-
tiously stepped out. Matthew followed shortly in their
footsteps. 3
Not only did these members resign, but the others soon
became particularly casual in their attendance. On April 23
O'Connor moved that " No Member of the Convention should,
from this day forth, be sent on the business of agitating, or as
a missionary, until after the presentation of the National
Petition." 4 He stated that thirteen members never attended
at all, and named as such, or as members who had only turned
up once or twice, Bunce, Wroe, Vincent, Good, Lovelace,
Richards, Cobbett, Osborne, and Whittle. In order to combine
propaganda with attention to the business of the Convention,
he suggested that it might become a peripatetic affair, sitting
one week in one large town, and the next week in another.
This suggestion was warmly received. It was decided that
the Convention should stay in London until May 6, and
then, the Petition having been presented, a move would
be made to Birmingham. Attwood and Fielden were the
members of Parliament who were selected for the purpose of
1 The London Democrat, March 23, 1839. 2 Ib., April 6, 1839,
3 Ib., April 27, 1839. 4 Northern Star, April 27, 1839.
THE CONVENTION 113
presenting the Petition to the House. Both were willing and
prepared to do the Convention this service, but they wished
to have, before the actual presentation of the document, a
resolution condemning the incendiary language of some of
the delegates, and also a letter saying that in future the
Convention would be " governed in its exertions to procure the
People's Charter by the principles of peace, law, and order." 1
This request met with the unmitigated disapproval of several
delegates who induced the remainder to pass a resolution
declaring that the right to petition was a constitutional privi-
lege of British subjects, that the Convention was determined
to make use of this privilege without qualification, that if
Attwood and Fielden would not present the petition, then
some other M.P. would be found for the purpose, and if such
an M.P. could not be found " this Convention will declare the
right of Petition a farce." Finally, however, Attwood and
Fielden consented to present the Petition. This " beautiful
and majestic roll " 2 was three miles long, with 1,200,000
signatures.
On May 7, 1839, ^ was P u * mto a van > decorated with flags
and explanatory inscriptions, and trundled off to Fielden* s
House in Panton Square, followed by the delegates in procession.
Fielden was out when the Petition arrived, but Attwood
received the Convention and chatted with its members. He
was asked to move, as soon as possible after the presentation
of the Petition, for leave to bring in a Bill for the enactment
of the principles of the Charter. This Attwood refused to do
on the grounds that while he believed in five points of the
Charter, universal suffrage, annual parliaments, vote by ballot,
no property qualification, and payment of members, he could
not approve of the sixth, i.e., equal constituencies, which would *
give Ireland 200 M.P.'s, against only 400 for the rest of the I
United Kingdom. Finally the Petition was left in the passage
of the house, and the delegates went away until the time should
come to take it to Westminster. 3 The National Petition of
the Chartists was not presented to the House of Commons by
1 The Charter, May 5, 1839. 2 The Northern Star, May n, 1839.
3 The Charter, May 12, 1839.
H4 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Attwood until Friday, June 14. He introduced it in a brief
speech, describing its history, from its adoption in Birmingham
on August 6, 1838: " Having been so adopted, it was then
forwarded to Glasgow, where, in a short time, it received no
less a number than the signatures of 90,000 honest, industrious
men." Attwood " held in his hand " a list of 214 towns and
villages where the Petition had been signed ; it now contained
1,280,000 signatures/ Attwood thoroughly realized that the
motive force behind the Petition was economic, and he at-
tempted to impress the House with the depressed condition of
the working classes. " The first thing sought for by these honest
men, every one of whom produced by his labour four times
more to the country than they asked for in exchange, was a
fair subsistence, and yet their country refused them one-fourth
of the value of their labours. Not only did the country do
that, but some of them had only three days' wages in the week,
and hundreds of them were paying 400 per cent, increase on
debts and taxes." He concluded by emphatically disassocia-
ting himself from the physical force party, and by moving
that the Petition be now brought up. This caused some
laughter owing to the bulk of what Sir G. H. Smyth called
" that ridiculous piece of machinery/' However, Attwood
managed to unroll sufficient to enable him to place one end
of it on the Clerk's table, and the House passed on to other
business. 1 Hansard, from whom the above account of the
presentation of the Petition has been condensed, makes no
mention of the contemptuous laughter with which the House,
according to The Northern Star, 2 greeted Attwood's speech.
It was not possible to move a resolution relative to the Petition
until July 12.
Before the members of the Convention left London, they
passed a series of resolutions suggesting what they described
as " ulterior measures," to be put to meetings held all over
the country before July i. The fate of these resolutions would
give the reassembled Convention an estimate of the strength
of the report upon which it could count. The meetings in
1 Hansard, June 14, 1839, vols. 222-227.
2 June 22, 1839.
THE CONVENTION 115
question were spoken of as the " simultaneous meetings,"
although in point of fact thay were spread over more than a
month. The cases of Stephens and Vincent, as we shall see,
were pending, and a letter from Lord John Russell to the
magistracy, offering arms to any middle-class bodies which
might be formed for the purpose of putting down the Chartist
meetings, had forced the Convention as a whole to contemplate
a course of action which a few months before would not have
occurred to any but a " physical force " extremist. The
resolutions took the form of questions to be put to the meetings.
1. Whether they will be prepared, at the request of the
Convention, to withdraw all sums of money they may indivi-
dually or collectively have placed in savings banks, private
banks, or in the hands of any person hostile to their just rights ?
2. Whether, at the same request, they will be prepared
immediately to convert all their paper money into gold and
silver ?
3. Whether, if the Convention shall determine that a sacred
month will be necessary to prepare the millions to secure the
Charter of their political salvation, they will firmly resolve
to abstain from all their labours, during that period, as well
as from the use of all intoxicating drinks ?
4. Whether, according to their old constitutional right a
right which modern legislators would fain annihilate they
have prepared themselves with the arms of freemen to defend
the laws and constitutional privileges their ancestors be-
queathed to them ?
5. Whether they will provide themselves with Chartist
candidates, so as to be prepared .to propose them for their
representatives at the next general election ; and if returned
by show of hands such candidates to consider themselves
veritable representatives of the people to meet in London
at a time hereafter to be determined on ?
6. Whether they wiljl resolve to deal exclusively with Char-
tists, and in all cases of persecution rally round and protect
all those who may suffer in their righteous cause ?
7. Whether by all and every means in their power they
will perse veringly contend for the great objects of the People's
n6 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Charter, and resolve that no counter agitation for a less measure
of justice shall divert them from their righteous object ?
8. Whether the people will determine to obey all the just
and constitutional requests of the majority of the Convention ? l
The B.P.U. is said to have suggested Nos. i, 2, and 3, although
of course the idea originated with Francis Place and his " To
stop the Duke, go for gold " poster of 1832. The fourth ques-
tion contains an echo of a speech by Feargus O'Connor, and
the fifth is said by Lovett to have been proposed by Bronterre
O'Brien.
While, on May 8, the Convention was fixing the places at
which these meetings were to be held, one of the delegates
read out a letter which he had just received from Birmingham.
The town was awaiting the Convention in a great state of
excitement and was virtually in a state of siege. Soldiers
were under arms, and the Riot Act was being read to angry
crowds. At the moment when the Convention was having
its feelings raised by this recital, as well as by another of
disorders in Monmouth, a delegate announced that Wellington
had accepted the Premiership. 2
On May 13 the National Convention, numbering but thirty-
five, arrived in Birmingham by train. This harmless incursion
was cheered by perhaps 150,000 voices, and immediately
spread a panic through the perturbed officialdom of the city.
Four thousand special constables were sworn in. The Mayor
collected twenty pieces of artillery and threatened to have
them used. However, immediately after the arrival of the
thirty-five, a procession was formed, the town demonstrators
going before and after the delegates, in order to protect them,
should matters come to that stage. The newly-arrived lunched
substantially at the Thatched House Tavern, and then moved
on to the Holloway Head, where an enthusiastic meeting was
held.
The next day the Convention reassembled at the Lawrence
Street Chapel. The whole day was spent in the discussion
of a manifesto, which was finally adopted. This manifesto
1 Life and Struggles of William Lovett, pp. 214-215.
Northern Star, May n, 1839.
THE CONVENTION 117
was to be made the basis of the simultaneous meetings and
contained a number of questions to be put to the crowds at
these gatherings. The most prominent questions were :
Are they prepared, in the event of the Petition and Charter
being rejected, to make a run upon the banks, and convert
their paper into gold ?
Will they refuse the payment of all rents, rates, and taxes ?
Will they keep a sacred month ?
Will they cease reading all papers opposed to them ?
Will they support Chartist candidates at the next General
Election ?
Are they armed ?
O'Connor induced the others to delete the questions about
payment of rents, rates, and taxes, and the reading of hostile
newspapers.
The next day or two brought reports of arrests at Westbury
where the Yeomanry had dispersed a meeting with great vio-
lence. Such reports had already been received from other
places, and we find, in reading the proceedings of the Birming-
ham Convention, a growing intensity of bitter determination
on the part of the delegates. They had not yet all become
avowed disciples of the Physical Force leaders but they had
all but ceased to speak of moral force. When the dates of
the Scottish simultaneous meetings had been fixed (June 10 and
19), Carpenter declared that " For himself he should go on
the mission, if appointed, with the full persuasion that he
should never come back. ' ' (Hear, hear. ) ' ' And Wery delegate
should go out with the same feeling/' (Hear, hear.) 1
It had been originally intended that the " simultaneous
meetings " should all be held on the same day, as the police
would have been weakened by having their attention distri-
buted over so many points at once. As usual, The Northern
Star spoke with two voices on the matter of physical force,
In a leading article it counselled, " Let no arms of any descrip-
tion be paraded. . . . Let even your words be carefully
chosen and rightly guarded. ... If any foolish old apple-
woman of a magistrate, upon the affidavit of any fish- wife
1 Northern Star, May 18, 1839.
I
ii8 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
as foolish as himself, choose to consider the meeting as unlawful
and read the Riot Act, let every one go peacefully home. . .' ;
But if, as is not unlikely, the peace be broken by its professed
conservators ; if the people, having given no provocation,
be wantonly attacked ; if British blood be shed by lawless
violence, why then then we give the people no advice at all.
We merely repeat our last week's quotation : ' When it is
their cue to fight, they'll know it without a prompter ! ' " l
In the very next column to that in which these words were
contained, appeared an illustration of a " New Chartist Wea-
pon," with a statement to the effect that they have been
manufactured in Winlaton in large numbers. The weapon
was the old-fashioned caltrop, said to have been used with
considerable effect against the English cavalry at Bannockburn.
The last of the Convention before its adjournment was the
passing of three resolutions moved by O'Brien, on the subject
of bearing arms.
ist. That peace, law, and order, shall continue to be the
motto of this Convention, so long as our oppressors shall
act in the spirit of peace, law, and order, towards the people,
but should our enemies substitute war for peace, or attempt
to suppress our lawful and orderly agitation by lawless violence,
we shall deem it to be the sacred duty of the people 'to meet
force with force, and repel assassination by justifiable homicide.
2nd. That in accordance with the foregoing resolution, the
Convention do employ only legal and peaceable means in the
prosecution of the great and righteous objects of the present
movement. Being also desirous that no handle should be
afforded to the enemy for traducing our motives, or employing
armed force against the people, we hereby recommend the
Chartists who may attend the approaching simultaneous
meetings' to avoid carrying staves, pikes, pistols, or any other
offensive weapons about their person. We recommend them
to proceed to the ground sober, orderly, and unarmed. As also
to treat as enemies of the cause any person or persons who may
exhibit such weapons, or who by any other act of folly or
wickedness should provoke a breach of the peace/
1 Northern Star May 18, 1839.
THE CONVENTION 119
3rd. That the marshals and other officers who may have
charge of 'the arrangements for the simultaneous meetings
are particularly requested to use every means in their power
to give effect to the recommendation embodied in the preceding
resolution. We also recommend that the aforesaid officers
do in all cases consult with the local authorities before the
meeting takes place.
4th. That in case our oppressors in the middle and upper
ranks should instigate the authorities to oppress the people
with armed force, in contravention of the existing laws of the
realm, the said oppressors in the upper and middle ranks shall
be held responsible in person and property for any detriment
that may result to the people from such atrocious instiga-
tion.
These resolutions mean two things. In the first place they
were passed in Birmingham where the B.P.U. prevailed. This
was of all the Radical bodies the most middle-class ; the tone
of the resolution however indicates that no rapprochement
or amicable relationship with the middle classes was even
contemplated. In short, the Convention, largely composed, as
we have shown, of middle-class delegates, deliberately adopted
working-class sentiments, and by shaking off its own origin,
became a movement intended to benefit a single class, rather
than the nation as a whole. In the second place, these reso-
lutions demonstrate the waning hopes of the pacifists among
the delegates. We have already quoted Lovett's despairing
comments on the situation, the tension of which was accen-
tuated immediately after his imprisonment. The events
that were to follow directly gave the movement no chance of
ever regaining the paths of quietness ; force can only be met
by force, persecution is a sword that cuts both ways.
Whit-Monday duly arrived and was the starting-point of
an oratorical campaign. The result of this was a great deal
of cheering and of moral encouragement for the Chartist
leaders, but of an altogether exaggerated and misleading nature.
Gammage gives a list of meetings as a " sample " of the scale
on which the " simultaneous meetings " attracted attention,
and he gives the numbers present at several of them. These,
120 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
as is usual with this form of estimate, are probably greatly
inflated ; it would seem that the meetings at Manchester,
Liverpool, Newcastle, Carlisle, Sunderland, Bath, Blackwood
(Glam.), Sheffield, Leigh (Lanes), and Glasgow attracted up to
1,351,000 hearers. This figure, as we have said, is certainly
above the truth, yet, as meetings also took place in London,
Hull, Preston, Northampton, Bradford, Penrith, Cockermouth,
and other places mentioned by Gammage, and as we know
that O'Connor and Harney separately toured the provinces
and addressed crowds at many other great towns, it is probable
that an even larger number than that stated applauded the
Chartist speakers.
On May 30, 1839, O'Connell addressed a remonstrance to
the Chartists of Birmingham, which embodied the middle
class liberal objections to the campaign of the Six Points.
He suggested that the Chartists were actually injuring their
own cause by their " exclusiveness." They excluded the
aristocracy and the middle classes, men aged from eighteen
to twenty, idiots and lunatics. The suffrage they demanded
was therefore not truly " universal." O'Connell then went on
to suggest the substitution of the words " household suffrage "
for the offending term. He proposed that there should be
four classes of household voters : (i) Male householders ;
(2) male heads of families, whether householders or " latchkey
tenants " ; (3) male artisans who had served a term of appren-
ticeship ; (4) male teachers and apprentices. These proposals
would in any case have been exasperating to men who had
pinned their faith to a catchword ; O'Connell made them
superlatively so by suggesting triennial instead of annual
parliaments, and by telling the Chartists that their manners
at public meetings were unpleasant. After this the " Libera-
tor," as may be expected, became a byword. The Northern
Star rose and rent him to pieces week by week. It is probable,
however, that O'Connell succeeded in making an unrecorded
impression. Without his Address would the Convention have
adopted on July 22 its Address to the Middle Classes ? We
venture to think that the tone of this document^ with its placa-
tory assurances and its avowed detestation of physical force
THE CONVENTION
121
methods, was inspired very considerably by the much-abused
O'Connell.
DELEGATES TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE INDUSTRIOUS
CLASSES
William G. Burns .
Peter Bussey
J. P. Cobbett . .
John Collins .
John Cleave .
William Carpenter .
William Cardo . .
Hugh Craig .
Robert Kellie Douglas
Abram Duncan .
John Deegan
John Frost
Matthew Fletcher
*
James Fenney
William Gill . . .
John Goods .
Henry Hetherington
Robert Hartwell
George Julian Harney
Alexander Halley
Benjamin Hadley
Charles Jones
Robert Knox
William Lovett .
Robert Lowery .
George Loveless .
Patrick Matthew .
Richard Mealing
Richard Moore .
Richard Marsden
James Mills . . .
Forfarshire and Aberdeenshire.
Yorks (W. Riding).
Do. Do.
Birmingham, Cheltenham, and Coventry.
London (except Marylebone) and Read-
ing.
Bolton-le-Moors.
Marylebone.
Ayrshire.
Birmingham.
Dumfries, Maxwelltown.
Hyde, Stalybridge, Glossop, Newmills.
Newport, Pontypool, Caerleon.
Bury, Heywood, Prestwich, Ratcliffe
and Ramsbottom.
Wigan, Hindley and West Houghton.
Sheffield and Rotherham.
Brighton.
London (except Marylebone) and Stock-
port.
Do. Do. Do;
Northumberland, Norwich, and Derby.
Dumfermline, Kirkcaldy, Allva, Clack-
mannan, Stirlingshire and Falkville.
Birmingham.
Newtown, Welshpool and Llanidloes
Durham County.
London (except Marylebone).
Newcastle and Northumberland.
Dorsetshire.
Perthshire and Fife.
Bath, Trowbridge, Frome, Holt, Brad-
ford (Wilts) and Westbury.
London (except Marylebone).
Preston and Chorley.
Oldham.
122 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
James Moir ....
Peter Murray M'Douall.
Charles Hodgson Neesom
Feargus O'Connor .
James Bronterre O'Brien
John Pierce ....
Lawrence Pitkeithly.
John Rickards .
George Rogers .
Reginald John Richard-
son
William Rider .
Thomas Raynor Smart
John Skevington
William Stephen Villiers
Sankey ....
Thomas Glutton Salt .
John Taylor ....
James Taylor
Benjamin A. Tight .
Henry Vincent .
Arthus S. Wade . .
Joseph Wood
James Wroe ....
James Whittle .
Glasgow and Lanarkshire.
Ashton-under-Lyne.
Bristol.
Yorks (W. Riding) and Bristol.
London (except Marylebone), Leigh
Bristol, Norwich, Newport (I. of W),
and Stockport.
Birmingham and Reading.
Yorks (W. Riding).
Potteries.
London (except Marylebone).
Manchester.
Yorks (W. Riding).
Loughborough and Leicester.
Loughborough and Derby.
Edinburgh and Midlothian.
Birmingham.
Renfrewshire, Newcastle, Carlisle, Wig-
ton, Alva and Tillicoultry.
Rochdale and Middleton.
Reading.
Hull, Cheltenham and Bristol.
Nottingham, Sutton-in-Ashfield, and
Mansfield.
Bolton-le-Moors.
Manchester.
Liverpool.
!
CHAPTER V
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION
WITH the reassembling of the Convention in Birmingham
on July i, the Chartist movement abruptly entered
into another phase. To explain this apparently sudden transi-
tion, a retrospect is necessary.
The steadily growing intensity of economic distress had
been accompanied by an increasingly obvious restiveness.
In the North especially, and in South Wales, a sullen determi-
nation to use whatever methods might be needed to upset
the Government appeared to dominate labour. Rumours
reached the Cabinet of preparations for armed revolt, drillings,
pikes, and so on. Undoubtedly these anticipations were
dictated by fact as much as by panic. We have no means of
knowing to what extent preparations for bloodshed were
actually made. Appendix I l contains a review of the evidence
tending to show that extreme measures were in contemplation.
The direct evidence that armed Chartists were ever organized
on more than a local scale is very slight indeed. The impression
gathered by the non-Chartist public of these preparations is
obviously enormously exaggerated. Virtually every volume
of memoirs covering 1838-41 testifies to the prevailing fear
of a revolutionary outbreak. A few specimens may be given.
On October 25, 1838, we find in Queen Victoria's diaries a
reference to Chartism in a fearful warning from Lord Melbourne.
" I am afraid that times of some trouble are approaching for
which Your Majesty must hold yourself prepared." 2
John Bowes, the well-known Methodist preacher, writes on
July i, 1839, to William Essler, a member of his own calling :
1 This appendix does not appear to have been written. J.C.S.
2 The Girlhood of Queen Victoria, Vol. II, p. 61.
123
124 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
" I am sorry to learn that you have thrown yourself into the
army of the bloodthirsty Chartists." 1
In his autobiography, These Eighty Years, the Rev. H. Solly
gives an account of his introduction to Chartism in Yeovil,
in 1840, illustrating by his description the normal middle- class
attitude to this phenomenon. He was taken by a local Chartist
named Bainbridge (who afterwards rose to some prominence
in the movement), of whose political views Solly was then
ignorant, to the Mechanics' Institute of the town. There he
found a dozen or so working men, some in their shirt-sleeves,
seated round a table, discussing something or other. Suddenly
a brawny man with a black beard thumped the table and began
a speech by exclaiming, " Mr. Chairman ! Though I'm as good
a Chartist as any of you. ..." Solly's feelings are reflected
in his own words : "I remember no more, and doubt if I
heard anything more, for that was enough to fill me with intense
alarm and disgust. It was clear to me that I had fallen among
a band of those desperate and violent men, as I supposed them
to be, who were engaged in their nefarious conspiracy, and as
soon as I could I left the room, grievously distressed." 2 Yet
the dread Chartists were in this case not physical-force men,
but admirers of Lovett. Bainbridge, by the way, soon effected
Solly's conversion.
Blackwood's Magazine contained an article, almost on the
eve of the Reform Bill passing into law, the tone of which
admirably illustrates the opinion and the fears of the wealthier
classes as to the probable consequences of the measure. " It
will be a general insurrection of the lower orders against the
higher ; an effort of the populace to take the powers of sove-
reignty into their own hands, and divide among themselves all
that is now enjoyed by their superiors. It will be followed
by the consequences which attended similar efforts in the neigh-
bouring kingdom. . . . The property of the Church will be
the first victim. . . . The national debt will be the next object
of attack ; the people will find it intolerable to pay the interest
of burdens which they had no hand in imposing ; public
1 Autobiography of John Bowes, p. 212.
* These Eighty Years, Vol. I, pp. 345-346.
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION 125
creditors will be swept off, and the industry of the people
relieved by destroying the accumulation of a thousand years
(sic). The estates of the nobility will then become an eyesore
to the purifiers of society ; land will be viewed as the people's
farm ; the public miseries will be imputed to the extortions
of those unjust stewards, and a division of the great properties
will be the consequence. In the consternation occasioned by
these violent changes, commercial industry will come to a
stand agricultural produce will be diminished the employ-
ment of capital will be withdrawn famine, distress, and want
of ^ employment will ensue the people will revolt against their
seducers more violent remedies will be proposed strong
principles of democracy will be maintained. In the struggle
of these desperate factions, blood will be profusely shed.
Terror, that destroyer of all virtuous feeling, will rule trium-
phant. Another Danton, a second Robespierre, will arise,
another Reign of Terror will expiate the sins of a new revolu-
tion, and military despotism close the scene." 1 Eight years
after these words were written, when the Chartist movement v
had already grown in strength, these inflated sentiments were
actually exhumed and quoted as a wise and accurate prognosti-
cation of what was to be expected. 2 The importance of
Chartism lies principally in the fact that by that portion of
the population of the country which was responsible for its
government, every Chartist was regarded as a potential Robes-
pierre. Sucfr was the state of feeling when Stephens was
arrested at the end of 1838.
His eloquence had gradually assumed such a dangerous tone
that the authorities took alarm. In consequence of a parti-
cularly inflammatory speech delivered at Leigh, Lancashire,
on November 13, 1838, a warrant was issued for his arrest,
which took place on December 27. The speech in question
had been delivered in opposition to the new Poor Law, and
its offending passages were based on scriptural texts. What
frightened the authorities, however, was that in the course of
the examination of Stephens at the New Bailey, Manchester,
1 Blackwood's Magazine, February, 1831, p. 185.
2 Ib., September, 1839, p. 303.
126 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
on December 28, a witness named Coward, a constable, declared
that he knew smithies where pikes were actually being made
at the moment, and that the Chartists were preparing for an
armed insurrection. * The trial was adjourned, and bail was
granted. Stephens occupied the interval by more declama-
tion. This outbreak of rodomontade was of course taken
seriously, and presently many of those who considered them-
selves dissatisfied with the existing order of things clutched at
the appellation Chartist, and so brought about demonstrations
entirely contrary to the principles and the spirit of a movement
which had constitutional reforms for its object. We are told
that " it became a practice of some persons calling themselves
Chartists to go in procession to the churches some time before
divine service began, and to take entire possession of the body
of the edifice. The scene was of course anything but decorous.
Some wore their hats others had pipes in their mouths but
it was not usually found that their conduct exceeded this
confessedly unbecoming behaviour." 2 For this deplorable
state of things there is no doubt that Stephens, with O'Connor,
was responsible. They had introduced foreign elements into
Chartism, and a very foreign spirit. By doing so, they had
attracted followers whose concerns were distinctly the reverse
of democratic. Although they had widened the audience
willing to listen to Chartist proposals, they had encouraged a
fringe of irresponsible listeners, whose behaviour caused the
intellectual claims of the movement to be swamped in the
outcry at their proceedings. The re-examination of Stephens
began on January 3, 1839, when he was committed to the
Liverpool Assizes, bail being allowed. According to Place,
" The agitation caused by his apprehension was very remark-
able. The whole body of Radicals felt it, and in Manchester
and its environs great apprehensions were entertained of riot-
ings and extensive mischief. All the associations called meet-
ings, and a vast number of people came to Manchester ready for
mischief." His examination had disabled Stephens from
attending the National Convention, and a substitute was found
1 Annual Register, 1838, Part II, p. 169.
2 Ib., 1839, p. 304.
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION 127
by his constituency. On being released on bail, Stephens once
again indulged himself in the full enjoyment of his popularity,
preaching political sermons and generally breathing fire and
slaughter. Meanwhile his friends had opened a Stephens's
Defence Fund, and a sum approaching 2,000 was received
in small subscriptions 1 by the time he had to come up for
trial. This took place in August and turned out to be a sur-
prising affair. In spite of the fact that the meeting, at which
the seditious utterances for which he was being tried had been
made, had been decorated by banners inscribed " Ashton
demands Universal Suffrage or Universal Vengeance," and a
few frankly sanguinolent messages such as " Blood," Stephens
made some amazing statements, which may have been partly
palinodial, but were to a certain extent undoubtedly suggested
by his rhetorical trick of appealing to his audiences by paradoxes
in which he appeared to condescend to their views. His
biographer, who quotes largely from Stephens's five-hour
speech in his own defence, supplies us with this delightful
quotation : " I am dragged here ... as though I were a party
to the Convention, and to the disturbances of Birmingham,
to the Charter, to annual Parliaments, vote by ballot, universal
suffrage, and all the rest of that rigmarole, in which I never
had a share. I only came forward to the men of Leigh, and
there declared my detestation of the doctrines of Chartism,
declared that if Radicals were in power my views were such
that my head would be brought first to the block, and my
blood would be the first blood that would have to flow for the
olden liberties of the country. Gentlemen, this is the individual
who is now brought before you as a Chartist. . . ." 2 He was
found guilty and sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment,
with sureties for good behaviour for five years after the period
of his confinement.
Peter Murray M'Douall was the next to be prosecuted.
M'Douall had in 1839 scarcely completed his twenty-fifth
year ; he was a surgeon by profession, and an idealist by tem-
perament. He represented Ashton-under-Lyne at the Con-
1 Gamage, History of the Chartist Movement, p. 101.
3 G. J. Holyoake, Life of J. R. Stephens, p. 165.
128 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
vention. The cause of his arrest was having attended " an
unlawful meeting," held in Hyde, on April 22 ; the case was
held up until August 16, when it was tried in Chester Hill,
the Attorney- General prosecuting. In opening the case, Hill
virtually delivered himself of the popular prejudice against
\ Chartism. " The object was to overthrow the laws by force,
and to excite the people to a bloody revolution, unless certain
. i rights which they had demanded were granted by Government/ 1
M'DoualTs " object in view was one of great atrocity, it was
one of the worst of objects that of filling his own pockets at
the expense of the poor." 1 M'Douall seems to have made a
certain sensation as the result of his long speech in his own
defence. After having explained the position taken up by
the Chartists, he alluded to a paper read by him at a meeting
of the British Association on the Factory System. He described
the vile effects of overcrowding factory workers into entirely
inadequate cottages belonging to the factory owners, and
stated the rate of wages paid : a rate he found generally
lay between 2s. 6d. and 5s. per head per week. From this
he went on to his own feelings, and to describe the impulse
given to his political views by the sight of the prevailing condi-
tions of the factory system. Finally he brought devastating
criticism to bear upon the evidence brought forward by the
prosecution, but the judge summed up strongly against him,
and the jury returned a verdict of guilty without retiring to
consider. M'Douall was sentenced to a year's imprisonment,
and was bound over to keep the peace for five years.
Early in 1839 Major-General Sir Charles James Napier,
K.C.B., the future conqueror of Scinde, received a summons
from Lord John Russell. He rushed down to London from
the north of England in only twenty-four hours, singing praises
to steam and smoke. On March 30 he saw Lord John, " a
mild person in manner : poor man, he is in an affliction which
makes it hard to judge, but he seems thoughtful and un-
affected/' 2 The Home Secretary was in fear and trembling
1 Trial of Peter Murray M'Douall.
2 Life of Charles James Napier. By Lt.-Gen. Sir W. Napier. Vol. II;
P- 5-
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION 129
of a Chartist insurrection. Napier, being in command of the
northern district, which extended over eleven counties, had
virtually to undertake the responsibility of suppressing Char-
tism on its native heath. For this purpose he was well suited,
having no fear of either Chartists or of the Government and
a certain amount of sympathy with both. He did not think
the Chartists, for all their pikes and red nightcaps, would be
dangerous, for " they have, seemingly, no organization, no
leaders, and a strong tendency to turn rebellion into money,
for pikes costing a shilling are sold for three and sixpence." 1
However, on making inquiries in London on the possibilities
of an actual insurrection, he found the Government " strangely
ill-informed." A little later on Napier heard from various
sources that the Chartists were not going to attempt an insur-
rection, but would rely upon assassination. It is characteristic
of this faithful Tory that he thoroughly sympathized with
this supposed course of action. " What has made Englishmen
turn assassins ? The new poor law. Their resources have
dried up but indirect taxes for the debt, and the poor law
throws them on a phantom, which it calls their resources
robbery follows, and a robber soon becomes a murderer." 2
The rumour of forthcoming assassinations spread throughout
the land, and the aged Duke of Portland came tremblingly to
Napier in April to ask if his life was safe. A few days later
Napier heard that in fact eleven men had met and cast lots
for murdering the Duke because of his support for the new
poor law. 3
During the following May the fear of an insurrection spread.
Napier exercised the utmost caution in avoiding even the
occasions of conflict. There was " a row " at Stone (Staffs)
early in the month, when a body of Chartists attacked a few
yeomen, much to their own discomfiture. England can never
be sufficiently grateful to Napier for having kept his head at
this trying period. In the face of unceasing rumours of
1 Life of Charles James Napier. By Lt.-Gen. Sir W. Napier. Vol. II,
p. 6.
2 Ib., p. 9.
3 Ib., p. 10.
130 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
immediate outbreaks, each more wildly exaggerated than its
predecessor, he went on organizing his soldiers and taking
care that they should not be used until it was thoroughly
necessary. When he heard that 250,000 armed Chartists
were on the verge of revolting in Yorkshire, he did nothing
rash. When, a few days later, a million Yorkshire men were,
it was alleged, starting on a march on London, Napier planned
schemes of outflanking this immense body, should it ever
materialize. When the great meeting at Kersall Moor was
held on May 25, Napier was present in " coloured clothes/' 1
and found that the opinions expressed by the orators were
" orderly, legal . . . pretty much don't tell this ! very like
my own ! " About this time he appears to have proven to
an unnamed Chartist leader the utter inadequacy of five brass
cannon to which the rebels had pinned their faith, by allowing
him to come and inspect the guns at a barrack. He soon found
that some of the Chartist leaders were amenable to reason
and tactful handling, and the discovery appreciably reduced
the risk of bloodshed. Indeed there was nothing so terrible
to Napier as the prospect of shedding blood. " Good God,
what work ! " he exclaims. " To send grape-shot from four
guns into a helpless mass of fellow-citizens ; sweeping the
streets with fire and charging with cavalry, destroying poor
people whose only crime is that they have been ill-governed
and reduced to such straits that they seek redress by arms,
ignorant that of all ways that is the most certain to increase
the evils they complain of." During the next few months he
is continually complaining of the behaviour of the magistrates,
who in his opinion were responsible for the Birmingham riots
on July 15, and for the generally fevered state of the people.
He ridicules the idea that the Sacred Month will actually be
carried out. In spite of all the fears expressed by the magis-
tracy, on August 17 Napier is able to report that " all is quiet
throughout Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham, Cheshire, West-
1 Life of Charles James Napier. By Lt.-Gen. Sir W. Napier. Vol.
II, p. 39. The Chartists claimed that the number present on this
occasion was between 300,000 and 500,000. According to Napier,
there were only 30,000, many of whom were not Chartists. (Vol. II,
P- 43-)
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION 131
morland, etc. Bolton is the only place where shot has been
fired, but only three there, and those from the eagerness of
the magistrates." Under his almost inspired guidance, the
persons who were demanding blood failed to get it. Napier
understood well the connexion between economic distress and
rebelliousness, and therefore refused to regard the latter as
the symptoms of revolution. It should not be forgotten,
however, that Lord John Russell, timid though he may have
been, held the same views as Napier on the employment of
the armed forces of the crown. " In 1835 Russell agreed with
the Irish law officers that soldiers and police should not be
used for the collection of tithes except in emergency. He
mentioned that in England he warned the Lords-Lieutenant
and the Commander-in- Chief not to allow troops to be brought
within sight of the people unless actual rioting took place.
This was always a valued principle with him, and I have heard
him tell how in the Chartist movement of 1848, even at the
most threatening moments, he in concert with the Duke of
Wellington arranged that the troops should be kept out of
sight." 1 This is the testimony of Lord John Russell's son.
Lord John Russell's account of his own impressions of the
Chartist movement, 2 however, does not convey the conviction
of any unusual wisdom on his part. It is indeed open to argu-
ment that on Russell's own showing he hardly understood
what all the excitement was about, that he gave Napier a free
hand to deal with it, and that he did not know how Napier
dealt with it.
The Physical Force Chartists relied perhaps overmuch on
the counsel of a frequently-mentioned book by a refugee foreign
officer, Colonel Francis Maceroni, Defensive Instruction to the
People? According to the Colonel the armed populace could,
under certain circumstances, be more than a match for trained
troops, especially in street fighting. At the Convention the
possibilities of this form of conflict were enthusiastically dis-
1 Early Correspondence of Lord John Russell. Introduction. Vol. I ,
p. 73. Edited by Rollo Russell.
2 Recollections and Suggestions, 1873, pp. 145148.
3 Published 1832, revised and reprin^d 1834.
132 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
cussed in private by members of the Physical Force party. 1
Alexander Sommerville, an ex-soldier of .-' Chartist sympathies,
frightened by the militant tone of some of his friends, published
a series of penny pamphlets, Warnings to the People on Street
Warfare, in which he argued, with considerable knowledge,
that not the advice of Maceroni, nor the experience of past
revolutions in European cities, nor the utmost possible dis-
cipline and organization could enable workmen to resist
trained troops and their artillery. According to the author,
these pamphlets were widely read and did much to neutralize
the prevailing bellicosity of the Physical Force Chartists. 2
A meeting at Nottingham about April 20, 1839, presented
Oastler with a spear, apparently in the mistaken belief that
it was a weapon. The occasion was marked by an oratorical
outburst of some violence in which the working classes were
advised to arm and to " walk upright." He did not suggest
that the weapons were for use ; first let the working men try
the effect of a petition backed by pikes and then, if the Govern-
ment remained unexpectedly unafraid or unwilling, then " we
shall fight." 3
1 Sommerville's Conservative Science of Nations, p. 213.
2 Alexander Sommerville (1811-1885) w ,s the son of an East Lothian
farm labourer. He enlisted in the Scots Greys in 1832, and was with
his regiment in Birmingham just before the outbreak of the Reform
Riots. The soldiers were ordered to prepare to deal drastically with
the mob, who were contemplating a march on London, and Sommerville
was among those who protested. A few weeks later he was court-
martialled for a petty breach of discipline and flogged. Sommerville
maintained his belief that his previous action had made him persona
ingrata to his officers, and succeeded in obtaining an inquiry into the
matter. The consequent notoriety and hero-worship gave him an inflated
idea of his own importance. With the interval of 1835-7, spent on
foreign service, Sommerville henceforth lived in publicity, for publicity,
doing journalistic work in London, Dublin, and in Canada, where he
died. He was an anti-Corn Law Radical by profession, and derided both
the physical force and the " sacred month " proposals. A good ideal
of his writing was signed " One who has whistled at the Plough."
He was subsequently designated by Cobden in a letter to Bright (Novem-
ber 4, 1849) as a most suitable author for a history of Chartism. (Mor-
ley, Life of Cobden, p. 519, in one-volume edition.)
3 The Charter, May 5, 1839.
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION 133
While the Convention had been sitting, the more extreme of
the Chartists had been making sporadic and ineffective efforts
to work up something in the nature of an insurrection. On
April i, Vincent, Carrier and Roberts were to have addressed
a meeting in the Market Place, Devizes, but the natives would
have none of it attacked the Chartist procession, and, we are
told, only allowed the speakers to leave the town on condition
they promised never to return to it. During the same month,
an attempt to take arms by force from farmers at Llanidloes,
Montgomeryshire, was ascribed to Chartists, but the identity
of the men in question was not established, as all concerned
succeeded in escaping. Early in May, seven Chartists were
arrested in Manchester for drilling, although no weapons were
found in their possession. Other arrests were made at Westbury
(Wiltshire) and Trowbridge. Vincent was the next prominent
Chartist to be arrested. Together with Townsend, a wine
merchant, and Dickenson, a pork butcher, he was apprehended
for " attending a seditious assemblage at Newport, Mon.,
which had also been addressed by Frost. The arrest took place
on May 8, on the day after the defeat of Melbourne's Govern-
ment. The whole of England and Wales was in a highly excited
state at the time, and numerous arrests were made. Vincent
was taken from London to Newport, through Bristol, which
seems to have been in a mood reminiscent of the riots of
1832. While the country agitated itself about the " Bed-
chamber Question " it became necessary to tub- thump with
particular force to be heard at all, consequently Chartist
propaganda grew in intensity, and arrests were even more
numerous. Vincent, we may add, was not tried until
August 2, 1839, when he was condemned to twelve months'
imprisonment. His case came up in the House of Lords
a week later, as a result of which Vincent's imprisonment
received the mitigations usually extended to political
offenders. 1
Thirty-two Chartists were tried in Welshpool on July 18 on
a charge of unlawful assembly, and beginning to demolish,
1 William Dorling, Henry Vincent, a Biographical Sketch, p. 19.
134 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
pull down, and destroy the dwelling house of David Evans,
in Llanidloes, with some other cases of drilling and learning to
use arms. The result was as follows :
i Stabbing with intent to do bodily
harm . . . v ' # .. .' 15 years' transportation.
3 Training and drilling to use arms 7 years' transportation.
1 Seditious words . . \ . . I year imprisonment and
recognizances for 5
years.
2 Riot and assault . i year hard labour.
5 Drilling and training ... 6 months.
17 Riots (including 3 women) . 6 months' hard labour.
8 Riots 3 months' hard labour.
2 Riots 2 months' hard labour.
7 Acquitted or entered into recognizances.
On May 17, at two o'clock in the morning, two delegates,
Brown and Russell, 1 were arrested by the Birmingham police
for having " made use of inflammatory language tending to
excite her Majesty's liege subjects to a breach of the peace."
The occasion of this alleged incendiarism of speech was a
meeting at the Bull Ring held as far back as March 21. Both
prisoners were Lrought up before the magistrates the next
morning and committed for trial.
Lord John Russell had addressed a circular letter to the
magistracy offering arms to any association of the middle
classes that might be formed for the purpose of putting down
the Chartist meetings. 2 This, coupled with the generally
high-handed behaviour of the Birmingham bench, raised the
Convention to a pitch of fury which only needed an opportunity
to burst out upon its opponents.
After the great series of meetings had been concluded, the
Convention reassembled in Birmingham on July i. O'Connor
had started through The Northern Star a Defence Fund for
arrested Chartists, he now commended it to the goodwill of
the delegates. The " missionaries " who had represented the
1 Acquitted August 7.
2 Lovett, p. 208.
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION
135
Convention of the Simultaneous Meetings reported on their
experiences and the enthusiasm of their audiences. We have
already mentioned the proposals contained in a number of
questions appended to the manifesto laid before the simultane-
ous meetings. The delegates now discussed methods of putting
these " ulterior measures " into action. One delegate after
another suggested that a run be made on the banks, and that
the people prepare for the " sacred month," under which name
Benbow's proposal was now masquerading.
The first occasion on which the initiative was taken by the
Birmingham authorities in their opposition to Chartism was
on July 8. A meeting was in progress in the Bull Ring.
Apparently, at the moment the attack upon it was made, it
was peacefully engaged in standing around a man who was
reading aloud from a newspaper. A scrimmage was caused
by an attempt to clear the place by force, a few persons sus-
tained injuries, and Dr. Taylor, one of the most energetic of
the Birmingham Chartists, was arrested. Ten others were also
taken into custody. The next morning the Convention, or as
much of it as was present in Birmingham, with a number of
local men, held a protest meeting and passed three resolutions
drafted by Lovett. These were as follows :
ist. That this Convention is of opinion that a wanton,
flagrant, and unjust outrage has been made upon the people
of Birmingham by a bloodthirsty and unconstitutional force
from London, acting under the authority of men who, when
out of office, sanctioned and took part in the meetings of the
people ; and now, when they share in public plunder, seek
to keep the people in social slavery and political degradation.
2nd. That the people of Birmingham are the best judges
of their own right to meet in the Bull Ring or elsewhere,
have their own feelings to consult respecting the outrage given,
and are the best judges of their own power and resources in
order to obtain justice.
3rd. That the summary and despotic arrest of Dr. Taylor,
our respected colleague, affords another convincing proof of
the absence of all justice in England, and clearly shows that
there is no security for life, liberty or property till the people
136 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
have some control over the laws which they are called upon to
obey. *
These resolutions were immediately taken to a printer by a
delegate, John Collins, set up, and posted up all over the town,
over Lovett's signature, the same day. Whereupon both
Lovett and Collins were arrested and committed to trial, bail
being fixed at 1,000 each. Three days later, on July 12, an
alarmed House of Commons expressed its view of the matter
by its treatment of Attwood's motion to consider the Petition.
On the division, 237 were against, 48 for. Chartist indignation
naturally added fuel to the flames. Some delay took place
before the bail for Lovett and Collins could be found in conse-
quence of the general fearfulness, but after some days' impri-
sonment, J. S. Leader, M.P. for Westminster, and Sir William
Molesworth offered to stand bail for Lovett, and the magis-
trates accepted an offer they had previously refused for Collins.
Immediately afterwards a number of other arrests were made.
On July 15 a large crowd collected to welcome Lovett and
Collins, who were expected to come out of prison. The police,
as before, turned up in huge numbers and attempted to break
up a peaceful demonstration. The result was a good deal of
rowdiness, and several shops were looted ; while of course
the anti-Chartists allege the demonstrators to have been
responsible for this, it is tolerably certain that this was, as
usual, the work of the non-political hooligan element which
is attracted to all large gatherings, political or otherwise, by
what William James calls the " herd-instinct." The soldiers
were then called out : the riot soon subsided. There were several
casualties, but no deaths. Lovett and Collins had been
subjected, while on remand, to various unpleasant indig-
nities, which they made the subject of a memorial to
Parliament.
The riots, which hitherto had been inconsiderable, now surged
up dangerously. For some days the hooligan element was
in the ascendant, houses were burned, and shops sacked. It
1 Annual Register for 1839, p. 104 ; Lovett's Autobiography, p. 219;
Gammage's History, p. 132; Northern Star, July 13, 1839. Slight
Verbal differences appear in all these versions.
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION
137
appears that the authorities, thoroughly frightened, attempted
to clear the Bull Ring by armed force. Rumours to the effect
that armed colliers were coming to the help of the Chartists
were met by the importation of dragoons. Dozens of arrests
were made. Most of the persons taken up were subsequently
discharged or acquitted, but three men (one of whom had a
wooden leg) and a boy were tried on the charge of arson and
sentenced to death. 1 This was afterwards commuted to trans-
portation on the grounds of possible mistaken identity. 2
During the Birmingham Riots, Harney, it appears, was
" wanted " by the authorities, but could not be found. One
man alone, G. J. Holyoake, knew where he lodged, and regarded
himself as the keeper of the imitator of Marat. 8 Holyoake and
his protege, it seems, lodged opposite each other in a little
street off the Bull Ring, 4 and so actually lived in the centre
of the rioting. Harney was, however, arrested at Bedlington
at the end of July. Benbow, now a Manchester shoemaker,
was sentenced to sixteen months' imprisonment in August
on a charge of seditious language.
Collins and Lovett were tried on August 6, before a jury
which contained two men who were known to have expressed
the wish that " all the Chartists were hanged." 5 The Attorney-
General, who prosecuted, was a tactful man and told the jury that
that was to be the last case his public duties would ever allow
him to take in the county of Warwick, and that he should
ever recollect, " with gratitude and with admiration/' the
firmness and the determination which the juries of Warwickshire
had displayed. T. Clutton Salt gave evidence on behalf of
Lovett, and said that he had always " exhibited a disgust of
all violence, and a desire to produce change only by influencing
public opinion. He concluded by stating that the idea of the
General Convention originated either with Muntz or Attwood
a sound strategical move, as Muntz had been among those
magistrates who committed Lovett and Collins for trial. The
1 Northern Star, August 10, 1839. 2 Ib., August 31.
3 G. J. Holyoake, Bygones Worth Remembering, Vol. I, p. 112.
4 J. MacCabe, Life and Letters of G. /. Holyoake, Vol. I, p. 42.
5 Trial of W. Lovett, p. 4.
138 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
jury, however, was not to be impressed by such means, and
the accused were each sentenced to one year's imprisonment
in the County Gaol, Warwick.
Lovett and Collins, once immured, suffered terribly. The
local magistracy was determined that such of the many indul-
gences which were in their power to grant should not be
granted. This was in spite of medical testimony and petitions
to Parliament from the W.M.A., the people of Birmingham,
Francis Place, and Mrs. Lovett. Warburton and Buncombe
brought up the matter in Parliament. The Marquis of Nor-
manby (Home Secretary, 1840) also failed to move the magis-
trates. After six months' petitioning a slight change for the
better was effected. Collins and Lovett utilized the permission
to use pen and ink by writing a small book entitled Chartism,
or a New Organization of the People.
O'Brien was arrested in Newcastle-on-Tyne, with several
less prominent Chartists, on July 7, 1839, on the usua -l charge
of seditious speaking. 1 The knighthood which was promptly
given to John Fife, the Mayor of Newcastle, appears to have
been the direct reward of his anti-Chartist activities. The
trial did not take place until February 29, 1840, when the only
evidence forthcoming against O'Brien was that of a newspaper
reporter. All the accused were acquitted on the same day,
and the disappointed prosecution forthwith set to work to
invent other reasons which should seem good enough to lay
a few Chartists by the heels. A few months later O'Brien
was tried at Liverpool on a charge of conspiracy and attempted
rebellion, and this time was found guilty, and sentenced to
eighteen months' imprisonment. 2
On assembling on July n, the Convention elected Mrs.
