The decline of the Chartist movement

Preface

The present study is rather a problem in causation than a complete narrative of the Chartist movement. During a score of years, which may be roughly indicated as lying between the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the outbreak of the Crimean War, the portion of the British laboring classes which aspired to play a part in national politics entered the political arena not as an ally of the middle-class reformers but as an independent party with a program and an organization of its own. Ever since that time many individuals have preached class-consciousness to the workers, but it was not until the recent organization of the Labour Party that a political party based upon class lines was again able to win the allegiance of a majority or even a large minority of British workingmen. Even the present-day Labour Party has been less independent of the Liberals than were the Chartists, although this may be due rather to the necessary compromises of Parliamentary work than to lack of class feeling. Why a popular movement, so generally supported by the unenfranchised classes of Great Britain as was the Chartist agitation, should have been abandoned without attaining the program of reforms to which it was pledged is a difficult and complex question and one to which insufficient attention has been paid. The aim of the present survey has been to contribute a little to the discussion of this vitally important question in the political history of Great Britain in the nineteenth century. The writer owes much to the Columbia School of Political Science for instruction and inspiration, but an especial debt 253] 5

PREFACE of gratitude to Professor James T. Shotwell for taking this study in charge; to Professor Carlton Hayes and to Professor WilHam Archibald Dunning for the time and attention which they have so freely given to supervising its preparation; to Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman for generously granting access to the remarkable collection of source material for British social history in his library; to Mr. Edward A. Porritt, author of The Unreformed House of Commons, for helpful suggestions; and to Mr. J. H. Park, whose forthcoming study of The Reform BUI of 1861 adds to this another chapter in the struggle for the reform of the British franchise.

Preston William Slosson.

IvIay, 1916.

Contents

PAGE

Preface 5

Introduction ii

CHAPTER I Popular distrust of the middle-class Radicals 17

Organization of the Chartist party 19

The demand for further political reform 21

The Charter as a class document 22

Economic character of the movement recognized by its opponents. .... 28

Aims of Chartist leaders 31

Views on national revenue and taxation 31

On state subsidized co-operation 33

The land -monopoly grievance 35

Small holdings championed 37

Abolition of primogeniture , 38

Land nationalization versus peasant proprietorship 39

Anticipation of the single tax by O'Brien 42

Confidence in political action as a means to social betterment 43

''Sources of Chartist strength 44

The trades unions 45

General poverty of the industrial classes 46

Opposition of the Chartists to the Anti-Corn Law League 47

Opposition to the factory system 51

Attitude of the ruling classes to social legislation 52*^

The reform of the Elizabethan Poor Law 54

Chartist attacks upon the new law 57

CHAPTER II Chief periods of Chartist activity 60

The petition of 1842 61

Numbers associated with the movement in that year 62

The industrial depression of 1842; extreme poverty among the people ... 63

255] 7 g CONTENTS [256

PAGS

Peel's first reform of the Corn Laws 