Lovett as its secretary, in her husband's place. She does not
appear, despite her pronounced willingness, to have ever taken
over the secretarial duties. On the I4th of the month, the
delegates met once more in Bolt Court to consider the " ulterior
measures." Lowery's proposal that the "Sacred Month"
or " Month of Rest " should begin some time in August met
with general approval, except from a few members who wanted
* Gammage, p. 149. 2 Ib., p. 179.
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION 139
to begin earlier. 1 Subsequent discussions did not reveal
the same hearty unanimity. Richardson made the strong
point that the industrial classes had had " several sacred months
already," and that the manufacturers would now regard it
as a godsend if their people went on strike. Other delegates
wanted the Sacred Month to begin the very next day. On
July 17 2 it was agreed that the Sacred Month should begin
on August 12, that " the Convention should call on the trades
of the United Kingdom to co-operate with them in carrying
out the ulterior measures, and that the Committee on the
National Holiday take charge of the business," and that the
Convention convert their funds into gold. But even then there
was opposition. Frost, a stranger to the Convention since
his arrest, wrote from Bristol declaring that the Convention's
orders stood at the moment little chance of being obeyed in
Wales. O'Connor, as usual abstaining from definitely com-
mitting himself, had not attended the Convention during the
few days when the general strike was under discussion. On
July 22, 3 Bronterre O'Brien made a long speech and moved
that in view of the unprepared state of the people, the thinness
of the Convention, from desertion as well as from arrests, and
the variety of opinions, among the delegates as well as among
the general public, the date when the general strike should
begin ought to be settled by the people generally, rather than
by the Convention. O'Connor virtually supported this, having
made the curious discovery that the delegates who had com-
mitted the Convention to August 12, a few days earlier, all
represented thinly-populated and unorganized constituencies.
After several days of a discussion, which at times perilously
approximated to a wrangle, the Convention was coaxed into
unanimity by the combined efforts of O'Brien and O'Connor,
and a committee of seven was appointed, to sit in London,
and to carry into effect the decision of the working classes as
soon as it could be determined. The seven chosen for this
committee were O'Connor, O'Brien, Fletcher, Carpenter, Lowery,
Smart and Burns.
1 Northern Star, July 20, 1839. a Ib., July 27, 1839.
* Ib., July 27, 1839.
140 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
The Northern Star strongly supported O'Connor on this
matter, warning its readers, in capital letters, that Any Attempt
to Bring about the Sacred Month Before a Universal Arming
Shall Have Taken Place will ruin all. 1 O'Connor hn.iself
addressed his " dear friends," the " working millions," in its
columns, and besought them to do themselves no harm in
characteristically hypocritical words. " I never will, with a
certainty of my own dinner, recommend a project which may
cause millions to starve. No ; I would rather go to battle."
The following week, in order to keep up the excitement, the
editorial article in The Northern Star, with real journalistic
flair, was made to conclude by warning the House of Commons
that " a refusal to grant the people justice will turn their
appeal for the Charter into a demand for a REPUBLIC."
While the Council of Seven sat in London, at the Arundel
Coffee House, 2 the Convention once more dispersed. The
Seven embodied their instructions in a harmless series of
resolutions, and finally convened the Convention for August 26. 3
At various places in the north of England, e.g., Dewsbury,
Almondbury, and to a slight extent in Manchester, a three
days' holiday actually took place. The strikers kept the peace,
and everything went off with perfect good-humour and ineffec-
tiveness.
A Scottish Convention sat for three days, August 14-16,
in the Universalists' Chapel, Glasgow, to consider ways and
means of obtaining universal suffrage. Sixty delegates
attended, but business seems to have been confined almost
entirely to the reception of reports of progress from those
present. O'Connor was present and made a speech on the
necessity of co-ordination among the Four Kingdoms.
On August 30 a large Chartist meeting at Newcastle-on-Tyne
was broken up by the police with some violence. The next
day an affray took place in Stockport, where a quantity of
weapons had been seized, said to belong to the Chartists.
1 August 3, 1839.
2 Strand, opposite St. Clement Dane's Church. Northern Star,
August 10, 1839.
3 Northern Star, August 24, 1839.
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION 141
These retaliated by capturing some arms intended for the use
of the military, but these were, after a long fight, recaptured.
Again several persons were seriously hurt. Before the end
of the year wholesale arrests had taken place at Stockport,
Chester, Hulme, Manchester, Bolton, and Nottingham.
Early in the year 1839, a singular correspondence had taken
place between Lord John Russell and John Frost. It began
by an inquiry on the part of the former whether it was true
that Frost, a J.P. of Newport, Monmouthshire, had attended a
meeting at Pontypool, at which violent language had been
used, and whether he was a member of the Convention. Where-
upon Frost replied at great length, but in an altogether dignified
manner, to the effect that he had been put upon the magistrates'
bench because he was a good citizen, and that in attempting
to get the law of the land changed he was acting in a manner
perfectly compatible with good citizenship and in which Lord
John Russell and the Whigs had themselves acted when neces-
sary. Frost then received what can only be described as a
qualified apology, and published it, adding " if Lord John
takes my name off, the people will put it on." Another letter
followed from Russell's secretary, asking if this addition had
been made, as reported. Frost then wrote a spirited letter
saying that if he had made any remarks personally objectionable
to Lord John Russell he would apologize, but he entirely denied
his right to censor his opinions. This closed the matter for
the time being. 1 The next thing that happened to ruffle the
surface of Frost's constituency was the arrival of two mission-
aries, delegated by the Convention to work up Monmouthshire
and the adjoining counties. These were Burn, a compara-
tively insignificant man, and Vincent, by this time acknowledged
as one of the finest orators of the movement. Before long,
in the opinion of Vincent's enemies, he " fully succeeded in
establishing his perfect supremacy among the operatives of
the coal and iron districts," 2 especially in the neighbourhood
of Newport. So threatening did this " supremacy " appear
to the local gentry that they took steps to protect themselves
1 Annual Register, 1839, Part II, pp. 22-26.
2 The Rise and Fall of Chartism in Monmouthshire, p. 16.
142 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
in case of any outbreak. An armed association was formed at
Christchurch, for the purpose of defending property. Appeals
were made to London, and troops were poured into Newport
and Monmouth. Thomas Phillips, the Mayor of Newport,
having decided to terminate Vincent's career as expeditiously
as possible, attended his meetings, collected a mass of evidence
showing that a revolt was in contemplation, and laid it before
the law officers of the Crown. These decided to prosecute.
Vincent was arrested in London, where he had returned, and
taken to Monmouth. On May 10, 1839, ne was tried, in com-
pany with Edwards, a local baker, a pork-butcher, and a
tradesman, on a charge of unlawfully meeting in a " malicious,
riotous and seditious assembly." They were all promptly
found guilty and committed for trial. 1 " The town presented
a most excited appearance. Nearly three hundred special
constables were sworn in and a large detachment of the 2gth
Regiment was under arms during the entire day." 2 The
reason of this excitement is difficult to credit, but it appears
certain that the magistrates believed that the object of Vin-
cent's pilgrimage was the establishment of a " Chartist King-
dom." When, a little later, Frost had made his unlucky
attempt at rescue, a contemporary account of it solemnly
began by stating : " For a considerable time past, it appears
that Vincent, who is now confined in Monmouth gaol for sedi-
tion, had pointed out to the ignorant mountaineers of South
Wales that there it was that the Kingdom of Chartism should
first be erected, and the men of Tredegar, Merthyr, Blackwood,
etc., were led to believe in everything which he may have said
upon the subject ; the consequence of which was, that ever
since his confinement a plan was laid for seizing the whole
of South Wales to erect a Chartist Kingdom, and for the
liberation of Vincent from prison." 3
The four prisoners were tried at the Monmouthshire assizes
on August 2 ; they were found guilty in spite of a fine defence
by Roebuck, and sentenced, Vincent to twelve, Edwards to
1 Gammage, p. 152.
2 The Rise and Fall of Chartism in Monmouthshire, p. 17.
3 From Particulars of the Trial of Mr. John Frost for High Treason.
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION 143
nine, and the others each to six months' imprisonment. During
the three months preceding the trial, and during the trial itself,
perfect order is said to have reigned in the neighbourhood.
Towards the end of October the local magistrates began to
have suspicions. The local miners were said to be arming in
secret. An immediate insurrection was expected. Rumours
of disciplined and armed battalions disquieted the minds of
the Monmouthshire gentry. Special constables were once
more sworn in, soldiers were reimported, and all precautions
taken. On the night of November 4 the rebellion took place.
A body of men led by John Frost marched into Newport,
probably from Blackwood or Risca. They were armed in a
miscellaneous manner, with the inevitable pikes (which the
early Radical reformers must have seen in their dreams, so
often did they meditate their employment), and with a large
number of domestic implements, adaptable for offensive pur-
poses such as billhooks, scythes, saws, hammers, pickaxes,
etc. Phillips, the Mayor, was spending the night at the
Westgate Hotel, which was, of course, defended by soldiers.
Not unnaturally, this hotel was the scene of the first fighting.
The Chartists managed to drive the soldiers into the building
and followed them in, demanding the release of the prisoners.
Shots were fired and several Chartists were killed or wounded
before they were dispersed. Frost was arrested the same
night. The Mayor was wounded by one of the pikesmen and
received a knighthood a few days later. The number of killed
was said to be twenty. 1
A definite and accurate statement of the total number of
the armed Chartist rioters would be of great interest, were it
obtainable. The Times stated the figure at 8,000, The Morning
Chronicle at 1,000, another account gives 20,ooo. 2 It is very
probable that the actual figure is much smaller than any of
these. Fear and darkness cause such statistics to multiply
furiously. The facts are that forty Chartists were taken pri-
soners, and that a smaller number, say twenty, were killed.
(Only ten bodies were forthcoming when the inquest was held.)
1 Annual Register, 1839, Part II, pp. 222-23.
* Gammage, pp. 161-162.
144 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
We may assume that others, perhaps fifty, were wounded :
some of these would probably be included among those captured.
In view of the number of special constables and soldiers in
Newport on the fatal night, we have a right to assume that an
armed insurgent would stand a very good chance of being
captured. The fight at the Westgate Hotel lasted at least
twenty minutes, or time enough to allow of the assembly of
all the upholders of law and order in the town. We must
therefore conclude that the total number has been grossly
exaggerated by all concerned, and that 200 would be a generous
estimate of the number of rioters. The various accounts of
the disorders speak of a body of unarmed Chartists outside
the town, waiting on the hills for the news of their comrades'
victory ; of an unarmed body of the same which entered
Newport when it was too late ; of an armed body which did
likewise ; of two bodies, one armed and the other unarmed,
which did likewise. When these tales are arranged in an
ascending order of magnitude, it seems fairly clear that they
owe their origin to a common ancestor, and that this may
well have originated by some citizen of Newport losing his
way and coming upon a strange man or two in the darkness.
For a precisely parallel case, see FalstafFs accounts of his
adventure in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I, Act 2, scene iv.
Of the forty prisoners many were shortly acquitted. Four-
teen, including Frost, were indicted for high treason. A special
commission of thirteen was appointed to try the case, the
Chief Justice being a member of it. The Attorney-General
acted for the Crown, Sir Frederick Pollock for the accused,
for whose defence large sums of money had been gathered.
The trial began on January i, 1840. Pollock pointed out,
in the course of the defence, that the Whigs had, in 1832, done
nearly as much, and threatened to do more, than the Chartists
in 1839. Both sides seemed to take for granted that the
objective of the rioters was the release of Vincent from Mon-
mouth prison. This seems an absurd hypothesis, for Monmouth
is at least twenty miles from Newport, and Newport is not on
the road from Risca or Blackwood to Monmouth. It is in
fact probable that the whole affair was due to the officer in
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION 145
command of the soldiers in the neighbourhood of the Westgate
Hotel losing his head at the sight of an apparently armed mob.
However, the jury found Frost guilty. Two others, Zephaniah
Williams and William Jones, were found guilty shortly after-
wards. Five others pleaded guilty on the understanding that
their lives would be spared, and as the Attorney- General did
not press the prosecution of the remaining prisoners, they were
discharged. On January 13, Frost, Williams and Jones were
sentenced to death. The five who had pleaded guilty received
the same sentence, with an intimation to the effect that they
could not expect a commutation to transportation for life.
Sir Frederick Pollock took to town a technical objection on
behalf of the convicted prisoners of an irregularity in the
proceedings, which, after much argument in the Court of Ex-
chequer, was established as valid. In view of this, the recom-
mendations of the Monmouthshire juries, in all cases, to mercy,
the immediately forthcoming marriage (on February 10)
of the Queen, the petition of a large number of M.P.'s, another
petition to the Queen from twelve Birmingham congregations,
and a third petition to Parliament, the sentences were commuted
on February i to transportation for life. A few days later,
he and his fellow-convicts were on their way to Australia. 1
It is usual to speak of the Newport riot as a Chartist rising,
and it is not uncommonly hinted that this was the premature
outbreak of a great conspiracy which was intended to put the
government of the country into the hands of the Chartists.
Whether or not a conspiracy of this character was ever serious-
ly contemplated is matter for argument ; the evidence is
naturally hearsay. The riot of 1839 * s generally attributed
to the Chartists, and it is, of course, impossible to deny that
they gave it leadership. But it is doubtful whether such a
rising could have taken place anywhere but in South Wales.
1 Place tabulates 155 petitions for the reprieve of Frost in Place
Collection, set 56, 1840, Vol. II. W. J. Linton, the engraver, in My
Memories, describes (p. 44) his efforts to get a reprieve. He drafted a
petition, and obtained signatures from Birkbeck, Dr. Southwood Smith
(the public health reformer), W. J. Fox, Hetherington and Watson.
Carlyle, on the other hand, refused to sign.
146 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
The conditions under which the South Wales miner lives and
works have made his country the seat of unrest ever since
mines began to befoul his valleys. Miners all over Great
Britain " were in very ill repute for riotous proceedings from
1837-44. "! Only four years after the Newport rising came
the peculiar " Rebecca Riots " in the same area ; ostensibly
due to turnpikes, they bore witness to feelings of resentment
far deeper than those which the payment of tolls might be
expected to generate. There is reason to believe that in this
case the riots were controlled by men who actually refused to
accept Chartist leadership and help. 2 In our own day the
South Wales miners have made similar responses to similar
conditions. The strikes of 1893, 1898, 1910 and 1912, the
stoppage of work in 1915 in the face of the Munitions Act
and the nation at war, and the spread of Syndicalism and Guild
Socialism, all come from the same cause. We realize what
this cause is when we learn that the indifference on the part
of colliery owners and managers, which in the case of the
Senghenydd disaster led to the death of 439 men, was punished
by fines amounting in all to 24, or is. i^d. per head. 3 While
the miner is allowed to learn in this way that his life is equal
in value to the price of a dead rabbit, outbreaks are liable to
occur at any moment without the interposition of an agitation
for universal suffrage.
Feargus O'Connor's conduct about this time appears in an
extremely unfavourable light. While supporting militancy
on one hand, he was very anxious to avoid having to abide
by its consequences : this desire expressing itself in prevari-
cations of the most unblushing nature. A little later on, when
Lovett was in prison, O'Connor, according to Lovett, " had
the impudence to boast that he was the man that prevented
the Sacred Month from taking place ! although, as described,
he was an active party in recommending it. He subsequently
on several occasions endeavoured to persuade his dupes that
1 Webb, History of Trade Unionism, pp. 149-150.
2 Rough Types of English Life, by J. C. Symons, p. 27.
3 Mines and Quarries, Reports of S. Wales Division, Cd. 8o23-IV,
PP- 58. 59-
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION 147
I was the concoctor of this violent measure, although himself
and his disciples were the first to talk of arming, of the run
upon the bank, and the Attwood project of the Sacred Month.
I mention these facts in no way to disclaim the hand I had
in it, although I believe that I did an act of folly in being a
party to some of its provisions ; but I sacrificed much in that
convention for the sake of union, and for the love and hope
I had in the cause, and I have still vanity enough to believe
that if I had not been imprisoned I could have prevented many
of the outbreaks and follies that occurred/' 1 To quote Lovett
again : " From another communication made to me by J.
Collins who had it from one of the parties it would seem
that in anticipation of this rising in the North a person was
delegated from one of the towns to go to Feargus O'Connor,
to request that he would lead them on, as he had so often
declared he would. Collins's informant was present at this
interview, and described to him the following conversation that
took place :
DELEGATE. Mr. O'Connor, we are going to have a rising
for the Charter, in Yorkshire, and I am sent from to ask if
you will lead us on, as you have so often said you would when
we were prepared.
FEARGUS. Well, when is this rising to take place ?
DELEGATE. Why, we have resolved that it shall begin on
Saturday next.
FEARGUS. And are you all well provided with arms, then ?
DELEGATE. Yes, all of us.
FEARGUS. Well, that is all right, my man.
DELEGATE. Now, Mr. O'Connor, shall I tell our lads that
you will come and lead them on ?
FEARGUS (indignantly). Why, man ! When did you ever
hear of me, or of any one of my family, ever deserting the
cause of the people ? Have they not always been found at
their post in the hour of danger ?
After which O'Connor blandly assured the unfortunate
delegate's fellow- townsmen that he had never promised any-
Life and Struggles of William Lovett, pp. 208, 209.
148 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
thing. " 1 It is a pleasant story, characteristic even if not true.
It is clear that O'Connor was completely acquainted with the
preparations for the Newport rising, but he absented himself
in Ireland, practically up to the eve of the day fixed. 2 The
authorities, however, were thoroughly anxious to have all the
Chartist leaders under lock and key, and although O'Connor
gave them no chances as a rebel, he allowed himself to be trapped
as a writer. Various articles which appeared in The Northern
Star in July, 1839, were regarded as seditious libels, and after
many delays O'Connor was tried, and on May n, 1840,
sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment.
It may well be asked why the Government, which had so
systematically suppressed the Chartist leaders for their alleged
seditious utterances, should have thus allowed the press which
published and circulated them to continue, or to die from
natural causes, unassisted by Whitehall. The answer is
simple. It was not on account of strength of faith in the free-
dom of the press that The Northern Star was allowed to live
unmolested for nearly fifteen years. This paper had a cir-
culation which in its most " seditious " days sometimes reached
the weekly figure of 60,000 ; when it was at this figure it had
the largest circulation of any weekly paper, and more than
quadrupled the daily sales of The Times. On each such issue
of The Northern Star the Treasury received about 250, exclu-
sive of whatever smaller amounts the advertisement and paper
duties might bring in. A clear 250 a week covers a multitude
of sedition. On those terms what Government would not be
content to close its eyes, the more so when it could point to
imprisoned orators and declare that it kept its ears open ?
One after the other the Chartist leaders found themselves
in prison. The winter of 1839-40 saw the Home Office prose-
cutions in full blast, but by the middle of 1840 their work
was completed and virtually, without exception, the principal
sources of Chartist energy were no longer able to cause the
Government any anxiety. About this time the total number
1 William Lovett, pp. 239, 240.
* Northern Star, May 22, 1842, quoted in D. N. B.
THE PERIOD OF REPRESSION 149
of Chartists thus out of the way was between three and four
hundred.
The outward signs of collapse promptly showed themselves.
A heavy mortality raged among the Chartist periodical publi-
cations. The agitation for the Six Points became inarticulate.
New ideas began to get into the heads of the undisciplined rank
and file of the movement. In England, in fact, Chartism had
reached its critical stage. In Scotland, however, the faith
was secure. Harney, almost the only prominent unincarcerated
Chartist, carried on a propaganda up and down North Britain.
In Glasgow the Scottish Chartist Circular was successfully
launched at the time when things in England were at their
blackest ; and in Scotland generally the movement was but
slightly affected. But in those days of defective communica-
tions Scottish influences on Westminster were slight at the
best of times, and Scottish Chartism cannot be credited with
much more than preserving the continuity of the movement
between two phases. The phase upon which Chartism was
now to enter will be the subject of the following chapter.
CHAPTER VI
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM
THE People's Charter had been deliberately drafted for
the purpose of supplying a greatest common measure
of agreement to the unco-ordinated Radical-Socialist movement.
So long as those who had accepted the principles of the Charter
were at liberty, their mutual differences were subject to a
process of attrition. However wide the gap between the
upholders of physical and of moral force, the end in view was
always the same. For a period of nearly two years the Chartist
agitation succeeded in concentrating the reformers' energies.
This period came to an end with the imprisonment of the
leaders. Isolated for a time from their colleagues, the prin-
cipal Chartists' fancies strayed unchecked. A mass of new
projects came into existence, many to be promptly forgotten,
others to exercise a dominant influence on the future of the
movement. Many of the new ideas came, as we shall see
not from the imprisoned leaders, but from their rank and file
at liberty. For this fact the break in the hectoring dictator-
ship of O'Connor is largely responsible. The " Lion of
Chartism " was apt to snap off the heads of any followers who
put any originality into the manner of their following. The
" new move " (as it came to be called) which was to exercise
the greatest influence on the future of the movement emanated
from Lovett and Collins.
While Lovett and Collins were imprisoned in Warwick Gaol
they occupied themselves by writing a book. Chartism : a
New Organization of the People, was the outcome, it would
appear, of self-questioning. Lovett must have asked himself :
150
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 151
What course of action can we recommend that will keep our
forces together, lead to immediately tangible and beneficial
results, and be both legal and likely to remain so, to whatever
extremes the weaker brethren take it ? We must promote
unity, among ourselves as well as between all classes. We
must educate the unconverted. We must strengthen the
faith of the converted. The result of these questions was that
the greater part of the volume consisted of a Proposed Plan,
Rules, and Regulations of an Association, to be entitled,
The National Association of the United Kingdom, for Promot-
ing the Political and Social Improvement of the People. The
Association was to have several objects, but the third and
principal one showed such a deviation from the exclusive
demand for the Charter that it may be quoted in full.
To erect Public Halls or Schools for the People throughout
the Kingdom, upon the most approved principles, and in such
districts as may be necessary. Such halls to be used during
the day as Infant, Preparatory, and High Schools, in which
the children shall be educated on the most approved plans the
association can devise ; embracing physical, mental, moral
and political instruction ; and used of an evening for Public
Lectures, on physical, moral, and political science ; for Read-
ings, Discussions, Musical Entertainments, Dancing, and such
other healthful and rational recreations as may serve to instruct
and cheer the industrious classes after their hours of toil, and
prevent the formation of vicious and intoxicating habits.
Such halls to have two commodious play-grounds, and where
practicable, a pleasure-garden, attached to each ; apartments
for the teachers, rooms for hot and cold baths, for a small
museum, a laboratory and general workshop, where the children
may be taught experiments in science, as well as the first
principles of the most useful trades.
This statement contains the principle urged by Lovett.
Among its other objects, the Association was to establish schools
for teachers, schools for orphans, circulating libraries, 1 etc.
Elaborate rules were suggested to govern the conduct of the
1 The Book Box scheme of the Fabian Society might be regarded as
Lovett's proposal reduced to practical dimensions.
152 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
body, and further were given for the circulating libraries, halls,
and schools. The last batch of regulations are of great interest,
and show that here, at any rate, Lovett was very considerably
ahead of his times. It would have been difficult for one who
had often listened to Owen to have refrained from thinking about
education. That Lovett's mind had been influenced is shown
by his publication in 1838 of an Address to the Working
Classes on the subject of National Education, in which the
educational ideas of The Charter were contained in virtually
the same words. That Lovett had at that time already
attempted to convince the Working Men's Association of the
justness of his views on these matters is shown by the fact
that the entire Committee of the W.M.A. put its names to
the pamphlet. Corporal punishment was to have no place in
the education of the young Chartist. The outline of the teach-
ing of the children in the infant and preparatory schools also
contains more than a suggestion of Montessori methods.
The slightly fantastic budget which accompanied this scheme
was based on the theory that all the 1,283,000 signatories of
the National Petition would be willing to become members
of the National Association, and pay a subscription of a shilling
per quarter. This would provide an annual income of 256,600,
which was estimated to be sufficient to build eight district
halls at 3,000 each, and to cover the incidental expenses of
propaganda and organization. The advantages which the
National Association would have over other political bodies
would be, " it would not merely use its energies and resources
in meeting and petitioning ; it would not, year after year, be
engaged in the useless task of endeavouring to induce corruption
to purify itself ; but it would be gradually accumulating means
of instruction and amusement, and devising sources of refined
enjoyments to which the millions are strangers ; it would be
industriously employed in politically, intellectually, and morally
training fathers, mothers, and children to know their rights
and perform their duties ; and with a people so trained,
exclusive power, corruption, and injustice would soon cease
to have an existence." 1
1 P. 55, Chartism.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 153
Lovett, it will be seen, had ceased to believe in the omni-
potence of Universal Suffrage. If the condition of the people
was to be improved, the people must themselves prepare
for the change. The little book concluded with a series of
general observations on education, and some specimen " Lesson
Cards " to illustrate the teaching of truth, geology, anatomy,
rights, and duties. The most interesting anticipation of Dr.
Montessori is contained in the suggestion that children should
be partly taught, partly teach themselves, to read, with the
aid of a case of movable types. 1 The District Halls were
planned down to their minutest details and the frontispiece
of Chartism was a hideously symmetrical design for one of
these buildings.
Vincent's new idea, although it was enthusiastically taken
up at the time is not in these days associated with Chartism,
or, indeed, with working-class politics. He came to the con-
clusion that Chartists must be teetotallers. While the impri-
soned ChartistT""were~T;reated in most respects with great
severity, they were nevertheless allowed ample means of
communication with the outside world. Vincent's total
abstinence views were therefore not kept hidden until his re-
lease ; while he was still in gaol he drafted a teetotal manifesto,
and managed to convince a group of his friends of the Tightness
of his views. On November 27, 1840, this declaration of prin-
ciple was duly published in the Dundee Chronicle, over the
names Vincent, Hill, Cleave, Hetherington, and Neesom. The
manifesto was afterwards republished as a leaflet, which con-
tained also an article strongly attacking the use of tobacco and
snuff as injurious to the cause of Chartism. Hill had already
begun to recommend the readers of The Northern Star to abstain
from drink. According to him, " Teetotalism leads to know-
ledge knowledge leads to thinking thinking leads to dis-
content of things as they are, and then, as a matter of course,
comes Chartism." 2 The same paper records a solemn and
1 Lovett tells us that after he had written this he read, in a life of
Pestalozzi, that that educationist had already recommended a somewhat
similar contrivance. Lovett's invention was made quite independently,
however. 2 Northern Star, September 7, 1840.
154 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
largely-attended public discussion, held in Manchester, on
temperance and Chartism. 1 The spirit of the proceedings
seems wildly removed from what we should imagine to be
the reception of an analogous debate in these days. After
Vincent's release his time was very largely occupied in oratorical
temperance tours, and the administration of the pledge whole-
sale to Chartist Organization.
Another divagation from undiluted Chartism was known as
Bible Chartism. John Collins seems to have been affected
by it as well as by the " new move," for he founded a " Char-
tist Church " in Birmingham after his release, but he was not
the only member of this sect. Throughout the south of
Scotland, in 1840 and 1841, Chartism adopted a definitely
religious basis. This tendency, like the teetotal campaign,
was supported by Hill, as a minister. A single issue of The
Northern Star 2 contains three letters from correspondents,
urging the identity of Christianity with Chartism, and also
the first of a series of articles on " Scriptural Chartism/' One
of the just-mentioned correspondents, by the way, signed
himself " Christian Socialist " (Was this the first use of the
term ?) and demanded, as a part of the Christian-Chartist
programme, the restoration of the land to the people.
The new movement spread best in Scotland. Early in 1841
it had extended to such dimensions that it was thought desir-
able to hold a delegate meeting in Glasgow. The Northern Star
report of the proceedings 3 gives no clue to the number of either
representatives or represented, but says that delegates came
" from most of the Chartist Churches in the west of Scotland,"
and mentions about twenty names. Bronterre O'Brien had
already 4 spoken approvingly of this development of Chartism,
and said that Chartist Christianity was the same as primitive
Christianity. O'Connor, as usual, had views to suit all sides.
He declares, " I never knew a grain of good to come out of
' Bible Chartism ' " 6 ; a little later he decides that it is a good
thing for Scotland, because Scotland " has no State Church,"
1 Northern Star, November 21, 1840. 2 September 12, 1840.
3 January 16, 1841. 4 Northern Star, January 2, 1841.
5 Ib., January 16, 1841.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 155
and " in Scotland preaching unites the people, and weakens
and disunites the enemy/' 1 But of English Bible Chartism,
O'Connor could not approve. However, as there was very
little of it outside Birmingham, his disapproval hardly mattered.
Feargus O'Connor had only been imprisoned in York Castle
five days when one Parkin produced an original scheme, which
was published in and favourably commented upon by The
Northern Star* Parkin had drafted a memorial to the Presi-
dent of the United States, asking for his intercession on behalf
of the " industrious, and deeply insulted and injured classes
of this country," and to help forward the Charter agitation.
Nothing much seems to have come of this. Almost simultane-
ously voices in the Chartist ranks were heard to demand " house-
hold suffrage and redistribution as a practical compromise." 3
Less than a month afterwards The Northern Star published a
scheme, drafted by Richardson, for the re-organization of
Chartism in Lancashire, 4 to be extended, if possible, throughout
the country. Richardson recommended the local branches to
federate and work out some benefit scheme, also to register
under the Friendly Societies Act.
In the winter of 1840-41 an expected diversion of interests
drew a great many Chartists, and especially in the neighbour-
hood of Newcastle-on-Tyne, away from the movement. David
Urquhart, formerly a diplomatic agent in the alternate service
of the British and Turkish Government, had returned to this
country from the Near East overflowing with hatred of Russia
and suspicion of this country's foreign policy. In common with
others who in more recent times have attempted to make out
a case for the wickedness of secret diplomacy, he illustrated
the wickedness by denying the secrecy. Starting with the
theory that the Chartist movement was a plot, in the hands
of Russian agents, intended to embarrass the British Govern-
ment, he preached to innumerable Chartist audiences on the
depraved aggressiveness of Russia, and finally won over Charles
Attwood, Lowery, Cardo, and Warden, who thenceforward
concerned themselves with Urquhart's Foreign Affairs Com-
1 Northern Star, May 8, 1841. 2 May 24, 1840.
3 Leeds Times, May 23, 1840. 4 June 20, 1840.
156 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
mittees curiously close anticipations of the Union of Demo-
cratic Control and had no more to do with Chartism. (See
Appendix I.)
Various other Chartists urged new demands about this
time, or attempted new experiments. " Newmilns : A Char-
tist co-operative store has been recently opened in this spirited
village, consisting of 248 members." 1 We hear, too, that
Scottish Chartists are urging Home Rule for Scotland, perhaps
not very vociferously. z From other Chartists we hear a demand
for woman suffrage. This idea had occupied an inconspicuous
position in the background of Chartism since 1838. In and
even before that year " Female Political Unions " had come
into existence, especially in the neighbourhood of Birmingham,
where Attwood's influence prevailed. Sir Edward Bulwer-
Lytton in 1838 inquired as to the reason of the exclusion of
woman suffrage from the Six Points, and elicited a curious
reply from The Northern Star. In this the orthodox attitude
on the matter of the upholders of universal suffrage was defined ;
no serious believer in universal suffrage could refuse the right
of spinsters and widows to a vote, but the civil and political
rights and interests of a married woman were bound up with
those of her husband. 3 The Annual Register for 1839, de-
scribing the meeting on Kersall Moor on May 25, says : " The
only novelty worth noticing was the presence of several female
political associations. It was observed by an eyewitness that
the appearance of some of the fair sex who figured on this
occasion, both as to person and apparel, furnished a stronger
argument than any adduced by orators, of the necessity of
adopting immediate legislative enactments for improving the
condition of the mass of the people." Female Charter Unions
sprang up by the dozen after the publication of the Charter,
but their members seem to have generally contented themselves
with giving moral support to their male relatives and, in some
cases, assisting the families and dependents of imprisoned Char-
tists. Vincent's special popularity among women obtained for
1 The Free Press, October 31, 1840.
2 Leeds Times, November 21, 1840.
9 Northern Star, October 20, 1838,
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 157
his Teetotal Chartism crusade a strong feminine support, and led
to the formation of many Female Chartist Abstinence Unions,
and organizations with similar names. But the air of novelty
with which every proposer of woman suffrage explains his or
her views shows that the faith was not commonly held. During
the period of new ideas, the case for woman suffrage received
much attention. It is particularly well stated in a letter signed
Laone, l which is full of phrases familiar to twentieth-century
ears. " Why should not a woman vote ? . . . We are told
that woman's proper sphere lies in the possession of indirect
influence." Laone heartily pounds these ideas (the words are
italicized in the original). The letter was followed up by a
series of dialogues in favour of Woman Suffrage, by Colonel
Perronet Thompson. The only imprisoned Chartist of note
from whom barely anything new proceeded was Feargus
O'Connor, who condemned all the innovations wholesale.
From York Castle he indited a series of weekly letters to The
Northern Star. To show his irrevocable opposition to all
compromise with the middle class, he addressed his letters,
not always in exactly the same terms, " To the Fustian Jackets,
Blistered Hands, and unshorn chins of England, Scotland,
and Wales, and to the Ragged-Backed, Bare- Footed Irish."
To these he declaimed in a single commination 2 against " Church
Chartism, Teetotal Chartism, Knowledge Chartism, and House-
hold Suffrage Chartism." A little later he writes, " Do not
think of Reform of the Lords of sponging the National Debt
of Repealing the Corn Laws of Free Trade of the Ballot
of purifying the church of reducing the army or the navy
of opposing any police bill of repealing the Poor Law Amend-
ment Act of stopping a war with China, Naples, America,
Russia, or the whole world. Never mind what the Queen
gives Prince Albert (or rather what you give him), or whether
he spends it at Crockford's or other places of debauchery
never mind corporation bills or registration bills, Dissenters'
bills or Protestant bills, Canada church reserves or emigration
bills ; mind none of them ; for your united force could not
1 Leeds Times, March 20, 1841. 2 April 3, 1841.
158 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
affect any of these questions a pin's point, while your inter-
ference would weaken your power of laying the axe to the root
of one and all. If every abuse of which you now complain was
abolished to-morrow, your order would not derive a fraction of
benefit from the change/' 1 O'Connor's contribution to the
stock of new ideas is briefly told. " My Dear Friends, I now
proceed to my plan for carrying the Charter. You observe
I do not say for agitating for the Charter, but for carrying the
Charter. Mark its simplicity, and in that you will recognize
its greatest worth. Two short words DAILY PAPER." So
begins one of his weekly letters " To the Fustian Jackets." 2
For the most part O'Connor prepared to wallow in self-pity
and self-admiration, irrelevantly enumerating his own good
deeds, and claiming in the most directly possible manner to
be the only honest man in the Chartist movement. " Good
God, how I glory in the rich and consoling reflection ; not one
drop of blood shed through five years and a half of unparalleled
cruelty and persecution upon the one side, and patient suffer-
ing upon the other." 3 Or else, " On the eighteenth of November,
1837, 1 established The Northern Star, the first paper ever pub-
lished in England exclusively for the people ; a paper which
has given a completely new tone to the whole press of the
empire. . . . From September, 1835, to February, 1839, I
led you single-handed and alone . . ." 4
Lovett and Collins were released on July 25, 1840. A
triumphant series of receptions and dinners had been more
or less arranged for them, but both had suffered severely in
health and needed rest. A week after they had been restored
to freedom, however, the two Chartists managed to attend a
dinner given in their honour in Birmingham. The speakers
on this occasion were Wakley, M.P., Dr. Epps, and Cleave.
Lovett, in making his speech, foreshadowed the course he was
preparing to take by declaring that nothing had rejoiced him
so much when in prison as the news of the erection of some
1 O'Connor in The Northern Star, April 25, 1840.
2 Northern Star, July 18, 1840.
3 Ib., January 30, 1841.
4 Ib., January 16, 1841.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 159
Trade Halls by trade unions. l The book Chartism was placed
in the printer's hands, and Lovett went to Cornwall to recu-
perate.
Chartism promptly made a stir, and went into a second
edition in a very short time. It was followed by the launching
of the ^Najtional Association for Promoting the Political and
Social Improvement ~6T trie People. It goes without saying
that Lovett was the moving spirit in this body. The Rules
and Regulations published by the National Association are
taken wholesale from Chartism with scarcely an amendment.
Lovett, having drafted the constitution of the National Associa-
tion, sent it to Place for his opinion ; Place pointed out that
the law was against political associations which had " divisions,
branches or parts." The N.A. was avowedly political, and
it aimed at having branches ; it was therefore illegal. He
suggested a large number of modifications, most of which Lovett
did not accept. Place pointed out, however, that Government
prosecution was most unlikely, and that Lovett might go
ahead. Lovett was fully persuaded that his scheme would
have immediate success ; Place declared that Lovett "would
never be able to establish even one school." 2 Place, in spite
of his discouraging opinion, obtained 50 for the Association
from J. T. Leader, M.P. Hetherington became the first
secretary, followed later by Charles Westerton, " a gentleman
who subsequently, as churchwarden at Knightsbridge, rendered
great service to the Liberal cause by his opposition to Pusey-
ism." 3 Others who took an active part in starting the
Association were Cleave, Vincent, Watson, J. Collins, R. Moore,
C. H. Neesom, W. J. Linton, J. Stansfeld, W. Shawn, J. D.
Collett, and several middle-class men. The published receipts
and expenditure of the year 1842-43 contains the names of
subscribers. Dr. Epps, Joseph Hume, M.P., H. Elphinstone,
M.P., J. S. Mill, T. S. Buncombe, M.P., H. Warburton, M.P.,
P. W. Williams, M.P., Lord Brougham, Benjamin Wood, M.P.,
Sir John Easthope, Lord Radnor, George Grote, R. Wason,
1 Northern Star, August 4, 1840.
2 Place Collection, set 56, 1841, Vol. 3, fo. 220.
3 Lovett, Autobiography, p. 259.
160 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
M.P., General Johnson, M.P., W. Collins, M.P., Sir Matthew
Wood, M.P., T. Milner Gibson, M.P., R. 0. Cave, M.P., The
Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P., Wynn Ellis, M.P., T. Wakley, M.P.,
and Charles Buller, M.P., virtually all the intellectual liberals,
were among those who contributed to start the movement.
The Northern Star began to denounce the National Associa-
tion even before it was under way. 1 The new move was stig-
matized as an endeavour to break up Chartist unity, and to
side-track the Charter. " Of course," wrote O'Connor, " the
Charter is the object ; indeed nothing else would do to bait
the trap." 2 The results of this campaign were soon visible.
A great many Chartists had put their names to a manifesto,
drafted by Lovett, Collins and Vincent, and circulated among
the local organizations. But now, fearing the displeasure of
O'Connor, a series of recantations took place. One number of
The Northern Star 3 published ten letters from persons with-
drawing their signatures. The next week or two the columns
of the paper contained innumerable reports of Chartist meet-
ings held all over the country, at which the manifesto was
denounced and disclaimed. O'Connor fulminated against the
new move regularly once a week, with a mendacity surpassed
only by his egotism. He represents Lovett and his followers
as traitors, and asks, " Who were the three most physical-force
men in the Convention ? Lovett, Collins and Hetherington ? " 4
It is surprising that complete misrepresentations such as this
one and others as bad were invented every week did not
split the ranks of O'Connor's followers. But the fact is that
the dictator's reputation had never stood higher than at this
moment. During the period of his imprisonment every issue
of The Northern Star contained a list, headed More Young
Patriots, of the newly-born children of Chartist parents, invari-
ably named after O'Connor. One result of the Chartist move-
1 ment was that thousands of O'Connors and Fearguses were
contained among the Christian names of the English working
* class of the second half of the nineteenth century. With an
1 Beginning with the March 27, 1841, issue.
2 Northern Star, April 17, 1841. 3 April 24, 1841.
* Northern Star, May 8, 1841.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 161
unlimited amount of moral support behind him, O'Connor
had no need of mere accuracy. His bluster unfortunately
communicated itself to some of his followers with an unplea-
sant amount of force. John Watkins, for example (the
author of John Frost, a Chartist Play, in five acts, 1841), preached
a sermon on several occasions, 1 demonstrating the entire
justice of any assassination of Lovett. Neesom, once a physi-
cal-force Chartist, now a member of the National Association,
was boycotted by fervent followers of O'Connor until his
newsagent's business became completely profitless, and he
was brought face to face with starvation.
The subsequent history of the National Association may be
shortly told. A year after its foundation it had a library of
800 volumes, a large coffee-room seating 150, and a free Sunday
School for children. Men paid a subscription of eightpence a
month, women of fourpence. Classes in dancing and phrenology
were held, and well attended/ In the Hall of the Association,
242 A, High Holborn, where these classes, etc., were held, there
was room for 2,000. This Hall was triumphantly opened on
July 25, 1842, with J. T. Leader, M.P., in the chair. A year
later W. J. Fox took the chair at its birthday celebration.
Yet in spite of the activity at its centre, the National Associa-
tion never developed in the way expected by its founder, and
Place's pessimistic forecast was completely justified. Lovett
says that " efforts were made in some few places to form local
bodies, similar to those of the London members, but they did
not enroll sufficient numbers to make them effective." 2 The
fear that the " new move " would split the Chartist movement
was indeed vain. The Leeds Times, a neighbour and rival
of The Northern Star, took up the side of Lovett. It did not
attempt to outdo the organ of Feargus O'Connor in scurrility,
and, in fact, went no farther than to cast gentle aspersions on
the chastity of the editor, the Rev. W. Hill. 8 The editor of
the paper at that time was Samuel Smiles, the self-helper.
He had a great admiration foFLovett, and once offered him
the post of sub-editor. (Lovett, Autobiography, p. 245.)
1 Lovett, Autobiography, p. 251.
2 Lovett, Life and Struggles, p. 286. 3 Leeds Times, May 8, 1841.
162 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
On Monday, July 20, 1840, a Convention of twenty-three
delegates met at Manchester to consider the reorganization
of the Chartist movement, which was rapidly falling into dis-
order with the imprisonment of the leaders. The delegates
were all admirers of O'Connor, and had a physical force bias.
The result of their deliberations was the^National Charter
Association of Great Britain. This was to be a federation of
all the local Chartist Societies, which had hitherto remained
unco-ordinated on account of the state of the law on illegal
associations. The annual subscription was fixed as a minimum
of eightpence, payable in quarterly instalments. The delegates
paid lip-service to constitutional methods, and decided to
adopt a proposal of Bronterre O'Brien and put forward Chartist
candidates at the next general election. James Leach and
William Tillman were the first president and secretary. Lovett
was invited to join, but refused, alleging the illegality of the
organization. 1 The real difference between the N.C.A. and
Lovett's organization lay in the classes appealed to. Lovett
believed that " the principles of Chartism are purely democrati-
cal, calculated to benefit all classes, and not the working classes
exclusively." He declared that if Sir R. Peel, Lord John Russell
and the Duke of Wellington wished to join the Association,
he, for his part, would welcome them. 2 Place, as before, was
asked for his opinion on the new organization, and gave it,
in completely unsympathetic but amply justifiable terms.
'' The Association is to all intents and purposes an illegal
assembly and every member thereof, and every one who aids
or abets it, or in any way assists it, or contributes to it by
money, or corresponds with it, or any of its branches, or any
members thereof as such, incurs the penalty of the Acts of 1798
and 1817, and may be transported for seven years. It does
not certainly follow that every one who pleases may, by becom-
ing a member, etc., take the risk but after what we have seen,
he who takes the risk must be more foolhardy than brave.
Any one who thus commits himself must be a very silly fellow.
... If these men should go on, as I suppose they will, and
1 Lovett, Autobiography, p. 252.
2 Letter from Lovett in the Perth Chronicle, May 6, 1841.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 163
in time be prosecuted, what sympathy will they deserve ?
What sympathy will they receive ? None. How will they
have promoted the good cause ? Not at all. They will have
played the game for the only real enemy, the aristocracy, and
when they have served their purpose will be treated as the
Lower Orders always have been treated by them.
" We shall have the Charter whenever we, the mass of the
people, are really fit for it, and not till then, until then we
ought not to have it because we should not have kept it. ...
But the Chartists one and all, even the most rational and
considerate, have been too sanguine. . . . The annunciation
of the Charter has been acted upon by them as if it was some-
thing Divine . . ."*
The immediate result of the N.C.A. Convention was a
manifesto. This reviewed the situation, pronounced against
the refusal of the Government to pardon Frost, Jones and
Williams, condemned the Poor Law, and referred to " Church-
Chartism, Teetotal-Chartism, and Education- Chartism " to
recommend those who followed these bypaths to enter the
N.C.A., unity of opinion as to the end desired being of greater
importance than unity as to the means. The manifesto then
embarked upon an excursion in economics. The policy of Free
Trade was condemned ; then, curiously enough the total repeal
of all duties was demanded, and it was argued that the probable
effects of Free Trade upon labour would be deplorable. Then
finally a political programme was recommended. " We are
natural enemies to Whigism and Toryism, but being unable
to destroy both factions, we advise you to destroy the one
faction by making a tool of the other. We advise you to
upset the ministerial candidates on every occasion." Then
. . . " raise a fund by voluntary contributions for election
purposes," and appoint ' committees "in any place where a
chartist candidate is likely to be returned or a ministerial hack
upset.'* A special convention in London was also proposed, the
members to consist of Chartist candidates. The signatories
to this document were
1 Place to Collins, February 27, 1841, fo. 259, Vol. I, 1841, set 56,
Place Collection.
164 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
P. M. M'Douall, J. G. Barmby,
T. R. Smart, M. Williams,
John Skevington, L. Pitkeithly,
W. Martin, M. Cullen,
T. J. Wall, Ruy Ridley,
W. Morgan, John Rose.
The copy of this document in the Place Collection is deco-
rated with a border of acid marginal comments by the man
who, quite wrongly, regarded himself as the author of the
People's Charter. His note on the last proposal (that recom-
mending the Convention of the People's Deputies) is, " This
means, Keep us that we may not be compelled to work.'*
Truly the movement had fallen from grace since it had out-
grown the W.M.A. It may be noted that only two (M'Douall
and Pitkeithly) of the founders of the N.C.A. had sat in the
1839 Convention. The growth of the N.C.A. during its first
year seems to have been regarded as satisfactory by its pro-
genitors. In March, 1841, the Association had less than one
hundred branches. 1 Only eighty- three branches took part in
the election of the Executive in June, when the largest number
of votes cast by a single branch for one candidate was 200 :
Merthyr Tydfil cast this number for each of five candidates.
The result of this election was as follows : P. M. M'Douall,
3,795 ; J. Leach, 3,664 ; John Campbell (secretary), 2,219 ;
Morgan Williams, 2,945 ; George Binns, 1,879 R- & Philp,
i,i30. 2 These figures suggest that the total membership of
the eighty-three branches in question did not exceed five
thousand. The membership increased slowly, but the leaders
watched its growth through magnifying glasses. When
O'Connor was at last released from York Castle on August 30,
The Northern Star stated 3 that he was welcomed by " upwards
of one hundred and fifty delegates, representing almost the
entire labouring population of the United Kingdom. Yet at
the beginning of October there were still under two hundred
1 Executive Journal of the National Charter Association, October 23,
1841.
2 Northern Star, June 7, 1841. 3 Ib., September 4, 1841.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 165
branches 1 and only about 16,000 membership cards had been
issued. A week later 2 204 branches are reported. At the
beginning of November there were already 263, 3 while at the
end of the month the number was 282.* The membership,
although but a minute fraction of the two million adherents to
the Chartist movement constantly claimed by O'Connor, was
largely composed of individuals whose subscriptions could not
be relied on ; there are such persons at the fringe of every move-
ment, but the Chartist movement certainly had, throughout
its existence, an undue proportion of such a fringe. The
members of the N.C. A. could not be trusted to support any little
side-show got up by the Executive and it is by these small
special appeals that the loyalty of a body of members is best
tested. For example ; the Executive of the N.C.A. decided
at the end of 1841 to print a little penny weekly sheet called
the Executive Journal of the National Charter Association,
with the object of bringing the members into closer touch
with them than was possible in the public columns of The
Northern Star. Only four numbers of the Journal were ever
printed. The members refused to respond. Place comments
on this that two thousand subscribers would have kept it
going. 5
The membership of the N.C.A. was, in fact, very largely a
paper affair. In February, 1842, 40,060 membership cards
had been issued, according to an address of the Executive
Council. 6 Yet, in spite of the growing numbers, and the most
rigid economy, 7 the Secretary found himself unable to pay
expenses. In April, 1842, he complains of being 20 in debt. 8
The Branches should pay the Executive a penny per month
per member ; this ought to bring in 43 a week, but the sum
actually received is much smaller. In July, Campbell publishes
1 Northern Star, October 9, 1841. z Ib., October 16, 1841.
3 Ib., November 13, 1841. 4 Ib., December 4, 1841.
5 Place Collection, set 56, 1841, Vol. Ill, contains a set of the Executive
Journal, with comments.
6 Northern Star, February 19, 1842.
7 Lack of means, according to Campbell, was responsible for the
failure of the Birmingham Conference in April, 1842.
8 Northern Star, April 9, 1842.
M
166 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
a very pessimistic report. 1 The debt is now 50, and a " black
list " is given, showing about 170 branches, all at least three
months in arrear. Some are of important places ; Manchester,
the very headquarters of the N.C.A., is among the offending
branches. The increased membership is illustrated by the
number of votes cast at the Executive election of 1842.
M'Douall is still at the top of the poll, with 11,221 votes ;
Leach follows him with 10,830 ; Campbell gets 9,712 ; M.
Williams, 4,410 ; and Bairstow 4,611. Philp receives 2,656,
and so loses his seat. Cooper gets only 2,454. 2
Many of the branches of the N.C.A. were extremely small.
A writer in the Leeds Times, himself a Chartist, gives an interest-
ing inside account of the movement in i842. 3 He tells us that
" In every hamlet where two or three Chartists can be gathered
together an Association has been formed. In most places the
Association does not meet above once a quarter, except some
business of importance is to be transacted such as giving
countenance to an itinerating missionary, or getting up a
petition for a certain purpose." Many of the Chartists are
trade unionists, in fact, " the tact which the Chartists have
displayed in conducting their affairs was acquired in the same
schools in which they learned their political and economical
creed the trades' unions/' But " there is a rule in most
Chartist Associations that those belonging to them shall join
in no agitation but for the Charter." The writer describes
the organization of the Chartists in Dundee, where they are
comparatively very strong. Here there are 12,350 workmen,
members of trade unions; and 7,000 "odd-fellows," i.e., men
working in unorganized trades. Between them they muster
1,050 organized Chartists. There is also a Female Chartist
Association, to which the male Chartists ungallantly refuse
representation on their local Executive.
The organization, it will be noted, is fragile ; it exists on
hope rather than on subscriptions. But the Chartists possessed
a virtue which now appears to have been lost by political
bodies : in religious circles it is known as faith ; to many of
1 Northern Star, July 9, 1842. 2 Northern Star, June 25, 1842.
8 Leeds Times, January 15, 22, and 29, 1842.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 167
us it can only be described negatively, as the absence of cyni-
cism. When O'Connor wrote that " Six months after the
Charter is passed every man, woman and child in the country
will be well fed, well housed, and well clothed," his followers
believed him, although Lovett derided the prophecy. 1 If a
thing is said often enough it is believed, and in sticking to the
importance of Universal Suffrage, O'Connor, consistent here,
if nowhere else, undoubtedly carried his hearers and readers
with him. His statements look curious to-day when examined
in the cold and critical light of subsequent events. " Let this
be borne in mind," he exclaimed, for example, " and never
lost sight of, that Universal Suffrage alone will make the thirty-
three of each vicious hundred blush and crouch before the
remaining sixty-seven "(sic). 2 This tremendous concentration
of feeling upon one point, upon which his followers were equally
convinced, prevented the most arrant bluster from appearing
merely ridiculous. At a time when nearly half of the forty
thousand members of the N.C.A. 3 were in arrears with their
subscriptions and the stability of the organization was extremely
flimsy^ O'Connor could grandiloquently declare, " We are
4,000,000, aye, and more. Never lose sight of the fact that
we are 4,000,000 and more." 4 Financial difficulties were in
the end too much for the N.C.A. Hill got hold of various
scandals and printed them in The Northern Star. In one issue
he fired a broadside of five charges 5 alleging that the Executive
had neglected the duties of their office, that they had violated
the organization they were appointed to enforce, that they
had done so wilfully, after repeated caution and remonstrance,
that they had wilfully appropriated the moneys of the N.C.A.
to their own use and benefit, and that they had manifested
in their own conduct, and countenanced in that of others, a
disregard of Chartist principle. Hill's virulence, here as else-
1 National Association Gazette, April 9, 1842.
2 Northern Star, January 2, 1841.
J The membership was largely duplicate. O'Connor claimed to
belong to twenty-eight associations.
4 Northern Star, May 21, 1842.
5 Ib., December 12, 1842.
168 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
where, probably outran the truth of the matter, but there
seems to be distinct grounds for believing that Campbell, in
spite of his complaints as to the lowness of the N.C.A.'s finances,
helped himself freely to small sums. 1
It is curious that Cleave should about this time become the
treasurer of the City of London Political and Scientific Institute
for the Moral and Social Improvement of the Working Classes,
which was virtually a branch of the N.C.A. This body had
a hall in the Old Bailey, which it outgrew, and then moved
to a larger hall, holding 2,000, at i, Turnagain Lane, Skinner
Street, Snow Hill. Here as elsewhere Cleave's behaviour
suggests that it was inspired by professional motives, rather
than by loyalty to Lovett. Cleave was the London agent for
various periodical publications of the N.C.A., such as the short-
lived Executive Journal, and seems to have dealt in Chartism
as a bookseller deals in ideas. His behaviour is nevertheless
peculiar, the more so as his " Lovettite " friends could not
have approved of the action of the N.C.A. in wrecking meetings,
such as one by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
in Foreign Parts held in London in October, 1841, or another
in January, 1842, when a Leeds meeting of the Society for the
Extinction of the Slave Trade was the occasion of a riot. The
General Election of July, 1841, caused an acrimonious discus-
sion on election policy. O'Brien suggested that Chartists
should choose candidates who would address electors, side-by-
side with the nominees of the official parties. They would,
however, retire after the show of hands and not proceed to
the poll. O'Connor gave the same advice. 2 A dispute occurred
as to the time to be taken by those Chartists who possessed
votes, and as to propaganda generally. Should the Whigs
be supported, or the Tories ? The Whigs had caused Chartists
to be imprisoned, but the Tories were the more strenuous
opponents of reform. Which of the two evils should be
chosen ? O'Connor urged that the Tories be used in order to
crush the Whigs. O'Brien, very forcibly indeed, objected to
this course of action. " There is but one part of the Star's
1 Northern Star, January 7, 1843.
2 Ib., June 26, 1841.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 169
advice I regret to see one part from which I dissent in toto.
I mean the editor's recommendation to support Tories against
Whigs, in case the Chartists should not be able to return their
own candidate. I cannot possibly concur in this advice, nor
will any of my friends throughout the country. Our business
as Chartists is, I repeat, to disavow both factions alike, even
as they have disavowed us, and to make no distinction what-
ever between them, saving when they choose to make the dis-
tinction themselves, by agreeing to coalesce and split their
votes with our party. What ! Vote for a Tory merely to
keep out a Whig ! Vote for a villain who wants to put down
me, and my principles, and my party, by brute force, merely
to get rid of another villain who has tried the same game and
failed ! No ! d n me ! if I do. ... And as to the 'new
hocus-pocus policy of promoting Chartism by inundating the
next House of Commons with Toryism, I cannot find language
capable of expressing my contempt for it. O'Connor is cer-
tainly mad, if he imagines it ; for I am certain he could never
swallow such a gross lump of Cobbettism in a moment of sober
reflection. It is contrary to all his former recorded opinions,
and utterly at variance with the policy he so ably and man-
fully followed up against the Liberator and Champion. Let
the Chartists but once make common cause with the Tories,
no matter for what purpose, and that moment they annihilate
themselves morally as a political party and prepare the way
for their physical extinction by the very villains they would
league with, covertly supported by the other villains they
leagued against." 1 This was the first blast of a controversy
which has persisted in the ranks of Labour even to our own
day.
O'Connor's first reply 2 to O'Brien was quite courteous,
although entirely irrelevant. It was an attempt in eight
columns to shuffle the blame for something or other on to
that scapegoat of Chartism, Daniel O'Connell. But O'Brien
returned to the attack a week later, 3 when Hill tried to keep
1 Letter from O'Brien in The Northern Star, June 19, 1841.
2 Northern Star, June 26, 1841. 3 Ib., July 3, 1841.
170 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
the peace by speaking of " the perfect unanimity of purpose "
of the controversialists.
It is curious to note that Robert Owen at this stage showed
himself to be more wisely political than the Chartists. Holding
no illusions as to the value of Universal Suffrage, but keenly
alive to the things that mattered most at the time, he published
and widely circulated a manifesto begging the electors to
demand a graduated property tax, the abolition of all other
taxes, free trade, national education for those who desired it,
national employment for those who needed it, free speech,
a free press, and complete religious toleration. The Northern
Star printed his address * and said nothing.
Various Chartist candidates were duly chosen, of whom only
one, not already in Parliamentary circles, went the whole
length of a formal rejection by his constituency. This was
Vincent, easily the most sanguine of the Chartist candidates.
He writes to Place on June 13, after much previous corre-
spondence of a damping description, and asks for money : "If
I had but 30, all would be right." Four days later : " My
canvass each day has exceeded my most sanguine expectations
. . . 10 or 5 would save me." 2 He received 51 votes,
against the 154 given to the elected, and 101 to the other
candidate. Immediately after the General Election of 1841,
the Executive Committee of the N.C.A. published a manifesto 3
claiming that the Chartists had been the principal factor in
the defeat of the Whigs. The argument is not quite clear ;
the Chartists had found themselves on the horns of a dilemma,
from which they made ungraceful efforts to extricate them-
selves. Thus the manifesto in point contains these somewhat
incompatible statements : " Our party was known, but known
only to be feared ; hence if the truth must be proclaimed,
the terror of Chartism has ended in the triumph of Toryism."
But, a little farther on, " Let not the cry of Tory and Chartist
coalition be repeated, when the truth is well known that the
1 July 3, 1841.
2 These letters, with drafts of Place's replies, are in the Place Collec-
tion, set 56, 1841, Vol. II. See also Wallas, Life of Francis Place, pp.
379, 380. 8 Northern Star, July 24, 1841.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 171
people turned the tide of public opinion against the Whigs,
but never in favour of the Tories. What possible interest
can the Chartists have in Tory government ? What possible
benefit did they even deserve from Whig government ? "
There has been the appearance of division in the town of
Birmingham, where a collision took place between the local
branch of the N.C.A. and the Christian Chartist Church. This
is now subsided. " We conceive that the man who is not a
member of onr Association, and who endeavours to cripple
our efforts or weaken our influence, exhibits great malice
towards the people, or proves treachery to their cause."
The Executive Council decided on the adoption of a National
Petition to the House of Commons. In connexion with the
presentation of this, another General Convention was summoned,
to be held in London on February 4, 1842. This time the
Chartists, in conformity with their own principle of Equal
Representation, divided England into constituencies, electing
altogether twenty-four members. Scotland and Wales were
to return not more than twenty-five others, so that the legal
maximum of forty-nine should not be exceeded. Members of
the Convention were to be balloted for and paid (except two
of the four Yorkshire members). The Convention was not
to sit for more than four weeks. The 1842 Petition 1 differs
from its predecessor in being a recital of economic as well as
of political grievances. The growth of the National Debt
in spite of twenty-six years of almost uninterrupted peace,
the disparity between the sums paid to the Queen, the Prince
Consort, the Archbishop of Canterbury on one hand, and to
the working classes on the other, long hours of labour, starva-
tion wages, and the Church Establishment are all complained
of, before the Six Points are demanded. Scottish Chartists
objected to the introduction of extraneous matter into the
Petition, 2 especially the complaints against the English Poor
Law, which differed in many important respects from their
own, and had nothing to do with the Six Points in any case.
By the end of 1841, however, Chartism was astir from causes
1 First printed in The Northern Star, October 16, 1841.
2 Northern Star, November 27, 1841.
172 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
more important than the Petition and the forthcoming Conven-
tion. Two new men had entered the movement. The first
was Thomas Cooper (1805-1892). In spite of a boyhood and
youth passed in extreme poverty, Cooper had educated himself
with remarkable thoroughness and perseverance, and about
1835 became a journalist in Lincoln. Six years later, after
many vicissitudes, he became a newspaper reporter in Leicester.
His job led to his frequent attendance at Chartist meetings,
and to his conversion to the Physical Force party. When the
election of 1841 came along, Cooper worked at Nottingham
for the return of the Tory Walter, the proprietor of the Times.
Writing his autobiography in 1873, Cooper explains himself :
" That old and steady advocates of Freedom should have
recommended us to help the Tories sounds very strange to
me now. But the poor took up the cry readily. They remarked
that the Whigs had banished John Frost and his companions,
and had thrown four hundred and thirty Chartists into prison,
and therefore the Whigs were their worst enemies. ' We will
be revenged upon the Whigs' became the cry of Chartists." 1
Within a year of his conversion, Cooper had become the
leader of a large section of the Leicester Chartists. The
remainder, under the guidance of John Markham, disapproved
of Cooper's extreme admiration for O'Connor and formed a
separate Chartist Association. Cooper's band held its meetings
in " Shakesperean Room," at All Saints' Open, and thereafter
called itself the Shakesperean Association of Leicester Char-
tists. 2 Cooper was dubbed the " General " of these Shake-
spereans, and adopted the term in his signature. 3
More important, however, was the adhesion of Joseph Sturge
(1793-1859), a Quaker. He was born of well-to-do parents
and was able to devote himself to philanthropic work from
about 1826 onwards the date when he went on the committee
of the Anti-Slavery Society. Sturge was a born reconciler,
with an inspiration for making peace. All his life he worked
for the maintenance of good relations between man and man.
1 The Life of Thomas Cooper, p. 149. 2 Ib., p. 165.
3 Appendix (by Cooper) to 1894 edition of Gammage's History of
the Chartist Movement.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 173
Soon after Lord Brougham had passed the slave-emancipation
Act of 1833, Sturge and his friends came to the conclusion
that the system of apprenticeship permitted by the Act retained
many of the features of undiluted slavery. But Brougham
was not to be so easily moved, and demanded definite proofs.
Thereupon, it is said, Sturge quietly remarked, "Then I must
supply thee with proof," and started at once for the West
Indies. 1 He collected much evidence, published some of it
in The West Indies in 1837, gave evidence before a House of
Commons Committee, and a year later the new evil was
abolished by Parliament. The United States negro next
called for his attention. In 1838 he was as alderman elected
to the Birmingham Town Council, newly incorporated under
the Municipal Act of 1835. He was therefore one of the City
Fathers during the Bull Ring riots, when he frequently appeared
as peacemaker and " did much, it is believed, to mitigate the
evil he could not wholly prevent. When the crisis was over,
his first efforts were directed to save the lives of the unfortunate
men who were condemned to die for their share in the riots.
By indefatigable exertions, he succeeded in getting their
sentence commuted to transportation." 2 He next moved in
the Town Council for a committee of inquiry into the dis-
turbances, and was appointed its chairman, and after
some time came to the conclusion that the principal cause of
the disorder was the misbehaviour of the imported London
police.
Sturge 's sympathies lay with the working classes during the
bad years 1840-42. As a keen democrat, he approved of the
Charter, but regretted the anti-middle-class attitude of so
many of its followers, partly because this alienated those whose
support mattered most, but to a great extent because Sturge
was a Christian and believed in peace. A series of articles
appeared in 1841 in the newly established Nonconformist
London Weekly Newspaper. These articles completely ex-
pressed Sturge 's own views, and were immediately reprinted
1 Dictionary of National Biography. The story is not contained in
the official Memoirs by Henry Richard.
2 Memoirs of Joseph Sturge, by H. Richard, p. 261.
174 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
with a preface by him. Sturge then laboured to convert the
Anti-Corn Law League, of which he was a prominent member,
to his own views on democracy. Here he found little difficulty.
The Free Trade leaders were keenly alive to the importance of
the applause they evoked in the provinces becoming audible
in the House of Commons. Votes were needed for this.
Moreover there were a great many men on the Chartist side
with pronounced Free Trade sympathies, who believed that
economic legislation did not ipso facto proceed from political
changes. While Physical Force Chartists were going about
breaking up Free Trade meetings, others were thinking and
coming over to support Cobden and Bright. " Every day
brings us accounts of the union of Chartists with the rest of
their fellow-countrymen in a determination to agitate for the
repeal of the corn-laws." 1 A good many people seem to have
made the discovery in 1841 that a union between Chartists
and middle-class Radicals was desirable. 2 The very Spectator
had an article 3 in which the Six Points were examined one by
one, and given general support. This article sagely concluded
to the effect that the vote might be extended to "all men,
women and children ; and if the prejudices of society did not
stand in the way of such an extension, it might be made with
perfect safety." Moreover it so happened that the great
publicists of the Anti-Corn Law League were good democrats.
The influence of Bright, Cobden, and W. J. Fox upon the
working classes was not to be nullified because The Northern
Star called the League the " Plague " and described the break-
up of its meetings by Chartists in each case as a " glorious
victory."
This tendency towards a union of forces naturally suited
Lovett very well. Readers will already have gathered from
the list of subscribers to the National Association that its
membership was by no means exclusively proletarian. A
month or two after the Association had come into existence,
Lovett had put forth an Address to the Middle Classes, which
1 Morning Chronicle, May 25, 1841.
2 Wallas, Life of Francis Place, p. 389.
3 Spectator, July 17, 1841.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 175
was virtually a disavowal of the Physical Force party. The
Address began somewhat strikingly, as follows
" Fellow-countrymen : The political partisans of our respec-
tive classes have in too many instances succeeded in awaken-
ing our mutual prejudices ; and selfishness and distrust on
the one hand, and violence and folly on the other, have ripened
animosities and fostered the spirit of exclusiveness, to the
dissevering of those links which ought to be united for our
common weal ; while a selfish, corrupt, and oppressive few
have flourished and triumphed by reason of such prejudices
and dissensions.
" Seeing the result of these evils in the social degradation,
the commercial ruin, and political oppression of our country,
we are anxious to see a mantle of oblivion cast over past
differences, and to see the wise and good of all classes resolving
that in future they will labour and reason together to work
out the social and political regeneration of man." 1
The remainder of this document upheld the principles of
the Charter with dignity. The one statement to which the
twentieth century political thinker will not readily accede is
made with reference to the evils of the day. " Satisfied, there-
fore, that most of these evils can be traced to unjust and selfish
legislation, we have pushed our inquiries still further ; we find
their chief source in our present exclusive system of representa-
tion." It would not be entirely frivolous to comment that
the last statement, if true, knocks the bottom out of the theory
of Lovett's own " Knowledge-Chartism."
About a month later, in January, 1842, Sturge began his
attempt to build the bridge between his own class and Lovett's.
Starting from opposite banks, these two immediately hailed
each other, and entered into co-operation.
Early in February, 1842, the Anti-Corn Law League held
a Conference in London. Sturge made use of the opportunity
and got up at a day's notice a meeting of the delegates who
entertained " views favourable to ' Complete Suffrage.' ' This
took place on Friday, February n, at the " Crown and Anchor."
Among those present were Sharman Crawford, M.P., the Rev.
1 Life and Struggles of William Lovett, p. 260.
176 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Thomas Spencer, 1 John Bright, Hetherington and Lovett.
The object of the gathering was a frank interchange of views ;
a series of private conversations presented in the form of public
speeches. Sturge took the chair. Two clergymen, Spencer
and Young, began the proceedings by emphatically stating a
case for extending the suffrage to the working classes. Spen-
cer's argument, nevertheless, must have grated on the ears of
a few of those present. " They had laws which meddled with
everything, with their money, their religion- -(hear, hear, and
cheers) and with their trade ; with everything they could
mention. If the working men were admitted to power, he
hoped they would guard against meddling with too many
things ; the grand thing was to protect person and property,
and to leave everything else alone. There were no more impor-
tant words than ' let alone ' the laissez-faire of the French.'*
The speaker then went on to explain why, in his opinion, the
working men would leave things alone. Spencer had unwit-
tingly found the frontier line between the different philosophies
of the two classes who had met at the " Crown and Anchor " to
be reconciled. The Free Traders were conscious and deliberate
adherents to the individualist theory of laissez-faire. The
Chartists, permeated with Socialist ideas, were virtually com-
mitted to the opposing theory of State interference. In theory
the Six Points could be held by any Whig, Liberal, Radical or
Socialist. But in practice the Charter was too closely associated
with the demand for factory legislation to give the crucial
instance to be entirely compatible with the Anti-Corn Law
agitation. Lovett, whose speech was the great event of the
evening, either did not notice, or affected not to notice, this
antinomy. The greater part of his speech was a mere exposi-
tion of the Charter. Towards the end he explained the Chartist
hostility against the Free Trade movement. " He was an
advocate for Free Trade ; and the only reason why he had
stood apart from the advocates of the repeal of the Corn Laws,
was a conviction that they would never be able to carry it
in the House of Commons as at present constituted. (Hear,
hear.) It had also been supposed by the working classes that
1 Father of Herbert Spencer.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM 177
the agitation for the repeal of the Corn Laws had been got
up as a counter-agitation to the Charter. (No, no.) It was
certain that at the time the first meeting was called in London,
for the Charter, in Palace Yard, just at that time an article
appeared in the True Sun, calling on the middle classes to
commence the agitation for the repeal of the Corn Laws. The
working men had been led to believe that it was meant as a
counter movement."
A recent incident, which had caused some hubbub among
the Chartists, probably decided Sturge's actions. More than
a year before, a large meeting in support of Household Suffrage
was held in Leeds, 1 under the auspices of the middle-class
Leeds Reform Association. Chartists were present in large
numbers ; their intention was to make themselves heard in
support of their own case, and to prevent the favourite bete
noire of Feargus O'Connor, and his former employer, Daniel
O'Connell, from getting a hearing. The latter did not turn up,
and the Chartists, to their own surprise, found that the speakers
almost unanimously confessed a sympathy with the Six Points.
Sturge's efforts to promote the political reconciliation of the
middle and working classes crystallized in a Conference held
in Birmingham from the gth to the I3th April, 1842. This
took place at the Waterloo Rooms, Waterloo Street. Among
those present were Sturge, Rev. Dr. Wade, Rev. T. Spencer,
Collins, Vincent, Lovett, Neesom, John Bright, the Rev. H.
Solly, and Bronterre O'Brien. Conferences of this nature
spend much of their time in the performance of what can
only be described as a ritual. There is no need to analyse
the entire proceedings. 2 People delivered the usual compli-
mentary speeches, made the customary platitudinous remarks
this time with more than usual sincerity on the importance
of friendly relations between the classes. The Chartists asserted
the dogmas of the Six Points, the Free Traders repeated the
shibboleths of Free Trade. Lovett moved the essential point
to establish " an association, to be called the National Complete
1 The Leeds Mercury, January 23, 1841, gives a good account.
2 An almost verbatim report may be found in Edward Miall's paper,
The Nonconformist, for April 13 and 20, 1842.
178 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Suffrage Union, for extending an enlightened opinion in favour
of the six principles affirmed by the Conference ..." the
Six Points with which we are already so familiar. After much
discussion it was decided to avoid direct reference to the
Charter. O'Brien supported this decision, wisely refusing to
be bound to words. The Conference immediately determined
upon a crusade on a national scale, a petition, missionaries,
and all the paraphernalia of successful political propaganda.
These preparations for victory deeply annoyed O'Connor,
who saw his supremacy in the Chartist movement seriously
threatened by this vigorous incursion of intelligent and promi-
nent middle-class men. He had already expressed himself
strongly on the subject of the Free Traders, whom, indeed, he
had abused week by week for nearly four years. A month
before the Birmingham Conference he had taken as his text
a resolution passed by the always intransigeant miners of
Merthyr. " That every approval towards a union with the
Corn Law League must be regarded as a direct step towards a
betrayal of the Chartist cause ; and that every public meeting
which neglects to affirm the adoption of the People's Charter
as the only remedy for the distresses of the people must be
considered as compromising the great right of the working
class to a share in the making of the laws." O'Connor's com-
ment is summarized in his first words, " This is the true posi-
tion for the people ; and the only safe one." 1 He decided to
break up the Conference if it were possible. With this amiable
intention, he summoned an opposition Conference in Birming-
ham, which met at the same time as the other, and appointed
a few " delegates "to the Sturge gathering. These were refused
admission. O'Brien managed to attend both meetings, and
justified his attitude to the N.C.A. members. Nothing came
of O'Connor's intention, except bitterness. Warm hopes of
success prevailed as the immediate result of the formation of
the N.C.S.U. Vincent wrote, " The Conference has proved
the existence of virtue and talent in the persons of men who
have hitherto feared or disliked each other ; it has shown that
the seeds of democratic principles are sown in the breasts of
1 Northern Star, March 5, 1842.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM
179
the Middle Classes." The objectors to the Conference he
divides into two classes " those who live by misrule, and their
knavish or blind tools."
The personality of Sturge is reflected in the Rules of the
N.C.S.U. Object VIII is " To recommend all classes of Society
to refuse to participate in the horrors of war, or to be used for
the purposes of cruelty and injustice, and in order that our
movement may be peaceably and morally conducted, to
recommend sobriety and temperance.
Object XII. To adopt every just, peaceful, legal, and
constitutional means for carrying the above resolutions into
effect, and only such.
William Morgan was the first Secretary. There was no fixed
subscription.
Place, in entire sympathy with the idea of an entente between
the middle and working classes, on May 20, 1842, formed yet
another organization, the Metropolitan Parliamentary Reform
Association. P. A. Taylor was Chairman, Dr. J. R. Black,
Secretary. The M.P.'s who had already joined so many bodies
of the kind, as usual, gave their support. The Committee
was a large one, but the work of the Association was virtually
left in the hands of a small Business Committee, which included
Place (Chairman), Hetherington and Westerton. 1 The annual
subscription was fixed at four shillings, payable quarterly if
preferred. The objects were the Six Points, but the words
Charter and Chartists, by this time so malodorous to the
middle classes, were not used in any of the Association's pro-
nouncements. This body was the most abortive of all Place's
undertakings. It lived only one year, 2 There is some truth
in the comment of a paper, " An extraordinary idea this said
Snip must have had of the vigour of himself and his allies." 3
O'Connor's next move was dictated to him by sheer jealousy
of the N.C.S.U. He ceased to attack the middle class, and
began to canvass them. He drew a distinction between the
1 Afterwards Secretary of the National Association.
2 It turns up again a year or two after its demise as the Metropolitan
Parliamentary and Franchise Reform Association.
3 John Bull, May 28, 1842.
i8o A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
" middle class " or " shopocracy," and the more numerous
" middling class," the brainworkers, and addressed articles
to the latter showing that, after all, their interests were one
with those of the working classes. His evolution in this direc-
tion was extraordinarily rapid ; it was less a change of opinion
than the manoeuvre of a human weathercock. In April and
May he was cursing Sturge. In July he was supporting him
at a by-election.
Early in May, 1842, Sturge was asked to contest Nottingham
at a by-election, brought about by the death of Sir G. Larpent.
He accepted, and put forward a Chartist- Quaker- Free Trade
election address, in which he declared, inter alia, against capital
punishment, and " not only considered all naval and military
establishments in time of peace as a needless and absurd
expense, but that all war is as inconsistent with true national
safety as it is in direct violation of the spirit and precepts of
the New Testament ... I am not insensible to the kindness
and favourable opinion of those who are anxious to promote
my election ; but I most strongly deprecate a single word or
expression that can justly excite any angry feeling towards
those who differ from them. I hope I shall be excused for
giving this caution, because on these occasions the best of men
sometimes forget that charity which in private they usually
exercise towards each other/' 1
The date of the election was deferred for various reasons
until August. Sturge's opponent was John Walter, then Tory
editor of The Times. On this occasion, however, Sturge's
supporters were of more importance than his opponents.
O'Connor actually came down to support Sturge, for whose
personality he had on recent occasions begun to express a
warm admiration. His arrival was the occasion of a warm
display of " physical force." The Tories claimed that O'Connor
was the cause of the mischief. A poster announced, " An
Irish bully, backed by a band of hired ruffians, strangers to
your town and neighbourhood, has insulted, outraged, and
severely maltreated a number of your fellow- townsmen. . . .
Be not deceived. Sturge the pacific and O'Connor ' the
1 Nottingham Review, May 20, 1842.
IDEAS AT A PREMIUM
181
brave ' have one common object in view the subjugation
of your town by brute force to the intolerable tyranny of
strangers." 1 It need hardly be said that this declaration could
be paralleled by others emanating from O'Connor's side.
Cooper, Vincent and M'Douall also turned up to' support Sturge
Cooper having supported Walter at the General Election of
the previous year. The Rev. J. R. Stephens, since his release
from his eighteen months' imprisonment, had been strangely
silent. Now the silence was broken in a sufficiently noisy
manner, for Stephens, remembering his erstwhile Toryism,
came down to support Walter. Hence the free fight to which
allusion has already been made, resulting in the arrest of O'Con-
nor and several others. Evidence is cheap and plentiful at
election times, and no convictions were made. The Sturge
party worked fiercely, but the Tories prevailed. Walter re-
ceived 1885 votes, Sturge 84 less. 2
The result of the election mattered little. From the point
of view of every side of the Universal Suffrage movement its
importance lay in the achievement of unity. To outward
appearance the Nottingham by-election was the occasion of
the consolidation of the liberal forces of the country, and to
the strengthening of Chartism. Unfortunately this was not
to be the case. While most people regarded the election cam-
paign of the Chartists as a matter of unity, O'Connor was
regarding the whole affair as a matter of leadership.
1 Northern Star, August 6, 1842.
2 A few months later Walter was unseated on a charge of corruption.
Sturge was offered the seat but refused to accept it, as he had not been
elected by a majority
N
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VI
The 1842 Convention duly met at Dr. Johnson's Tavern, on
April 12, and talked for nearly three weeks. The absence of
Lovett's and Attwood's followers might have been expected to
have produced unanimity, but this was not the case. Even a
convention of twenty-five may contain dissidents. O'Brien and
Philp were there and fought with O'Connor over the relations of
the N.C.A. with the middle class. O'Brien, O'Connor, M'Douall, Pit-
keithley, Lowery, Duncan and Moir were the only delegates
present who had attended the first Convention. The other eighteen
were mediocrities, and the whole assembly had neither the personali-
ties nor the hopes of its predecessor. The Petition was said, when
completed, to have 3,3 17,752 signatures. On May 2 it was taken
in procession to the House of Commons and handed over to Dun-
combe. According to Place only 3,000 marched in this procession,
one-third of whom were not male adults.
On May 3, 1842, Duncombe moved that " the petitioners, whose
petition I presented yesterday, be heard by themselves or their
counsel at the Bar of the House." 1 He sketched the history of
the movement for franchise reform, since the beginning of Major
Cartwright's propaganda, and then went on to describe the state
of the country in 1842, quoting from letters he had received from
all parts. After a long account of the terrible sufferings then
being experienced by the poor, Duncombe soberly ended by assuring
the House that they would not have to listen to more than six
Chartists or to spend more than two days in doing so.
The motion was seconded by Leader, who protested the sin-
cerity underlying Chartism, and declared that the dissection or
dismissal of the Petition would in no wise stop the movement,
which was based on real economic grievances. Bowring followed
him, supporting the Petition on Benthamite principles. Dr.
Fielden also spoke in favour, basing his argument, as usual
1 Hansard, Vol. 63, cols. 13-91.
182
APPENDIX 183
with him, on factory conditions. Sir John Easthope added his
voice to the same effect. Then the opponents began. Sir James
Graham (Home Secretary) vaguely intimated that " the subversion
of all our great institutions must inevitably result from the granting
of the prayer of the petition," and criticized Easthope's apparent
fickleness, as that gentleman had previously voted against the Six
Points. Then Easthope had to explain that he was really opposed
to the Charter, but did not think that the Chartists should be
denied a hearing at the Bar of the House.
Perhaps the most interesting speech of the day was that of
JVIacaulay, who followed. He declared himself to be in favour
of parts of the Charter, and to entertain " extreme and unmitigated
hostility/* to one point only to Universal Suffrage. " I believe
that Universal Suffrage would be fatal to all purposes for which
government exists, and for which aristocracies and all other things
exist, and that it is utterly incompatible with the very existence
of civilization. I conceive that civilization rests on the security
of property, but I think that it is not necessary for me, in a dis-
cussion of this kind, to go through the arguments, and through the
vast experience which necessarily leads to this result ; but I will
assert, that while property is insecure, it is not in the power of the
finest soil, or of the moral or intellectual constitution of any country,
to prevent the country sinking into barbarism, while, on the other
hand, while property is secure, it is not possible to prevent a country
from advancing in prosperity." Macaulay then attacked the least
defensible clauses of the Petition, and concluded by urging the
necessity of resisting " spoliation."
Roebuck replied to Macaulay, and urged that 3,500,000 people
had a right to be listened to, more so when their cause was just,
and their sufferings were great. " Yes, it was from these sufferings
that he judged of his fellow-countrymen, and not from the trashy
doctrine contained in the Petition, which would be of itself ridiculous
but for the grandeur of the multitude of names appended to it."
Matters were serious, and if 3,500,000 people rose up against
the Government, it would " not have physical force adequate to
put them down."
The next speaker was Lord Francis Egerton who was gently
sarcastic at the expense of Roebuck.
Hawes (Lambeth) also opposed. He was " a warm advocate
for the progressive improvement of the people," but he disapproved
of the " language made use of at certain public meetings which had
been held of late throughout the country."
184 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Hume supported the motion, pointing out that the utterance
of subversive and revolutionary sentiments was not a Chartist
monopoly, that the working classes were " taxed infinitely more
in proportion to their means than the possessors of extensive pro-
perty. ... He was prepared to place confidence in the working
classes, as they had always acted as honestly, or perhaps more so,
than the richer classes."
Wakley, also speaking in support, tried to get the discussion back
to the point. Was the existing constituency the best that could be
devised ? He could not support annual parliaments, but the
question before the House was, were the representatives of the
petitioners to be allowed to state their own case ?
Lord John Russell followed. He declared his sympathy with
" the sufferings and privations of the working classes," and argued
that venerable institutions ought to be preserved. He denied that
anybody had any " right " to a vote. " For my own part, I think
it is very likely that at many elections, even if universal suffrage
were in operation, you would find that respect for property, respect
for old habits, and general regard for the constitution of the country,
would produce results not very different from those which are pro-
duced when property is one of the qualifications required for the
franchise." The matter was virtually reduced to, Is it expedient ?
In the present uneducated condition of the working classes it
undoubtedly was not. Russell ended up by saying that it would
take more than a few working men to convert him to a faith in the
Six Points, and that he would therefore vote against the motion.
He was followed by Peel. The Prime Minister sheltered himself
behind the clauses of the Petition which seemed to him to speak of
the Monarch and the Established Church with insufficient respect.
" I say the Petition is altogether an impeachment of the Constitu-
tion of this country, and of the whole frame of Society." Peel
expressed his fear of the power of demagogues should universal
suffrage come to be established, and claimed that the existing state
of things " has secured for us during 150 years more of practical
happiness and of true liberty than has been enjoyed in any coun-
try excepting the United States of America, not excepting any other
country whatever."
Macaulay briefly corrected a misapprehension.
G. F. Muntz supported in a few words, and J. Oswald as shortly
opposed the motion.
The Hon. Charles Villiers, in supporting, said that the rejection
of the Charter would make the working classes mistrust the House.
APPENDIX
185
Lord Clements opposed ; as an Irishman, he wished to protest
as emphatically as possible against the reference in favour of repeal
contained in the Petition.
O'Connell supported. He claimed to be "a decided advocate
of universal suffrage," and declared that nobody had yet explained
where and why the line between voters and the voteless should be
drawn.
Buncombe replied to the discussion. He dissented from many
parts of the Petition, but said that confiscation was not in the minds
of those who asked for universal suffrage. " Three millions of
men are entitled to a hearing, and so far from the communication
of political rights to the working classes endangering your consti-
tution, it would, in my opinion, strengthen its stability."
The House divided Ayes, 49 ; Noes, 287 ; Majority, 236.
Cobden was among the Ayes, Palmerston and Gladstone among
the Noes. Disraeli was absent.
CHAPTER VII
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR
IN a brief account of Chartist organization, contained in
the last chapter, it was stated that Chartists did not,
as a rule, belong to organizations other than their own. The
Chartist leaders, in fact, discouraged the participation of their
followers in trade unionism, just as they objected to any demand
not covered by the Six Points. The Executive of the N.C.A.
published an address 1 very soon after the formation of that
body, criticizing the principles of trade unionism on the grounds
that without political power the members of a trade union
were helpless. Chartism, however, cannot be considered
apart from economic conditions. This was quite realized by
the leaders. We have Stephens' well-known dictum, " Uni-
versal suffrage is a ... knife-and-fork question, a bread-
and-cheese question." 2 O'Connor talks of 3 "A means of
insuring a fair day's wages for a fair day's work, which, after
all, is the aim and end of the People's Charter." The opponents
of Chartism realized this too. When Gladstone retired from the
Presidency of the Board of Trade in 1845, he had a farewell
audience with Queen Victoria. The Queen spoke " of the
reduced condition of Chartism, of which I said the chief feeder
was want of employment." 4
The avidity with which the population of Lancashire flung
1 English Chartist Circular, No. 46.
2 Northern Star, September 29, 1838.
3 From the Introduction to The Trial of Feargus O'Connor and Fifty-
eight others at Lancaster, 1843.
4 Morley, Gladstone, Vol. I, p. 204, Popular Edition.
186
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 187
itself at the anything but succulent Six Points was due to no
philosophical creed. It was caused by hunger and fear. Let
us very briefly review .the economic facts which determined
this ready acceptance of the Cnarter as a panacea.
The gradual replacement of hand labour by machinery had
made the condition of the remaining hand-loom weavers critical
in 1840. The general acceptance of the power-loom had origin-
ated in the cotton branch of the textile trades. Here the
immediate distress was less than in the branches where, as
yet, the hand-loom persisted. The displaced hand-loom cotton
weavers simply drifted into linen- and silk- weaving and over-
crowded these industries. To add to the distress caused by
this invasion, Irish immigrants, displaced in their own country,
came and sought employment in England. The introduction
of the machine-loom into linen-weaving completed the sorrows
of the original employees. Wages fell. The hand-loom
weavers were not, on the whole, town labourers. The machine-
loom weavers, on the other hand, could obviously not work
in cottages and farms. A rapid transfer of population there-
fore was taking place. Uncontrolled as regards their buildings
or their sanitation, the new towns were slums from the first.
Engels, in his Condition of the English Working Class in 1844,
describes a new Manchester that is virtually a sink of all the
foulness known to civilization. The case of Lancashire and
cotton is typical of what was happening over all the industrial
districts of the Four Kingdoms. In Yorkshire the woollen
trade was passing through a similar set of conditions.
Low wages and insanitary and insufficient houses were not
the only evils rampant in 1842, the year with which the progress
of this narrative leads us to be specially concerned. In that
year only, the Coal Mines Act was passed, prohibiting the
underground employment of women and of children under ten.
The Commission whose Report led to the passing of this Act
had a ghastly tale to tell of the vicious conditions under which
women and children earned their insufficient wages. Long
hours of labour (the maximum for children was reduced to
twelve only in 1846) ; falling wages (in the cotton trade wages
fell consistently for some thirty years after 1810) ; a high
188 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
rate of infantile mortality and the prevalence of epidemics
were among the accessories of the new capitalism.
These facts make the state of mind of the Chartists compre-
hensible. The Chartist saw himself hemmed in on all sides.
The philosophy of the time was against him. If he wondered
why wages could not be raised, he came up against the Iron
Law of Wages, the Wage Fund Fallacy. Malthus was against
him : " The principal causes of the increase of pauperism . . .
are, first, the general increase of the manufacturing system,
and the unavoidable variations of manufacturing labour ;
and, secondly, and more particularly, the practice ... of
paying a considerable portion of what ought to be the wages
of labour out of the parish rates/' 1 If he asked why his
hours of labour could not be shortened, he was told that
shorter hours would be worth lower wages, and would cause
higher prices. The Free Trade movement, founded by the
manufacturers whom he regarded as his enemies, naturally
failed to attract him. He felt that only by some drastic and
revolutionary measure could his situation be improved. That
is why Physical Force Chartism got its attractiveness.
lii August, 1842, the strain became excessive. A great
series of strikes or " turn-outs " seems to have started on the
4th of the month, when over 20,000 Stalybridge weavers
marched on Manchester in consequence of an attempt to reduce
their wages. Immediately the whole district around Manches-
ter was on fire. In Ashton-under-Lyne, Stalybridge, Dukin-
field, and Hyde a general strike appears to have taken place.
Oldham followed. At the same time the miners on the Tyne
and in the Glasgow district also went on strike. They had
good reasons for doing so. Their wages were low, and subject
to deductions, on account of the iniquitous truck system.
John M'Lay, the Glasgow secretary of a miners' union wrote
this statement of the case. 2 " The average wages of the
miners of coal and iron vary from is. 7 %d. to 2s. $%d. for putting
out one-third of more labour than they did, one year ago,
1 Malthus, An Essay on Population, Seventh Edition, Book III,
chapter vii.
2 Northern Star, August 13, 1842,
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 189
receive 45. per day for ; and at same time could, in many
instances, get their money when earned, while now we go to
our masters' store and take our labour in goods ; or if the
employer has not a store, he, according to his laws, makes us
pay one penny for each shilling lifted before pay day.' 1
The Northern Star soon had reasons to rejoice. " We are
glad the miners, like other trades, have hoisted the banner
of the Charter. In the principles of that invaluable document
must centre all their hopes. . . . Trade Unions in times
past were deemed the only panacea for the complicated evils
endured by the operative classes the specific was tried but
its virtues were undiscovered or practically unknown."
O'Connor's first endeavour after the outbreak was to turn
it to his own strategic advantage by declaring that the Anti-
Corn-Law League was responsible for the disorder and should
be made to pay the bill. " Every succeeding day furnishes
additional proof of the villainy inherent in the despicable
middle classes ; of their hostility to the interests of the masses ;
of their hatred of justice, and, consequently, of the absurdity
of the doctrines propounded by the defunct ' New Movers/
and the expiring League, who profess to desire an amalgama-
tion of the middle and working classes." 1 It was surely in-
consistent to allege that an " expiring " body could work such
evil. But O'Connor was not to be turned from his purpose.
The League might be a dead donkey, but it had to be flogged.
The next week The Northern Star returns to the charge :
" They have gotten the people out. How will they get them
in again ? How will they compensate for the loss of life and
the personal injuries the shootings, and cuttings, and slash-
ings ; the imprisonments, and the transportings that are to
follow ; how will they compensate for these things which they,
and they alone, have caused ? " 2 On Tuesday, August 16, a
mob entered Cleckheaton and attempted to make the employees
at the various mills stop work. They met with brickbats,
but gained a partial success. The strikers are thus described
by the historian of Spen Valley. " Many of the men had coarse
1 Northern Star, August 13, 1842.
2 Ib., August 20, 1842.
igo A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
grey blankets strapped to their backs, and were armed with
formidable bludgeons, flails, pitchforks, and pikes. Their
appearance as they came pouring down the road in thousands,
was one which it would be impossible to forget a gaunt,
famished-looking, desperate multitude, many without coats
and hats, hundreds like scarecrows with their clothes in rags
and -tatters, and amongst them were many women. Some
of the older men looked footsore and weary, but the great
bulk were in the prime of life, full of wild excitement/' 1 On
their second appearance the strikers were able to stop work
at several factories by drawing the boiler-plugs, before the
soldiers arrived and put an end to the proceedings by sabring
part of the crowd and arresting those of its members who did
not act on this hint and disperse. The same writer tells us
elsewhere that the Spen Valley was the centre of an insurrection
which would not, have broken out had it not been for O'Connor's
shiftiness. 2 The movement swiftly spread through the North.
In Halifax, Skipton, Keighley, the Potteries, Chorley, Bingley,
Stafford, Preston, Heywood, Rochdale, Bacup, Ashton-under-
Lyne, Sheffield, Wigan, Blackburn, and innumerable other
towns, men went out on strike. In some places e.g. , Rochdale
no breach of the peace appears to have taken place. In
others e.g., Preston the military were called out and were
ordered to fire on the crowd. Even lethargic London was
affected. A meeting was held on Stepney Green, and the
police, frightened thereat, made many arrests, although the
intentions of the speakers seem to have been peaceable.
Thomas Cooper went on a crusade in the Midlands and preached
the Charter to the colliers of Wednesbury, Wolverhamton
and Stafford. He was arrested at Burslem, but released
almost at once. These risings made an impression difficult to
account for at this time of day. An old Chartist, describing his
recollections of the movement, 3 tells us that he was in Bourne
(Lincolnshire) in August when news was received of the riots
in the North. " In the course of the day a rumour spread
1 Spen Valley, Past and Present, p. 326.
2 Ib., p. 314.
3 Sketchley, To-day, July, 1884.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 191
through the town that a Chartist army of several thousands
was collecting at Nottingham, intending to march through
Lincolnshire on its way for Dover. The greatest alarm pre-
vailed. " .It appears on the evidence of the same writer that
the shopkeepers and farmers belonging to the villages in the
neighbourhood of Bourne were so terror-stricken that they
invariably attended to casual callers with a loaded gun in
their hands, fearing that he might be a precursor of the direst.
On August 16, 1842, Cooper, M'Douall, Leach, Bairstow,
O'Connor, and other Chartists, some sixty in all, had assembled
in Manchester. Cooper, who throughout his tour in Stafford-
shire had been preaching " Peace, Law, and Order," now told
this conference that he wanted a universal strike, " because
it meant fighting." O'Connor protested against this ; they
had met, he said, to try to turn the strike to the advantage
of the Charter, and not to talk about fighting. l Hill supported
O'Connor, and so, curiously enough, did Harney. M'Douall,
on the other hand, was out for trouble. He drew up a fiercely
worded address to the strikers " appealing to the God of
Battles for the issue, and urging a universal strike." 2 This
was printed the same day, and circulated on the responsibility
of the executive of the N.C.A. of which, of course, O'Connor
was not a member.
The police promptly got on to the tracks of the signatories.
Bairstow was arrested at once ; the others managed to escape,
either for the time being, or altogether. M'Douall got away
to America. Bussey, a truculent member of the 1839 Con-
vention, a Bradford grocer and beershop keeper by trade, also
fled to America about this time. Cooper was arrested and
tried at Newcastle-under-Lyne on a charge of aiding in a riot
at Hanley, but was acquitted. Later on Cooper was found
guilty on a charge of conspiracy, and eventually sentenced to
two years' imprisonment in Stafford Gaol.
By the second week of August the deliberate attempts made
by the followers of O'Connor to turn the strikes for higher
wages into strikes for the Charter already showed signs of
1 Life of Thomas Cooper, p. 209.
a Ib., p. 211.
192 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
success. Trade unionist after trade unionist was excavated
from a previous nonentity by The Northern Star reporters and
made to give testimony to the intentions of a union, of a trade,
or of a town, to strike for nothing but the Charter, to declare
that he would not strike for wages, as these were sufficient,
but for the Charter that alone could keep them from falling.
A meeting of 200 delegates from Lancashire and Yorkshire
was held in Manchester on August 12, and passed two reso-
lutions. " We " the delegates " do most emphatically
declare that it is our most solemn and conscientious conviction
that all the evils which affect society, and which have pros-
trated the interests and energies of the great body of the pro-
ducing classes arise solely from class legislation ; and that the
only remedy for the present alarming distress and widespread
destitution is the immediate and unmutilated adoption, and
carrying into law, the document known as the People's Charter."
The second resolution was, " That this meeting recommend
the people of all trades and callings to forthwith cease work,
until the above document becomes the law of the land." 1
All this time the Chartist interventionists never ceased to
assert that they were wholly opposed to the use of physical
force. In Manchester a number of them enrolled as special
constables the better to be able to keep the peace. Lovett
published a characteristic address, on behalf of the National
Association. " To the Working Classes of England, Scotland,
and Wales, now on Strike for additional wages." The writer's
insistence, even at this critical hour, on the necessity of employ-
ing only moral force, illustrates the finest trait in his character.
" To you who have declared for the Charter we would say,
avoid violence. The enemies of liberty have their emissaries
among you ; do not allow them to betray you into wrong, do
not furnish a pretext for their letting loose their hired bravoes
to cut you to pieces. The loss of life has already tainted our
glorious cause ; we pray you use your efforts to restrain out-
rage, and by your wise and peaceful conduct win all good men
to your cause." The end of this outbreak of strikes was
followed by a large number of arrests, on charges of sedition.
1 Northern Star, August 20, 1842.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 193
Feargus O'Connor and John Campbell were arrested in Man-
chester on September 30, 1842. l Harney, with ten Manchester
Chartists, were next apprehended. Within a week or two, the
Rev. W. Hill, Thomas Cooper, and several other prominent
Chartists of the Midlands and the North, had followed them.
A Special Commission sat at Stafford to try 180 alleged incen-
diaries, during the first week of October, 1842. The total
number of prisoners for trial was 274. Of these no fewer
than fifty-four were sentenced to transportation, eleven for
life, thirteen for twenty-one years, and the remainder for
shorter periods. A hundred and forty-six were sentenced to
imprisonment and hard labour for periods varying from two
years to ten days. Eight were sentenced to various terms of im-
prisonment without hard labour, and fifty-five were acquitted,
two discharged on entering into recognizances, six discharged
by proclamation, and finally, three, among them Cooper,
traversed till the next assizes. 2
The attempt of the N.C.A. to dominate this industrial unrest
had come to an unsuccessful end. A few leaders had been
imprisoned, a few others had fled, and the People's Charter
seemed as unattainable as ever. After the collapse of the
August " Turn-out" only one thing kept the Chartist movement
from drifting into complete apathy. This was the hope that,
after all, something might come of the proposed " union "
with middle-class reformers. O'Connor's invective on this
account is relatively subdued after August.
On April 21, 1842, Sharman Crawford had moved in the
House for a Committee to consider the demands contained in
the second National Petition. On that occasion, in spite of
Sir J. Graham's declaration on the part of the Government,
that the Charter, if conceded, would endanger the monarchy,
the reformers, if they did not have things their own way, at
least put up a better case than they had ever done before, or
were to do again in the course of the Chartist movement. Sir
Charles Napier supported the motion. So too did Cobden,
who tried to show that the support for the Six Points did not
1 Northern Star, October i, 1842.
2 Annual Register, 1842, Pt. 2, p. 163.
194 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
come from one class alone, and concluded his speech by glow-
ingly eulogizing Joseph Sturge. On the division, 67 members
followed Crawford into the Aye Lobby, against 226 Noes,
among whom were both Gladstone and Disraeli. 1 Sixty-
seven supporters were not to be despised. If the House
could be made to feel that Sharman Crawford was the mouth-
piece of but a small minority of reformers, who knows how
many M.P.'s might be coerced into supporting the Charter ?
This, roughly speaking, was the moral drawn by the Chartists
from the debate and the division.
The practical union of the forces of the Chartists and of
the N.C.S.U. had been left to a Conference, which was to
meet in Birmingham on December"^." The members of this
were to decide on a common plan of action, to take the form
of " deciding on an Act of Parliament for securing the just
representation of the whole people ; and for determining on
such peaceful, legal, and constitutional means as may cause
it to become the law of these realms." Lovett and the Council
of the N.C.S.U. had then to face the practical difficulty of
providing for the fair representation of all parties at this
Conference. A scheme of Lovett's was adopted which fixed
the number of delegates each town was to send, and contained
this proviso, " That one-half of the representatives shall be
appointed by the electors, and half by the non-electors/ '
O'Connor's chief anxiety at this time was the representation
of his followers. If these could but form a majority of the
Conference, all would be well. He therefore went about
denouncing the plan of representation as undemocratic, and
stirring up his followers to elect delegates. The result was
that by way of a prelude to their future unity, " a fierce battle
was now fought between the Complete Suffragists and the
Chartists in the election of delegates. The Chartists were
anxious to get their men elected if possible at the Complete
Suffrage meetings, in order to avoid the expense falling on
themselves alone, and in many cases they succeeded in so
doing. At Leicester the electors held a separate meeting,
but the redoubtable Cooper and his ' Shakesperians ' were at
1 Hansard, 1842, Vol. 62, 907-984.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 195
their posts and effected an entrance, to the great discomfiture
of the parties present." 1
The Complete Suffragists were well justified in fearing that
they would be outnumbered and committed to a course of
action more compatible with the greater glory of O'Connor
than the success of their cause. Even out-and-out Chartists
like Bronterre O'Brien could foresee this probability. O'Brien
writes : "A conference composed of such materials as Mr.
Feargus O'Connor would pack into it, would soon find itself
utterly powerless, and without influence for any purposes but
those of mischief. In that lies the cure of the evil. The con-
ference would prove a perfect failure, and from that failure
the people would derive a wholesome warning, as to the
election of future conferences or conventions. From which
the very best results would be sure to follow." 2 In other
words, get rid of O'Connor. The Council of the N.C.S.U.
(or part of it), unable to take this advice, took a step of doubtful
wisdom. The business before the Conference, they argued,
was to decide on a Bill. But the Conference could not be
expected to make up a Bill as it went along. The People's
Charter, it was true, was roughly in the form of a Bill. As it
stood, however, it could not be presented to Parliament :
it had been deliberately drafted with a view to being readily
understood by working-class readers, and would need some
revision before it could be laid on the table. They therefore
had a " New Bill of Rights " drafted. This presented the Six
Points in parliamentary form, in a document containing ninety-
nine clauses. The B section of the Council of the N.C.S.U.
responsible for the " New Bill of Rights " apparently had no
time to submit it to the remaining members. Lovett and
Neesom, both members of the Council, saw the document for
the first time only at the Conference.
On December 27 the Conference met at the Mechanics'
Institute, Newhall Street, Birmingham, attended by 374
delegates. O'Connor showed from the first moment his
intention of dominating the proceedings. He spoke frequently ;
the reports of the Conference suggest that the only periods
1 Gammage, p. 242. 2 British Statesman, ^oyember 26, 1842.
196 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
when he was not on his feet were those immediately following
his own speeches. Sturge is moved into the Chair ; O'Connor
seconds the motion. He gets up to points of order ; he
attempts to make the Conference accept a list of members
of the N.C.A., which he draws out of his pocket. Those respon-
sible for the Bill of Rights had naturally put it into the fore-
front of the proceedings. The morning of the first day is
spent in formal business. In the afternoon the Bill is produced.
Lovett and O'Connor rose simultaneously to attack. The
latter deferred, and Lovett, feeling that he had been badly
treated, moved that the words " The bill or document entitled
the People's Charter " be substituted for " The bill presented
by the council of the National Complete Suffrage Union in the
resolution committing the Conference to the consideration of
the 'New Bill Rights.'" O'Connor rose to the opportunity
thus offered him, and seconded, complimenting Lovett on his
honesty. The discussion was carried over to the next day,
in order to allow the delegates to confer.
Lovett's motives are as plain as his feelings. He was the
father of the Charter, and the N.C.S.U. men were proposing
to drown his offspring without a word of regret. He had
worked so keenly for union with the middle classes that his
defection was the cause of unbounded joy to the O' Connor ites,
and regret to the N.C.S.U. members. It was sheer ill-luck
that brought him into the company of O'Connor. " If O'Con-
nor intended by his gross adulation to win over Lovett to his
party, he never made a sorrier mistake. All the time that
he stood speaking the lip of Lovett was curled in scorn/' 1
However, he had to let himself in for association with O'Connor,
and the business had to be gone through. The next morning
Lovett moved : " That the document entitled the People's
Charter, embracing all the essential details of just and equal
representation couched in plain and definite language, capable
of being understood and appreciated by the great mass of
the people, for whose government and guidance all law ought
to be written that measure having been before the public
for the last five years, forming the basis of the present agita-
1 Gammage, p. 243.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 197
tion in favour of the suffrage, and for seeking to secure the
legal enactment of which vast numbers have suffered impri-
sonment, transportation and death, has, in the opinion of
the meeting, a prior claim over all other documents professing
to embrace the principles of just representation. It is, there-
fore, resolved that we proceed to discuss the different sections
of the people's charter, in order to ascertain whether any im-
provement can be made in it, and what these improvements
shall be, it being necessary to make that document as clear
and perfect as possible." O'Connor seconded in an able speech.
He said that the Charter had the moral support of three and
a half million persons, who were not in way committed to the
Bill. After which he denied most emphatically that he had
ever advocated or recommended a recourse to physical force.
Then the N.C.S.U. began, and the squabble lasted the whole
day. The division was taken ; 193 supported Lovett, 94
supported the Bill. Sturge thereupon announced that " After
the most minute consideration he felt that he would now
best promote the cause they had in view by no longer occupying
the chair. At the same time he earnestly hoped that although
they could not work together in exactly the same steps they
would not consider each other enemies, but as men all working
heartily and anxiously in the same road." Answering a ques-
tion put by O'Connor, Sturge said that they would best promote
the cause of the people by discussing the bill in another room.
Lovett said that he blamed himself for having led people to
believe that the Complete Suffrage movement was in any
way connected with the Anti-Corn Law League, and regretted
the course that had been adopted by Sturge and his followers,
whom he believed to be actuated by the best motives. He
moved the cordial thanks of the conference to Sturge for
taking the chair. He was seconded by O'Connor, who once
more became fulsome in praise of the Quaker. Vincent walked
out with Sturge. The next day the minority met at the
Temperance Hotel, Moore Street, and there went ahead with
the Bill, which Sharman Crawford was to present to Parlia-
ment. The majority Conference discussed a plan of Cooper's
as to the reorganization of the N.C.A. Lovett withdrew. The
o
ig8 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
remaining members indulged in acrimony, and their numbers
rapidly fell to thirty-seven on the fourth and last day.
The Conference has an intensely pathetic side. It repre-
sented the downfall of the hopes of so many decent men that
we cannot laugh at its futility. " The whole affair has proved
so abortive," wrote a local paper, " that, had it depended on
us alone, we should have preferred to bury it at once in the
oblivion to which in a few weeks it will be certainly, and with
universal consent, consigned." 1 The Northern Star leading
article of the issue following the Conference begins : " We
presume that by this time at all events the mind of the people
will be pretty well settled upon the fact that our worst suspi-
cions of the Sturge men have been more than realized." 2
In a similar feeling of peace and goodwill, Francis Place spent
Sunday, New Year's Day, 1843, in the composition of an
extremely acid but far-sighted Memorandum on the Conference. 3
The fate of the N.C.S.U. Bill may be briefly described here.
It was introduced by the indefatigable Sharman Crawford
on May 18, 1843, before a small and bored House. The usual
speakers spoke. Ross, M.P. for Belfast, surprised those present
by asserting that he " was in the manufacturing districts in
the north of England [near Rochdale, it was subsequently
explained] for some time last year, and there he heard doctrines
propounded which appeared to him so monstrous, and, he was
sorry to say, so widely spread, that if this Bill became law
the country would have such a deluge of these doctrines as
would carry all before it." The Bill was lost by 101 to 32.*
On January 31, 1844, the Complete Suffrage Union held
its first important public meeting in London after the failure
of Sharman Crawford's Bill. The Crown and Anchor Tavern
was, as usual, the scene. Crawford himself took the chair ;
Sturge, Spencer, and in fact all the prominent members of
the N.C.S.U. were present. Lovett and Vincent were also there ;
the presence of the former is significant. The meeting had
been called to give moral support to a proposal for moving
1 Birmingham Journal, December 31, 1842.
2 Northern Star, January 7, 1843. 3 See Appendix II.
4 Hansard, 1843, Vol. 69, 500-530.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 199
amendments on motions of supply until the grievances alleged
by the N.C.S.U. members of Parliament had been heard and
redressed. O'Connor and Buncombe were however present,
with a large number of disciples, and the meeting was compelled
to listen to O'Connor and much uproar. 1 The N.C.S.U. is
little heard of after this. If it, working in the name of demo-
cracy, was opposed by O'Connor, also in the name of democracy,
obviously there was little to be done.
The movement over which O'Connor had established his
predominance had sadly degenerated from its original enthu-
siasm and vigour. The years 1843-45 are marked by apathy,
declining numbers, 'and the absence of a definite programme.
The N.C.S.U. men, in their withdrawal, took the agitation
for the Six Points with them. This was soon recognized by
Lovett who once more begins to appear on Complete Suffrage
platforms. For a while O'Connor was in the position of a
hermit-crab which has come into possession of an empty shell
of uncomfortable largeness. His denunciations are chastened ;
he is less keen to detect and to denounce heresy ; in his speeches
and writings the quality of flamboyant egotism is softened
down. Even the optimism evoked for the purpose of arousing
enthusiasm for another year's campaigning is qualified by
regrets and the admission of past futility. " 1843 was the
year of slumber : 1844 the year of waking and thought/' 2
Six months later O'Connor significantly heads an article " The
Revival of Chartism." 3
What were the Chartists doing in these dead years ? So far
as the followers of O'Connor are concerned, the answer is :
Extremely little. The pages of The Northern Star are opened
to the discussion of innumerable matters outside the four corners
of the People's Charter. The arrest of Daniel O'Connell,
his trial, conviction, and subsequent acquittal, as well as the
whole new Repeal agitation, are the subjects of innumerable
articles. The Maynooth grant, the Young England party,
the failure of the potato crop, and the Young Ireland party,
1 Times, February i, 1844, and Northern Star, February 3, give
accounts. 2 Northern Star, December 28, 1844.
3 Northern Star, June 7, 1845.
200 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
are all studied. O'Connor made an attempt to promote an
interest in Chartism among trade unionists. The Northern
Star, indeed, becomes very largely an organ of the working-
men's societies. O'Connor's sympathies are extended towards
the National Association of United Trades for the Protection
of Labour, of which body Buncombe became President. This
had an ambitious programme, but its active life was only three
years, 1 and is mainly of interest on account of the experiments
with which it was associated.
Experiments, indeed, alone redeem this period from complete
uselessness. There are three classes of these : (i) the experi-
ments in co-operative production encouraged by the National
Association of United Trades ; (2) the great experiment in
co-operative distribution ; (3) the experiments in the co-opera-
tive ownership of land, with which O'Connor is specially
concerned. The first group were all failures ; their history
is difficult to chronicle, as records of the death and dissolution
of such undertakings are not kept. An interesting example
of the type is supplied by The Northern Star of June 14, 1845.
Four days before the date of issue, a little ceremony had taken
place in a field three miles from Oldham. In consequence of
reductions of wages and general ill-treatment, a body of
miners on strike, members of a Miners' Protective Association,
had borrowed 1,250, and bought the right to mine for coal
under 18 acres. W. P. Roberts, a solicitor, raised the first
clod of the shaft. The attempt to run a self-governing mine,
like the Christian Socialist attempts, a few years later, to
found self-governing workshops, appears, from the absence
of subsequent news, to have unostentatiously failed.
We now come to the humble birth of the most prodigious
child of the Chartist movement. A small group of working
men in Rochdale had got into the habit of meeting in a room
in Mill Street. Here many opinions were discussed, and many
schemes nurtured with a fierceness stimulated by the poverty
prevailing in the town. A strike of flannel weavers in 1843
had been a failure ; some other line of advance was eagerly
sought for. Chartists, Socialists, and Free Traders met to
1 Webb, History of Trade Unionism, pp. 168-177.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 201
argue, and at last decided on something positive. They saved
hard for a year, and collected 28 capital. With this, twenty-
eight Rochdale working-men opened a shop in Toad Lane,
the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers' Society, and spent their
capital on a stock of flour, salt and bacon, bought at wholesale
prices. Here they made their purchases, sharing part of the
profit, using the remainder to extend the business. The major-
ity of the twenty-eight were Chartists ; the remainder were
mostly Socialists, although a few had no definite political
colour. 1 This shop, at first opened only on two week-nights,
derided by the passers-by and the local children, was the
herald of the co-operative movement as we know it to-day.
From the Toad Lane experiment the great Wholesale Societies
gradually developed. In 1914 the English Co-operative Whole-
sale Society alone had a capital of 6,196,150, a reserve fund
of 1,883,921, and sold goods to the value of 34,910,813.
In the same year the 1,390 retail distributive societies had a
total membership of 3,054,297, a capital of 46,317,939, reserve
and insurance funds of 2,912,853 ; did a trade of 87,964,229
and employed 103,074 persons. 2
The growing distress had directed the attention of the
Chartists' leaders to possible remedies. The land naturally
suggested itself. In November, 1841, Bronterre O'Brien
recommended small holdings, in a speech in London, as a
partial solution of the prevailing difficulties. 3 The Northern
Star took up the subject and discussed the relation between
unemployment and agriculture without suggesting anything
definite. John West, of Halifax, produced a scheme for
buying up waste land and planting Chartists on it ; this was
condemned by Col. T. Perronet Thompson. 4 O'Connor then
took up the subject and declared that Great Britain was capable
of supporting her own population, if only her lands were pro-
perly cultivated, 5 and published a variant of West's scheme,
1 G. J. Holyoake, History of the Rochdale Pioneers, pp. 79-87.
2 Figures taken from the Labour Year Book, 1916.
3 Northern Star, November 27, 1841.
4 Ib., December 25, 1842.
5 Ib., January i, 1842.
202 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
in a pamphlet The Land. This appears to be now lost, but
Col. Thompson's Letters l quote the most important passages.
In the United Kingdom there were fifteen millions of acres
of waste land capable of reclamation. The expenditure of 100
on a million small farms of 15 acres each would make these
waste lands productive. The sale value of this territory would
be about 120,000,000. The Government would buy the lands
and allot them to tenants, who would pay a rent of 5 for eleven
years. After that they would pay 10 yearly. Twenty-one
years after the scheme had been started the originali20,ooo,ooo
would have been paid off, with interest at 4 per cent. After
that the tenant need only pay the original chief-rent, a mere
trifle estimated at one shilling and fourpence an acre, unless
Government decreed otherwise.
During 1842 O'Connor's interests were absorbed in the growth
and development of the N.C.A., and the struggle with the
Complete Suffragists, and the land schemes had little attention
paid them. In 1843, the Sturgists had been disposed of,
interest in the Anti-Corn-Law League was thin, and another
bone of contention was required to enable O'Connor to prove
once again that his were the strongest jaws. Again, therefore,
did he direct his followers' attention to land, and to the mar-
vellous things that might be expected of it, if only they were
to have the use of it. The Northern Star, towards the middle
of the year, fairly overflowed with estimates of what could be
done with a four-acre holding. As was only to be expected,
a certain amount of expert ridicule was at once forthcoming.
The Leeds Mercury was especially caustic in its criticisms.
However, luck enabled O'Connor to turn the tables, in a
dialectical sense, upon this particular opponent. In 1819, a
number of Leeds gentlemen had been appointed a committee
by the Overseers of the Poor of the town for the purpose of
inquiring into the causes of poverty and into the best means
of providing some productive work for the unemployed. The
secretary of this committee was one Baines, of the Leeds
Mercury. Baines produced a Report, which O'Connor now
exhumed. This interesting document declared that machinery
1 Exercises, Vol. 6, p. 410.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 203
was the principal cause of unemployment, and that "as to
manufacturers we cannot get a glimpse of hope respecting
them." The Report asserted that " The Soil the Earth, is
our last, our only resource," and recommended the cultivation
of wastes, quoting Arthur Young and Robert Owen as authori-
ties for suggesting this remedy. 1 O'Connor probably did not
realize that the progress of enclosures and the intensified
difference between those who worked on the land and those
who did not, had invalidated this remedy, if indeed, it ever
had been a remedy. However, here, in the kernel was a pro-
mising scheme and O'Connor set to work to get it put into
operation.
A Conference convened by the N.C.A. was held in Birming-
ham from September 5-8, when this body converted itself
into the National Charter Association, established for the
mutual benefit of its members. This had two objects : to
better " the condition of man " by peaceful and legal means
only, and " to provide for the unemployed, and means of
support for those who are desirous to locate upon the land/'
The principles of the new N.C.A. were those of the Charter.
The subscription was to be a penny a week. The organization
was complicated, branches were grouped into districts, and the
highest authority lay in an annual convention, which was to
elect the Executive Committee. A special Land Fund was
to be started : members were to subscribe id. a week upwards
for i shares. This was to be applied to the purchase of land,
stock, and the erection of dwellings. The land bought by
means of the fund was to be divided into four-acre farms, to
be distributed among the applicants by lot. 2 The first Execu-
tive of the new N.C.A. contained among its twenty-eight
members, O'Connor, Harney, Joshua Hobson (the publisher
of The Northern Star), a handful of the old N.C.A. members,
Bairstow, Marsden, etc. The rest were nonentities : Morrison,
Clark, M'Grath, Doyle and Wheeler were supposed to be in
O'Connor's pocket. To enable O'Connor to get absolute
control over the agitation, now converted, so far as he
1 Northern Star, September 9, 1843.
2 Ib., September 16, 1843.
204 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
was concerned, for ever into a movement into settling
people upon the land, onty one thing was necessary. If only
Lovett could be won over, all the Chartists would be with
him or under his thumb. All the working-class leaders of
Chartism would be united into one body, with O'Connor in
undisputed and indisputable command.
Since the Birmingham Conference of December, 1842, had
found him on the same side as O'Connor, Lovett had been
waiting for an opportunity of publicly dissociating himself
from the Dictator. The Birmingham Convention gave him
his chance. A. H. Donaldson and J. Mason, two of the prin-
cipal delegates, wrote to Lovett on behalf of the N.C.A., asking
him to become its General Secretary. Their letter was all
that such a letter should be. It tactfully hinted at the loss
entailed upon the " furtherance of the principle of Democracy "
by Lovett's virtual withdrawal, and urged the importance of
the " union of all the ablest spirits of the age." It assured
him that his election would be unanimous, and implored (its
own word) an immediate answer. Lovett politely acknowledged
the complimentary tone of the invitation, and went on to
talk about his bete noire. " Whatever may be the merits of
the Plan you are met to discuss, I cannot overlook O'Connor's
connexion with it, which enables me at once to form my
opinion as to any good likely to be effected by it, and which
at once determines my course of action. You may, or may
not, be aware that I regard Feargus O'Connor as the chief
marplot in our movement in favour of the Charter ; a man who,
by his personal conduct, joined to his malignant influence in
The Northern Star, has been the blight of Democracy from the
first moment he opened his lips as its professed advocate. Pre-
vious to his notorious career there was something pure and intel-
lectual in our agitation. There was a reciprocity of generous
sentiment, a tolerant spirit of investigation, an ardent aspira-
tion for all that can improve and dignify humanity ; which
awaked the hopes of all good men, and which even our enemies
respected. He came among us to blight those feelings, to
wither those hopes." The rest of the letter is in a less lofty
strain ; but it reads throughout as the work of a passionately
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 205
honest and indignant man, to whom the Cause was an ideal
so high that it claimed the utmost of truth and energy in its
service. With this letter Lovett renounced his hold upon the
Chartist movement. Truth and honesty were not, as it seemed
to him, likely to have an influence ; he would withdraw and
let O'Connor do as he would. Perhaps the future would offer
him another opportunity of leading the movement back to its
original decency.
On November 23, 1844, O'Connor announced the removal
of The Northern Star from Leeds to London. The paper had
been running at a loss since March, 1840, O'Connor paying up
the deficit. It had been started before the establishment of
the penny post, and it had consequently been at first a mere
local paper. Seven years later the introduction of railways
had changed that. " From London/' said O'Connor, " I shall
be able to give a portion of my readers two days' later news
than they have hitherto had, and some, four days' news. In
London The Star will be the means of rallying the proper
machinery for conducting the Registration Movement the
Land Movement the National Trades' Movement the Labour
Movement and the Charter Movement." The title was to
be changed to The Northern Star and National Trades Journal.
Hobson and Harney were to continue in charge. The price
was raised from fourpence halfpenny to fivepence. The edi-
torial office was to be 340, Strand ; the printing was to be done
at 17, Great Windmill Street. But for some time O'Connor
could not make up his mind definitely to start a land movement.
He looks longingly at the trade unions, with the eye of a would-
be leader : "I invite you to keep your eye steadily fixed upon
the great Trades' Movement now manifesting itself throughout
the country, and I would implore you to act by all other trades
as you have acted by the Colliers. Attend their meetings,
swell their numbers, and give them your sympathy ; but upon
no account interpose the Charter as an obstacle to their pro-
ceedings. All labour and labourers must unite ; and they
will speedily discover that the Charter is the only standard
under which they can successfully rally : but don't interpose
it to the interruption of their proceedings. ... I assert,
206 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
without fear of contradiction, that a combination of the
Trades of England under his (Roberts') management and
direction, would be the greatest move ever witnessed within
the last century. It would be practical Chartism ; and there-
fore it is our duty to aid and assist it, and not to mar it by
imprudent interference." 1 However, at last he made up his
mind to take the plunge. " I have been much thwarted and
harassed on this subject. When the Birmingham Conference
unanimously, and wisely, adopted the Land plan in 1843,
the acrimony of the knavish for a season triumphed over the
judgment of the prudent ; and I, among others, was compelled
to ' bide my time till common sense had resumed its place." 2
The National Charter Association held its Annual Convention
at the Parthenium, St. Martin's Lane, on April 21, 1845. It
was attended by only fourteen delegates, of whom six repre-
sented London districts. On the second day a long Report
on the Land was read. This document had been drafted by
O'Connor and was enthusiastically received. It was rich in
suggestions, but, as usual, committed its author to nothing
definite. The Convention, again in accordance with the ritual
practice of Chartist conferences, gave birth to The Chartist
Land Co-operative Society. This was to consist of share-
holders, number not limited, holding shares of 2 los. each,
which were to be paid in weekly settlements of 3^., 6d., is. and
upwards. The " Means " is interesting. " Good arable land
may be rented in some of the most fertile parts of the country
at the rate of 155. per acre, and might be bought at twenty-five
years' purchase that is, at 18 155. per acre ; and supposing
5,000 raised in shares of 2 los. each, this sum would purchase
120 acres, and locate 60 persons with 2 acres each, besides
having a balance of 2,750, which would give to each of the
occupants 45 i6s. 8d., 30 of which would be sufficient to
build a commodious and comfortable cottage on each allot-
ment ; one-half of the remaining 15 i6s. 8d. would be sufficient
to purchase implements, stock, etc., leaving the residue as a
means of subsistence for the occupant until his allotment pro-
duced the necessaries of life. These allotments, with dwellings,
1 Northern Star, November 16, 1844. a Ib., July 26, 1845.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 207
might be leased for ever to the members of the society at an
annual rental of 5 each, which would be below their real
value. The gross annual rental would thus amount to 300.
This property, if sold at 20 years' purchase (which would be
far below the market value), would yield to the funds of the
society 6,000, which sum, if expended in a similar manner
to the first, would locate other 72 persons on 2 acres of land,
provided with homes. These 72 allotments, sold at the rate
of the first, would bring 7,200 ; and this sum, laid out in
the purchase of other land, buildings, etc., at the original rate,
would locate 86f persons. These 86| allotments, if sold,
would realize 8,634, 8s. ; and with this amount of capital
the society could locate other 103^- persons. These 103-^
allotments would produce 10,317 35. 4^. ; and the last-
named sum expended as before would locate 123^ persons.
Thus the original capital of 5,000 would more than double
itself at the fourth sale ; and so on in the same rates.
The benefits arising from the expenditure of the funds in
the manner stated may be seen at a glance in the following
summary :
I s. d.
Purchase Local
acres persons
Original Capital .... 5,000 o o 120 60
First sale produce .... 6,000 o o 144 72
Second Do. .... 7,200 o o 172 86
Third Do 8,634 8 2 6 IO 3
Fourth Do 10,317 3 4 246 123
Continuing to increase in the same proportion until the tenth
sale, which would realize 37,324, and locate 372 J persons.
Thus the total number which could be located in ten sales
which, if the project be taken up with spirit, might easily
be effected in four years would be 1,923 persons ; in addition
to having in possession of the society an estate worth, at least,
in the wholesale market, 37,324, which estate could be resold,
increasing at each sale in value and capability of sustaining
the members, until, in the space of a few years, a vast number
of the ' surplus labour population ' could be placed in happiness
208 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
and prosperity upon the soil of their native land, and thus
become valuable consumers as well as producers of wealth."
The Executive of the N.C.A. appointed five of their number
as a Board of Directors. These were O'Connor, T. M. Wheeler
(Secretary), P. M'Grath, T. Clark and Christopher Doyle.
Money began to come in almost immediately ; of criticism,
plentiful outside the N.C.A., scarcely a breath was heard
within. The Coventry N.C.A. hazarded the suggestion that
the proceeds of the tenth sale, 37,324, might be used to buy
up some of the smaller estates previously sold, and so keep
them in the hands of the N.C.A. Wheeler replied 1 that the
rent which the N.C.A. would be receiving after the tenth sale,
amounting to about 2,000 yearly, could be used, if thought
fit, towards the repurchase of the first estates. O'Connor
was no doubt influenced in his advocacy of the Land Scheme
by the success which the Owenite communities were then
appearing to enjoy. In 1837 Owen had formed the National
Community Friendly Society. In 1841 this body had started
the Queenwood Hall colony at Tytherly, and made a very good
show there until 1845, by which time even Owen had come
to the conclusion that the Millennium, whenever it chose to
make a start, would not make it at the Queenwood settlement. 2
Three months after the formation of the Chartist Land Co-
operative Society, O'Connor came out with another version
of his Scheme. This time he asked for 5,000 in shares of
2 10 s. as before, but estimated its expenditure differently.
Fifty persons were to be located, each on two acres, bought on
the same terms.
I 5. d.
Two acres of land @ 155. an acre at 25 years' purchase . 37 10 o
Cost of cottage . . . . . . . 30 o o
Capital advanced . ... . . . .1500
82 10 o
The cost of fifty holdings would therefore be 4,125, leaving
875 capital in hand. The tenants would each pay 5 rent ;
1 Northern Star, June 7, 1845.
2 G. J. Holyoake, History of Co-operation, Vol. I, p. 305.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 209
total, 250. The estate would not be sold, but mortgaged for
4,000. With this sum, plus 125 taken out of the 875 in
hand, fifty more tenants would be located. The mortgaging
process would then be repeated until seven payments of 125
had exhausted the 875. Then the society would own eight
estates, seven of which would have been mortgaged for 28,000
secured upon rents totalling 2,000 per year. This would seem
to be pretty good going for an undertaking with a capital of
only 5,000, but the ingenious brain of O'Connor saw even
wider possibilities. " And now, what I do assert is this, and
I will abide by the decision of any twelve men of common
sense. I do assert, that whereas the first allotment, if sold
at once, would be dear at twenty years' purchase, or 5,000,
though it would fetch it, that at the end of the first two years
it would fetch thirty years' purchase, or 7,500," so that at
the end of four years upon that amount of purchase alone the
society would be able to sell its estates for 60,000. Having
paid off the mortgages and the 5,000 original capital, it would
then be left with 27,000 clear profit in hand. A small Land
Conference of the National Chartist Co-operative Association
was held at the Carpenters' Hall, Manchester, in the week
beginning December 8, 1845. Most of the talking was done
by O'Connor, who flung masses of figures and estimates at the
heads of the delegates and succeeded in getting the discussion,
acrimonious at times as it was, confined strictly to details.
W. P. Roberts had resigned the post of treasurer, and O'Connor
refused to accept it for himself, " though the office had been
offered to him, not all the land that could be purchased by
the society would induce him to accept it." 1 He would,
however, consent to act as ' ' sub-treasurer. ' ' Wheeler presented
a financial report showing total receipts of 3,266, and an
expenditure of 184. Seven trustees were elected : Duncombe,
Titus Brooke (of Dewsbury), James Leach (of Manchester),
W. Sewell, Duncan Skerrington (of Scotland), William Dixon
(of Manchester), and J. G. Dron. Hardly anything had pre-
viously been heard in the movement of five of these men.
Roberts was subsequently re-elected treasurer. In his Practi-
1 Northern Star, December 20, 1845.
210 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
cal Work on the Management of Small Farms, O'Connor's opti-
mistic ingenuity is so fertile in schemes as to be beyond sum-
marizing. He bristles with suggestions and throws upon every
other page a mass of recommendations guaranteed to enable
the Chartists to settle on the land to their eternal profit.
O'Connor does not definitely bind himself anywhere to any
estimates of profits or expenditure, he merely outlines general
principles, and illustrates them. Certain things are always
postulated, the chief one is that a hand-loom weaver with a
family can make a profit from a small holding, if he gives his
whole time to it. It is always assumed that the value of the
holding will grow from year to year, so that after one year's
working a mortgage can be raised upon a farm very nearly,
if not quite, equal in value to the original capital outlay. The
tenant is required in all the schemes to pay a yearly rent equi-
valent to 4 per cent, upon the capital outlay, the expenditure
of the income from this source is, however, the subject of
several suggestions. The tenants are, in all the schemes put
forward, to be selected by lot from the subscribers to the fund
which is to pay for the land. O'Connor produced a delightfully
optimistic statement as to what could be done with these acres.
Somebody wrote to him saying that all that was required to
convince him and many of his class of the practicability of
the Land Scheme was some definite light on the ability of the
occupants of even a four-acre holding to live and pay rent.
O'Connor replied : "I will take three acres for consideration,
that being the mean ; and what I state three acres will do,
two will do, as I am going to place it before you in the roughest
aspect of husbandry, stating the lowest price for produce to
be sold, and the most extravagant for outgoings." He recom-
mended that the three acres should be disposed of as follows :
I acre of potatoes, i acre of wheat, 3^ roods cropped with
cabbages, mangel-wurzel, turnips, tares, clover, and flax, and
the remainder kitchen-garden. The produce was estimated as
follows :
Produce of acre of potatoes, 15 tons.
Produce of acre of wheat, 200 stone.
For growing stuff for cows, 2| roods.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 211
For flax, i rood.
For kitchen garden, | rood.
This absurdly exaggerated crop was to be disposed of as
follows :
For cows from November to March, two tons of potatoes,
or nearly one and a half stone each per day.
For family one and a half tons of potatoes, or about nine
pounds per day.
For six fatting pigs from November to March, eight tons
of potatoes, or nearly two stone each per day.
For sale 3! tons of potatoes.
,, milk of two cows.
100 stone of wheat.
produce of quarter of acre of flax, pounded,
scutched, heckled, and spun by the family,
during the winter.
,, 4 bacon pigs in March.
The prices to be paid on this basis for the produce to be sold
were to bring in a tidy little sum.
Milk of two cows, at 8 quarts a day each : 16 quarts at i$d. s. d.
per quart . . . . . . . 36 10 o
Four bacon pigs in March 20 o o
100 stone of wheat, at is. 6d. per stone . . . . 7 10 o
3j tons of potatoes, at 6d. per stone. . . . 14 o o
J of an acre of flax, spun . . . i . . 12 10 o
Fruit and vegetables . . . .'"-'. . .500
95 I0
This would leave over various items of produce for the
consumption of the family.
2 bacon pigs, 3 cwt. each, or nearly 14 Ib. of bacon per
week.
ij tons of potatoes, or 4! stone of potatoes per week.
100 stone of flour, or ij stone of flour per week.
Six ducks, or 20 eggs a week.
Fruit and vegetables.
2 hives of honey, or 2 Ib. per week.
The annual expenditure would be :
212 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
s. d.
Rent, rates, and taxes . .. . . . . 13 10 o
December to March . " . 800
. - , . . 15 o o
. * . . . .800
. . . . .100
600
Two tons of best hay for cows
Clothing of family
Fuel, soap, candles
Repairs :: . .
Six pigs in May . i.
5i 10 o
This amount, deducted from the selling-price of the produce,
left 44 per annum, " after consumption, and the best of good
living."
The value of the produce consumed by the family itself
was estimated at 175. a week, so that living would be at the
total rate of about i 175. a week.
Finally, O'Connor estimated the employment of time of the
family at only 157 days in the year.
John Revans, secretary to the Poor Law Commission of
1832-34, who was examined as an expert witness by the
Select Committee of 1848, declared that the estimate was
utterly absurd, the more so when considered in reference to
the exhausting nature of the cropping proposed. He also
pointed out various details which the lay eye is liable to
overlook. The fact a cow is generally dry for about three
months before calving would either reduce the total output of
milk by one-quarter, or else force the unhappy creature to
supply at least ten quarts daily during the available period.
Moreover, O'Connor was ignorant of the fact that a cow fed
as he proposed his tenants' cows to be fed, would produce
milk of an extremely unpalatable flavour, that is, so long as
it did not die of diarrhoea. Finlaison, an actuary, examined
by the Select Committee on the National Land Company, also
pointed out various flaws in the scheme. If it took two years
to buy, settle and mortgage any estate to its full value, with
the original capital of 273,000, a hundred and fifty years
would be required to " locate " the 75,000 shareholders. The
scheme was therefore " utterly impracticable in point of time." 1
O'Connor had probably confused Irish with English acres ;
the former being three-fifths as large again as the latter.
1 Fifth Report, p. 27.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 213
In any case he had allowed for an impossibly high degree of
productivity. 1
However, mad as the scheme was, money began to come in.
That it should have done so is to be explained by two reasons.
The first is O'Connor's extraordinary domination over the
movement. The second is the fact that among the factory
workers who followed O'Connor the agricultural tradition was
not yet dead. The vast majority of the Lancashire cotton
operatives, for example, had agricultural fathers or grand-
fathers. " Back to the land " did not sound in their ears as
an invitation to take up the simple life, but to return from
their own hated surroundings to the work which a long line
of forefathers had carried on before their descendants were
gripped by the lengthening tentacles of the towns, and dragged
away from their original employment. By the end of March,
1846, over 7,000 was in hand ; money was coming in quickly
and a new account was started for a second experiment. On
April 10, in Manchester, O'Connor conducted the ceremony
of selecting by ballot the winning allottees. Thirteen persons
became the " landlords " of 4-acre holdings, five of 3 acres
each, and seventeen of 2 acres. An estate of 130 acres was
immediately bought at Herringsgate, near Rickmansworth.
For some weeks The Northern Star re-echoes the praises of
those who visited the place. O'Connor constituted himself
the " bailiff," and went down to put things straight, sharing
a cottage with a " Chartist cow " named Rebecca. A few weeks
later, 2 O'Connor bought, for 3,900, a second estate, " Carpen-
ter's Farm," also of 130 acres, near Pinner, and promptly sold
it again for 5,250, giving the profit to the Chartist Co-operative
Land Society. The Herringsgate estate was renamed O'Con-
norville and exhibited on August 17, 1846. According to the
Daily News, 3 not less than 12,000 persons attended the demon-
stration ; according to O'Connor, over 20,000. The wildest
enthusiasm seems to have been felt by all save Rebecca, the
Chartist cow, which had been decorated for the occasion, and
was annoyed. Besides the abundancy of speeches and
1 Fourth Report, pp. 24-36. 2 Northern Star, June 20, 1846.
3 Ib., August 18, 1846.
P
24 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
refreshments, there were present a number of minstrels to
cheer the hearts of the demonstrators. Songs were sung such
as :
Those beautiful villas, how stately they stand,
A national honour to this our land,
Triumph of labour itself to employ,
And industry's fruits fully to enjoy ;
Let fame on thy founders her laurel bestow,
And history's page their true value show ;
We have seen many schemes, none can rival thee,
Thou beautiful villas, the pride of the free.
O'Connorville was duly opened on May i, 1847. O'Connor
made a marvellous speech which began : " And must I not
have a cold and flinty heart if I could survey the scene before
me without emotion ? Who can look upon those mothers,
accustomed to be dragged by the waking light of morn from
those little babes now nestling on their breasts (Here the
speaker was so overcome that he was obliged to sit down,
his face covered with large tears, and we never beheld such
a scene in our life ; not an eye in the building that did not
weep.)" The greatest enthusiasm was aroused by O'Connor's
promise that " I am not afraid to tell you, that no man who
is industrious, sober, honest, and affectionate, shall ever
leave the castle in which I have placed him, so long as I have
a coat to sell, or a second shirt to pawn." All this time the
scheme had no legal basis. The Chartist Co-operative Land
Company was provisionally registered on October 24, 1846.
On December 17 its name was changed to the National Co-
operative Land Company. On March 25 it changed again to
the National Land Company. Complete registration was
refused by Tidd Pratt, Registrar of Friendly Societies, as he
contended that the Land Company was not a Friendly Society,
and was an undertaking of a form not sanctioned by law.
The Chartist Land Company held another small Conference
in Birmingham in the week beginning December 7, when
O'Connor was able to report that total receipts amounted to
22,799. The chief decision at which the delegates arrived was
that the Company's lands should not be sold, nor mortgaged
to outsiders, but that a bank of deposit should be established.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 215
It was also resolved that the maximum- sized cottage should
not contain more than four rooms, of twelve feet square each.
The directors were empowered to build school-houses and to
appoint teachers, dismissable by a vote of two-thirds of the
occupants of the estate on which they were to teach. The
location of the Herringsgate allottees was deferred to May i,
1847. This resolution implied that things would take a
longer time to adjust themselves than originally planned,
hence O'Connor came in for a little adverse criticism. He,
however, pinned the responsibility for the future upon the
bank, and claimed that with its assistance, 20,000 Chartists
would be settled upon the land within five years.
In conformity with the resolution of the Conference, the
National Land and Labour Bank was founded. It was to
consist of three departments : a deposit, a redemption, and a
sinking fund department.
The deposit department was to be open to all " who wish
to vest their monies upon the security of the landed property
of the National Co-operative Land Company/' 3! per cent,
interest was to be paid.
The redemption department was to be open to the members
of the Land Company, who were to get 4 per cent. The funds
collected by this department were to be used for purchasing
land, or, in the case of occupants' deposits, to " fining down
their rent-charge," until, presumably, he could have his allot-
ment, if he wished, free of rent.
The sinking fund department was to be credited with a
capital equivalent to five-sevenths of the deposits received by
the first department. The theory was that the bank could
afford to pay 6 per cent, on the security of the land, but only
paid 3j per cent. The balance of 2 per cent, was to go to
the sinking fund department, to be used for the same purposes
as the funds of the redemption department.
The first effect of these three departments was expected to
amount to this : they would borrow money from the public
at 3^ per cent., and make it earn 5 per cent, by investment in
the Land Scheme. How firmly O'Connor believed in the
possibility of perpetual motion in the economic sphere ! The
216 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
plan of the bank had to be explained over and over again.
The prospectus of the Bank made things no clearer. " The
National Land Company has been called into existence to
pioneer the way in the glorious war of social emancipation.
. . . The company aims at the realization of its purpose by
the location of its members upon the land, and by aiding them
with funds for the cultivation of their farms." The manner
in which this was to be achieved is thus explained : " Suppose
the company make a purchase of 300 acres of land at 40 per
acre (12,000), and built 100 cottages at 100 each (10,000),
besides advancing aid money to 100 allottees at 22 los.
each (2,250), the aggregate cost of location, including land,
building and aid money, would amount to 24,250. In order
to locate a second hundred of its members, the company pur-
pose to reproduce the sum of 24,250 by making the land,
buildings, etc., liable to the National Land and Labour Bank,
for deposits to that amount ; the depositors in the bank having
a legal claim upon the property of the company for the amounts
advanced by them." 1 The National Land and Labour Bank
was the private property of O'Connor, and was housed under
the same roof as the National Land Company. It did all the
business of the Land Company, and, in addition, received a
considerable amount of deposits at 4 per cent., from sources
unconnected with the Land Scheme. The Company, in fact,
was to mortgage its estates with the Bank, and buy another
estate with the money.
Such comments as have been made on O'Connor in the course
of this work have been invariably adverse. A succession of
such criticisms may not be unjust in themselves, but neverthe-
less convey, in sum, a false impression. It is desirable in the
interests of justice to make an attempt to present O'Connor
to ourselves in the light in which his followers saw him. In
the years 1846 and 1847 ne was a * the summit of his leadership,
and his intellectual force was at its strongest. We shall not
attempt to look for the early traces of the insanity which
subsequently overcame him. It is clear tha.t there were periods
1 First Report from the Select Committee on the National Land Company,
P- 5i
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 217
when O'Connor's reasoning faculties were not in working order.
One instance of this is supplied by the wretched fiasco of his
debate with Cobden in Northampton on August 5, 1844.
Accounts of what actually took place differ considerably. 1
We only know that O'Connor's argument broke down, that
he wandered away from the point, and that the majority of
the meeting voted in favour of Free Trade. The wildest
rumours grew up around O'Connor's maunderings on this
occasion ; principally to the effect that he had been bought
over by the Anti-Corn Law League. O'Brien declared 2 that
O'Connor had danced to the tune of two thousand golden
sovereigns. This explanation seems most unlikely. Cobden,
who presumably must have known of this, was not the man to
bribe O'Connor, or anybody else. Nor was O'Connor the man
to accept a bribe ; he would have been far more likely to
publish an attempt to buy him and so discredit his adversaries
and bask in the warm glow of the righteous indignation of
the Chartist movement. In point of fact O'Connor was quite
extraordinarily and inexplicably disinterested in the pursuit
of his chimeras. He demanded limelight, but scorned lucre.
He was undoubtedly careless, and in consequence provoked
the wrath of Joshua Hobson and many another, but his care-
lessness always left himself and not the movement out of pocket.
No charge of actual dishonesty was ever proved against him.
The Land Scheme had its critics, and the charge of dishonesty
was made by them, but demonstration never accompanied
it. Many were these critics even in the early stages of the
Scheme and its heyday. O'Brien disapproved on economic
grounds, preferring his own plan of land nationalization, which,
according to O'Connor, would make the people the serfs of
the Government. 3 John Watkins objected on the strongly
individualist grounds that the owners of the soil have pre-
scriptive rights, and that dispossession was immoral an argu-
ment which would seem to apply to land nationalization rather
than to the scheme. Carpenter also assailed it. The Man-
1 Northern Star, August 5, 1844.
2 National Reformer, April 17, 1847.
3 Northern Star, July 19, 1845.
218 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Chester Examiner appointed Alexander Somerville as its special
commissioner, and he, signing himself as usual, One Who Has
Whistled At The Plough, first picked holes in the economic,
then in the agricultural side of the business. Finally he went
down to Herringsgate, had a talk with some people in a public-
house, and returned to Manchester with the feeling that he
had devastated the Scheme. He was wrong : it was Somerville
who was devastated, for O'Connor produced newspaper evi-
dence 1 showing that he had in 1841 committed quite a respect-
able number of little forgeries before severing his connexion
with the army, and was, in fact, not as virtuous as he might
have been. His criticisms thereupon followed his character
overboard. Later on, however, the Land Scheme became a
staple topic of the newspapers. The Daily News headed a
chorus of protest. 2 The Globe, Chronicle, and Dispatch followed
it : the provincial, as usual, taking up the note.
Yet O'Connor had never in his life worked so hard and so
sincerely as in connexion with the Land Scheme. He had
given it birth, and the ever-changing forms and names he gave
it indicate his fears that it might never arrive at maturity.
He spared himself no effort to make it a success, describing
himself on one occasion as the " Land Company's Bailiff,
Contractor, Architect, Engineer, Surveyor, Farmer, Dung-
maker, Cow and Pig Jobber, Milkman, Horse Jobber, etc." 8
His writings and speeches during this period are seldom efforts
to raise a horse-laugh at somebody's expense ; they show con-
siderable restraint and closeness of reasoning. He no longer
generalizes wildly in order to drive home each point, however
minute, by sweepingly stating a probably irrelevant and
frequently inaccurate proposition. Typical of this habit is
his dictum that Locke was the most profound politician that
ever lived, 4 which may be easily paralleled.
Under the energetic guidance of the revived O'Connor, the
response to the Land Scheme grew in a most extraordinary
1 Northern Star, October 23, 1847.
2 Ib., September n, 1847.
3 Ib., October 23, 1847.
4 Ib., April 25, 1840.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 219
manner. O'Connor was fully alive to the strategical importance
of the Land Scheme. " The great advantage of the Land
moveir ent is this that it supplies food for sensible agitation
in good times and in bad times. Good times have always been
destructive of Chartism, but now assist it, because it is then
that the working classes have the best opportunity of sub-
scribing to the Land plan ; while bad times compel them to
think about the land as the only means of escape/' 1 Was
this merely cynicism ? We think not ; a cynical O'Connor
could not have been so energetic.
Money flowed in. On October 31, 1846, O'Connor announced
his purchase of a second estate : Lowbands, in Worcestershire,
nine miles from Gloucester and the same distance from Tewkes-
bury. Lowbands, costing 8,100 for its 160 acres, is " one of
the most heavenly spots in creation." In February, 1847,
he buys for 10,878, 297 acres at Minster Lovel, ten miles from
Lowbands, and eighty from Worcester, " in the loveliest valley
in the world," in June another 270 acres are bought at Snig's
End, 2 1 miles from Lowbands, and 6| from Gloucester. 2
During 1846 subscriptions came in in small but increasing
amounts. In 1847 there was a leap upwards. Between
December 7, 1846, and August 14, 1847, no less than 49,520
was received by the National Land Company and by the Land
Bank. 3 In November there were 42,000 shareholders, who
had paid 80,000.*
But we are anticipating. In July 1847 the attention of
England was distracted by a General Election. Lord John
Russell had become Prime Minister in succession to Peel.
Fielden had at last got his Ten Hours' Bill through the Com-
mons, while Lord Ashley guided it through the Lords. Peel
had embraced Free Trade. O'Connell had just died, leaving
this life at the moment when Ireland was in the throes of
the Potato Famine. The Repeal agitation had surged up to
such an extent that the frightened Government had asked for
repressive powers, and being refused them, had resigned.
1 Northern Star, December 19, 1846.
2 Ib., June 12, 1847.
3 Ib., September 4, 1847. * Ib., November 13, 1847.
220 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Maynooth still echoed in parliamentary ears. A great trade
boom was hastening, unsuspected, to its collapse. Parliament
was dissolved.
The Chartists resolved once more to contest a few seats at
the hustings, but not to proceed to the poll. With the admir-
able intention of making themselves as conspicuous and
objectionable as possible to the members of the Government,
O'Connor fought Sir John Cam Hobhouse (President of the
Board of Control) at Nottingham ; Harney went down to
Ti vert on, to oppose and to be taken very seriously by Lord
Palmerston ; Ernest Jones opposed Sir Charles Wood, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, at Halifax, and so on. W. P.
Roberts at Blackburn, Sturge at Leeds, Vincent at Ipswich,
and M'Grath at Derby, stood against smaller fry. O'Connor
went to the poll. Nottingham was a two-member constituency,
and was being wooed by John Walter, the son of Sturge's
erstwhile opponent, and Gisborne, in addition to the two
others. The day before the poll, the elder Walter died.
Nottingham expressed itself by giving the son 1,830 votes,
and O'Connor 1,340. Hobhouse, at the bottom of the poll,
received only 974. Truly the Times was justified in observing
on the next day : " The result of the Nottingham election
is about as surprising an occurrence as could possibly arise from
the mere movements of human opinion and feeling." 1
So now O'Connor was an M.P. The country had chosen him,
had given its endorsement to his claim for leadership. Is it
to be wondered at that during election week the receipts of
the Land Company reached the record figure of 5,099 ? 2
We now see O'Connor at the height of his power, and in-
clined to magnanimity. Immediately after his election, he
published an address to the " Old Guards of Chartism,"
exulting in his victory, which he magnified into the victory
of his cause. " These are events which call for a reunion of
all the dissevered elements of Chartism. The O'Briens, Lovetts,
Vincents, Coopers, and all. Now is the time, if their honest
fears have been dissipated, to return to the popular embrace
and join in a national jubilee. A good general takes care that
1 Times, July 31, 1847. 2 Northern Star, August 7, 1847.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 221
execution shall follow upon the heels of design ; and now is
the time to sign your petition sheets, to prepare for the election
of your delegates who shall meet the new parliament as a
national Convention of Chartism. . . . Will you, then, Old
Guards, join with me, in spite of derision, in winning our old
friends back to our cause ? . . . Without the slightest
recollection of the past I will cheerfully shake hands with
every man who has honestly differed from me, and I will
zealously struggle with him, a good soldier in the good fight." 1
The end of the Land Scheme may be told here, as after 1847
it ceases to be an integral part of the Chartist movement. As
a result of the newspaper campaign, a Select Committee of
the House of Commons was appointed early in 1848 to consider
the Land Company. Financial irregularities had been alleged,
and things were going none too well at Lowbands, while the
Snig's End allottees never paid a pennyworth of rent for at
least three years. O'Connor published an attempt at excul-
pation, describing in detail how he had spent 90,837 of the
Land Company's money, in the course of which expenditure
he had paid large sums out of his own pocket, and charged
nothing for his own time and labour. The Select Committee
on the National Land Company reported in August, 1848.
They found that the Company was not consistent with the
general principles upon which Friendly Societies are founded,
and therefore was strictly speaking illegal, and should not
have the protection of the Friendly Societies' Acts extended
to it. " The Committee was of opinion that the Company's
minutes and accounts had been most imperfectly kept . . .
but Mr. Feargus O'Connor having expressed an opinion that
an impression had gone abroad that the monies subscribed
by the National Land Company had been applied to his own
benefit, this Committee are clearly of opinion, that although
the accounts have not been kept with strict regularity, yet that
irregularity has been against Mr. Feargus O'Connor's interest,
instead of in his favour ; and that it appears by Mr. Grey's
account there is due to Mr. Feargus O'Connor the sum of
1 Northern Star, August 7, 1847.
2 Ib., June 24, 1848.
222 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
3,298 55. 3^., and by Mr. Finlaison's account the sum of
3,400."
The Committee went farther than merely to exonerate
O'Connor from the charges of malversation. The Report
went on to state that in view of the large number of persons
interested in the scheme, and the bona fides with which it
appeared to have been carried on, the parties concerned ought
to be granted powers to wind up the undertaking, and relieved
" from the penalties to which they may incautiously have
subjected themselves/' The Committee merely put this out
as a suggestion, leaving the future of the Scheme an open
question, and pronouncing, after discussion, no verdict as to
its practicability.
The Land Company did not collapse as rapidly as might
have been anticipated after the publication of the Report of
the Select Committee. Feargus O'Connor, in Hilary term,
1849, made an application to the Court of Queen's Bench for
a mandamus to the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies. This
writ was duly granted, and the Registrar, Tidd Pratt, was
thereby ordered to register the National Land Company.
He refused to do so, and the matter came up for argument
a year later, when the Court of Queen's Bench finally decided
that the Company was not entitled to registration, and gave
judgment for the defendant. On July 9, 1850, Sharman Craw-
ford, M.P., presented a petition to the House of Commons
asking for leave to present a petition for a Bill to dissolve the
Land Company. 1 This roundabout method was due to the
expiration of the time within which, according to the rules of
the House, petitions for leave to present Bills could be deposited.
This petition was signed by O'Connor, Doyle, Clark, Dixon,
and M'Grath. Things had been going badly at Minster Lovel,
and no rent was being paid. O'Connor, raging against the
" located ruffians," had them ejected by process at the Oxford
Assizes, " and now the estate will be sold, and thank God for
it." 2 Still he did not lose his hope of making an ultimate
success of the idea. " I will carry out the Land Scheme,
until I see it become the national system whereby your order
1 Northern Star, July 13, 1850. a Ib., July 20, 1850.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 223
will cease to be slaves," he declares in August. 1 The situation
at O'Connorville, as a matter of fact, was such as to promise
eventual success to the most optimistic of leaders. In August
the allottees at this estate sent him a letter expressing their
sympathy with him, and their indignation with Minster Lovel.
The O'Connorville settlers, indeed, somehow or other managed
to keep going, in spite of defections perhaps because of them.
In May, 1851, O'Connor and T. M. Wheeler started the National
Loan Society, which had a short and unprofitable existence, 2
and was wound up in 1852. This body was to fulfil the ortho-
dox functions of a building society, and to buy up the Land
Company's estates. It only illustrated O'Connor's tenacious
hold upon his idea, and his complete inability to recognize its
superabundantly demonstrated weaknesses. In August, 1851,
the Royal Assent was at last given to the Bill which had
followed the petition, which had succeeded the one mentioned
above. 8 Bona fide purchasers of land through the Land Com-
pany were to remain in possession ; the portions of the estates
not bought by allottees were to be sold, and the scheme
liquidated. But many years were to elapse before the last
was heard of the scheme. Throughout the 'fifties and early
'sixties newspaper references are to be met with. It would
appear that the winding-up involved heavy costs, which fell
upon the estates, and that the tenants had to be dealt with
individually : after the first year's working of the scheme,
many of the allottees had complicated matters by subletting
or selling their land. In 1875 the Newcastle Daily Chronicle
sent a special commissioner to O'Connorville.
It should be remembered that the land scheme was one of
many experiments in the same direction. Building Societies,
as we know them to-day, are a result of this experimentation.
A more modest attempt in the same direction as the land
scheme was initiated by one James Hill, who founded the
National Land and Building Association. The members of
this were to take up twenty-pound shares, payable in small
1 Northern Star, August 31, 1850.
2 Stevens, Life of Wheeler, p. 60.
3 Northern Star, September 6, 1851.
224 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT.
instalments. The Association was to build with the capital,
and convey one room per share, in perpetuity, to each investor.
On payment of smaller amounts, proportionate to the expecta-
tion of life of the investor, he could buy the use of a room,
rent free, for the rest of his life. A man of sixty, to give an
example, would pay g 55. gd. for his room, or 18 us. 6d. if he
desired two rooms. The plan was based on the assumption
that the cost of erecting a house would average 20 per room.
T. Wakley, M.P., was enthusiastic over the plan, and Richard
Moore also gave it his support at a meeting held at Lovett's
hall, on March 25, 1846. 1 The Association bought its first
estate of 100 acres in July, 1846.2 There were many other
such attempts made about this time, the most productive of
ideas and the least studied in the history of the English working
- classes.
This chapter should not conclude without some reference
to O'Brien's activity in the formation and dissemination of
ideas. In 1846-47 he edited, from Douglas, Isle of Man, The
National Reformer and Manx Weekly Observer. The reason of
its habitation was the freedom of the Isle of Man from the
operation of the Newspaper Tax. Here he spent much energy
attacking O'Connor and his ideas, and drawing up a Chartist-
Socialist programme. ' The National Charter Association
is no National Charter Association. It is neither National nor
Chartist. It does not include one in a thousand of the Chartists
who signed the National Petition, nor ever will, and its object
is not the Charter, but the bolstering up of that demagogue
and the hunting down of every man of worth and spirit who will
not submit to his dictation . . ." 3 Like so many predecessors,
he expects great things of paper money, or " symbolical cur-
rency." " Paper money, like machinery, and science, and
religion, etc., has hitherto worked only for the rich. It has
never been made to work for the poor. In no country have
the working classes been allowed any of the advantages of
paper money. In no country has there been allowed a sym-
1 Morning Advertiser, March 26, 1846.
2 The Commonweal, July u, 1846.
3 National Reformer, October 17, 1846.
THE DICTATORSHIP OF FEARGUS O'CONNOR 225
bolic currency to represent the products of their labour, and to
enable them to interchange, at sight, with one another their
respective productions, on the equitable principle of equal
labour for equal labour. Till this is done the inestimable value
of symbolic money, as an instrument of exchange, must remain
unknown. The paper money which excited the suspicions
and hatred of Paine and Cobbett was, generally speaking, the
paper money of schemers and usurers, often that of needy
adventurers and desperate blacklegs. It did not represent
actual wealth. It did not represent houses, railways, mer-
chandise, or any other valuable production of skill and labour.
It represented only the credit of certain great names, . . .
This is not the sort of paper money we counted for, though
even that might be better than no paper money at all. What
we contend for is, equitable Labour Exchanges, between man
and man, through the medium of a paper currency that shall
represent the exact value of the goods deposited, measured or
estimated by the labour expended in producing them." 1 He
attacks private ownership of land, and, as a corollary, the Land
Scheme. " Instead of forming a National Organization to
improve the hellish principles of Landlordism and Usury from
the soil, they are actually incorporating themselves into
Societies, under Government licence, to extend those principles
downwards to the working classes, by erecting petty fractions
of working men into petty landlords and usurers, to prey upon
the rest. . . . Every man who joins in these Land Societies
is practically enlisting himself on the side of the Government
against his own order. He is trying to get interest for his
pence and shillings at the expense of those who can save
nothing ; and he is trying, by becoming a part owner of the
soil, to make that his private property which ought to be no
man's private property, but ought to be public property, as
much for the use of him who can save nothing as for him
who can." 2 Instead, he advocates nationalization. " On the
subject of land you cannot have honest laws i.e., laws founded
upon first principles without making the land public property ;
1 Northern Star, October 24, 1846.
3 National Reformer, January 9, 1847.
226 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
the only rational way of doing which is to make the State sole
landlords, the rents applicable to public uses, and the right of
occupying the soil (as tenant-farmers under the State) the
same, or equal, for every citizen or subject, without that you
inevitably have monopoly, injustice, and eventually despo-
tism." 1 And to conclude this series of quotations, O'Brien
draws the distinction between his own Socialism which the
twentieth-century Socialists have adopted and the Socialism
of Owen and the Communists, of whom William Morris was
perhaps the best exponent, outside the ranks of the philo-
sophic anarchists. " Mr. King, like a great many others,
appears to lose sight of this great essential difference between
all such systems as that of Owen, and Mr. O'Brien's, namely
that Mr. O'Brien contends only for what are strictly the rights
of the people, and what any people may establish practically
by law ; whereas the systems of Owen, Fourier, St. Simon, etc.,
transcend the capabilities of all human legislature, and may,
for all we know to the contrary, be incompatible with the
essential character of man, and therefore impossible of realiza-
tion on a universal scale/' 2 But events, as usual, came in
and upset every calculation. Once again Chartism was to
change its form, but not as foreseen by O'Connor or O'Brien.
1 National Reformer, February, 20, 1847.
2 Ib., January 30, 1847.
CHAPTER VIII
1848
THE last important manifestation of Chartism drew its
inspiration from abroad. A number of circumstances
had tended to draw the attention of Chartists towards foreign
revolutionary movements. The Polish rising of 1830-31 had
scattered refugees all over Europe. To England Poles came
in small numbers ; France held greater attractions for them.
Their greatest poet, Adam Mickiewicz, had in 1840 received the
professorship of Slavonic literature in the College de France,
which became a political centre forthwith. Several years,
therefore, had to elapse before London contained many Polish
revolutionists with sufficient knowledge of the English language
to have any practical influence. But by 1844 this was begin-
ning to show quite distinctly. One Pole, Major Beniowski,
went so far as to incur the suspicion of being a police agent,
but lived this down. Among the Poles there exists to this
day a tradition of participation in Chartism and a memory of
past sympathy received from English Radicals. 1 Poles not
domiciled in England acted as connecting links in all the
European revolutions of 1848. " The exiles of Poland, being
scattered far and wide over the Continent, formed a cosmopo-
litan network of conspiracy, and were the means of bringing
into a loose communion the disaffected portions of the European
proletariat." 2
In 1844, Nicholas I of Russia paid a visit to England. The
National Association held a meeting of condemnation directly
1 La Revue de Pologne 1915, Nos. 5, 6, pp. 196-199.
2 H. A. L. Fisher, The Republican Tradition in Europe, p. 213.
227
228 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
the project was mooted. The sympathies of Lovett had never
been confined to the sufferers of his own country. He, with
Moore and several others, addressed a packed and enthusiastic
meeting, which listened with horrified astonishment to the
long list of detailed charges laid against the Emperor. 1 Several
Poles, we are told, were present at the meeting. Punch, of
all papers, came whole-heartedly to the side of the revolu-
tionists, publishing, in addition to the inevitable cartoon
depicting Nicholas as a bear, a list of toasts, suggested as
appropriate to the occasion. 2 " To the immortal memory of
Nero," is a fair specimen of these. The toasts were reprinted,
with admiring comments, by The Northern Star. Such was
one of the lines along which the Chartists were led to take an
interest in the revolutionary movements of Europe.
Lovett had for many years been contributing to the same
object, and had taken a strong interest in nationalist move-
ments. As far back as 1839, the Working Men's Association
sent an address to " The People of Canada," drafted by the
indefatigable Lovett on the occasion of the risings of the two
previous years. This was warmly acknowledged by the Per-
manent and Central Committee of the County of Montreal,
in another address. A point of interest, which appears to
have escaped the notice of Canadian historians, lies in the
signatures to this reply. They include L. J. Papineau, Andre
Ouimet, and G. E. Cartier, the latter as a joint-secretary. The
future Premier of the Dominion on this occasion put his name
to a declaration which was extremely near to being a declara-
tion of independence. 3
By the middle of the 'forties Frederick Engels had settled
in England, and was hard at work formulating the theories
he was to teach his friend, master, and pupil, Karl Marx. The
German struck up a friendship with the editor of The Northern
Star, and proceeded to educate him in international politics,
and the crimes of living rulers. In 1844 the paper begins to
show signs of this instruction. Articles appear on such subjects
1 Weekly Dispatch, June 9, 1844. * Punch, June 8, 1844.
8 An Address to the People of Canada, with their Reply to the
Working Men's Association, u.d.
1848 22Q
as Chartism in Sweden, 1 and on the internal affairs of Spain
and Switzerland, in which no previous interest had been shown.
In the same year Buncombe, still the parliamentary agent
of O'Connor, exposed the Mazzini letters scandal. The
Government, in particular Sir James Graham, had ordered the
private correspondence of Mazzini to be opened and read, in
the interests of the Papal States. The indignation aroused
by this exposure was altogether to the taste of the Chartists,
for Graham, as Home Secretary, had come in for all the un-
popularity which democratic movements seem inevitably to
bestow upon the holder of his post. Chartists were perforce
made to take an interest in Mazzini, and his ideals. 2
And so we find that foreign revolutions and revolutionists
gradually become the centres of new groups. Chartists are,
as it were, reshuffled and mixed with men belonging to other
groups. We have an illustration of the process at work in
the accounts of two suppers held in 1845. In the August
of that year, a supper was held to celebrate the anniversary
of the formation of the Democratic Association of 1838-39.
Harney took the chair, and was supported by Rider (a member
of the Convention of 1839) and Cooper, who had but recently
been set free from Stafford Gaol. Beniowski was also a guest.
Harney talked extreme republicanism, and Cooper moved the
toast of Joseph Mazzini in an oration which suggested that his
excellent and copious sentiments had been stimulated by the
refreshment he had taken. 3 The conjunction of speakers is
curious in the light of their past history ; the sentiments are
also curious. This festivity was so successful that those
present unanimously then and there resolved to have another
such supper on November 6, the birthday of Henry Hunt.
On this second occasion, O'Connor took the chair. Among the
speakers were Michel ot and Berrier Fontaine ; and two Ger-
mans, Schapper and Wei t ling. Harney spoke on the sorrows
of Poland. 4 The first three of these foreigners were to attain
1 Northern Star, September 14, 1844.
2 Lovett and Hetherington were largely responsible for the facts
upon which the exposure was based. Lovett, Life and Struggle, pp. 297,
298. 3 Northern Star, August II, 1845.
4 Northern Star, November 15, 1843.
230 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
a minor celebrity in 1848, when Michelot fell at the barricades
during the June counter-revolution. Weitling (1808-1871)
was an extraordinary tailor who spent the first forty years of
his life in wandering over Western Europe preaching and
organizing the incipient revolutionary Socialism which came
to a head in 1848. The Chartist leaders, in fact, were on the
way to regarding themselves as participants in a movement
which, if not world- wide, was at least European.
Then there were the Fraternal Democrats. This was a
small body, but it greatly influenced the Chartist movement
in its next phase. It may be described in the words of Thomas
Frost, whose brief description commands more confidence
than do many of his other accounts, even when they relate to
matters nearer than these to the time of writing. " I was at
this time a member of the Association of Fraternal Democrats,
meeting monthly at a dingy public-house in Drury Lane,
called the White Hart. It was composed of democratic refu-
gees from most parts of Europe, but chiefly of Frenchmen,
Germans, and Poles, with a sprinkling of such advanced
reformers of this country as, like Julian Harney and Ernest
Jones, were ' Chartists and something more/ " x Oborski was
a prominent member of the Fraternal Democrats, and appears
to have enjoyed the confidence and friendship of the leading
Chartists. He was a Polish refugee, who had been a colonel
in the days before 1831. In the year of revolutions he served
under Mieroslawski in Baden, where it is presumed that he
fell, as this is the last we hear of him.
References have already been made to Ernest Jones, who
was to be one of the main supports of CKartism in and after
1848. He was born in Germany, in 1819, and was the son of
Major Jones, equerry to Ernest, Duke of Cumberland (after-
wards King of Hanover), who stood godfather to young Ernest.
The boy was educated in Germany and soon showed himself
to be extraordinarily precocious. At the age of eleven he
had published a book of poems, and had made a fruitless
endeavour to run away from home and walk across Europe
" to help the Poles." In 1838 father and son took up their
1 Frost, Forty Years' Recollections, p. 125.
1848 231
abode in England, Ernest read law, wrote romance, and lived
the life of the fashionable youth of the time. By the middle
of the 'forties he had however developed an unmistakable
Radicalism, and in 1846 attached himself to O'Connor, throw-
ing up the prospects of a brilliant if conventional future for
the advocacy of what he considered right. His knowledge of
foreign languages and continental affairs naturally brought
him into touch with the radically- minded refugees in London.
Another influence tending in the same direction is that of
Mazzini, who had in 1847 been living in England for ten years,
had mastered the language and was well known to all the
liberal intellectuals of the time. It was he who held all the
wires of the People's International League, which was started
at a public meeting held on April 28, 1847, at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern in the Strand ; Dr. Bowring, M.P., in the chair.
This organization was founded at Mazzini's direct instigation
and had the following objects :
1. To enlighten the British public as to the political condi-
tion and relations of foreign countries.
2. To embody and to manifest an efficient public opinion
in favour of the right of every people to self-government and
the maintenance of their own nationality.
3. To promote a good understanding between the peoples
of all countries.
The Council appointed at the above meeting for the first
year is as follows :
W. Bridges Adams, Dr. Bowring, M.P.
W. H. Ashurst, William Carpenter,
Goodwin Barmby, Thomas Cooper,
William Cumming, J. Humphreys Parry,
T. S. Duncombe, M.P. William Shaen,
Dr. Epps, James Stansfeld,
W. J. Fox, P. A. Taylor,
S. M. Hawkes, P. A. Taylor, Junr.,
Thornton Hunt, Richard Taylor,
Douglas Jerrold, Joseph Toynbee,
W. J. Lint on, Henry Vincent,
Richard Moore, James Watson.
232 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
The personnel of this Council shows with unmistakable
clearness the changed direction of thought of the ablest founders
and friends of the Chartist movement. In the first place we
find three of the six working men of the W. M. A. Charter
Committee the exceptions are Lovett and Hetherington,
who were both fully in sympathy and acquainted with Mazzini,
and Cleave, who apparently died about this time. Lint on,
too, we have met : he had been in the Chartist movement
from the start, although he rose to prominence only after 1848.
With Cooper we are also acquainted, and we have nodded at
Carpenter (1797-1874), who had made his reputation, well
before the days of the Charter, by the publication of unstamped
periodicals, which were held to be newspapers within the mean-
ing of the Act. Ashurst, Hawkes, Parry, Shaen, and Stans-
feld were all able young lawyers in sympathy with Chartism
and frequent speakers at Chartist meetings. 1 Parry (1816-
1880) had edited the National Association Gazette with Lovett,
and became Serjeant-at-law. Stansfeld (1820-1898) was the
Liberal M.P. for Halifax from 1859 t I ^95> held several posts
between 1863 and 1874, and was the first President of the
Local Government Board (1871-4) : he was knighted in 1895.
He is now perhaps best remembered on account of his fine
support of Josephine Butler's crusade. Thornton Hunt was
the son of Leigh Hunt ; Dr. Epps was a friend of Lovett and,
it may be remembered, was one of the speakers at the dinner
held to welcome Lovett and Collins on their release from
prison in 1841. Joseph Toynbee was another doctor, and the
father of Arnold Toynbee. The P. A. Taylors, father and
son, were well-known as anti-Corn Law leaders. Richard
Taylor was one of the founders of University College, London.
Barmby (1820-1881), like Fox and the younger P. A. Taylor,
was a Unitarian, who spent his intellectual life in gradually
working his way from undiluted Owenism to the politics of
the Liberal party.
These biographical data, relating mainly to a body of men
who are outside the necessary narrative of events, may seem
1 W. J. Linton, Memories, pp. 99, 100.
1848 233
superfluous. All these people, however, should be taken as
random specimens of the new blood which was suddenly being
infused into the Chartist movement. Although Mazzini had
founded the People's International League, he had taken care
to have a purely British Committee, and he himself, although
he drafted the first manifesto, was ostensibly unconnected
with the management of the League. The Council, in fact, was
a foreigner's effort to mingle the most vigorous and progressive
Englishmen with one another. The mingling of such English-
men with similarly-minded foreigners, as we have seen, had
been proceeding for some time.
As far back as February, 1840, a group of German working
men had formed a little Communist Society, holding its meet-
ings at the Red Lion, in Great Windmill Street. This club
had an anniversary dinner in commemoration of its sixth
birthday, at which Harney again held forth. So, too, did
Michelot, Colonel Oborski, Schapper, Heinrich Bauer, and
some others. A few days later the insurrection of the Polish
Republic of Cracow against Austria, in February, 1846, aided
the process. The N.C.A. convened a meeting at the " Crown
and Anchor," where O'Connor, Harney, W. J. Linton and lesser
lights held forth. Mazzini was expected to attend, but sent
a letter of apology. For months The Northern Star gave up a
large proportion of its columns to such accounts of the progress
of the struggle as could be obtained. On May 20 a meeting
was held at the National Hall, among the speakers on this
occasion being Hetherington, T. M. Wheeler, Ernest Jones,
Harney and G. J. Holyoake.
It will be seen that O'Connor's participation in this new
internationalism was scanty, and almost unwilling. To Engels
and Marx, this appears to have been a cause of regret. Fore-
seeing the events of 1848, they regarded the Chartist movement
as an organization of the proletariat, numerically unsurpassed
in any country, which only needed a dose of republicanism to
make it take its place possibly at the head of the coming
European revolution. O'Connor, more than any other man,
could satisfy their wishes and effect the conversion of the
British working man from a domestic to an international
234 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
political faith. And since O'Connor would not come to Engels
and Marx, Engels and Marx came to O'Connor.
In July, 1846, a by-election took place at Nottingham on
the appointment of Sir John Cam Hobhouse to a Cabinet post.
O'Connor turned up and was nominated as the Chartist candi-
date, made a great speech attacking the Whigs, and defeated
the newly-fledged minister on the show of hands. He did not
go to the poll, and Hobhouse was therefore duly elected. But
O'Connor's interference, even though for all practical purposes
it amounted only to one speech, supplied an opportunity to
his wooers. He promptly received an Address from the
German Democratic Communists of Brussels. 1 This congratu-
lated him on a number of things. " The ground is now
cleared by the retreat of the landed aristocracy from the
contest ; middle class and working class are the only classes
betwixt whom there can be a possible struggle/' The Address
further congratulated O'Connor on his victory over the calum-
nies of Thomas Cooper, on the noble and enlightened manner
in which The Northern Star is conducted, etc. The signatories
are three : Engels, Ph. Gigot, and Marx.
A year later the attack, still unsuccessful, was renewed.
On November 27, 1847, the Fraternal Democrats, in conjunction
with the Democratic Committee for Poland's Regeneration,
held a meeting to celebrate the anniversary of the Polish
Insurrection of 1830. J. Arnott was in the chair. Stallwood
moved a resolution of sympathy with Poland, which was
seconded by Ernest Jones, supported by Michelot, and carried
unanimously. Then Schapper moved the second resolution,
and explained that it was to be seconded by " Dr. Charles
Marx," vice-president of the Brussels Committee of the Demo-
cratic Society, who had been delegated by it to the Fraternal
Delegates " for the purpose of establishing relations of corre-
spondence and sympathy between the two societies." The
delegate from Brussels, in fact, had a much more serious task
on hand than the mere moving of an academic resolution,
identical in spirit with the first. Marx came forward and was
tumultuously acclaimed. Speaking in German, he told the
1 Printed in full in The Northern Star, July 25, 1846.
1848 235
meeting that the Democrats of Brussels had delegated him to
speak in their name to the Democrats of London, and through
them to the Democrats of Britain, to call on them to cause to
be held a congress of nations a congress of working men, to
establish liberty all over the world. (Loud cheers.) The
Democrats of Belgium felt that the Chartists of England were
the real Democrats, and that the moment they carried the Six
Points of the Charter the road to liberty would be opened
to the whole world. " Effect this grand object, you working
men of England, and you will be hailed as the saviours of the
whole human race." Marx sat down to tremendous cheering,
having said of Poland not a word.
Harney next moved the meeting's approval of the plan of a
congress of the nations, and was seconded by Stallwood.
Charles Keen then moved a resolution to the effect that,
given the Charter, the Democracy of England would be able
to help Poland, otherwise it would not. He was seconded by
" Citizen Engels (from Paris)/' who " had resided for some
time in England, and was proud to boast himself a Chartist,
name and all. . . . (Rapturous applause.)" Citizen Tedesco
(from Brussels), and Oborski followed ; after which Engels,
Harney, and Schapper spoke for the second time, the Times
was hooted, the Marseillaise sung, and the proceedings closed.
As the immediate result of this meeting arrangements were
made " to render effective the union of the two associations,"
i.e., the Fraternal Democrats and the Brussels Democrats. 1
The nature of these is undisclosed. The Fraternal Democrats,
who had been hitherto rather an unorganized body, now adopted
a constitution, and set to work to induce the Chartists 'to send
delegates to the first congress of the nations, which had been
fixed for September 25, 1848, in Brussels (the anniversary of
the Belgian Revolution). The second congress, in 1849, was
to be held in London. 2
With enormous energy Harney, Keen, and the other English-
men set to work to create the desired response from the Char-
tists. Events abroad were beginning to take definite shape.
1 Northern Star, December n, 1847.
2 Ib., December 18, 1847.
236 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Crowns were becoming suddenly evasive and slippery things.
The prophecies of Mazzini and Marx were to be fulfilled.
Yet still the leader of the Chartist movement would not define
his attitude. Perhaps Engels had overrated his importance :
he had certainly over-estimated his intelligence. In a letter
to Marx, written apparently in November, 1847, he says :
" Just read the article by O'Connor in the last Star against
the six Radical newspapers. It is a masterpiece of inspired
abuse, in places better than Cobbett, and approaching
Shakespeare." 1 Yet this alleged approximation did not enable
O'Connor to understand foreign politics. The gradual absorp-
tion of the other Chartist leaders in internationalism left him
uninfluenced. Near the end of 1845 he had spent two months
travelling in Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, and Austria,
ostensibly in order to study the land systems of those coun-
tries. He had seen the preparations made by the Austrians
in Milan to quell any possible rising ; he had visited the capitals
where the storms of 1848 were already gathering, and at the
end of the journey he had reported that in the countries he had
seen " people possessed less liberties, but were more contented
and happier, because each possessed more or less of the land." 2
He had, it is true, made advances to the Irish. But the leaders
of the Repeal movement rejected them. The Nation 3 wrote :
" We desire no fraternization between the Irish people and
the Chartists not on account of the bugbear of ' physical
force/ but simply because some of their five points [sic] are
to us an abomination, and the whole spirit and tone of their
proceedings, though well enough for England, are so essentially
English that their adoption in Ireland would be neither prob-
able nor at all desirable. Between us and them there is a great
gulf fixed ; we desire not to bridge it over, but to make it
wider and deeper." Thus repulsed, O'Connor spentmuch labour
in trying to win over the Irish by iterated explanations of the
Six Points in The Northern Star, which probably had no Irish
circulation to speak of.
1 Engels-Marx, Brief wechsel, Vol. I, p. 79.
2 Northern Star, November 15, 1845.
8 The Nation, August 15, 1846.
1848 237
So it came to pass that the Cracow insurrection left O'Connor
unmoved, and unconcerned because Switzerland had got
over the Sonderbund trouble. The first days of the Year of
Revolutions find him planning a scheme to raise 5,000 to
erect a Chartist Hall in London, M'Grath acting on this
occasion as principal understudy. Yet the attention of the
public was being directed abroad by a variety of circumstances.
The Times was confidently predicting a more or less immediate
invasion on the part of France, having been led to this con-
clusion by the Duke of Wellington, who in his dotage had
suddenly decided that England was defenceless and undefen-
sible. Everybody clamoured for a larger army, when a dead
duke would have met the case equally well. The agitation
lasted exactly two months. Then Lord John Russell proposed
to raise the income-tax by fivepence in the pound in order to
cover the cost of increased armaments. Brought face to face
with the stern realities of war the panic-mongers suddenly,
and quite literally, held their peace. A month later, on
February 24, the situation was farcically ended by the abdica-
tion of Louis Philippe, who came to England, not as an in-
vincible invader, but as a very tame refugee.
During January, 1848, crowded meetings were addressed in
many parts of England by Samuel Kydd, John West, and
W. P. Roberts. The directors of the National Land Company
and various others, especially Dixon, Ernest Jones, Harney,
Clark, Skelton, Fussell, and Keen, spoke in London. O'Connor
addressed meetings in Birmingham and London, but talked
no internationalism. By February the course of events in
France had become obvious to all except O'Connor. On the
1 2th he made another great speech, but still had nothing to
say on foreign events, although by this time Palermo had given
Sicily the lead and the Neapolitan garrison had been expelled
from the island, and revolutionists in France, Prussia, Bavaria,
Austria, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, and Holland were giving
the finishing touches to their plans.
At last the current overcame O'Connor, who had to change
his course accordingly. The leading article of The Northern
Star of February 26, 1848, is headed " The Tossin," and ends up
238 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
with a P.S. : " Amiens is in full revolt ; insurrection, began on
the 22nd, is spreading. ' ' O'Connor addresses an article ' ' To the
Old Guards." He believes a revolution is to swamp the
governments of Europe, but " I tell you as long as I live the
Charter and the Land shall never be lost sight of, nor placed
in abeyance by any foreign excitement or movement, however
we may use events for the furtherance of those great objects.
Old Guards, the mind of England is now astir, and though
mine is absorbed in the consideration of those means by which
I can insure happy homes, and protection for all the release
of women from slave labour, and the release of little children
from the abodes of pestilence, disease, immorality, and death
yet if a greater sphere of action should open upon us, I pledge
myself that I shall not be found backward in moulding passing
events to future advantage." February ended, but still
O'Connor was unruffled. On the other hand the members of
the Government were beginning to show signs of a nervous
disposition. Revolution in France and talk of war were not
the only uncomfortable features of the time. 1847 had been
a bad year. The price of wheat had risen from 505. lod. per
quarter in 1845 to 695. yd. in 1847. A period of over-invest-
ment in railways had ended in a financial crisis. The Bank
Act had been suspended. Unemployed workmen began to
accumulate in the towns. The Government could not make
up" its mind whether the rumblings of discontent might not
end in revolution.
On March 6 the Government showed its hand. One Charles
Cochrane had organized a meeting protesting against the
proposal to raise the income-tax, to take place in Trafalgar
Square on this day at 1.30 p.m. The Home Office informed
him of the rule that meetings were prohibited within one
mile of the Houses of Parliament during their sittings. On the
morning of March 6, therefore, Cochrane published his inten-
tion of not holding the meeting. A crowd nevertheless turned
up ; G. W. M. Reynolds 1 leaped on to the plinth and made
1 G. W. M. Reynolds (1844-1879) was at the time of his sudden incur-
sion into the Chartist movement an industrious manufacturer of sensa-
1848 239
himself chairman, and all went well for the time, although
the police were present in large numbers. At 3 p.m. the crowd
began to disperse, when an altercation took place : somebody
had called somebody else a lazy fellow, and the person addressed
had resented it with some emphasis. This developed into a
stand-up fight which lasted until midnight. The battle proli-
ferated itself along every street within a mile of the Square,
and skirmishing continued for three days. Innumerable
arrests were made. During the same week commotions in
Glasgow were caused by the local unemployed, five of whom
were killed by the soldiers called out to calm things down.
In Manchester a riot took place outside a workhouse. In
various parts of Ireland sundry rowdinesses occurred. A few
days later 1 disturbances were expected in Liverpool, but
nothing serious happened.
And the Chartists ? Ernest Jones, P. M'Grath and Julian
Harney were sent to Paris to convey congratulations to the
new Government. In great haste a National Convention was
convened for April 3 and the following days, to arrange for
the presentation of a monster Petition to the House of Commons.
The Petition was also hurried up. 2 Forty-nine delegates were
to meet. Mazzini and Lint on also went over to Paris, where
they met Lamennais. Lint on, like Ernest Jones and the
others, returned bubbling over with republicanism.
A revolution was now seriously regarded as imminent.
Owen published a set of " Practical measures required to pre-
vent greater political changes in Great Britain and Ireland."
These were as follows :
1. Full liberty of thought, speech, writing, and publication
on all civil and religious subjects.
2. Representation co-extensive with taxation ; the voters
to be protected by the ballot, and the representatives to be
paid for their services.
3. No connexion between the State and any one creed, but
tional novels. He was a strong republican and a democrat, but before
March 6 had never declared his sympathies with Chartism.
1 Times, March 18, 1848. 2 Northern Star, March n, 1848*
240 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
equal protection to all ; and admissibility of men of all creeds
to offices of trust and influence.
4. National education, unexclusive and practical ; and
profitable employment to all who require them.
5. Graduated property-tax, to the exclusion of all other
imports ; customs and excise to be gradually abolished.
6. National Bank with branches wherever required ; and
national currency in notes secured upon the whole property
of the British Empire.
7. No other bank or currency to be legal, but reasonable
compensation to the " Bank of England " and all other banks,
unless employed by the national bank.
8. National notes, in convenient amounts, to be issued in
payment of the " national debt/' and to the extent required
for the currency, or circulation of the Empire
9. Free trade in all things, with all the world.
10. Organizing and training of the people, in local districts,
as being the most effectual and the cheapest national defence.
These preliminary changes by the British Government the
state of public opinion in Great Britain and Ireland and over
Europe renders immediately necessary to prevent greater
changes being forced upon the Government from without.
ROBERT OwEN. 1
LONDON, March 15, 1848.
After the middle of March it became difficult to keep count
of the revolutionary movement in Europe. Charles Greville
writes in his diary on March 25 : " Nothing is more extraordinary
than to look back at my last date and see what has happened
in the course oifive days. . . . Within these last four or five
days there has been a desperate battle in the streets of Berlin
between the soldiers and the mob ; the flight of the Prince of
Prussia ; the King's convocation of his States ; concessions
to and reconciliation with his people ; and his invitation to
all Germany to form a Federal State ; and his notification of
what is tantamount to removing the Imperial Crown from the
head of the wretched cretin at Vienna, and placing it on his
1 Northern Star, March 25, 1848.
1848 241
own. Next, a revolution in Austria ; an emeute at Vienna ;
downfall and flight of Metternich, and announcement of a
constitutional regime ; emeutes at Milan ; expulsion of Austrians
and Milanese independence ; Hungary up and doing, and the
whole empire in a state of dissolution. Throughout Germany
all the people stirring ; all the sovereigns yielding to the
popular demands ; the King of Hanover submitting to the
terms demanded of him ; the King of Bavaria abdicating ;
many minor occurrences, any one of which in ordinary times
would have been full of interest and importance, passing almost
unheeded." 1
Wilhelm, Prince of Prussia, grandfather of Wilhelm II, was
over here as a refugee, having been hastily sent abroad by his
more popular father. At a meeting on Kennington Common
on March 13, fourteen or fifteen thousand men (according to
the conservative estimate of the Times The Northern Star
put the number at over 20,000) had listened to revolutionary
though not inflammatory harangues by Reynolds, Jones and
others, at the expense of Louis Philippe and Guizot. The
Northern Star had adopted the meaningless but terrifying
slogan, " France has a Republic : England must have the
Charter." Fear had made it impossible to ignore the Chartists,
and ignorance multiplied their numbers, exaggerated their
power, and overlooked their objects. At the beginning of
April O'Connor's dominance began to waver. Rumours
reached him of his own expected defection. He learned that
many of his followers feared that on April 10 he would not
be present. He protests against this 2 : " I would rather be
taken a corpse from amid that procession than dishonour
myself, disgrace my country, and desert you, by remaining
away." In point of fact he had outrun himself. He had,
unwittingly perhaps, reduced demagogy to a science. He
had discovered that the quickest and surest way to the leader-
ship and applause of numbers was high-flown blather and
magniloquent promises. The fulfilment of the promises would
have redeemed the oratorical excuses, but it never came. He
1 Greville Memoirs, Vol. 6, pp. 158, 159.
2 Northern Star, April i, 1848.
242 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
had spoken of fleshing swords to the hilt in order to obtain
leadership, and now he was counselling peace and, very nearly,
goodwill. It is curious to read in The Northern Star 1 letters
from O'Connor and Buncombe urging the utmost propriety
for April 10, side by side with a flamboyant manifesto signed
by the three faithful ones, Clark, M'Grath, and Doyle. It is
pretty certain that the influence of such men as Mazzini and
Engels on the periphery of the movement had a great effect
upon O'Connor's position. A movement demands intellectual
leadership as well as figureheads ; O'Connor provided Chartism
with the former alone. As a consequence of the revolutionary
movement in Europe, the rank and file of the Chartists had
become suddenly infected with republicanism. O'Connor's
response to this new idea was so slight that it is in a sense
true to say that he was rapidly placed outside the pale. Ernest
Jones and G. W. M. Reynolds, moreover, were middle-class
men of good education, and not easily to be detached from his
side. Besides, he had rid himself of so many capable supporters,
turning them into opponents, that further detachment may
well have seemed undesirable. Five years later Jones gave
evidence to the effect that it was about the beginning of 1848
that his leader's mind began to show signs of shakiness. 2
An insignificant incident about the same time had helped to
draw together the Chartists who had not attached themselves
to O'Connor. On March 17 the Times published an attack on
the Socialism of Robert Owen, who forthwith summoned a
meeting at the John Street Institute to explain his principles,
to denounce the Times, and to congratulate France. The
meeting was addressed by Owen (for over an hour), by Lloyd
Jones, Hetherington, Watson, and Bronterre O'Brien. /
On Tuesday, April 4, the Convention met at the John Street
Institute. M'Grath was elected chairman and Doyle secre-
tary. The first incident related to the election of G. W. M.
Reynolds, who admitted he " had only become a Chartist
within the last few days." Then a slightly stormy discussion
ensued on the position of the Executive. O'Connor, foreseeing
1 Northern Star, April 8, 1848.
2 The People's Paper, April 16, 1853.
1848 243
trouble, did not wish to be entitled to vote ; by waiving his
right to vote he would bear no share in the responsibility for
any illegality proceeding from the Convention. He was,
however, overruled, and it was resolved that the Executive
should be entitled to speak and to vote, and to sit 6% officio
as members of the Convention. The afternoon of the first
and the morning of second day were taken up with the verbal
reports of the delegates on the political and social state of
their constituencies. The Lancashire delegates unanimously
testified to the terrible industrial conditions prevailing in their
county. The Scottish delegates gave, comparatively speaking,
more cheerful accounts. As might be expected, the representa-
tives of the most distressed areas uttered the most revolutionary
sentiments. O'Connor made his first important speech in an
endeavour to suppress the incipient intransigence of these
speakers. He began, as usual, by self-glorification on an
autobiographical basis. Thence he passed on to declare that
" he was now becoming a quasi-minister, and doubtless would
be asked what they intended to do on Monday. On the faith
of that Convention, he should reply that not one pane of glass
nor one pennyworth of property would be injured. That
peace and good order would prevail while their grievances
were under discussion." Having thus committed himself to
good behaviour, he concluded by blusteringly promising to
be in the front row of the first rank ; and now they might
shoot away. Then he left the Convention, announcing that
he must go to the House.
On Thursday the Convention discussedji programme, wast-
ing many hours by inconsecutive argument and bad chariman-
ship. At last an amended programme was drafted and
unanimously accepted amid immense cheering. This was as
follows :
1. That in the event of the National Petition being rejected
by the House of Commons, this Convention prepare a National
Memorial to the Queen to dissolve the present Parliament,
and call to her council such ministers only as will make the
People's Charter a cabinet measure.
2. That this Convention agree to the convocation of a
244 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
National Assembly, to consist of delegates appointed at public
meetings, to present the National Memorial to the Queen ;
and to continue permanently sitting until the Charter is the
law of the land.
3. That this Convention call upon the country to hold simul-
taneous meetings on Good Friday, April 21, for the purpose
of adopting the National Memorial, and electing delegates to
the^National Assembly,
4. That the National Assembly meet in London on Monday,
April 24.
5. That the present Convention shall continue its sittings
until the meeting of the National Assembly. On the Friday
the Convention was brought up against a proclamation pub-
lished by the Commissioner of Police declaring the procession
proposed for April 10 to be illegal. The previous day O'Connor
had argued the matter in the House against the Attorney-
General and Sir G. Grey. He had pointed out that on several
occasions within the last ten years processions had marched
down to the House of Commons and there presented their
petitions, and had gone on to assure the House that the
Chartists had no intention of overawing it, and to plead the
generally pacific nature of his intentions. The Convention,
faced with the proclamation, met it with another one to the
effect that it was based on a " statute passed in the arbitrary
reign of King Charles II," that it was " an infringement on the
right of petition and public meeting/' and declaring a " firm
determination to hold such meeting and procession," promising
that the whole affair would be "an unarmed moral demon-
stration," and calling on the inhabitants of London to come
to the support of the Chartists. On Saturday O'Connor
solemnly harangued the Convention and warned them that
there must be no display of force. After a discussion on what
was to be done in the event of the wholesale arrest of the
delegates, the Convention adjourned until 8 a.m. on Monday
morning. Innumerable circumstances had been contributing
to the excitement of the public. Events in Ireland seemed to
be getting uncontrollable. At a crowded Chartist meeting
in Liverpool a Matthew Somers had declared that there were
1848 245
organizations in Liverpool, Manchester, and " at the foot of the
Throne itself," which, in the event of "an attempted massacre
of my countrymen," would cause the skies to be " reddened
with the blaze of the Babylons of England." 1 The Times was
declaring that " the Chartists, in fact, are butjtools in the hands
of a gang of desperadoes. Tbe true character of the present
movement is a ramification of the Irish conspiracy. The
Repealers wish to make as great a hell of this island as they
have made of their own." The Queen left London for the
safety of the Isle of Wight on Saturday. Innumerable meet-
ings had been held in London throughout the week. The
members of the Inns of Court and the clerks in Government
departments were swearing themselves in wholesale as special
constables. O'Brien left the Convention, refusing to be
associated with illegal proceedings, and by so doing he gave
the remaining delegates a definitely illegal stamp to the eyes
of the non- Chartist world. The theatres announced that
they would be closed on the night of the loth.
Lord Campbell, Chancellor of the Duchy, writing to his
brother on Sunday night, said : " This may be the last time I
write to you before the Republic is established ! I have no
serious fears of revolution, but there may be bloodshed. . . ."
The day before the Cabinet had requested Wellington to attend,
and " we had then a regular Council of War, as upon the eve
of a great battle. We examined maps and returns and infor-
mation of the movements of the enemy. . . . 2 It was not I
alone who was struck with the consultation yesterday. Macau-
lay said to me that he considered it the most interesting spec-
tacle he had ever witnessed, and that he should remember it
to his dying day." Fortunately the Duke had the sense to
order the forces under his command to remain in ambush, in
fact, safely out of the way.
Harriet Martineau in her Autobiography gives us another
glimpse of the panic-stricken state of political circles. The
wife of a Cabinet minister wrote to her, " under her husband's
1 Times, April 10, 1848.
3 G. Lathom Browne, Wellington, Vol. II, p. 297.
246 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
sanction," to enlist her help in bringing the working classes to
reason [!], fearing that the Chartists were about to " hold the
metropolis." Lord Malmesbury, in his Memoirs of an Ex-
Minister, supplies more evidence of the state of feeling in
London. On April 5 he writes in his diary : " The alarm about
the Chartists increases. Everybody expects that the attack
will be serious." On April 9 : " The alarm of to-day is very
general all over the town. . . . The Duke of Wellington is to
command the troops, and the orders he has given are that the
police are to go first to disperse the meeting ; if resistance is
offered and they are likely to be beaten, then the troops are
instantly to appear, and the cannon to open with shell and
grenades, infantry and cavalry are to charge in short, they
are to be made an example of." On the morning of The Day :
" My five keepers have arrived at my house this morning,
armed with double-barrelled guns, and determined to use them
if necessary." 1
At last the loth dawned upon the waiting world. Prodigious
preparations had been made by the authorities. Four thou-
sand policemen guarded the bridges, Palace Yard, and Trafal-
gar Square ; 1,500 Chelsea pensioners had been fetched out
from their retirement and entrusted with the defence of Batter-
sea and Vauxhall. Eight thousand soldiers were distributed
over various strategic points along the Embankment between
the Tower and Millbank. Twelve guns were in readiness at
the Royal Mews. Three steamboats had been procured in
order to move soldiers about from point to point should occa-
sion arise for their services. The clerks at the General Post
Office had been equipped with rifles. And, finally, over one
hundred and fifty thousand special constables had been sworn
in to protect property behind the firing line. 2 Among these
was Louis Napoleon, who paced a beat in the West End in
the company of the cook of the Athenaeum Club, meditating
the while, one likes to imagine, on the theory and practice of
coups d'etat. It is certainly one of the minor humours of history
that while the last King of the French was painfully adapting
1 Lord Malmesbury's Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. I, pp. 223
et seq. 2 Times, April n, 1848.
1848 247
himself to life in a London suburb, the future (and also the
last) Emperor of the French, with a white band on his arm and
a stave in his pocket, was acting as an amateur London police-
man. At four o'clock in the morning the special constables
were at their posts. The late Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, l
then a junior clerk in the Foreign Office, has described the inter-
nal defences of his Department on the great day. " The ground-
floor windows of the office were all blocked up with the huge
bound volumes of the Times newspaper, which it was supposed
would resist bullets." The clerks were armed with new service
muskets and ball cartridges. We gather from the Greville
Memoirs that similar precautions had been taken in the other
Government offices, where the joyous clerks were improvised
into ready-made garrisons, provisioned to stand a short siege.
Special trains brought up Chartists, wishing to march in pro-
cession, from all parts of England. The papers published
bulletins from hour to hour, by staffs of correspondents dis-
tributed all over London. At eight o'clock the Convention
met, principally in order to hear O'Connor deny that he had
ever intended not to be present, and to read aloud anonymous
messages he had received from friends, to the effect that his
life would be certainly ended by a bullet, should he insist on
marching. At ten o'clock a car drawn by six horses arrived,
decorated with flags and mottoes, and the delegates mounted
and were driven to Kennington Common, via Holborn, where
the Petition was fetched out of the offices of the N.C.A. and
loaded into another car, and Blackfriars Bridge. At eleven
o'clock they arrived, almost at the same time as a small pro-
cession of trade unionists. Within the next hour a number of
other processions from various parts of London had congregated.
What was the total number of Chartists present ? According
to the Evening Sun, 2 " at least 150,000 " ; according to the
next day's Times, about 20,000, only about half of whom were
Chartists. According to The Northern Star, 250,000. There
is no reason to doubt the correctness of the official estimate
of " 15,000 to 20,000." Before the speeches began a police
1 Died 1915 ; the facts are from a letter published in the Times of
April 14, 1914. 2 April 10, 1848.
248 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
officer approached the car and said that Mr. Richard Mayne,
one of the Commissioners of Police, wished to speak to O'Con-
nor. The latter immediately left the car and spoke to Mayne.
The crowd showed a hostile attitude towards the messenger,
who was saved by O'Connor's declaration that Mayne was his
" best friend." Then the Duke's strategy was revealed.
O'Connor was told that the meeting could be held, but that
the bridges were closed by the police, and no procession would
be allowed to cross. O'Connor at once promised to abandon
the procession. He returned to the Common from the Horns
Assembly Rooms, where the interview with Mayne had taken
place, and the speech-making began. Doyle was put in the
chair, and started proceedings. Then O'Connor broke the news.
In accordance with his usual tactics he first allowed his prestige
full play, adding to it for the occasion. Posing as a revolu-
tionary of the deepest dye, he told the astonished crowd that
his father had been tried five or six times for high treason,
and was in prison for seven years of his life, that his uncle
" is now in the fifteenth year of his banishment, and is about
to be made the first President of the Republic in France.
My brother is Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of a
Republic in South America." Having by these means suffi-
ciently impressed his listeners with the sense that he, O'Connor,
was a man whose advice was well worth taking, he explained
the situation as regards the police, and urged those present
to pin their faith to the moral force of the six million signatures
to the Petition, and to do nothing rash. Ernest Jones fol-
lowed, echoing his leader's exhortations. O'Connor left the
Common on the conclusion of Jones' speech, and the last
speakers, Clark and Reynolds, were not very well listened to.
About 2 p.m. the meeting dispersed. The Petition was packed
into three cabs and, accompanied by Doyle, Clark, and M'Grath,
was driven off to the House of Commons. They were refused a
safe-conduct across Westminster Bridge, and had ignominiously
to reach Westminster through back streets and over Black-
friars Bridge. A few Chartists stayed behind to listen to an
Irish meeting in a corner of the Common, which Harney, West
and Reynolds were invited to address. The remaining Char-
1848 249
lists slowly dispersed, wondering greatly. The demonstration
was at an end. At 2 p.m. Lord John Russell wrote out a report,
and sent it to the Queen. " Lord John Russell presents his
humble duty to your Majesty, and has the honour to state that
the Kennington Common meeting has proved a complete
failure." 1
Yet the demonstration of April 10, 1848, has grown into a
curious legend, easily explicable by anybody with the slightest
acquaintance of crowd-psychology. Thus in the preface to
Kingsley's Alton Locke it is stated that " on the loth April the
Government had to fill London with troops, and put the Duke
of Wellington in command, who barricaded the bridges and
Downing Street, and other public buildings." Dean Stubbs
in his book on Kingsley is under the same hallucination.
" On the loth of April, 1848, a revolution was threatened in
England. One hundred thousand armed men were to meet on
Kennington Common and thence to march to Westminster,
and there to compel, by physical force, if necessary, the
acceptance of the People's Charter by the Houses of Parlia-
ment." 2 The preposterously extensive arrangements made
by the Duke to keep the peace vanish into insignificance beside
the exaggerated memories which the demonstration left behind
it.
The Duke of Wellington, speaking in the House of Lords on
April 10, said that the effect of the meeting on Kennington
Common was " to place all the inhabitants of the metropolis
under alarm, paralysing all trade and business of every de-
scription, and driving individuals to seek for safety by arming
themselves for the protection of the lives of themselves and
of their neighbours, and for the security of their property."
The recent revolutions supply the explanation of this timorous-
ness. It is apparently an instinct of the crowd to hope for the
worst, and this instinct is communicable to individuals.
The fate of the Petition was even more ignominious than
that of the projected procession. Even before its presentation
1 Letters of Queen Victoria, Vol. II, p. 168.
2 Quoted in Holyoake's Bygones worth Remembering, chap. vii.
250 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
voices had been heard to suggest that the alleged total number
of signatures 5,706,000, according to O'Connor's most fre-
quent estimate was largely inflated. Some ingenious but
anonymous person wrote to the Times to point out that the
total number of adult males in Great Britain was just 300,000
less than the number of signatures. The Government worked
on the line suggested by these doubters. The Petition was
immediately on its arrival handed over to a staff of clerks,
who counted up the signatures and found that there were no
more than 1,975,496. On April 13 the Committee on Public
Petitions presented its report. It stated that large numbers
of signatures on consecutive sheets were in the same hand-
writing ; and that a large number of distinguished individuals
whose allegiance to Chartism had been completely unsuspected
had put their names to the Petition. Among these, the Com-
mittee grieved to find Victoria Rex [sic], April i, the Duke of
Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and Colonel Sibthorp. Another
class of signatures was represented by a few specimens, such
as No Cheese, Pugnose, Flatnose, Punch. And " there are
other words and phrases which, though written in the form
of signatures, and included in the number reported, your Com-
mittee will not hazard offending the House and the dignity
and decency of their own proceedings by reporting, though
it may be added that they are obviously signatures belonging
to no human being." The Committee did not even give
O'Connor's estimate of the weight of the Petition the benefit
of the doubt. He had declared that it weighed five tons ;
the Committee, after trial, reduced the estimate to five hundred-
weight and three-quarters.
O'Connor was in the House when these devastating facts
were published. He immediately rose and challenged them,
suggesting that the bogus signatures had been inserted by spies
for the purpose of discrediting the remainder, and that the
thirteen clerks employed by the Committee on Petitions could
not possibly have counted nearly two million signatures in the
time. He was, however, entirely unsupported by any sym-
pathizers. One member after another rose to denounce the
Petition and the petitioners. Cripps, a member of the Com-
1848 251
mittee on Petitions, declared that he could never believe O'Con-
nor again, whereupon the latter protested against being held
personally responsible for the affair and left the House. A
wrangle then took place on the subject of the dignity of the
House, which was terminated by the arrest of O'Connor by
the Serjeant-at-Arms, and apologies to the House from him
and from Cripps. 1 On Tuesday, April n, the Convention
reassembled, and confessed itself neatly trapped on the
previous day, by the valve-like action of the bridges. O'Con-
nor was away, ill, after the strenuous days he had passed in
and out of the House. The Convention decided that the
National Assembly should consist of 100 members, seventy-
eight of whom would be delegates chosen in the same manner
as the members of the Convention, and the other twenty-two
of whom would be elected by the trade unions. There was
some talk of joining forces with an Irish National Assembly
of 300 members which was being mooted, but nothing was
decided. On Wednesday the Convention received the offer
by letter of a large bribe from O'Connor, who offered to give
up the profits of The Northern Star for the support of the
Convention. Acceptance of this would, of course, have placed
the Convention in O'Connor's pocket, but the delegates knew
better and unanimously declined the offer. O'Connor put in
a brief appearance in the afternoon and declared that " between
400,000 and 500,000 people " had been present on Kennington
Common. He referred to the Crown and Government Security
Bill, denouncing it vigorously. If it was passed, he promised
to become a republican, although he had always previously
contended for a constitutional monarchy. Once more he
spoke of the benefits which the Charter would bring, in terms
remarkably similar to those in which Shakespeare makes Jack
Cade address his followers. On Thursday, the Convention
1 Hansard, Vol. 98, 284-301. O'Connor, in the course of hi x s speech,
is reported, e.g., in The Northern Star of April 15, 1848, to have said
" he did not believe he would have any difficulty in obtaining a petition
upon the same subject by 10,000,000, or double or treble that number."
It should be pointed out that Hansard reports no such statement,
which presumably emanated from a hostile source.
252 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
decided to send Leach, Kydd and M'Grath over to Ireland as
missionaries, to invite the middle classes and the Irish to be
represented in the National Assembly, and to ask the trade
unions to support the Charter. On Friday, the I4th, O'Con-
nor again appeared and attempted to explain away the fiasco
of the Petition, which had been exposed in the Commons the
day before. He repeated the argument that 1,900,000 signa-
tures could not have been counted by thirteen clerks in the
time stated, and attempted to make out that the report of the
Committee was deliberately fraudulent. The Government
was verging on a financial crisis, therefore his advice to the
Chartists was to go on petitioning, as the Cabinet would have
to make concessions to the people to avoid coming down with
a crash. His statement appears to have met with a slightly
critical reception ; several delegates did not like either the
suggestion of more petitioning, or that of memorializing the
Queen. A discussion ensued as to the actual number of signa-
tures, and it appeared that many thousands had not been pre-
sented, having been delayed. On Saturday, April 15, a memorial
to the Queen was adopted ; it was to be laid before the country
at the simultaneous meetings. This document briefly recited
the grievances of the working classes of Great, Britain and
Ireland, and declared that the Government was attempting
to take away the liberties of the subject, " arraying class against
class, " and bringing forward " the Gagging Bill, falsely deno-
minated a Bill for the better security of your Majesty's Crown
and Government . . . conceived in the spirit of that tyrannical
dynasty, whose expulsion led to the introduction of your
Majesty's family to the British throne." The memorial there-
fore prayed for the dissolution of the present Parliament, and
for the appointment of a Cabinet in sympathy with the Charter. l
During its third week the proceedings of the Convention de-
scended to complete triviality. The National Assembly was
postponed until May i. On April 22 the Crown and Govern-
ment Security Bill, having passed through all its stages, was
made law. O'Connor addressed meetings in Manchester and
Nottingham. The Convention adjourned on April 25, the
Northern Star, April 15, 1848.
1848 253
majority of the delegates having already left London in order
to address the simultaneous meetings.
On Monday, May i, the National Assembly met at the John
Street Institute. Dixon was put into the chair, and Shirren
was made secretary. The delegates at first numbered twenty-
nine, and had virtually all been members of the late Convention,
the exceptions were quite unimportant. The members of the
Assembly met as the chosen of public meetings, and were
therefore entirely unrepresentative. The first two days were
mostly occupied with the reports of the delegates as to the
conditions of their constituencies, as observed in the course
of their lecturing tours. On its third day the Assembly con-
sidered the necessity of a programme. M'Douall moved that
the Assembly should receive a programme stating the Chartist
policy in relation to social and political grievances, industrial
and commercial questions, education, the Church, the criminal
code, and the freedom of the press, in addition, of course, to
the business for which the Assembly had been brought into
life. Led by Ernest Jones, however, the majority refused to
touch anything not immediately connected with the enactment
of the Charter, and adopted a programme drafted accordingly.
During its second week the Assembly reorganized the N.C.A.
and elected a provisional new Executive, consisting of M'Crae,
Jones, Kydd, Leach, and M'Douall. The prevailing atmosphere
was distinctly unfriendly to O'Connor, who stayed away,
addressing meetings in his defence in the provinces, and attemp-
ing to organize a fund to run a daily paper ^ to be called the
Democrat. On Saturday, May 13, the AssemTy dissolved itself.
The memorial to the Queen was presented through the post,
as the authorities, in accordance with the " established prac-
tice/' would not allow it to be handed over by the delegates
in person. Resolutions, more or less academic, were adopted,
and an address to the people was unanimously passed for
publication. The one achievement of the Assembly was the
reconstitution of the N.C.A., in the circumstances an alto-
gether unconstitutional action, as the authority of the body
was not derived from the N.C.A., and the delegates were not
necessarily members of it. This move, however, had much to
254 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
recommend it. The new N.C.A. was to consist of groups of
ten : each group to select a leader, who with nine other leaders,
formed an upper circle, which was again under a tenth of its
members and so on. This scheme had the advantage of
keeping the members in touch with the central organization.
The Northern Star began to devote itself to the affairs of Ireland
and of Europe, and Chartism sank rapidly into a lethargic
condition.
It was awakened suddenly at the beginning of June by
reports of the arrests of several of its leaders for violence
of language regarded as equivalent to sedition. Ernest Jones
was one of the first, and with him Fussell and three others.
A number of arrests were made in various parts of Yorkshire.
Towards the end of May the Government once more began
to fear a Chartist outbreak. Inflammatory meetings on Clerk-
enwell Green were coming to be of nightly occurrence, and
were as often as not accompanied by minatory processions
into the City and towards Westminster. The result of these
prosecutions was to drive the insurrectionary section of the
movement underground. North of England Chartists met
in cellars and came out of them armed with pikes. Several
arrests were made in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and
Bradford ; in each case the police seized a quantity of these
picturesque but harmless weapons. In September a Committee
of fourteen Chartists was arrested in the Angel Tavern in
Webber Street, Blackfriars, on the information of certain
police spies. A small quantity of arms and ammunition was
found on this occasion. Other arrests and seizures were made
in Great Ormond Street, Holborn, and York Street, Westmin-
ster. Powell, the informer responsible for these arrests, was
an obvious and blatant perjurer, and came out very badly in
cross-examination. He had acted as agent provocateur, and
had himself made and given away bullets and powder to the
Chartists against whom he afterwards informed. However,
four prisoners were sentenced to transportation for life, and
fifteen, Ernest Jones among them, were sentenced to two
years' imprisonment. A larger number received lighter
sentences, or were merely bound over. In Manchester, about
1848 255
the same time, P. M. M'Douall was sentenced to two years'
imprisonment. Towards the end of the year almost wholesale
arrests took place in the North, the attempted rising of Smith
O'Brien in Ireland having by this time reduced the Government
to a condition bordering on hysteria. In Liverpool John West
was sentenced to one year's imprisonment, and James Leach
to nine months. There were in all sixty-five Chartists tried
here at a single special assizes in December, on charges gently
graduated from conspiracy downwards. In Edinburgh and
Glasgow the same thing happened. The greater number of
these trials depended on the evidence of police spies and
agents provocateurs. By the end of the year these had exhausted
their information, and the prosecutions ceased. It is possible
that these arrests were the result of the Government's fear of
something more dangerous than a demonstration. Both
Thomas Cooper 1 and Thomas Frost 2 have fearsome tales to
tell of individuals who, assisted by police spies, attempted to
work up violent outbreaks. Certainly some new motive had
been brought into action. As in 1839 wholesale arrests were
made, and in that year the judges and magistrates who tried
the prisoners were unanimously severe in inflicting sentences.
It is not necessary to record at length the different stages
of shattered helplessness into which the Chartist movement
degenerated with the arrest of its leaders. Hume attempted
to bring the Government to accept a compromise the " Little
Charter/' or household suffrage. On Tuesday, May 23, 1848,
he brought forward a motion in the House of Commons with
reference to the extension of the franchise to householders.
The moment was not propitious. The day's proceedings had
begun with a motion by Lord George Bentinck for the adjourn-
ment of the House from its rising until the following Thursday,
on the ground that Wednesday was to be Derby Day. There
had been a little opposition, from Hume, Bright, and Fox
Maule, on the ground that the House had its time very fully
occupied. This plea, however, was regarded as frivolous by
Lord John Russell, who could not understand how anybody
1 Life of Thomas Cooper, chap, xxvii.
2 Forty Years' Recollections, pp. 143-165.
256 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
could possibly wish to discuss such things as the Law of Entail
in Scotland on a " national fete" and the House agreed with
him, 103 voting for adjournment and 90 against. With the
prospect of a holiday before them, members were not, by the
time Hume's motion was brought on after n p.m., in a mood
to discuss household enfranchisement with any enthusiasm,
and the mover had to content himself with a promise to try
again on June 20. O'Connor followed, and attacked Hume
for this postponement. Cobden rose to Hume's defence and
told the House that O'Connor " has done more to retard the
political progress of the working classes of England than any
other public man that ever lived in this country." Lord John
Russell then stepped in, and the subject dropped. 1
For the rest, Ernest Jones was grossly ill-treated in prison.
O'Connor, after the exposure of his ill-usage, was allowed to
purchase Jones a certain alleviation of the conditions of his
imprisonment. Owen published a lengthy constitution and
code of laws for a perfect state of society, apparently with the
usual hope. The Land Company's proceedings were centred
round the report of the Select Committee. O'Connor addressed
meetings and quarrelled. The revolutionary tide had ebbed,
and the land scheme no longer inspired. Chartism, in fact,
returned to the hopeless position it had occupied four years
earlier.
1 Hansard, Vol. 98, 1848, 1307-12.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VIII
DELEGATES TO THE CONVENTION
OF APRIL 4, 1848
J. P. Wilkinson, Exeter.
S. G. Francis, Ipswich.
M. Stevenson, Bolton.
Ernest Jones, Halifax.
Jas. Hutchins, Wigan.
Geo. Buckby, Leicester.
G. J. Harney, Nottingham.
Jos. Jinney, )_. . ,
J. A FusseiJ Blrmm g ham -
Samuel Kydd, Oldham.
D. Donovan,)
Jas. Leach, j Manchester.
Edmund Jones, ) T
Henry Smith, pverpod.
Dr. Hunter, ),.
Jas. Gumming JEdinburgh.
Jas. Graham, Dundee.
J. T. Lund, Lancaster.
F. Mirfield, Barnsley.
Jas. Watson, Newcastle.
W. Ashton, Northampton.
Thos. Tattersall, Bury.
John West, Stockport.
E. Bevington, \ Staffordshire
Edw. Sale, j Potteries.
Leeds.
Jas. Shirren, Aberdeen.
G. W. M. Reynolds, Derby.
Geo. Stevens, York.
Robert Cochrane, Paisley.
Jas. Adams, Glasgow.
C. M'Carthy, Irish Democratic
Confederation.
Chas. Baldwin, Bath.
D. Lightowler, Bradford.
F. O'Connor/
J. Shaw,
John Lowery, Carlisle.
D. Thomas, Merthyr.
R. Wild, Ashton-under-Lyne.
Edw. Walter, Worcester.
Wm. Cuffay,]
H. Child, VLondon.
B. O'Brien, j
J. Petrie, Plymouth.
Dixon, Norwich.
Murphy, Huddersfield.
Tanner, Totnes.
Glenister, Cheltenham.
257
CHAPTER IX
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM
THE majority of the historical works dealing with the
last century regard April 10, 1848, as the day on which
Chartism died. Even the massive work of Professor Dolleans
deliberately comes to a stop on arriving at this date.
Historians are almost unanimous in regarding Kennington
Common as the burial-ground of the movement, arid the
laugh that went up over the Petition as its funeral sermon.
But the date is too early. It overlooks an essential episode in
the evolution of the Chartist movement.
On April 8 Lovett attempted to revive the project of uniting
the Chartists and the Radical middle- class men. He secured
the support of Miall, Parry, Howitt, Vincent, Dr. Epps, Elt,
Shaen, Lowery, and Neesom, and the People's League was the
outcome. Place sadly remarks to Lovett on April 19 that
" it will be some time to come before the words Chartism and
Universal Suffrage will meet with favour in the direction you
seem to be looking, and F. O'Connor will presently give both
a more terrible blow than any or all they have yet received." 1
The People's League died in September, 1849,2 apparently the
result of the competition of its twin-brother, the People's
Charter Union, the membership of which was largely duplicate.
This organization was virtually the successor of the National
Association, which was actually wound up in 1849^ after
having been in a moribund condition since Lovett's resignation
from the secretaryship in 1846. The People's Charter Union
1 Place Collection, Set 47, 1848, Vol. I, fo. 327.
2 Lovett, Life and Struggles, p. 349.
3 P. 360.
258
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 259
held its first meeting at the Farringdon Hall on the evening
of April 10, 1848. Cooper was elected president, and Richard
Moore, treasurer. The Council included Hetherington, Wat-
son, Holyoake and Collett. A little later on it was joined by
Dr. Black, who had now become private secretary to Sir William
Molesworth. The Council soon found itself negotiating with
Cobden on the subject of the Stamp Duties. In order to act
with greater freedom, ten members of the Council, on Cobden's
advice, formed themselves into an independent body, the
Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee. This was in March,
1849. The ten co-opted Dr. Black and appointed Collett
secretary and Francis Place treasurer, Moore becoming chair-
man, and subsequently added to their number by the acces-
sion of prominent members both of the People's Charter Union
and of the N.C.A. Among these were Holyoake and James
S tans f eld, afterwards Chairman of the Local Government
Board. Black and Place prepared appeals and provided
statistical information. Little by little the Committee won
over the more progressive M.P.'s. In February, 1851, it de-
cided to expand, and became the Association for the Repeal
of the Taxes on Knowledge, and invited members not neces-
sarily belonging to the Chartist Movement. Milner-Gibson,
M.P., became President. Dr. Bowkett, John Bright, M.P.,
R. Cobden, M.P., Passmore Edwards, W. Ewart, M.P., Joseph
Hume, M.P., Thornton Hunt, G. H. Lewes, and several other
Radicals, in and out of Parliament, went on the Committee.
The Association gained its first victory in 1853, when the adver-
tisement duty was repealed. The compulsory stamp on news-
papers was repealed two years later. The paper duty followed
in 1861. Finally the last restrictions were removed in 1869,
and the year after the Committee met for the last time in the
house in Hart Street, Bloomsbury, where Richard Moore,
chairman for twenty-one years, had lived since his first parti-
cipation in the Chartism Movement. 1
Now this episode is of considerable importance, for it gives
the Chartist movement a definite character. We have read
1 The complete story is to be found in C. D. Collet's History of the
Taxes on Knowledge, 2 vols, 1899.
260 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Place's account of the evolution of the W.M.A., from the little
Committee presided over by Place and Black, which had
come into existence to fight the newspaper taxes. From the
agitation against " the taxes on knowledge," intellectual
working-class Chartism had arisen. To the agitation against
the same taxes, intellectual working-class Chartism, eleven years
later, returned. The same agitation, the same Committee.
Place and Black, Hetherington, Watson and Moore all follow
the same path. And we may be sure that Lovett and Vincent
were with them, although they played no prominent parts
in the renewed campaign. More than any other fact of the
movement, this emergence from and return to the agitation
against " the taxes on knowledge " marks Chartism as a
protest against ignorance. Chartism had failed because the
masses were not yet intelligent enough to realize the necessity
of political enfranchisement. This, at least, was the view of
the intellectual'leaders of Chartism. Just as Lovett had given
up political agitation for the far more wearing occupation of
educating the young, so the other leaders gave up their parts
in the struggle in order to secure that essential to the education
of the people a free press. For the next year or two Chartism,
as an organization of the people, was quiescent. O'Connor's
influence was waning. The other leaders of the N.C.A. were
exhibiting an extraordinary quarrelsomeness, into the details
of which it is not necessary to enter. On July 3, 1849, O'Con-
nor moved that the " House do adopt the principles embodied
in the People's Charter." Exactly forty members were present
during the early part of the discussion. Once again the old
assertions were repeated, and met by the old denials. O'Con-
nor's speech on this occasion was one of his most closely-
reasoned performances. Among his arguments he adduced
that of the inadequate representation of working-class interests
in a House constituted on the existing lines, and the unequal
representation of the towns. Lord John Russell 1 replied at
great length, and made out a case which was not merely
negative, but was in fact a statement of the advantages of
government by a social hierarchy as against government by
1 Hansard, 1849, Vol. 106, 1268-1306.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 261
the whole people. " I therefore meet the proposition of the
Hon. Gentleman with a direct negative, conceiving that, if
adopted, it would tend to the greatest evils, and that in adopt-
ing it we should run the risk of losing the liberties which we
now possess, and that to do so would be a most foolish and
unwise proceeding." On the division fifteen members, includ-
ing tellers, supported the measure, and 224 voted against it.
On March 16, 1850, the National Reform League for the
Peaceful Regeneration of Society came into existence, and at
last Bronterre O'Brien had an organization to help him in
the propagation of his views, which, incidentally, had by this
time received the official assent of the N.C.A. and the Fraternal
Democrats. The programme is too long to quote in full : it
contains an assertion of the principles laid down in the Charter,
a demand for the repeal of the Poor Law, a claim for the gener-
ous treatment of paupers, land nationalization and colonization,
the National Debt to be paid off by a mortgage on the real
estate of the country, nationalization of mines, fisheries, etc.,
a system of national credit to enable the people to borrow from
national funds in order to set up as a cultivator, public market
places, fixed prices, paper money based " either upon a corn
or a labour standard," and a hint at wider schemes of nationali-
zation, especially of railways, canals, bridges, docks, gasworks,
waterworks, a more human code of laws, etc.
On July n, 1850, O'Connor, once more and for the last
time, brought forward a motion in support of the Charter,
with a more than usually Socialist preamble. The motion,
in fact, consisted in a series of postulates leading up to the Six
Points. Just before O'Connor's discussion of this resolution,
the House had refused leave by a small majority of the small
number of Members present to William Ewart to bring in a
Bill to abolish the punishment of death. O'Connor's first
argument in support of his motion was that one way of putting
an end to the crime of murder was to place the representative
system on such a sound and representative basis as that every
person in the kingdom should be represented in the House.
He was not allowed to continue long in this strain ; the attend-
ance had diminished beyond the requisite forty, and the House
262 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
was counted out. 1 So, ingloriously, ended the parliamentary
career of the Charter.
In the same month O'Connor began a great effort to revive
Chartism and addressed meetings all over the country. Arnott,
perhaps with a better grasp of the situation, raised the question
of uniting into one body the N.C.A., the Fraternal Democrats,
and the National Reform League. 2 A little later on around
table conference of these three bodies, in addition to the
ephemeral Social Reform League, was suggested, but nothing
came of this. 3 In August the Haynau affair took place. The
Austrian General, whose behaviour in Italy and Hungary,
especially his flogging of women, had gained for him a reputa-
tion in England which he probably did not suspect, happened
to visit London. Anxious to see sights, he obtained through
a friend an invitation to go over Barclay and Perkins's Brewery,
Bankside. He arrived, accompanied by a nephew and an
interpreter. The draymen, discovering his identity, inflicted
a severe flogging upon the General, who escaped with great
difficulty, and spent the brief remainder of his stay in England
in bed. This incident, as it were, brought home to the English
democracy the idea that there is a democracy of action and
instinct, as of politics. It received an enormous amount of
attention in Chartist papers and on Chartist platforms, and,
in fact, throughout the English press, with the exception of
the Times and the Morning Chronicle.
The election figures of the 1851 Executive are sadly smaller
than those of earlier occasions ; they illustrate, too, O'Connor's
fall from his once unchallenged position : Reynolds, 1,805 ;
Harney, 1,774 ; Jones, 1,757 ; Arnott, 1,605 ; O'Connor, 1,314 ;
Holyoake, 1,021 ; Davis, 818 ; Grassby, 811 ; Milne, 709.
Thornton Hunt and Linton were unsuccessful candidates.
Robert Owen, O'Brien, Cooper, Gerald Massey, and Kydd were
nominated but refused to stand. 4 Davis resigned immediately
after the election, and Hunt took his place. Manchester
Chartism, feeling that the London Executive did not represent
1 Hansard, Vol. 112, 1282-84. 2 Northeyn Star, July 20, 1850.
3 Northern Star, August 10, 1850.
4 Ib., December 21, 1850.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 263
it, virtually declared its independence, and held a conference
in January which, although solemnly repudiated by the Execu-
tive, turned out to be a small and harmless affair. O'Connor
attended it, and was warmly received. In London another
National Convention was arranged. As before, there were to
be forty-nine delegates who were duly elected, and turned out
to be quite undistinguished. The N.C.A., in fact, no longer
had room for enterprising Chartists, who now habitually formed
themselves into new societies which, on account of their small-
ness, had an appallingly high rate of mortality. In addition
to those just named, we find references in 1851 to the National
Charter League (containing M'Grath, Clark, Dixon, and Doyle),
the Political and Social Propagandist Society, the Political
and Social Tract Society, and the Democratic and Social Con-
ference. The membership of the Convention, consisting of the
petite bourgeoisie of the movement, makes its performance the
more remarkable.
The main part of the work of the Convention was the adop-
tion, bit by bit, of a programme of social reform. x This began
with the demand for the establishment of a Board of Agricul-
ture, and the restoration of " poor, common, church, and crown
lands to the people." Land was to be purchased by the
Government, not confiscated. The Church was to be separated
from the State, and disendowed of all its accessions made up
to the time of the Reformation. Here, it will be seen, the
Chartists, drafting a confessedly ideal programme, hesitated
to go as far as the modern Church Disestablishers. Education
was to be " national, universal, gratuitous, and to a certain
extent compulsory." This compromise was arrived at after
much discussion, several of the delegates objecting to compul-
sory education, adducing arguments beneath which tacit
hositilty to the State as State can be detected. All education,
from the University downwards, was to be free, the status of
co-operative societies was also discussed, and freedom of
association was claimed for them. The National Debt was
repudiated ; no more interest was to be paid, but the capital
was to be repaid as interest. Standing armies were condemned
1 Northern Star, April 5, 1851.
264 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
on democratic principles, but recognized as unfortunate necessi-
ties, subject to considerable changes in the status of the private
soldier. Universal training in the use of arms was next recom-
mended. The question of compulsion and the conscientious
objector came up on this point. The Convention decided that
there should be no compulsion in this respect ; one delegate
suggested that Quakers and others who shared their views on
the use of arms should be given the opportunity of forming fire
brigades. State support for the unemployed, pensions for the
aged and infirm, to allow them to be kept in their own homes,
provision of work for the unemployed, and if necessary, settle-
ment upon the land, were proposed as measures which might
take the place of the Poor Law, which was to be abolished.
During the second week the Convention discussed a variety of
matters, strongly opposed the death penalty, authorized a
fund for the recall of Frost, Williams, and Jones, and so on.
Finally another attempt was made to reorganize the N.C.A.,
and the Convention dissolved on April 10. A Committee
set to work on the resolutions and knocked them into shape,
making a neat programme out of them. Another National
Petition was to be organized, but this time there were to be
no fraudulent signatures ; simultaneous meetings were to be
held, and the Chairmen were to count the number of those
voting for the resolutions. Communications with the Trade
Unions were to be initiated. In its final form the Chartist
programme called for the nationalization of the land, and
claimed that, as " labour was the creator of a nation's wealth,"
co-operative associations should have every encouragement.
All taxation was to be upon land and accumulated property.
A change in currency laws was demanded, but no details were
provided : finally, measures making for the complete freedom
of the press were recommended.
This programme was duly printed by the Times, 1 and
Chartism, was reintroduced, after a lapse of three years,
to the attention of the middle classes. Although by this
time the membership of the N.C.A. had diminished to some-
thing in the neighbourhood of 4,000, both to the Times and
1 Times, May 3, 1851.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 265
the Spectator the adoption of the programme appeared to
presage a renascence. The Spectator finished its review of the
situation with these words : " Although standing with prac-
tical England in the remote and shadowy regions of ' isms/
neither Chartism or Socialism is quite the bugbear that it once
was : common sense begins to regard each as a rude husk
containing some kernel of truth, that may be worth analysis :
a process in which even the Times begins to assist in a slashing
bantering fashion." 1
The adoption of this programme by the Convention is very
remarkable in view of its personnel. The leaders were absent :
O'Connor, on account of illness, put in but a few ineffective
appearances, O'Brien was not a delegate. Thornton Hunt,
Harney, Reynolds, Jones, and Holyoake, the most intellectual
persons present, had previously given few signs of statesman-
ship. The delegates were not men committed to doctrinaire
views on anything outside the Six Points. Certain unimportant
amendments indicated a desire that Chartism should not be
identified with any particular philosophy. Yet these men in
these unpromising conditions agreed upon a programme which
future generations of reformers spent much time, not in reshap-
ing, but in laboriously rediscovering. One clause, not men-
tioned above, is of special interest. " Municipal and Parochial
power should be vested in the hands of the people, since dis-
enfranchisement in local matters is as unjust as the restriction
of the elective franchise." Chartists were recommended,
wherever possible, to contest local and municipal elections.
But by this time the movement was in a state of flaccid senility,
and unable to absorb strong new doctrines.
After the Convention the Chartist movement followed a
downward path which had no obstacles. Lord John Russell
was beginning to hint at reform, and his promises, added to
the performances of Hume, now strongly agitating, in good
middle-class company, for household suffrage and the ballot,
satisfied the milder elements of the Chartist movement. The
great Exhibition opening on May 2, 1851, was seriously expected
by innumerable optimists to be the immediate precursor of
1 April 26, 1851.
266 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
universal peace among the nations, and so attracted a good
deal of attention away from the apparently unobtainable
Charter. Feargus O'Connor was now clearly seen to be losing
his hold upon the movement, and upon himself. In August
he ceased to write the leading article in The Northern Star, con-
tenting himself with occasional very short letters. Harassed
by creditors, real and imaginary, and by the impossi-
bility of paying the steadily accumulating expenses of winding
up the Land Company, he went abroad for some two months,
and returned about the middle of October. This happened
to be a few days before the arrival in England of the recently
liberated Kossuth. The coming of the Hungarian patriot
evoked immense excitement among the working classes, and
a tumultuous series of receptions and demonstrations was
immediately arranged to take place all over the country.
In this movement O'Connor took as prominent a part as the
state of his health and mind permitted. Before many weeks
had passed, however, his behaviour at one of the numerous
Kossuth banquets made his mental state obvious to all.
Kossuth, fearing a repetition of O'Connor's eccentric behaviour
towards himself, asked that he should be excluded from other
demonstrations in his honour. It fell upon Holyoake and
Hunt to put this desire into effect, and from them the Chartists
learned that the current rumour as to their leader's mind was
indeed true. At the end of December The Northern Star was
sold to William Rider, its printer and publisher. Although
O'Connor was re-elected to the Executive of the N.C.A. for
1852, he was no longer in a position to be of any use to it.
In the early part of the year he paid the briefest of visits to
the United States.
The remaining events of O'Connor's life may be conveni-
ently described here. Justin MacCarthy gives a pathetic
recollection of meeting O'Connor during this last period in
Covent Garden market. His hair had turned white, his move-
ments were restless and uncertain. He rambled from stall to
stall, muttering to himself, handling the fruit, bursting into
meaningless laughs and walking on. 1
1 Reminiscences, Vol. 2, p. 261.
'
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 267
On June 8, 1852, O'Connor's behaviour in the House became
excessive ; he was named by the Speaker, and apologized to
him and the House. On the I4th a Petition was received from
his sister, expressing her belief that her brother was of unsound
mind. l He then was removed to a private asylum in Chiswick,
kept by one Dr. Harrington Tuke. In August, 1855, Miss
Margaret O'Connor, the sister of the unfortunate man, became
dissatisfied with his treatment and effected his removal to her
own house in Albert Terrace, Netting Hill, virtually by force.
O'Connor was then in a perfectly helpless condition, and the
circumstances of his removal hastened his end, which took
place on August 30, ten days later. He was penniless at the
time of his death ; even the cost of his funeral had to be defrayed
by his friends, a committee of whom afterwards got up a public
subscription for a memorial. On the day of his burial London
was in a highly excited state on account of the long-awaited
news of the fall of Sevastopol. A long procession followed him
to Kensal Green, where William Jones, a Liverpool workman,
and cousin of the deceased, delivered an impassioned graveside
speech. 2
To return to the N.C. A., the voting for the 1852 Committee
gave the following results : Ernest Jones, 900 ; John Arnott,
720 ; Feargus O'Connor, 600 ; T. Martin Wheeler, 566 ; John
Grassby, 565 ; John Shaw, 502 ; W. J. Linton, 470 ; J. J.
Bezer, 456 ; and G. J. Holyoake, 336. Thornton Hunt (282)
and P. M. M'Douall (198) were among the unsuccessful candi-
dates. 3 Ernest Jones immediately retired, expressing himself
as " unable to sit on an Executive Committee like the present," 4
and insisting that the movement could not go on without the
active co-operation of such men as Harney, Cooper, and Kydd.
Linton also refused to act unless the Committee approved of j
union with the middle classes which it did not. Wheeler
cleared out at once, partly because of a lack of confidence in
Arnott as secretary, partly because Holyoake had expressed
1 Hansard, Vol. 122.
2 The People's Paper, September 15, 22, 29, and October 6, 1855,
contains biography. See also Reynolds's Newspaper, September 16, 1855.
3 Northern Star, January 3, 1852. 4 January 10, 1852.
268 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
a lack of confidence in Wheeler, having once seen him drunk.
The depleted Committee, foreseeing the worst, gave up its
office at 14, Southampton Street, Strand ; appointed Grassby
its temporary honorary secretary in place of Arnott, and thence-
forth held its meetings at his house at 96, Regent Street, Lam-
beth. The Committee was in debt for a sum of between 30
and 40, and honourably spent its last efforts in raising this
amount a feat which took about six months for its accom-
plishment. After this we hear no more about the Executive
of the N.C.A.
Ernest Jones, however, did not despair of the movement,
and attempted to revive it in Manchester. There a minute
Conference was held from May 17-21, 1852, attended by local
and midland delegates, and by Jones and James Finlen from
London. This assumed the guidance of the N.C.A., revised its
constitution, reduced the size of the Executive to three, who
were to be paid 305. weekly and travelling expenses. As
missionaries it was hoped that they would revive the move-
ment. The Executive was to be elected for a period of six
months. The result of the first election was Gammage, 1 922 ;
Finlen, 839 ; Jones, 739. These went on tour for some months
and worked prodigiously. Jones started a weekly, The People's
Paper, and for a while all went well, but the conduct of this
paper, the management of its finances, and the alleged ambi-
tion of its editor to be the dictator of the Chartist movement
soon caused a quarrel. As the result of this, the next contested
election of the Executive, in March 1854, was accompanied by
immense gerrymandering, according to Gammage, who was
pushed out of the triumvirate. 2 In any case, Jones, Finlen and
John Shaw were declared elected on a second count, which
presented gigantic discrepancies from the first. Jones's vote
rose from 759 to 942, Gammage 's place fell from third to fourth.
1 R. G. Gammage, the author of The History of the Chartist Movement,
was a self-educated man, who rose from coach-building to be a doctor.
He had taken an energetic but uninfluential part in the Chartist move-
ment since 1842, and was a strong admirer of O'Brien and (until the
events recorded above) of Jones.
2 Gammage, History, p. 397, etc.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 269
Shaw does not appear to have done very much after his elec-
tion, and Jones and Finlen, in effect the former, carried the
banner single-handed against the gale.
The Northern Star policy in the hands of its new owners was
only intermittently sympathetic with Chartism. A leading
article suggests that " As a system, Chartism has degenerated,
its ranks have been disbanded, and the principles cast upon the
wide world for every would-be statesman to mock and sneer
at. This is the present of Chartism. For all moral effects,
it is practically deceased. Its carcase stinks in the nostrils of
men." 1 In January, 1852, it attempted to woo the Trade
Unions by publishing Strike news and reports of meetings.
Much attention is paid to the co-operative movement, and the
Christian Socialists. Matters however went from bad to worse.
Every sort of editorial device was called into play to keep
the paper going. In March it became the Star and National
Trades' Journal. Two months later it became the Star of
Freedom, and lowered its price to ^\d. Harney bought the
paper cheaply and for the second time was the editor. In
August he changed the format and the type, giving the Star
a pleasant appearance similar to that of the Spectator but
with slightly larger pages. But his readers would not hear
of Chartism. In vain he gave the public what it wanted. At
the moment the working classes were feverishly excited over
Australian gold diggings. So Harney wrote up Australian
gold. The public resolutely refused to have any connexion
with any paper with a Chartist taint, and in November, 1852,
the 5 tar appeared for the last time. Harney promised that
its demise would be of a temporary nature, but the promise
was unredeemable. In its last issues it contained attacks by
Harney on Jones. That no two prominent Chartists could
work together for more than a year or so without quarrelling
is one of the tragedies of their movement.
The People's Paper at threepence weekly was naturally a
contributing cause to the breakdown of The Northern Star.
The new paper was published ostensibly in the interests of the
N.C.A., declared to be, in the first number, " the greatest and
1 Northern Star, November 22, 1857.
270 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
noblest benefit society of the world." Jones gave far more
attention to Chartist doings than his competitor, and gave
special prominence to the Metropolitan Delegate Council, a
nominally representative body of London Chartists, which,
while completely ineffective, staved off the hour of dissolution
for an unexpectedly long time. A peculiar interest is given
to The People's Paper by the fact that Marx, who apparently
enjoyed the complete confidence of Jones, gradually became
the acknowledged source of its editor's ideas and information.
The paper had not been established many weeks when articles
in support of land nationalization and other distinctively
Socialist tenets began to appear. By the beginning of 1853
it was urging the " nationalization of credit," by which was
apparently meant State loans to incipient co-operative under-
takings. Early in 1853, Thomas Cooper returned for a while
to the movement, but merely to lecture to it, not to guide it.
In March, I853, 1 there was an interesting article entitled
" Sutherland and Slavery " by " Dr. Charles Marx," describing
the manner in which the Sutherland family had acquired its
domains. Other articles, apparently from the same pen,
are signed with the initials " M." or " C. M.," or are introduced
as by " a well-known foreign politician, at present in London."
The outward and visible signs of Marx are, however, less clear
than the inward meaning of the paper's teaching. Articles
on the class struggle and surplus value (not yet so called)
alternate with others on the history of the National Debt and
emigration. In 1853 The People's Paper begins to develop a
bitterly anti- Russian tone. For this, too, Marx was probably
very largely responsible. David Urquhart, now a Member of
Parliament, had by no means learned to mitigate his hatred of
Russia. Considered insane by many, he became a bosom
friend of Marx, who, doubtless, passed on his opinions to Ernest
Jones. So, between one doctrine and another, The People's
Paper laboriously managed to rise to a circulation of some three
or four thousand within a few years. This was by dint of
immense efforts on the part of Jones, who was scarcely ever
1 People's Paper, March 3, 1853.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 271
in a position to say with certainty that he could keep the
paper going for another month.
In 1854 an episode took place of some interest as illustrating
the tendency of Chartist evolution, although of little direct
importance. This was the '^MassMoveinent/' with which
Jones was prominently assodatedT" The idea was one of the
innumerable anticipations of the General Federation of Trade
Unions. On March 6, 1854, the Labour Parliament met in
Manchester. The Conference which had adopted this grandilo-
quent title was a gathering of Chartist and Trade Union dele-
gates, who gave the Mass Movement an organization and a
programme. The principal object of the Movement was the
raising of a strike fund. The great Engineering lock-out of
1852, and the unsuccessful strikes of the Preston cotton-
spinners, and the Kidderminster carpet weavers the following
year, had made such a fund greatly to be desired. The Labour
Parliament wished the fund to be used for other additional
purposes, of which one was the purchase of estates to be sublet
to trade unionists, as a remedy for unemployment. A long
programme was drawn up in support of several items of labour
legislation, but, curiously enough, labour representation was
not demanded, or even mentioned. On the proposal to buy
land, Joseph Harrison, a Nottinghamshire farmer, declared
that since the failure of the National Land Company, 300
land schemes had sprung up, and there were half a dozen around
Nottingham. 1 Marx and Louis Blanc had been invited to
attend as honorary members, but both sent polite letters
regretting their inability to be present. The Labour Parlia-
ment concluded its proceedings by electing an executive of
five : Finlen heading the poll. Jones was appointed honorary
member of the executive. Three of the five (including Finlen)
were set to work as missionaries and sent out to tour the
country. The first and only thing the executive attempted
was the formation of the United Brothers' Industrial, Sick,
Benefit, and Life Assurance Company, which was to give slightly
larger benefits than other insurance companies. The Mass
Movement did not live long. For a month or two, about
1 People's Paper, March n, 1854.
272 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
20 flowed in weekly, then the current slackened. The second
Labour Parliament, which was to have met in Nottingham, in
August, never materialized.
The Crimean War was now occupying the attention of the
British public. Jones and Finlen promulgated the " Soldiers'
Charter," demanding promotion from the ranks, better pay,
abolition of flogging, and higher pensions to ex-soldiers. In
February, 1855, Jones had another access of internationalism,
as one result of which he quarrelled with Finlen ; the two were,
however, soon reconciled, and co-operated in organizing an
international meeting at St. Martin's Hall, on February 27,
1855, to commemorate the revolutions of 1848. At this
meeting Herzen was the most distinguished of the foreign
speakers. Victor Hugo had promised to be present, but the
death of a brother at the last moment forced him to remain in
Jersey. He sent along a written oration, however, a deluge of
exclamation marks, which was read to the meeting. Perhaps
the most noteworthy sentiment it contained was " the least
possible amount of governing, is the formula of the future." 1
Saffi, one of the Roman triumviri with Mazzini, also sent a
written speech.
In July, 1855, Jones, in deference to N.C.A. branch opinion,
held an election for the executive, as the result of which he,
Finlen, and Abraham Robinson were elected " by large majori-
ties," and John Shaw lost his seat. The numbers voting are
not given, but from certain figures 2 it is fairly obvious that a
few score votes only were cast. Jones and Finlen showed no
disposition to allow Robinson a share in the management, such
as it was, of the movement. The Manchester Chartists pro-
tested against the exclusive character of the Jones-Finlen
regime, but were answered as follows : 3 " with respect to the
third member; we should be happy to have his aid but we
would decline to associate in our plans any one we had not first
tried and deeply tested. ..." The two then went on to
explain that a movement was much better governed by two
than by three and suggested that the ideal arrangement was
1 People's Paper, March 10, 1855.
2 Ib., September i, 1855.
3 Ib., March 22, 1856.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 273
that two be "in office on good behaviour, with no polling lists,
no show of strength or weakness." If the other Chartists did
not like it they could hold another Convention and elect another
executive. The dispute ended with the adoption by Jones
and Finlen of the motto " Personal confidence under popular
control." 1
In 1856 John Frost returned to England. He had been
liberated two years earlier, on condition that he did not set
foot in British dominions, and had gone to America. Now at
last he was allowed to return. His coming caused something
of a revival among the " Old Guards," but not to the extent
expected by Jones. Frost, now seventy years old, was much
more deeply interested in procuring a reform of the transporta-
tion system under which he had suffered, than in Chartist
propaganda, and was virtually lost to the movement. He
died in 1877, aged well over ninty. The Crimean War con-
tinued to hold the attention of the public. Jones used The
People's Paper to popularize the ideas of the National Sunday
League. In February, Finlen settled in Glasgow as a news-
agent, became reconciled with Gammage, with whom on account
of the disparaging references to Jones in Gammage 's History
of the Chartist Movement a quarrel had taken place a year
or two earlier, and the two ex-associates made preparations to
publish a new Northern Star, to the intense fury of Jones. He
stood for Nottingham as Chartist candidate in the General
Election of March, 1857, but was badly beaten by Paget and
Walter, the Palmerstonian Liberal sitting Members.
In the early autumn of this year Jones made his last effort
to galvanize the defunct organization of Chartism back to
life. He announced another Conference, advertising it as
widely as the resources of The People's Paper allowed. Long
lists were printed of the well-known ex-Chartists, middle-class
sympathizers and others who were to be invited. Frost was
asked to preside, but refused. The response was feeble, but
Jones persisted, and at last was able to hold the conference.
The last Conference of Chartist delegates was held in St.
Martin's Hall, London, and lasted the whole week beginning
1 People's Paper, April 5, 1856.
274 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
February 8, 1858. Although some forty delegates were pre-
sent, their total constituency, according to Reynolds' s News-
paper -, 1 only amounted to about 500. Certainly a few at least
of those present could only be said to represent by stretching
the usual meaning of the term. Apparently Bubb, the delegate
for Bermondsey, and treasurer of the Conference, was elected
by a meeting of five, of whom two voted against him. Ernest
Jones and Holyoake were the only Chartists present whose
names convey anything. The object of the proceedings was
to effect that political union of the working and middle classes
on the basis of a common agitation which had been striven
for by so many Chartists since the intervention of Sturge. The
middle classes, however, hardly responded to the Chartist
appeal. Samuel Morley and Robert Owen appear to have
been the only non- Chartists of the one hundred and fifty invited
middle-class politicians who took part in the discussion. The
Conference passed resolutions supporting the union, and
appointed a new executive to carry on the movement. After
some controversy as to the most efficient size of this body,
the Conference decided that an executive of one would best
meet the exigencies of the case. Ernest Jones was thereupon
elected the Chartist executive. He might equally well have
been appointed the movement's executor. The most interest-
ing speech at this assembly was made by Robert Owen, now
eighty-seven years old. As reported in The People's Paper,
" He was there as a delegate, and he was there as an invited
guest. He was in favour of the whole of the Charter. As a
Chartist he recommended them not to give up a single point.
As a friend of the working classes, he advised them as a matter
of expediency to accept what the middle classes offered in
reason. The best thing that could be done for the working
classes would be to give them a highly beneficial education/' 2
The Conference decided to raise a 100 fund for lecturers. The
object for which it had met was achieved, in theory, by the
1 February 14, 1858. The People's Paper of February 13 gives
quite another account, and the week later attacked Reynolds' s Paper
for its falsehoods.
2 People's Paper, February 13, 1858.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 275
formation of the Political Reform League, as a compromise
between the Chartists and the middle -class reformers. The
programme was an acceptance of three points, a mitigation of
two, and the deletion of the remaining one. It consisted of
manhood suffrage, the ballot, abolition of the property quali-
fication, triennial parliaments, and rearrangements of electoral
districts. Jones for some months scoffed at this compromise,
but finally yielded to necessity. The People's Paper became
in May the property of the Political Reform League, and its
treasurer J. Baxter ; Langley its editor. Chartist news was cut
down to occupy only a few columns. Jones, having left The
People's Paper, once again tempted the fates by starting the
London News in the very month of his departure. The People's
Paper died in September ; the London News survived it only
by two months.
Of those present at the pathetic Conference of February,
1858, there came some as delegates of trade unions. Reynolds' s
Newspaper suggests that Chartism was by no means as dead
as this Conference would appear to indicate, but implies rather
that the great body of Chartist opinion as ever averse to the
proposed union was deliberately excluded by the organizers
of the Conference. If this was the case the singular inertness
of the un or misrepresented section of the movement can
only be explained by the theory that about this time it died
noiselessly and peacefully in its sleep. After 1858 the references
to Chartism in Reynolds s Newspaper occur principally in obi-
tuary notices. Organized Chartism may be said to have died
just before reaching years of discretion. The attitude of
Reynolds' s Newspaper, which we have called to witness, was
now hostile to the movement, because of the personal hostility
of G. W. M. Reynolds to Jones. In July, 1859, this led to a
libel action, when Jones was awarded damages from Reynolds
for an accusation, made in the defendant's paper, of having
pilfered from the funds of The People's Paper. After this
time Jones earned his living at the Manchester bar.
By imperceptible degrees the agitations for the Six Points
(now five) had split up into fragments ; in 1858 and the follow-
ing years, Miall, Muntz and other reformers in and about the
276 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
House of Commons were running the Parliamentary Reform
Committee, which held meetings and organized public opinion
in support of household suffrage. About the same time
Perronet Thompson, M.P., now a Major-General, was at the
head of the Ballot Society, whose name explains its object.
John Bright was the most active of all in the propaganda of
franchise reform, both in and out of Parliament. Annual
Parliaments had vanished from the list of things desired by
the working classes. The theory that a General Election should
be an annual performance had a distant and respectable origin.
When old age reduced Bentham's writings to all but insur-
mountable masses of neologisms and incomprehensible for-
mulas, his disciples had taken upon themselves the editing of
his books. Francis Place, himself by no means the most inci-
sive of writers, had knocked into shape Bentham's plan of Par-
liamentary Reform, which urged " Annuality of Parliaments/*
By the beginning of the eighteen sixties, a new group of
young men was coming forward to take the lead in English in-
dustrial politics. George Odger, William Allan, Randal Cremer
(subsequently knighted), George Howell, Robert Applegarth
and their associates remodelled the trade union movement,
made a beginning of labour representation, and with Karl
Marx in 1864 founded the International Working Men's Associa-
tion, that great stimulating force of the late 'sixties. Jones
makes a thin link between this group and organized Chartism.
In April, 1864, it happened that Garibaldi visited England, in
an interval of his great struggle for Italian unity. Jones,
Odger, Howell, and Edmond Beales attempted to hold a wel-
come meeting on Primrose Hill, but the Government were
extremely nervous on account of Garibaldi's presence in the
country : too many young men were professing republicanism
to suit Palmerston. Garibaldi was therefore spirited out of
the country ; and, acting on the same principle, the Primrose
Hill meeting was broken up by the police. The Committee
did the wisest thing possible in the circumstances : it retired
to a public-house. 1 Here the Reform League was started, for
1 Howard Evans, Life of Sir R. Cremer, p. 42 : B. Wilson, Struggles
of an Old Chartist, p. 26. Finlen was one of the first lecturers and agents
appointed by the League.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 277
the purpose of obtaining manhood suffrage and the ballot.
This new body attracted to itself the remaining energetic
Chartists. Prominent among these was J. B. Leno, a young
printer-poet, who had come forward in 1850, and who had
about 1858 started a little Society called the Propagandists,
a circle of youthful Chartists, whom he now swept into the
Reform League. This organization was responsible for the
demonstration of July 23, 1866, for ever to be remembered as
the occasion when the Hyde Park railings were pushed down
by the crowd. 1
Jones died in 1868, on the eve of the General Election, at
which Manchester had offered him a safe seat. Our vision
of him, as of so many of his associates, is distorted by the
incessant quarrels in which he was concerned. Yet, it is
impossible to deny to Jones the possession of a quite extra-
ordinarily developed gift of political sagacity. Like O'Connor
and many others, he gave up all he had for the Cause. " It
was said that Mr. Jones and other Chartist lecturers were
making plenty of money out of us, but there was not a worse
paid lot of men in the country than they were . . . Mr. Harney
often lecturing in this district (Halifax) . . . sent for a Mr.
Burns, a tailor, to mend his trousers whilst he remained in
bed. Mr. Kydd . . . had to sit in a shoemaker's shop in
this town whilst his shoes were repaired. On one of Mr. Jones's
visits . . . the person who had his boots to clean noticed that
his boots were worn out ... on another occasion we had
to buy him a new shirt and front before he could appear at
the meeting." 2 It appears that an uncle disinherited Jones of
2,000 a year on account of his opinions. Such men as Jones
1 Out of the Reform League there grew, in February, 1866, the London
Working Men's Association, the membership of which was largely
composed of trade unionists. The secretary was Robert Hartwell,
one of the original members of the original W.M.A. and a delegate to
the 1839 Convention, a compositor by trade. It was Hartwell who
first raised the subject of Labour Representation, and organized the
first labour candidatures. He himself stood unsuccessfully at Lambeth
and elsewhere, and was virtually ruined by election expenses. (Chapter
iii, A. W. Humphrey, A History of Labour Representation.}
2 B. Wilson, Struggles of an old Chartist, p. 20.
T
278 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
cannot be dismissed as merely quarrelsome and self-centred ;
their tenacity alone outweighs these characteristics.
We have now followed the main stem as far as is practicable.
The remaining filiations of Chartism are at least as important.
The end of a great social or political movement is never its
death. The history of a theory does not follow a path from
birth to death, but a transition from rather more error to rather
more truth. The growth and reproduction of truth bears an
exact resemblance to the methods of propagation of the more
primitive micro-organisms, for like them ideas are fissiparous
and therefore for all practical purposes immortal. That is
why no movement ever really dies, and the reason why no
satisfactory date or definition can be given to the latter end
of Chartism, which shaded off into other movements, of which
the most important are to be described.
" In 1851 Mr. Holyoake first made use of the term Secularist
as more appropriate and distinctive than Atheist, and in 1852
he commenced organizing the English free-thinkers according
to the principles of Secularism." 1 For a time Thomas Cooper
helped him, until one day in January, 1856, he had been engaged
to give a course of Sunday lectures at the Secularist head-
quarters, the Hall of Science, Old Street, London, E.G., on
the different countries of Europe. He had spoken on the first
occasion on Russia and the Russians, on the second it was to
be the turn of Sweden and the Swedes. 2 On the evening in
point he struggled hard to articulate, but had to give it up.
He could not talk about Sweden, he had been converted and
felt compelled to give testimony then and there. Thereafter
Cooper became a Baptist and preached his newly-acquired
religion for many years all over the country, incidentally debat-
ing the subject in public with his former friend Holyoake.
Cooper died in harness in 1892, aged eighty-seven. Neesom
also became a full-time secularist in 1853, and remained one
until his death in i86i. 3
Holyoake and Bradlaugh (although they differed between
1 Flint, Anti-Theistic Theories, p. 510.
2 Life of Thomas Cooper, p. 353.
3 National Reformer, July 20, 27, 1861.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 279
themselves) stand out as two phenomena due entirely to the
Chartist movement. Through it they harked back to the
agitation in the early part of the century, when Carlile and
Hone were struggling for free- thought. The old secularist
movement had one peculiar characteristic which distinguishes
it from whatever can claim to be its successor. The old free-
thinkers really did stand for freedom of thought. The early
and mid- Victorian atheists were not merely men who raised
their voices against God : they struggled against blasphemy
laws and the dead hand of a temporarily inert and apathetic
State Church. They were undoubtedly sincere, even though
their insistent claim to call their souls their own took the
eccentric form of denying that they had souls at all. When
the Church had reformed itself, and the press had become
comparatively free, secularism drooped and disappeared.
To-day the forces of organized free- thought would scarcely
make a decent funeral cortege for the last of its leaders. We
have apathy and spiritual deadness, but the man who attempts
to convince his fellows that there is no God has practically
vanished from society. It is characteristic of the two figures
named above as typical products of Chartism that they should
have quarrelled early and often.
The chief instrument in the transition from Chartism to
Republicanism is W. J. Lin ton. In his English Republic 1 he
gives a brief history of Chartism, and entitles the concluding
section " What Remains ? " He calls the remaining Chartists
to action. History, giving the meaning of thirty years' Char-
tism (so long existing, although unnamed) , will say : " It was the
utterance of a general want, a people's protest nothing more.
Very necessary the protest ; but to stop there. Thirty years'
continual word- pouring and vociferation of a million and a
quarter of men may surely be judged sufficient prologue to
the work they declare necessary. . . . Begin now to prepare
for work. The Chartist movement is as good as dead. . .
We need now, not merely Chartists, but Republican Associa-
tons.
"'You would, then, oppose the present Chartist Associ-
1 P. 83, 1851.
280 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
ations ? ' Not so ; but would form Republican Associations of
the best men among them ; and so in time, I hope, supersede
the present Associations by a more vital, a further-purposed and
more powerful organization." Inspired by his friendship with
Mazzini, Ledru-Rollin, and republican Poles without number,
Linton failed to communicate his personal sentiments to any
large number of followers. The Republican idea reached the
people, to the slight extent to which they were reached by it,
through other channels. Yet the Republican idea had never
been completely absent from the Chartist movement. We read
that in 1838, 1 " on Thursday evening, the 28th June (Coron-
ation Day), a party of forty gentlemen, to show their contempt
of the illuminations, and all the degraded foolery of coronations,
invited that stern Republican, Dr. John Taylor, to a public
supper in the Black Boy Tavern." After the events of 1848
the Republican sentiment could not well remain latent. But
it lacked suitable propagandists, and until Bradlaugh had
arrived at the fullness of his powers, the British working man
was as apathetic towards the abolition of the monarchy as to
the constitutional changes embodied in the People's Charter.
And Bradlaugh came too late. He had listened to Lovett and
fought with Holyoake on the question of an Atheist's duties
towards himself and his neighbour, and occupied himself
with other things until the impulse of 1848 had vanished.
The events which took place in Paris in 1871 inflated English
Republicanism for a brief while. The London Republican Club
was founded on May 12, 1871, with Bradlaugh as president.
But the Republicanism of this leader was too deeply imbued
with his own individuality and his own individualist theories
ever to take root. The slight " boom " in Republicanism which
is noted as a feature of that time is connected with the Mordaunt
case and The Coming K . " The Republican movement in
England was an eddy rather than a current." 2 The writer
has been told by one of Bradlaugh's most trusted lieutenants
that Bradlaugh confidently expected that the alleged mis-
behaviour of the Prince of Wales would lead to the refusal of
1 Northern Star, July 7, 1838.
2 H. A. L. Fisher, The Republican Tradition in Europe, p. 56.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 281
the nation to allow him to succeed to the throne. Then, of
course, the turn of Republicanism would come, and if Bradlaugh
was offered the first Presidency, well then . But, unfortu-
nately for the scheme, Queen Victoria survived Bradlaugh, and
at her death not a single voice was raised against her successor.
And it must be admitted that the subsequent conduct of Edward
VII was never conducive to the success of Republican propa-
ganda, even had it been possible to revive that completely
defunct movement.
Linton carried on Republican propaganda from Brantwood
(afterwards the home of John Ruskin) until 1855, when he
returned to London and the service of art, gaining a reputation
as " the best wood engraver of the day." In 1866 he went
to the United States, where he settled, giving himself entirely
to the theory and practice of his art, and to producing charming
little books of verse. He returned to England in 1887, but
went back to the States and died there in 1895. His second
wife was Mrs. Lynn Linton, the well-known novelist and anti-
feminist writer. Walter Crane was one of Linton's pupils.
Harney, working through different channels, did much to
direct Chartist thought towards Republican ideals. After he
had ceased his connexion with The Northern Star, Harney
edited the Democratic Review, a monthly which kept alive
from June, 1849, to September, 1850. This was succeeded
by the short-lived Red Republican, noteworthy because it
contained the first English translation of the Communist
Manifesto of Marx and Engels. For many years Harney man-
aged to keep a body and soul together by editing obscure
periodicals, in England and the Channel Islands. He was
always to the fore when any Republican business was afoot :
thus we find him in Newcastle in April, 1854, among a local
deputation which presented Garibaldi with a sword. l Harney,
like Linton, his fellow-propagator of Republicanism, emigrated
to the United States, but returned and worked for some years
in the editorial office of the Newcastle Daily Chronicle. He died
in Richmond, Surrey, in 1897.2
1 Duncan's Life of Joseph Cowen, p. 24.
2 G. J. Holyoake in Notes and Queries, 1902.
282 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
In the course of this study little mention has been made
of Socialism, although many of the doctrines maintained by
Chartist leaders have a distinctly Socialist flavour. Two facts
must be borne in mind in this connexion. The word Socialism
and Communism have exchanged their meanings since the
Chartist period ; in those days Socialism was the generic
term for schemes tending to establish a better state of Society
by private action, independent of the State. The idea of a
State in the hands of the people going beyond its earlier func-
tions for the benefit of the people, now known as State Socialism,
was not yet acclimatized. It came with Marx and Bronterre
O'Brien, and required a generation to make the slightest
impression on the mind of the working class. O'Brien is the
first preacher of Socialism in the modern sense, although its
economics had been invented in England and slightly diffused
a generation earlier. 1 His Reform League did not live many
years. For a time O'Brien edited Reynolds's Newspaper ;
after he gave up this post he barely existed by lecturing for a
few years, and died, in absolute poverty, at the end of 1864.
Like him P. M. M'Douall, who had been another of the most
popular men in the Chartist movement, died in extreme
poverty ; in fact, about 1855, a fund had to be raised to keep
his widow and child out of the workhouse.
Reference has already been made to the United Brothers
Insurance Society. In its last stages Chartism produced a
small crop of insurance and friendly societies. 2 John Shaw had
in 1831 founded the Friend-in-Need Benefit and Burial Society,
which was reconstructed in 1853 when T. M. Wheeler was one
of the directors. In 1852 the British Industrial Association
1 See Menger's Right to the Whole Product of Labour.
* The histories of industrial insurance and of building societies in
Great Britain have not yet been written. Their roots cannot be
traced to any particular Chartist theory or utterance, but are neverthe-
less apparently fixed in the Chartist period. John Shaw, originally
an East End undertaker, and the whole group of N.C.A. members
specially associated with the Land Company, were, as we have seen,
strongly in favour of these schemes for improving the position of the
working class. Dr. Bowkett, a friend of O'Brien, was the author of
several works urging the importance of building societies.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 283
was started, Wheeler being its London manager for the first
year. The Association quarrelled with the Friend-in-Need,
but the latter outlived it. The Friend-in-Need absorbed
another society, the National Assurance Friendly Society,
which Thomas Clark had founded. Doyle and Dixon, according
to Gammage, also went into insurance after the downfall of
the Land Company. It is curious to find the group of men
specially connected with O 'Connor 's scheme going into this
business with such unanimity. Shaw and Clark died in 1857
and Wheeler in 1862, still convinced that the Land Scheme
had been rightly conceived in spite of the year 1847-8 he had
spent on his two-acre allotment at O'Connorville.
The Rev. Henry Solly connects Chartism with another
movement. After the decline and fall of Chartism he threw
himself with extraordinary energy into the task of founding
working men's clubs, and in 1862 formed and became a joint
Eonorary secretary of the Working Men's Club and Institute
Union. His enthusiasm is said to have made Fawcett declare
that " Solly thinks heaven will be composed of working men's
clubs/' In the same year he gave up the pulpit to become
the paid secretary of the new organization which still exists
and thrives. Solly, as we have seen, had participated in the
Chartist agitation. In an historical jubilee book of the union
the secretary, Mr. B. T. Hall, gives Chartism as the exciting
cause of the devotion to the club movement of Hodgson Pratt
and other of its pioneers. 1 Although the club organization
was consistently non-party no club in fact registered under
the Friendly Societies Act of 1884 may have any political
objects it could hardly prevent the clubs from becoming
centres of political discussion. The history of the Socialist
movement between 1880 and 1890 is largely the story of men
who went out and gave lectures at clubs to apathetic groups
of working men, in an atmosphere of beer and tobacco-smoke.
Solly had been a friend of Lovett, and both had probably
vaguely anticipated Bagehot's demonstration that free dis-
cussion is an essential factor of progress. Lovett's district
halls and Solly's working men's clubs were both inspired by
1 B. T. Hall, Our Fifty Years, p. 264.
284 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
this idea, as also by the need for making educational facilities
accessory to the halls or clubs. Solly spent over forty years
in the furtherance of his union and in agitation for technical
instruction. He died in 1903, aged eighty-nine.
It is possible that readers will regard QiristiaQ Socialism a
product of Chartism. Charles Kingsley, it is true, addressed
himself to Chartists, but had no part in their movement. The
day before the great demonstration of April 10, Kingsley had
come to London and taken counsel with F. D. Maurice. 1 On
April ii all London was posted with a placard addressed to
working men, containing a long and flatulent, if politically
sound, manifesto. " You think the Charter would make you
free would to God it would ! " it screamed. " But will the
Charter make you free ? Will it free you from the slavery to
10 bribes ? Slavery to gin and beer ? . . . A nobler day is
dawning for England, a day of freedom, science, industry !
But there will be no true freedom without virtue, no true
science without religion, no true industry without the fear of
God, and love to your fellow citizens. Workers of England,
be wise and then you must be free, or you will be fit to be free."
This document was signed, " a working parson," and is,
according to the historians of Christian Socialism, the seed of
that movement.
It is usual to speak of Christian Socialism as proceeding from
Chartism. This view is fallacious. The group of Christian
Socialist leaders wished, it is true, to graft their principles on
to Chartism, but their principles owed nothing to Chartism.
In May, 1848, they began to bring out a weekly paper, Politics
for the People, addressed to Chartists, in which Kingsley wrote
a series of " Letters to Chartists," over the signature of Parson
Lot, declaring in the first epistle that his " only quarrel with
the Charter is that it does not go far enough in reform." The
paper only lasted for three months ; the Chartists, as already
indicated, had other and more exciting things to occupy their
attention. The next move of Kingsley, Morris, Ludlow, and
Hughes was the establishment of the Working Men's College,
which has risen from a humble beginning in a yard off Great
1 Christian Socialism, p. 7.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 285
Ormond Street to a fine home in Crowndale Road, St. Pancras.
For a year this occupied the energies of the little group, which
rapidly succeeded in attracting the attention and co-operation
of an able and finely intentioned middle-class circle. In 1849
the Christian Socialists started on the venture with which their
name is perhaps most commonly associated. On the initiative
of J. M. Ludlow, they founded the Society for Promoting Work-
ing Men's Associations, on the French model, which sprang
from the teachings of Buchez. This organization financed
twelve associations of working men, and intending to be self-
supporting and on lines similar to those on which, as we have
seen, various unsuccessful associations of producers had come
into being under the Chartist aegis. x Three associations were
of tailors, three of shoemakers, two of builders, and one each
of Diano-makers, printers, smiths, and bakers. These began
by being self-governing, but this form of management soon
broke down. By 1854 the last of these associations of pro-
ducers had failed. Other similar bodies came to the same end.
It was found that in practice the employees in their governing
capacity invariably quarrelled with a manager who only held
his post on their sufferance. 2 Workshops, on the other hand,
owned by working people, but only governed by them as
shareholders, not as employees, were opened about this time
by the Rochdale and other co-operative stores, and prospered.
The incursion of the Christian Socialists may be taken as
evidence in support of the contention that the Chartists never
had any genuine middle-class support. Sturge attempted to
organize it and failed. Kingsley and Maurice tried to draft
their theories into Chartism and failed. J. S. Mill, with all
his Socialist sympathies, never even attempted to approach
Chartism. Carlyle alone of his class was sufficiently attracted
by the subject to write a little book about it. His Chartism
is a pitiful contribution of sympathy with a misunderstood
1 Beatrice Potter (Mrs. Sidney Webb), The Co-operative Movement,
pp. 118-125, describes in full the genesis and work of this body.
2 The British Museum contains a bound volume of prospectuses
of such associations, formerly the property of F. J. Furnival, one of
the first Christian Socialists (08278 35).
286 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
cause attempting to domesticate itself upon a misunderstanding
public. He meant well, but the Chartists would have none of
him. In the minute books of the Working Men's Association
we find an amusing reference to this splutter of Carlyle. In
1843 the Committee decided to form a small library, and a
short select list was drawn up of books to be purchased.
Chartism was amongst them, but the Committee, on considera-
tion, struck it out. 1 In a review of a review in the British and
Foreign Review, a writer in The Northern Star says, " Neither
Mr. Carlyle nor his reviewer know what Chartism is." 2 Neither
moral nor physical force Chartists, in fact, would have
anything to do with the book. The Appendix to Chapter
VI contains several condensed expressions of middle-class
opinion :
It should be remembered that Lord John Russell was not
above misrepresenting Chartism for the furtherance of his own
plans. Cobden complained in 1849 that the Monmouthshire
riots were immediately after their occurrence made by Russell
the basis of a proposal for a temporary increase of 5,000 men
to the Army. But when tranquillity returned, no correspond-
ing reduction was made. 3 Treated in this manner by those
in authority, Chartism became all the more difficult for the
middle classes to understand. As a working-class protest,
to use Linton's word, Chartism was completely inacces-
sible to middle-class sympathy. Hence the breakdown of
Sturge's endeavour of 1842, which he made no attempt to
repeat.
Joseph Sturge died in 1859, the year after he had been elected
president of the Peace Society. His most ambitious scheme
of reconciliation was an attempt to stave off the war with
Russia. In company with two other Quakers he travelled to
Russia and had an interview with Nicholas I, beseeching him,
on moral and religious grounds, not to enter into war. After
1 British Museum, Additional MSS. 37,776.
2 Northern Star, November 6, 1841.
3 Speech delivered in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, January 10,
1849 : included in Free Trade and other Fundamental Doctrines of the
Manchester School, edited by F. W. Hirst, p. 296.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 287
the war, hearing of the destruction caused on the Finnish coasts
by the bombardment of the British Fleet, Sturge organized a
fund for the relief of the distressed Finns ; his effort being, as
usual, based on his personal knowledge gained from a visit to the
devastated coastal towns immediately after the declaration of
peace. His connexion with Chartism, brief as it was, had been
conceived in a spirit which made it one of the finest episodes
of the movement.
We now pass on to chronicle the deaths of the leaders of
Chartism. The real hero of the movement is Lovett. Perhaps
the best clue to his character is his belief, probably derived
from Owen, in the virtue of ideas. To him it was sufficient
to have given birth to an idea ; if it was right it would prevail
in the end. This side of his character is curiously illustrated
by his autobiography, which is mainly composed of the addresses
drafted by him in the course of his various secretaryships. In
1846 he resigned the secretaryship of the National Association,
but retained virtual possession of the National Hall, which he
gradually succeeded in converting into a school. He was for
a time (1846-9) publisher of Howitt's Journal, and had
Mazzini, the Howitts, W. J. Fox, Linton, Harriet Martineau,
and several other distinguished writers among its contributors.
After he had given up his secretaryship, he published an Appeal
to the Friends of Progress, calling for a union of the reform
parties. But the popularity and success of political associations
is apparently in inverse ratio to the extent of the schemes they
set out to establish, on which hypothesis the failure of all
Lovett 's schemes (and those of Owen), and especially of this
last one, and, conversely, the success attending so many of
Place's undertakings, are to be explained. In 1848 a presenta-
tion was made to him, chiefly on the initiative of W. J. Fox
and J. H. Parry, but Lovett used a good deal of his testimonial
money the following year to enable the National Association
to die free of debt. He then taught himself anatomy and
physiology, in order to be able to instruct the young, writing
a successful and well-reviewed textbook on the subject in the
process. In 1850 he was put on the Working Class Committee
of the Great Exhibition, other members of this being Dickens,
288 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
Thackeray, Lord Ashley, and Vincent. In 1853 he published
a book, Social and Political Morality, with the object of teach-
ing the English the importance of stability in " the morals of
our population." The comment he makes on this book's
reception is characteristic of his faith in ideas : "I regret, to
say that it was not circulated so as to effect the object aimed
at." 1 In 1857 he was swindled out of his National Hall, and
that home of ideas was in the course of time converted into the
Holborn Empire Music Hall.
Lovett continued to teach natural history, anatomy, and
physiology at schools, for many years, taking little part
in political movements. He died in 1877, and was buried
at Highgate, Holyoake making a speech by the grave-
side.
Lovett's organizations had predeceased him by many years.
The Working Men's Association had never taken a prominent
part in Chartist politics after Lovett's imprisonment. Its
minute book from 1843-1847 2 shows us an organization re-
sembling that of a Fabian Society in reduced circumstances.
In many respects there is, in fact, an analogy between the
W.M.A., and the Fabian Society. Both produced ideas, and
left the task of forcing them upon the attention of an apathetic
country to other larger bodies. The W.M.A. looked after the
social side of the Chartist movement and the education of its
own members to a larger extent than the other societies having
the same ultimate knowledge. If it were possible to recover
some of the minute books of the N.C.A., we should be unlikely
to find in them any evidence of a desire to be accommodated
with a library, or to provide social amenities. The minutes
close with an expression of opinion in favour of the purchase
of a piano, at a committee meeting held on October 4, 1847.
So the W.M.A. glides modestly into the realms of recordless
things.
The National Association minute books record a calm series
of discussions and formal business for many years. New
members were rare comers. The excitements of April 10, 1848,
1 Life and Struggles, p. 367.
2 British Museum, Additional MSS. 37,776.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 289
brought in some six new adherents. The minute books break
off on June 4, 1849. The total amount owing by the Associa-
tion was then 434 5s. 3^. A month earlier a subscription
list had been opened to defray old debts. The school, now
attended by 200 pupils, was handed over to Lovett, Parry,
Shaen, and one or two others, and the National Association
ceased to exist. 1
James Watson died in November, 1874, having fought side
by side with Moore in the struggle for a free press until the
final victory.
Richard Moore, Watson's nephew-in-law, died four years
later, having for many years earned his living as a master
woodcarver. Holyoake spoke at his funeral.
Henry Vincent died at the end of 1878. He had married,
in 1841, a daughter of John Cleave. Between 1841 and 1852
he contested seven parliamentary elections with optimism,
but without success. He earned his living for many years as
a lecturer, chiefly on moral subjects, his audiences consisting
chiefly of Free Church congregations. There must be few lec-
turers or audiences in our days which would make a success of
Vincent's subjects, which were inter alia " Home Life : its
Duties and Pleasures," and " The Philosophy of True Manli-
ness." In 1866 he went on a lecturing tour to the United
States ; this was extremely successful and was repeated several
times. Cleave appears to have died in 1847.
Henry Hetherington died of cholera in August, 1849. He
had lived just long enough to see that section of the Chartist
movement which meant most to him return to the work which
had been especially his own for twenty years. Towards the
end of his life he had accepted Owen's system, and had done
a good deal for the Institute in John Street. He had also
become a Director of the Poor for the parish of St. Pancras.
Holyoake preached over his grave at the funeral in Kensal
Green.
Holyoake, having literally buried the movement, died in
1 The Minute Books of the National Association are in the British
Museum, Additional MSS. 37,774-5, wrongly described as Vols. II-III
of the Minute Books of the Working Men's Association.
2QO A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
1906, after a long lifetime devoted to the service of co-operation
and secularism. A sturdy common sense, and an ape-like
inability to understand spiritual things came to his aid in
these movements. He was the author of a vast number of
books and pamphlets on subjects connected with his pro-
paganda, frequently inaccurate in detail, and always with
a strong autobiographical element.
Were the demands of the People's Charter impracticable ?
In the absolute sense, certainly they were not. One state
and one only has, probably unintentionally, incorporated as
many as five of the six points in its constitution. The little
Central American Republic of Salvador (population about
1,250,000), for the two generations following its extrication
from the Central American Union, zealously followed the quest
of the perfect constitution. The sixth attempt, made in 1886,
has to the present resisted the forces which would substitute
for it a seventh. In Salvador there is universal manhood suf-
frage, and a Salvadorean becomes a man for this purpose
on his eighteenth birthday, or on his wedding day, whichever
comes first. There are annual parliaments, elected every
February. Voting is by ballot, there are no property qualifica-
tions for members of the Assembly, who are paid ten Salva-
dorean dollars a day during the session. It will be seen there-
fore that the only Chartist Point not conceded is equality of
constituencies, but as this was demanded for England in order
to rectify certain striking disproportions, which apparently
do not exist in Salvador, the omission would readily be forgiven
by the Chartists. Certain other arrangements would certainly
be approved by them. By way of preventing the Salvadorean's
visits to the voting booths from becoming less than annual,
voting is made compulsory and citizens who do not fulfil this
obligation are fined. Candidates must reside habitually in
the department which they seek to represent ; l thus the carpet-
bagger is eliminated. The constitution is uni-cameral, the
President is elected for four years and may not serve conse-
cutive periods, and there are only four Cabinet Ministers. The
Salvadoreans who are of pure white descent number only 2j
1 Except at the Universities.
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 291
per cent, of the total population, and are mainly recruited, it
appears, by reason of the absence of all extradition treaties
with other nations. To draw a moral for British use therefore
would be futile. We can only say it has been done, and
leave it at that.
The steps taken by Parliament towards democracy as the
Chartists saw it have followed one on the other with a curious
halting consistency. In 1858, Lord Derby abolished the property
qualification : it had long been a dead letter to the ingenious.
In 1867, after several false starts, a certain amount of redistri-
bution took place, chiefly to the advantage of the boroughs,
and later of Scotland. At the same time household suffrage
was conceded to the boroughs, and in 1868 the Scottish Occu-
pation Franchise and the Irish Borough Franchise were reduced.
In 1872 the ballot-box became part of the electoral machinery,
and although its inclusion in the annual Expiring Laws Con-
tinuation Bills in theory makes its continued presence in the
Statute Book liable to a sudden and unforeseen termination,
it has now become in practice to be regarded as almost an essen-
tial part of the constitution. More redistribution and enfran-
chisement took place in 1884 and 1885, yielding working
approximation to both universal suffrage and equal representa-
tion. Payment of members came, in a remarkably casual
manner in 1911, in the same year as the Parliament Act limited
the duration of Parliaments from seven to five years a limita-
tion to be subsequently hung up for the benefit of the very
Parliament which had enacted it ! None of the Six Points
therefore has retained its original urgency. What has not been
conceded has been compromised.
Throughout this work, Chartism has been used synony-
mously with the Chartist movement. This is due to the exi-
guity of the language, which contains no other word for that
concatenation of political tendencies, working in all directions,
than movement. But these tendencies may possibly work
simultaneously in opposite directions. The word movement,
in fact, may have to be used to describe a number of conflicting
movements, or stagnation itself. We should not overlook
the fact that there were several Chartist movements ; several
292 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
bodies of activity, that is, associated with the People's Charter.
These acted concurrently ; but as a history has to be written
consecutively, there is a distinct danger that the student will
be unable to separate the interdigitating tendencies and events
covered by the term Chartism. Let us roughly analyse the
entire group of these! We begin in 1837-38 with a Radical
movement in London, associated with the Working Men's
Association, a body of labour intellectuals deriving their ideas
directly from Owen, Bentham, the Mills, and the other fountain-
heads of political doctrine. From this group proceeds the
People's Charter published on May 8, 1838. At, the same time
another group of Radicals has crystallized In Birmingham
around the personality of the local M. P., Thomas Attwood. This
group has imbibed both Attwood's political and economic
faith ; in particular it is committed to currency reform.
Lastly there is a large and unorganized mass of people in
Lancashire and Yorkshire, Radical out of opposition to Toryism,
inflamed by the terrible industrial conditions from which they
are themselves the chief sufferers, and inspired with revolution-
ary sentiments by Stephens and Oastler. The Charter is
published ; the two groups not responsible for it immediately
accept it as a programme. Birmingham tries to take the lead
and is partly successful. The Convention is held ; repression
begins, acting upon the leaders of all three groups, who spend
the next year or two in jail. Reorganization then begins y r
resolving itself by 1843 into two movements^;: the pacific C.S.U.
plus National Association movement wjiich avoids class bitter-
ness ; and the N.C.A., which dozes for a while, revives, adopts
the Land Scheme and collapses, more gradually than is gener-
ally supposed. The Lovett-Place-Sturge movement has
bursts of activity for some years, but slowly wanes and died
with its founders. A closer analysis would reveal a larger
number of Chartisms ; in 1842 the student would find beside
these just described a teetotal-cum- feminist variety in Bristol.
Bath, and the West, the Shakespearean brigade of Chartist^
in Leicester, decorative, emotional, and under the discipline
of a uniformed " General," and a teetotal-cum-religious Char-
tism in the Lowlands of Scotland. If one force more than
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 293
another inspired the Chartist movement, it was that which
proceeded from philosophic Radicalism. From Place and the
W.M.A., the opinions emanating from Cobbett and Paine,
the Malthusian controversy, the current political economy,
the press of the well-to-do, the pulpit and the magistrate's
bench, there drifted down to the minds of the working class
a practical Radicalism, adapted to their needs, and guaranteed
to mitigate their sufferings.
Even before the publication of the People's Charter, a Radical
paper of Newcastle-on-Tyne once attempted to answer the
question, JVhaMs a JJadical ? 1 " The True, Radical is best
described by first saying wnat he is not. "He is not a God-
winite, nor an Owenite, nor a Benthamite, nor a Cosmopolite.
. . . He has no passion for democracy, because it is democracy,
but looks to what it produces. He thinks imagination has
nothing to do with politics, and passion as little. Liberty may
sound well upon the stage, but that is no argument for him
that it must therefore necessarily be good. ... He has no
idea that the framework of society can be altered suddenly,
or that such attempts can do any good ; but he praises a
government rather for what it does not do than for what it
does ; and goes to negations rather than the contrary in all
that respects dealing with the people. He thinks, in short,
that government the best which meddles least and takes least
from the pockets of the people. If it be an economical one,
it cannot, in his opinion, as long as it is so, be a bad one, be
its name and form what it may. He ... advocates democracy
only because it seems most likely to prefer and perpetuate a
system of this kind. ... He cannot, for the life of him,
understand how any man with a love of freedom and justice
. . . can tolerate the Malthusians and their Poor Law. . . .
He is for universal suffrage, annual parliaments, and vote by
ballot, and thinks Whigs and Tories equally worthless as
politicians. Though accused of violent inclinations and inten-
tions, and called a savage and a firebrand, he is full of the
milk of human kindness, and would not in his greatest rage
hang more than a dozen loan-mongers, or set fire to anything
1 Northern Liberator, April 28, 1838.
U
294 A HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT
unless perhaps the Stock Exchange, the Poor Law Bastiles,
or the Bank."
This is the best contemporary example we have seen of the
Radical Credo. Chartism is both an acceptance and an
attempted evasion of the implications of this faith. The
Radical working man of the 'sixties, 'seventies, and 'eighties
with his dislike of Socialism, is a result of a movement which
both rejected Socialism and gave it shape ; a movement which
set out to destroy the socialism of Owen and ended by accepting,
on its death-bed, the socialism of Marx.
Foreign studies on Chartism invariably conclude with a
section entitled, Why was the Movement a Failure ? or some-
thing of similar effect. The example, set by innumerable
authors, does not seem to be worth copying, as it begs the
question, Was the Movement a Failure ? An answer in the
negative, the author ventures to suggest, is contrary only to
superficial evidences. Chartism was an episode in that con-
catenation of aspirations and struggles which is vaguely spoken
of as the working-class movement. What are the essential
objects of this movement, as distinguished from the immediately
attainable and ostensible objects of which the Six Points are
specimens ? There is but one essential object the awakening
of class-consciousness, the better organization of the working
class in its struggle for greater economic and political power.
No body of opinions which fails to stimulate class consciousness
can be said to be strictly necessary to the working-class move-
ment, just as no set of doctrines or practices which fail to
stimulate the consciousness of nationality can be integrally
connected with nationalism. The Chartist movement with
its derivations, its appeals to " blistered hands and fustian
jackets," its actual tenets of class antagonism, its associa-
tion with industrial unrest, and its inability to accept the
advances of middle-class sympathizers, was the first organized
effort to stir up class consciousness on a national scale, /the
movement's failures lay in the direction of securing legislation,
or national approbation for its leaders. Judged by its crop
of statutes and statues, Chartism was a failure. Judged by
THE PASSING OF CHARTISM 295
its essential and generally overlooked purpose, Chartism was
a success. It achieved, not the Six Points, but a state of
mind. This last achievement made possible the renascent
"trade union movement of the 'fifties, the gradually improving
organization of the working classes, the Labour Party, the
co-operative movement, and whatever greater triumphs labour
will enjoy in the future.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alton Locke. Kingsley.
Anti-Theistic Theories. Flint.
Attwood, Life of Thomas. C. M. Wakefield.
Autobiography of John Bowes.
Babeuf's Conspiracy, History of. Buonarotti.
Briefwechsel. Engels-Marx.
British Radicalism. Walter Phelps Hall.
Bygones Worth Remembering. G. J. Holyoake.
Chartism. Carlyle.
Chartism : a New Organization of the People. Lovett and Collins.
Chartisme, Le. Prof. Dolleans.
Chartist Movement, History of the. R. G. Gammage.
Chartisten-Bewegung, Die. Schluter.
Christian Socialism.
Cobbett, William: a Biography. Edward Smith.
Cobden, Life of. Morley.
Conditions of the English Working Class in 1841. Engels.
Conservative Science of Nations. Sommerville.
Cooper, The Life of Thomas.
Co-operation, History of. G. J. Holyoake.
Co-operative Movement, The. Beatrice Potter (Mrs. S. Webb).
Cowen, Life of Joseph. Duncan.
Cremer, Life of Sir R. Howard Evans.
Crimes of the Clergy. William Benbow.
Crisis, The.
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon.
Defensive Instruction to the People. Col. Francis Maceroni.
Dictionary of National Biography.
Early Correspondence of Lord John Russell.
Economic Annals of the Nineteenth Century. W. M. Smart.
English Local Government. S. and B. Webb.
English Philanthropy, a History of. B. Kirkham Gray.
English Radicals, The. C. R. B. Kent.
297
298 BIBLIOGRAPHY
English Republic. W. J. Linton.
Essay on Population, An. Malthus.
Exercises. Col. Perronet Thompson.
Flugschriften literatur des Chartistenhewegung, Der.
Forty Years' Recollections. Thomas Frost.
Free Trade and Other Fundamental Doctrines of the Manchester
School. F. W. Hirst.
Genesis of Parliamentary Reform, The. G. S. Veitch.
Geschichte des Socializmus in England. Beer.
Girlhood of Queen Victoria, The.
Gladstone. Morley.
Greville Memoirs. Charles Greville.
History of England in the Eighteenth Century, A. W. E. H. Lecky.
Holyoake, Life and Letters of G. J. J. MacCabe.
Hunt, Life of Henry.
John Frost and John Watkins.
Labour Representation, A History of. A. W. Humphrey.
Life and Letters. Major Cartwright.
Life and Struggles of William Lovett.
Lovett, William : an Autobiography.
Memories of an Ex-Minister. Lord Malmesbury.
My Memories. W. J. Linton.
Mill, James : a Biography. Bain.
Mill, Letters of J. S.
Napier, Life of Charles James. Lt.-Gen. Sir W. Napier.
Notes and Queries. G. J. Holyoake.
O'Connor, The Trial of Feargus, and Fifty- eight others at Lancaster.
Our Fifty Years. B. T. Hall.
Owen, Life and Labours of Robert. Lloyd Jones.
Owen, Robert. Frank Podmore.
Passages in the Life of a Radical. Samuel Bamford.
Peace, History of the. Harriet Martineau.
Pitt, William, and the Great War. Dr. HoUand Rose.
Place, Life of Francis. Graham Wallas.
Place MSS. and Collection.
Practical Work on the Management of Small Farms. Feargus
O'Connor.
Recollections and Reflections. Lord John Russell.
Reflections on the Revolution in France. Burke.
Reminiscences. Justin MacCarthy.
Republican Tradition in Europe, The. H. A. L, Fisher.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 299
Right to the Whole Produce of Labour. Anton Menger.
Rights oj Man, The. Thomas Paine.
Rights of Nations. Anonymous.
Rise and Fall of Chartism in Monmouthshire.
Robespierre, Life of. B. O'Brien.
Rochdale Pioneers, History of the. G. J. Holyoake.
Rough Types of English Life. J. C. Symons.
Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life. G. J. Holyoake.
Social and Political Morality. William Lovett.
Spen Valley: Past and Present.
Stephens, Life of J. R. G. J. Holyoake.
Struggles of an Old Chartist. B. Wilson.
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Thelwall, John, Life of.
These Eighty Years. Rev. H. Solly.
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Wellington. G. Lathom Browne.
Wellington, Life of. Maxwell.
West Indies, The. Joseph Sturge.
Wheeler, Life of. Stevens.
For further details, references to newspapers, periodicals, etc.,
see Index.
INDEX
Adams, James, 257
Adams, W. Bridges, 231
Allan, William, 276
American War of Independence, 1 8
Annual Register, 23, 26, 35, 37, 55,
59, 66, 126, 136, 141, 143, 193
Anti-Catholic riots, 16
Anti-Corn Law League, 104, 174,
175, 176, 189, 197, 202, 217
Anti-Slavery Society, 172
Applegarth, Robert, 276
Arnott, J., 234, 262, 267, 268
Ashley, Lord, 219, 288
Ashton, W., 257
Ashurst, W. H., 231, 232
Atheism, relation to Chartism,
278-9
Attwood, Charles, 35 ,155
Attwood, Thomas, 54, 55, 66, 92,
93. 94, 95, 97, 3, "2, 113,
114, 136, 137, 182, 292
Bagehot, 283
Bainbridge, 124
Baines, 202
Bairstow, 166, 191, 203
Baldwin, Chas., 257
Bamford, Samuel, arrest of, 36 ;
Passages in the Life of a
Radical, quoted, 33
Bank Act suspended, 238
Barclay and Perkins's Brewery,
262
Barmby, Goodwin, 231, 232
Barmby, J. G., 164
Bastille, Taking of the, 19
Bauer, Heinrich, 233
Baxter, J., 275
Beales, Edmond, 276
Beaumont, Augustus Harding,
editor of the weekly Radical,
7 6 * 79, 94
Beer,M., Geschichte des Socializmus
in England, 7
Belgium, revolution in, 235
Bell, John, 79
Benbow, William, 51, 52, 64, 68,
137; Grand National Holiday
and Congress of the Produc-
tive Classes, 68, 69, 135 ;
Tribune of the People, 69, 70 ;
Crimes of the Clergy, 70
Beniowski, Major, 227, 229
Bentham, Jeremy, 36, 39, 47, 48,
63, 84, 276, 292 ; Fragment on
Government, 12
Bentinck, Lord George, 255
Bernard, 79
Bevington, E., 257
Bezer, J. J., 267
Bill of Rights Society, 15
Binns, George, 164
Binns, John, 28
Birkbeck, 145
Birmingham Journal, The, 198
Birmingham Political Union, 52,
54, 92-7, 101, 116; petition
of, 194-8 ; conferences of,
194-8
Birmingham Riots, 134-7
Black, Dr. John Roberts, 75, 179,
259, 260
Blackstone, 22
Black-wood's Magazine, quoted,
124-5
Blake, William, 20
301
INDEX
Blanc, Louis, 271
Bonnymuir Conspiracy, 37, 38
Bowes, John, Autobiography of
John Bowes, quoted, 124
Bowkett, Dr., 259, 282
Bowring, Dr., M.P., 78, 182
Bradlaugh, 278, 280, 281
Bright, John, 132, 174, 176, 177,
255, 259, 276
Bristol Riots, 57-59
British and Foreign Review, 286
British Association for Promoting
Co-operative Knowledge, 50,
5i
British Industrial Association,
282-3
British Statesman, quoted, 195
" Bronterre " (see O'Brien, James
Bronterre)
Brooke, Titus, 209
Brougham, Lord, 38, 39, 159, 173
Brown, 134
Browne, G. Lathom, Wellington,
245
Bubb, 274
Buchez, 285
Buckly, Geo., 257
Buller, Charles, 160
Bunce, 112
Buonarotti, History of Babeuf's
Conspiracy, 71
Burdett, Sir Francis, returned to
Parliament, 34, 51, 52, 59
Burke, Edmund, 14, 16, 18, 19, 22 ;
Reflections on the Revolution
in France, 19
Burn, 141
Burns, William G., 121, 139, 277
Bussey, Peter, 121, 191
Butler, Josephine, 232
Byron, Lord, 84
Cadbury, Messrs., Comparison of
Bourneville and New Lanark,
42
Campbell, Lord, letter quoted, 245
Campbell, John, 164, 165, 166,
1 68, 193
Cardo, William, 121, 155
Carlile, Richard, 46, 48, 279
Carlyle, 145 ; Chartism, 285, 286
Carpenter, William, editor of
The Charter, 106, 115, 121,
139, 217, 231, 232
Carrier, 133
Cartier, G. E., 228
Cartwright, Major John, activities
of, 29, 30, 34, 35, 182 ; death
of, 39 ; memorial to, 63 ;
Take Your Choice and Life
and Letters, 12-14, *8,
21-2
Castlereagh, Lord (1816), 35
Cato Street Conspiracy, 37
Cave, R. O., 160
Central American Union, 290, 291
Charles II, King of England, 105,
244
Charter, The, quoted, 106, 113,
132 ; references, 108, 152
Chartism and the Chartists :
influence of J. B. O'Brien,
72 ; physical force and, 90,
9i, 95. 96, 103, in, 114, 117,
I3I-3, J 74> l8 8, 197 ; Con-
vention, 103 ; secret meet-
ings, 105 ; programme and
expectations, 103, 107 ; mis-
sionaries, 114; Lord John
Russell and, 115; threats of
armed risings, 123, 126, 128-
9, 130-1 ; wholesale arrests
of (1839-42), 148-9, 193;
female charter unions, 156,
1 66 ; free trade and, 173-
181 ; trade unionism and,
1 86, 192, 200 ; strikes and,
188-91; union with N.C.S.U.,
194-9 ; an experimental
period, 200 ; Land Co-opera-
tive Society and, 206 ; con-
testing elections, 220 ; and
INDEX
303
internationalism, 227-9; con-
vention and petition of 1848,
239, 243-5, 247-9, 250-2 ;
national assembly ( 1 848) , 253 ;
memorial to Queen Victoria,
252-3; further arrests (1848),
254-5 ; decay, 255-6, 258,
265 ; rise and fall, 260 ;
agitation against taxes on
knowledge, 260 ; causes of
fall, 260 ; convention of
1851, its aims, 263-5 ; pro-
gramme in 1851, 264-5 ;
last conference of delegates,
273-5 ; dying efforts, 275 ;
reform league and, 277 ;
atheism and, 278-9 ; repub-
licanism and, 279 ; socialism
and, 282 ; insurance and,
282-3 ; Christian socialism and,
284; Working Men's Associa-
tion and, 285 ; middle classes
and, 285-6 ; democracy and,
291 ; movements proceeding
from, 291-2 ; was it a failure ?
294-5
Chartist, The, 106
Chartist Co-operative Land Com-
pany, 214
Chartist Land Co-operative So-
ciety, 206-14
Chesterton, G. K., 28
Child, N., 257
Christian Socialism, 284, 285
Chronicle, The, 218
Clark, T., 208, 222, 237, 242, 248,
263, 283
Cleave, John, 46, 47, 158, 159, 289;
character and views, 48-9,
51-2 ; activities for reform,
67-8, 75, 78, 95, 104 ; connec-
tion with W.M.A., 92 ; dele-
gate to National Convention,
121 ; advocate of teetotalism,
153 ; connexion with N.C.A.,
168 ; death of, 232, 289
Clements, Lord, 185
Coal Mines Act, 187
Cobbett, William, early career,
3 1 * 35 36, 38 ; editor of
the Political Register, 53, 56,
61, 62, 63 ; Parliamentary
career, 66 ; death of in 1833,
66, 85 ; other references, 70,
225, 237, 293
Cobbett, J. P. (son of William),
112, 121
Cobden, Richard, 132, 174, 217,
256, 259, 286 ; votes for Char-
ter, 185, 193
Cochrane, Charles, 238, 257
Collet, C. D., History of the Taxes
on Knowledge, 259
Collett, J. D., 159, 259
Collins, John, 103, 108, 121, 136,
137, 138, 147, 151, 158, 159,
1 60, 177 ; the advocate of
Bible chartism, 154
Collins, W., 160, 232
Combination Acts, 1799-1800, 29 ;
repeal of, 38
Commonweal, The, 224
Communist Manifesto, 281
Consolidated Trades Union, 71, 74
Constitutional Society, 15, 20, 24
Convention, The French, 22-3
Conventions, 105
Cooper, Thomas, early years, 172 ;
the Life of Thomas Cooper,
quoted, 172, 191, 255, 278;
other references, 166, 181,
190, 191, 193, 194, 197, 229,
231, 232, 234, 259, 262, 267,
270, 278
Co-operative distribution, 200-1,
Co-operative production, failure of,
200
Corn Law agitation, 67, 95, 176,
177
Coward, 126
Crabtree, Mark, 109
Craig, Hugh, 107, 121
304
INDEX
Crane, Walter, 281
Crawford, W. S., 78, 175, 193, 194,
197, 198, 222
Cremer, Randal, 276
Crimean War, 272, 273
Cripps, 250-1
Crown and Government Security
Bill, 251, 252
Cuffay, William, 257
Cullen, M., 164
Cumberland, Ernest, Duke of, 230
Cumming, Jas., 257
Cumming, William, 231
Daily News, 213, 218
Davis, 262
Deegan, John, 121
Democrat, 253
Democratic and Social Confer-
ence, 263
Democratic Association, 229
Democratic Communists of Brus-
sels (German), 234, 235
Democratic Committee for Regen-
eration of Poland, 234
Democratic Review, 281
Derby, Lord (1858), 291
Desodoards, 71
Despard Conspiracy, 32
Dickens, Charles, 287
Dickenson, 133
Dictionary of National Biography,
quoted, 173
Dispatch, 218
Disraeli, Benjamin, 92, 185, 194 ;
quotation from third Letter of
Runnymede, 92-3
Dixon, William, 209, 222, 237,
2 53, 257, 263, 283
Dolleans, Prof., 258; Le Chartismerf
Donaldson, A. H., 204
Donovan, D., 257
Dorling, William, Henry Vincent,
a Biographical Sketch, 133
Dorsetshire labourers return
from deportation, 99
Douglas, R. K., editor of the
Birmingham Journal, 101,
103, 104, 112, 121
Doyle, Christopher, 203, 208, 222,
242, 248, 263, 283
Dron, J. G., 209
Duncan, Abram, 121, 182 ; Life
of Joseph Cowen, 281
Duncombe, T. S., 138, 159, 182,
185, 199, 200, 209, 229, 231,
242
Dundee Chronicle, 153
Easthope, Sir John, 159, 183
Economic conditions and the
Chartist Movement, 26, 32,
62, 88, 114, 131, 187, 188
Edmonds, J. George, 103
Edward VII, King of England, 281
Edwards, 142
Edwards, Passmore, 259
Egerton, Lord Francis, 183
Ellenborough, Lord Chief Justice,
35
Elliot, Ebenezer, 104
Ellis, Wynn, 160
Elphinstone, H., 159
Elt, 258
Enclosures, 26
Engels, 228, 233, 234, 235, 242,
282 ; Condition of the English
Working Classes in 1844, 187 ;
letter to Marx, quoted, 236 ;
Engels-Marx Brief wechsel, 236
Engineering, lock-out of 1852, 271
Epps, Dr., 158, 159, 231, 232, 250
Erskine, promoter of the Friends
of the People Society, 20, 24
Essler, William, 123
Evans, David, 134
Evans, Howard, Life of Sir R.
Cremer, 276
Evening Sun, 247
Exhibition of May, 1851, 265
Expiring Laws Continuation Bills,
291
INDEX
305
Ewart, W., 259, 261
Fabian Society, 151 ; compared
with W.M.A., 288
Fawcett, 283
Fenney, James, 121
Ferdinand VII, 84
Fielden, Dr., 112, 113, 182, 219
Fife, Sir John, 138
Figaro in London, quoted, 60
Finlaison, 212, 222
Finlen, James, 268, 271, 272, 273,
276
Fisher, H. A. L., The Republican
Tradition in Europe, 227, 280
Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 20
Fletcher, Dr., no-n
Fletcher, Matthew, 121, 139
Flint, Anti-Theistic Theories, 278
Fontaine, Berrier, 229
Fox, C. J., 16, 19, 29, 30
Fox, W. J., 145, 161, 174, 231-2,
287
Fox, W. T., 52
Foxwell, Professor, 5
Fourier, 226
Francis, Sir Philip, quotation
from letter, 14
Francis, S. G., 257
Fraternal Democrats Association,
230, 234, 235, 261, 262
Free Press, The, quoted, 156
Free Trade Movement, 104, 188
French Revolution, 16, 19, 22, 31,
63,83
Friend in Need Benefit and Burial
Society, 282, 283
Friends of the People Society, 20,
23 ; objects of, 21 ; its end,
26
Friends of Progress, 287
Friendly Societies Act, 283
Frost, John, 20, 121, 133, 139, 141,
142, 143, 163, 172, 264, 273 ;
trial for high treason, 144-
145
Frost, Thomas, Forty Years' Recol-
lections, 230, 255
Furnival, J., 285
Fussell, J. A., 237, 254, 257
Gammage, R. G., 268 ; History of
the Chartist Movement, 6, 107,
119, 120, 127, 143, 172, 268,
273 ; quoted, 91, 142, 195, 196
Garibaldi, 276, 281
George III, King of England, 25,
26
George IV, King of England, 37
General Strike, origin of, 68
Gerrald, 23, 24, 86
Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire, 12
Gibson, T. Milner, 160
Gigot, Ph., 234
Gill, William, 121
Gisborne, 220
Gladstone, H., 185, 186, 194
Glenister, 257
Globe, The, 218
Godwin, 20, 63
Good, 112
Goods, John, 121
Gordon, Lord George, 16
Graham, Sir James (Home Secre-
tary, 1842), 183, 193, 229
Graham, Jas., 257
Grassby, John, 262, 267, 268
Grenville, 19
Greville, Charles, Memoirs, quoted,
59, 240-1, 247
Grey, Sir G., 244
Grey, 221
Grote, George, 159
Guizot, 241
Habeas Corpus Act, suspension of,
24 ; second suspension, 1816,
35
Hadley, Benjamin, 112, 121
Hall, B. T., 283 ; Our Fifty Years,
283
306
INDEX
Halley, Alexander, 121
Hammond, Mr. and Mrs. J. L.,
The Village Labourer, 56
Hampden Club, the original, 34
Hansard, Parliamentary debates,
109, 114, 182, 194, 198, 251,
256, 260, 262, 267
Hardy, Thomas, first secretary of
the London Corresponding
Society, 21 ; trial of, 24 ;
death of, 39
Harney, George Julian, secretary
of the London Democratic
Association, 89, 90, 95 ; other
references, 94, 96, 104, 105,
108-9, in, 112, 120, 121, 137,
149, 191, 193, 213, 220, 229,
230, 233, 235, 237, 239, 248,
257, 262, 265, 267, 269, 277 ;
and the Republican Idea, 281
Harrison, Joseph, 271
Hartwell, Robert, 121 ; and labour
representation, 277
Hawes, B., 78, 183
Hawkes, S. M., 231, 232
Haynau affair, 262
Herzen, 272
Hetherington, Henry, 46, 47, 49,
89, 145, 160, 232, 259 ; starts
Poor Man's Guardian, 49 ;
activities for reform, 67, 70,
75. 77. 78. 81, 104, 176, 179,
233, 242, 260 ; a fine speaker,
91 ; connexion with W.M.A.,
9i i 92, 95 ; delegate to
National Convention, 121 ;
advocate of teetotalism, 153 ;
secretary of National Associa-
tion, 189 ; sketch of career
and death, 289
Hibbert, Julian, 46
Hill, James, 223
Hill, Rev. William, editor of ^The
Northern Star, 86, 87, 153,
154, 161, 167, 169, 191, 193
Hindley, Charles, 78
Hirst, F. W., Free Trade and other
Fundamental Doctrines of the
Manchester School, 286
Hobhouse, Sir John Cam, 220, 234
Hobson, J., 86, 87, 203, 217
Hodgskin, 49
Holcroft, 20
Holyoake, G. J., 48, 137, 233,
259, 262, 265, 266, 267, 274,
278, 280, 281, 289-90 ; Sixty
Years of an Agitator's Life,
quoted; 54, 61 ; Life of J. R.
Stephens, quoted, 127 ; His-
tory of Rochdale Pioneers, 201 ;
History of Co-operation, 208 ;
Bygones Worth Remembering,
249
Hone, 279
Howell, George, 276
Howett, 258
Howitt's Journal, 287
Hughes, 284
Hugo, Victor, 272
Huish, Robert, Life of Henry
Hunt, quoted, 66
Hume, Joseph, 38, 78, 79, 86, 159,
184, 255, 256, 259, 265
Humphrey, A. W., A History of
Labour Representation, 277
Hunt, Henry, 35, 36, 52, 66, 70,
229
Hunt, Leigh, 232
Hunt, Thornton, 231, 232, 259,
262, 265, 266, 267
Hunter, Dr., 257
Hutchins, Jas., 257
Independence, Declaration of, 12
International Working Men's As-
sociation, 276
Ireland, potato famine, 219 ; and
Chartist Movement, 236
James II, King of England, 105
James, William, 136, 145
INDEX
307
Jerrold, Douglas, 231
Jinney, Jos., 257
John Bull, 179
Johnson, Dr., 12
Johnson, General, 160
Jones, Charles, 121
Jones, Edmund, 257
Jones, Ernest, 220, 230, 233-4,
237. 239, 241, 242, 248, 253,
254, 256, 257, 262, 265,
267
Jones, John Gale, 28
Jones, Lloyd, 242
Jones, Major, 230
Jones, William, 145, 163, 264, 267
Keen, Charles, 235, 237
Kennington Common, Chartist
meeting at (1848), 247-249,
258
Kent, C. R. B., The English Radi-
cals, quoted, 20
Kersall Moor, Chartist meeting at,
130, !56
Kidderminster Carpet Weavers'
Strike failure, 271
King, 226
Kingsley, Charles, 284, 285 ; Alton
Locke, 249
Knox, Robert, 121
Kossuth, 266
Kydd, Samuel, 237, 252, 253, 257,
262, 267, 277
Labour Parliament, 271 ; second,
272
Labour Party, 295
Labour Programme, the original,
64-5
Labour Representation, 277
Labour Year Booh (1916), 201
Lamennais, 239
Land Company, 256 ; winding up
of, 265, 283
Land Scheme, 283, 292
Langley, 275
" Laone " advocates Woman Suf-
frage, 157
Larpent, Sir G., 180
Law of Entail, 256
Leach, James, 162, 164, 191, 209,
252, 253, 255, 257
Leader, J. T., 78, 104, 136, 159,
161, 182
Lecky, W. E. H., A History of
England in the Eighteenth
Century, 16
Ledru-Rollin, 280
Leeds Mercury, 177, 202
Leeds Times, 161 ; quoted, 155,
157, 1 66
Leno, J. B., 277
Lewes, G. H., 259
Lightowler, D., 257
Linton, W. J., 159, 231-3, 239,
262, 267, 279, 286, 287 ;
My Memories, 145, 232 ;
English Republic, 279 ; and
the Republican Idea, 279-81
Linton, Mrs. Lynn, 281
" Little Charter," 255
Locke, 218
London Corresponding Society,
21 ; extracts from addresses
of, 22 ; Jacobin sympathies,
23 ; trial of members of, 24-
26 ; growing vitality, 26 ;
reconstitution, 27 ; declara-
tion of principles, 27 ; acti-
vities, 28 ; its end, 28-9
London Democrat, The, quoted,
III, 112
London Democratic Association,
86, 89
London News, 275
London Republican Club, 280
London Working Men's Associa-
tion, 277
Louis XVI, King of France, 12 ;
execution of, 22, 23
Louis Philippe, King of France,
abdication of, 237, 241, 246
308
INDEX
Lovelace, George, 112, 121
Lovett, William, 5, 6, 46, 90, 124,
168, 182, 198, 232, 280, 283,
292 ; character and early
career, 47, 282 ; friendships,
47 ; connexion with N.P.U.,
52 ; arrest, 61 ; adherence
to Owenism, 72-3 ; activities
for reform, 77-9, 95, 104, 260,
287 ; the People's Charter,
80-1 ; and the National
Convention, 107-8, 1 10-1 1 ,
135 ; Life and Struggles of,
in, 116, 119, 146-7, 161, 175,
229, 258, 288 ; delegate to
National Convention, 121 ;
second arrest, 136 ; trial and
imprisonment, 137-8 ; Chart-
ism, or a New Organization of
the People, 138, 150-3, 158-9,
160-1 ; Address to Working
Classes on National Educa-
tion, 152 ; release, 158 ; and
N.C.A.,i62 ; and freetraders,
174-5,176-7, 194, 197; averse
to physical force and O'Con-
nor, 192, 196-7, 199, 204 ;
letter to N.C.A., quoted, 204 ;
renounces hold on Chart-
ist Movement, 205 ; inter-
national sympathies, 229 ;
attempts to revive Chart-
ism, 258 ; Social and Political
Morality, 288 ; educational
activities, 287-8 ; death of,
288 ; organizations, 288-9
Lovett, Mrs., 138
Lowery, John, 257, 258
Lowery, Robert. 104, 121, 138,
139, 155. 182
Ludlow, J. M., 284, 285
Lund, J. T., 257
Macaulay, T., on the Charter and
universal suffrage, 183, 184,
245
M'Carthy, C., 257
MacCarthy, Justin, 5 ; Remini-
scences, 266
Macclesfield Political Union
clause of resolutions quoted,
67
M'Crae, 253
M'Douall, Peter Murray, 122, 164,
166, 181, 182, 191, 253, 267,
282 ; arrest and trial of, 127-
8*255
Maceroni, Colonel Francis, Defen-
sive Instruction to the People,
131
MacGrath, P., 203, 208, 220, 222,
237. 239, 242, 248, 252,
263
M'Lay, John, quoted, 188-9
Malmesbury, Lord, Memoirs of an
Ex-Minister r , 246
Malthus, An Essay on Population,
quoted, 188
Malthusian Controversy, 293
Manchester Examiner, 218
Manchester Political Union, 97 ;
its tenets, 95-9
Margaret, 23, 86
Markham, John, 172
Marsden, Richard, 121, 203
Martin, W., 164
Martineau, Harriet, 5, 287 ; Auto-
biography, 245
Marx, Karl, 228, 233, 234, 235,
236, 270, 271, 276, 281, 282,
293
Mason, J., 204
" Mass Movement," 271
Massey, Gerald, 262
Matthew, Patrick, 112, 121
Maule, Fox, 255
Maurice, F. D., 285 ; Christian
Socialism, 284
Maxwell, Life of Wellington
quoted, 60
May, Erskine, 52
Mayne, Richard, 248
INDEX
309
Mazzini, letters scandal, 229 ;
influence in England, 231,
232, 233, 236 ; other refer-
ences, 239, 242, 272, 280,
287
Mealing, Richard, 121
Melbourne, Lord, 93, 123 ; Gov-
ernment defeated, 133
Menger, Right to the Whole Product
of Labour, 5, 282
Metropolitan Parliamentary Re-
form Association, A ddress
quoted, 11-12, 15, 51, 179
Metropolitan Trades Union, 51
Metropolitan Union, 52
Miall, Edward, The Nonconformist,
177, 258, 275
Michelot, 229, 230, 233, 234
Mickiewicz, Adam, 227
Mill, John, 48, 292
Mill, J. S., letters to Sterling
quoted, 55, 56, 57, 62, 63,
285, 292 ; atheist views, 63 ;
other references, 159
Mills, James, 121
Milne, 262
Mimer-Gibson, 259
Miners, cause of strikes, 146
Mirfield, F., 257
Moir, James, 108, 122, 182
Molesworth, Sir William, 5, 86,
136, 259
Monmouthshire Riots, 286
Montessori method and Robert
Owen's educational schemes,
42
Montessori method and Lovett's
educational schemes, 152
Montgaillard, 71
Moore, Richard, 46, 47, 48, 78, 121,
159, 224, 231, 259, 260, 289
Mordaunt case, 280
Morgan, W., 164, 179
Morley, Lord, Gladstone, 186
Morley, Samuel, 274
Morning Advertiser, 224
Morning, Chronicle, The, 143
quoted, 174, 262
Morris, William, 226, 228, 284
Morrison, 203
Mountgoye, 71
Muir, 23, 86
Municipal Corporations Act, 65
Muntz, G. F. and J. Oswald, 95,
103, 137, 184, 275
Murphy, 257
Napier, Colonel, 57
Napier, Major-General Sir Charles
James, 128, 129, 130, 131,
193
Napier, Lt.-Gen. Sir W., Life of
Charles James Napier quoted,
128, 129
Napoleon, Louis, afterwards Em-
peror of France, 246-7
Nation, The, quoted, 236
National Assembly, 251-3
National Association for Promot-
ing the Political and Social
Improvement of the People,
151, 159-61, 258, 287, 288,
289, 292
National Association of United
Trades for the Protection of
Labour, 200
National Assurance Friendly
Society, 283
National Charter Association of
Great Britain, 162-71, 174,
191, 192, 193, 196, 197, 233,
2 47> 2 59> 260, 261, 262, 263,
264, 265, 267, 269, 273, 282,
288, 292 ; petition of 1842,
171 ; criticism of trade union-
ism, 1 86 ; industrial unrest,
193; Bill, 198-9; O'Connor's
interests in, 202, 203, 208 ;
reconstitution of, 253, 254
National Charter League, 263
National Community Friendly
Society, 208
3io
INDEX
National Complete Suffrage Union,
177-9, 194-5* 196, I97 292
National Convention, 103, 104,
105, 106, 107, 108, 109,
110-22, 123, 134, 139,
263 ; petition, presentation
to Parliament, 113, 114;
Lovett's resolution, July,
1839, 135
National Co-operative Land Com-
pany, 215, 216, 219, 220-
224, 237
National Land and Building
Association, 223, 224
National Land and Labour Bank,
216, 219
National Land Company, 271
National Loan Society, 223
National Political Union, 51, 52,
53,5559,6o
National Reform League for the
Peaceful Regeneration of
Society, 261, 262
National Reformer, 217, 224, 225,
226, 278
National Rent, 103, 107
National Sunday League, 273
National Union of the Working
Classes, 50-68
National Union of Working Men,
67
Naval Mutinies (1797), 28
Neesom, C. H., 122, 153, 159, 161,
177, 258, 278
New Bill of Rights, 195, 196
New Moral World, quotations
from, 41-2, 44
Newcastle Daily Chronicle, 223,
281
Newcastle, Duke of (1768), 15
Newport Riots (1839), 140-4
Newspaper Stamp Abolition Com-
mittee, 259
Newspaper Tax, 224
Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia,
227, 228
Nonconformist London Weekly
Newspaper, 173
Normanby, Marquis of (1860),
138
North, Lord, 12, 1 6
Northern Liberator, 293, 294
Northern Star, 86, 95-9, 108, 114,
116, 120, 134, 137, 139, 148,
166, 167, 170, 171, 174, 193,
199, 201-5, 208, 213, 217-9,
228-9, 233, 239-42, 247, 251-
3, 262-3, 265, 267, 269, 273,
280, 281, 286 ; quotations
from, 72, 88-9, 94-5, 104-6,
109-10, i 12-3, 117-8, 140,
*tt> I 57~ 8 , l6 , l6 4~5, 168-9,
178, 181, 186, 188-9, 192, 197,
205-6, 209, 220-3, 225, 234-9.
Notes and Queries, 281
Nottingham Review, quoted, 180
Oastler, Richard, 67, 87, 90, 94,
95, 132, 292
Oborski, Col., 230, 233, 235
O'Brien, James Bronterre, quota-
tion from letter to Robert
Owen, 43 ; career and friends,
70-2; quotation from National
Reformer, 70; Life of Robe-
spierre, 71 ; delegate to Na-
tional Convention, 122; arrest
and trial, 138 ; supporter of
Bible Chartism, 154; connex-
ion with N.C.A., 162 ; letter
to Northern Star quoted, 168-
9 ; differences with O 'Connor,
168-9, 195, 217, 224; sup-
porter of Small Holdings
Scheme, 201 ; National Re-
former and Manx Weekly
Observer, 224 ; contribution
to new ideas, 224-6 ; at 1848
Convention, 245 ; connexion
with National Reform League,
261 ; other references, 79,
87, 91, 95, 99, 108, 109, 116,
INDEX
118, 139, 168, 177-8, 182, 242,
257, 262, 265, 282
O'Brien, Smith, 255
O'Coigley, 29, 85
O'Connell, Daniel, 5, 52, 78, 79, 85,
96, 97, 98, 120, 169, 177, 185,
199, 219
O'Connor, Arthur, 85
O'Connor, Feargus, 6, 71, 72, 76-7,
79, 91, 92, 94-6> I0 5. J 34.
139, 168, 172, 177, 182, 186,
229, 231, 233, 257-8, 263, 277,
283 ; origin and character,
84-5 ; career, 86-8, 216-9 ;
convert to Chartism, 87-9 ;
relations with B.P.U., 94, 96-
7 ; with W.M.A., 103-4 >
at National Convention, 109-
10, 112, 116-7, I2O I22 X 4
influence on Chartism, 126,
150, 167 ; duplicity, 146-8,
154-5, 190 ; arrest, trial and
imprisonment, 148, 193 ; con-
tribution to new ideas, 157-
8 ; opposition to N.A., 160-
i ; release, 164 ; relations
with Free Traders, 178, 189 ;
supports Sturge, 179-81 ; Trial
of Feargus O'Connor and
Fifty-eight Others at Lancaster,
1 86 ; endeavours towards
supremacy, 194-6, 199, 200
seq.; pamphlet, The Land,
and land schemes, 202-3 ',
relations with new N.C.A.,
253-4 land policy, 201-2 ;
connexion with Chartist Land
Co-operative Society, 206-
16, 218-24 ' Practical Work
on the Management of Small
Farms, 210 ; returned as
M.P. for Nottingham, 220 ;
connexion with International
Movement, 233-4, 236-8 ;
connexion with Ireland, 236 ;
fading dominance, 241-3, 253,
260-1, 265 ; in the House of
Commons, 244, 247-8, 250-3,
256 ; attempts to revive
Chartism, 262 ; illness, 265-
7 ; mental derangement and
death, 267
O'Connor, Roger, 85
O'Connor, Miss Margaret, 267
O'Connorville, inauguration of,
213-4
Odger, George, 276
Osborne, 112
Ouimet, Andre, 228
Owen, Robert, character and
career, 39-46 ; influence, 50,
72 ; atheist views, 63 ; atti-
tude to strikes, 68; Benbow's
articles against, 70; joins
Society for National Re-
generation, 74; election mani-
festo, 1841, 70 ; land schemes,
208 ; " Practical measures
required to prevent greater
political changes in Great
Britain and Ireland," 239-
40 ; other references, 76-7,
152, 202, 226, 242, 256, 262,
274, 287, 289, 292-3.
Paget, 273
Paine, Thomas, The Rights of
Man, 20, 22 ; bones brought
to England by William Cob-
bett, 38 ; atheist views, 63 ;
other references, 225, 293
Palmer, 23, 86
Palmerston, Lord, 185, 220, 276
Papineau, L. J., 228
Parkes, Joseph, 7
Parkin, Memorial to United States,
Parliament Act, 291 [155
Parliamentary History, 17
Parry, J. Humphreys, 231, 232,
258, 287, 289
Parson Lot, alias of Charles
Kingsley, 284
312
INDEX
Particulars of the Trial of Mr.
John Frost for High Treason,
quoted, 142
Peel, Sir Robert, 52, 162, 184, 219
People's Charter, nucleus, 77, 78 ;
authorship, 79, 80, 81 ; prac-
tical proposals of, 81, 82-84,
150, 290 ; publication of, 88,
89, 98-9 ; three bodies of
opinion on, 95 ; reception in
House of Commons, 182-5 >
second petition before H. of
C., 193-4 ' People's Charter
Union, 258, 259 ; other refer-
ences, 280, 290, 292, 293
People's International League,
231, 232, 233
People's League, 258
People's Paper, 242, 267, 268, 269,
270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275
Pestalozzi, 153
" Peterloo," 36
Petrie, J., 257
Phillips, Thomas, Mayor of New-
port, etc., 142, 143-
" Philo-Bronterre " (see O'Brien,
James Bronterre)
Philp, R. K., 164, 166, 182
Physical Force movement among
Chartists, 90, 91, 95, 96, 103,
in, 114, 117, 131, 132, 174,
188, 197
Pierce, John, 122
Pitkeithly, Lawrence, 122, 164,
182
Pitt, William, 14, 18 ; speech of
May 7, 1782, quoted, 17 ;
early attitude towards Parlia-
mentary representation re-
form, 17 ; attitude to L.C.S.,
24, 25, 26
Place, Francis, 7, 13, 96, 106, 116,
126, 138, 159, 161, 198, 292,
293 ; MSS., 21, 38, 48, 52-4,
72, 74, 79, 80, 86, 97, 104, 107,
286, 288, 289 ; joins London
C.S., 26 ; retires from public
life, 29 ; early work, 34, 38 ;
extract from letter to William
Lovett. 47 ; connexion with
N.P.U., 52 ; atheist views, 63 ;
collection, 75, 94, 145, 159,
163-5, I 7> 2 58 ; history of
connexion with Chartist
Movement, 78 seq. ; connexion
with W.M.A., 76, 79, 95 ;
connexion with N.C.A., 162,
164 ; forms M.P.R.A., 179 ;
treasurer of Newspaper Stamp
Abolition Committee, 276 ;
account of W.M.A., 260 ;
on Bentham's plan of Parlia-
mentary reform, 276 ; success
of undertakings due to Lovett,
287
Plato, Republic, n, 45
Polish Rising (1830-1), 227, 234 ;
(1846), 233, 237
Political and Social Propagandist
Society, 263
Political and Social Tract Society,
263
Political Reform League, 275
Political Register , 31
Politics for the People, 284
Pollock, Sir Frederick, 144, 145
Ponsonby-Fane, Sir Spencer, ex-
tract from letter in Times,
247
Poor Law Commission, 65, 212
Poor Law Amendment Act, 65
Poor Law, The New, 71, 89, 95, 99,
100, 125, 129, 264
Poor Law Bills, 77
Poor Man's Guardian, The, quoted,
50, 59, 60, 61, 63-4, 65, 68;
closed down, 71, 74
Popay, 66
Porcupine, The, 31
Portland, Duke of, (i839(, 129
Potter, Beatrice (see Webb, Mrs.
Sidney)
INDEX
313
Powell, 254
Pratt, Hodgson, 283
Pratt, Tidd, 214, 222
Preston Cotton Spinners' Strike
failure, 271
Primrose Hill Meeting, 276
Propagandist, The, 277
Proportional Representation, 83
Punch, 228
Radnor, Lord, 159
Radicalism, 293, 294
" Rebecca Riots," 146
Red Republican, 281
Reeves, John, Thoughts on the
English Government, 27
Reform Act 1832, 38, 39, 65, 66,
67, 74, 102
Reform Bill, 57, 59, 62, 64, 68, 124
Reform League, The, 276, 277
Repeal of Taxes on Knowledge,
Association for the, 259
Republican Movement in England,
280-1
Republicanism, 280, 281
Revans, John, 212
Revue de Pologne, La, 227
Reynolds, G. W. M., 238, 239, 241,
242, 248, 257, 262, 265, 275
Reynolds's Newspaper, .267, 274,
275, 282
Richard, H., Memoirs of Joseph
Sturge, quoted, 173
Richards, 112
Richardson, R. J., no, in, 122,
139, 155
Richmond, Duke of, 16
Rider, William, 266
Ridley, Ruy, 164
Rights of Nations, 84
Riots of 1831, 57 ; of 1839, 140,
141,143,144; of 1847, 238-9,
254
Roberts, 133
Roberts, W. P., 200, 206, 209, 220,
237
Robinson, Abraham, 272
Rockingham, Lord, 16
Roebuck, J. A., 78, 79, 80, 142,
183
Rogers, George, 122
Roman Catholic Relief Act, 12
Romney, 20
Rose, John, 164
Ross, 198
Rousseau, 12
Ruskin, John, 281
Russell, Lord John, 38, 76, 109,
115, 128, 131, 134, 141, 162,
184, 219, 237-49, 255, 256,
260, 265, 286
Russell, Early Correspondence of
Lord John Russell, quoted,
131
Russell, Recollections and Reflec-
tions, 131
Russell, 134
Ryder, William, 122, 229
Sacred month, 138, 139, 140
Saffi, 272
St. Simon, 226
Sale, Edward, 257
Salt, T. Glutton, 103, 112, 122, 137
Salvador, Republic of, Constitu-
tion of, 290
Sankey, W. S. V., 122
Schapper, 229, 233, 234, 235
Schluter's Die Chartisten-Bewe-
gung, 7
Scholefield, Joshua, 93, 95, 97
Scottish Chartist Circular, 149
Seditious Meetings Act, 35
Sevastopol, Fall of, 267
Sewell, W., 209
Shaen, William, 231, 232, 258, 289
Shakespeare, William, 236, 251 ;
Henry IV, 144
Shaw, J., 257, 267, 268, 269, 272,
282, 283
Shawn, W., 159
Shelley, B., 84
314
INDEX
Sheridan, Richard, B., 14, 15
Sherron, 253
Shirren, James, 257
Sidmouth, 37
Six Acts, The, 37, 106
Six Points, 176-8, 179, 183, 184,
186, 187, 193, 235, 236, 265,
275, 291, 294, 295
Skerrington, Duncan, 209
Sketchley, To-day, 190
Skevington, John, 122, 164
Skirving, 23, 86
Smart, T. R., 122, 139, 164
Smiles, Samuel, 161
Smith, Adam, The Wealth of
Nations, 12
Smith, Henry, 257
Smith, Dr. Southwood, 145
Smyth, Sir G. H., 114
Social Reform League, 262
Socialism, Chartist meaning of,
282
Socialist Movement, 283, 284
Socialism, Marxian and Chartism,
72
Society for Promoting Constitu-
tional Information, origin,
15 ; shut down by North-
Fox Coalition and revived by
the French Revolution, 16 ;
appeal to the people, 17 ;
its end, 26
Society for Promoting Working
Men's Associations, 285, 286
" Soldiers' Charter," 272
Solly, Rev. H., 177, 283, 284;
These Eighty Years, quoted,
124
Somers, Matthew, 244, 245
Sommerville, Alexander, 218 ;
Warnings to the People on
Street Warfare, 132
Sonderbund trouble in Switzer-
land, 237
Southern Star, 155
Spa Fields Riots, 34-5, 37
Spectator, 174, 265, 269
" Speenhamland Act of Parlia-
ment," 1795, 26
Spen Valley, Past and Present,
Spen Valley Strikes and Riots,
190
Spence, Thomas, career and land
nationalization scheme, 30 ;
other references, 176-7, 198
Spencer, Herbert, 176
Stallwood, 234, 235
Stamp Duties, 259
Stanhope, third Earl of, 12
Stansfield, James, 159, 231, 232,
259
Star, The, 205, 269
Star and National Trades Journal,
269
Star of Freedom, 269
State Trials, 23
Stephens, Rev. Joseph Rayner,
90, 91, 94, 95, 96, 104, 115,
181, 1 86, 292 ; arrest in 1838,
125; trial and sentence, 126-7
Sterling, John, 55, 56, 62
Stevens, George, 257
Stevens, Life of Wheeler, 223
Stevenson, M., 257
Stubbs, Dean, 249
Sturge, Joseph, character and
family, 172 ; anti-slavery
agitation, 172-3 ; Chartist
sympathies, 173, 175-6, 178-
80, 194, 196-8, 274, 285-7,
292 ; prominent member of
Anti-Corn Law League, 174 ;
Free Trade sympathies, 174 ;
contests election, 220
Sutherland family, 270
Tanner, 257
Tattersall, Thomas, 257
Taxes on knowledge, 260
Taylor, James, 122
Taylor, Dr. John, 94, 104, 105,
107, 122, 135, 280
INDEX
315
Taylor, P. A., 179, 231, 232
Taylor, P. A., Junr., 231, 232
Taylor, Richard, 231, 232
Tedesco, 235
Ten Hours Bill, 219
Thackeray, W. M., 288
Thelwall, John, trial for high
treason, 24-5 ; connexion
withN.P.U.,52
Thistlewood, execution of, 37
Thorn, or Tom of Canterbury, 100
Thomas, D., 257
Thompson, Colonel (afterwards
Major-General) Perronet, 49,
78, 79, 86, 104, 157, 201,202,
276 ; Exercises, 202
fight, Benjamin A., 122
Tillman, William, 162
Times, The, 143, 148, 199, 220,
235, 237, 239, 241, 242, 245,
246, 247, 262, 264, 265
Tooke, Home, 20 ; trial for high
treason, 24
Townsend, 133
Toynbee, Joseph, 231, 232
Toynbee, Arnold, 232
Trade Unions and Chartism, 264
Trade Unions, General Federation
True Sun, 177 [of, 271
Tucker, Josiah, Dean of Glouces-
ter, 13
Tuke, Dr. Harrington, 267
Turgot, 12, 62
" Two Acts," 26, 28
Tytherly, Queenwood Hall Colony
at, 208
Union of Democratic Control, 156
United Brothers' Industrial, Sick
Benefit and Life Assurance
Company, 271, 282
Urquhart, David, 155, 270
Veitch, G. S., The Genesis of Par-
liamentary Reform, quoted,
19,23
Victoria, Queen of England, 93,
123, 145, 186, 245, 252, 281 ;
The Girlhood of Queen Vic-
toria, 123 ; Letters of Queen
Victoria, 249
Villiers, The Hon. C. P., 160, 184
Vincent, Henry, 68, 71, 78, 86, 91,
94, 95, 108, 112, 115, 144,
159, 160, 177, 178, 181, 197,
198, 231, 258, 260 ; career
and description, 91, 92, 289 ;
delegate to National Conven-
tion, 122 ; arrest, 133, 142,
288 ; finest orator of Chartist
Movement, 141 ; and teetotal-
ism, 153, 154, 156-7 ; Chartist
candidate for Parliament,
170, 220, 289 ; letter to
Place, quoted, 170 ; death,
289
Voltaire, 12
Wade, Rev. Arthur S., LL.D.,
IO8, 112, 122, 177
Wakefield, Life ofThomasAttwood,
93,95
Wakley, T., 158, 160, 184, 224
Wall, T. J., 164
Wallas, Graham, Life of Francis
Place, 7, 95, 170, 174
Walter, Edward, 257, 273
Walter, John, proprietor of the
Times, 172, 180
Walter, John (son of above), 220
Warburton, H., 138, 159
Warden, 155
Wason, R., 159
Watkins, John, author of John
Frost, 161, 217
Watson, Dr., 35, 58
Watson, James, early career, 46,
47, 49 ; arrest, 61 ; -friends,
68 ; connexion with W.M.A.,
78, 95 ; death, 289 ; other
references, 145, 159, 231, 242,
257, 259, 260
INDEX
Webb, Sidney, History of Trade
Unionism, quoted, 146, 200
Webb, Mrs. Sidney, The Co-
operative Movement, 285
Weekly Dispatch, 228
Weitling, 229, 230
Wellington, Duke of, 39, 56, 57,
60, 62, 72, 116, 162, 237, 245,
246, 248, 249
West, John, scheme for Co-opera-
tive Ownership of Land, 201,
237, 248, 255, 257
Westerton, Charles, 159, 179
Wetherell, Sir Charles, 57, 58
Wilkinson, J. P., 257
Wheeler, T. M., 203, 208, 209, 223,
233, 267, 268, 282, 283
Whittle, James, editor of The
Champion, 112, 122
Wild, R., 257
Wilhelm, Prince of Prussia, 241
Wilhelm II, Ex-Emperor of Prus-
sia, 241
Wilkes, John, 12, 15, 24
William III, King of England, 105
Williams, M., 164, 166
Williams, P. W., 159
Williams, Zephaniah, 145, 163, 264
William IV, King of England, -72,
78
Wilson, B., Struggles of an old
Chartist, 276, 277
Wollstonecroft, Mary, 12 ; Vindi-
cation of the Rights of Man,
19 ; Vindication of the Rights
of Woman, 20
Woman Suffrage Movement, birth
of , 36, 37 ; and the People's
Charter, 83, 156-7
Wood, Sir Charles, 220
Wood, Sir Matthew, 160
Wood, Benjamin, 159
Wood, Joseph, 122
WorkingMen's Association, forma-
tion and programme, 75, 76,
77, 78, 106 ; members of, 91,
92, 95 ; influence, 97 ; and
theCharter, 101 ; andB.P.U.,
103 ; petition On behalf of
Lovett and Collins, 138 ;
influence of Lovett on, 152 ;
address to the people of
Canada, 228 ; compared with
P.I.L., 232
Working Men's Association, 288,
289, 292, 293
Working Men's Club and Institute
Union, 283
Working Men's College, 284
Working Men's Universal Suffrage
Club, 76
Wray, Sir Cecil, M.p., 15
Wroe, James, 112, 122
Wyvill, Rev. Christopher, activi-
ties in Parliamentary Reform
agitation, 17, 1.8
Year of Revolutions, The, 237,
238-241
Young, The Rev., 176
Young, Arthur, 203
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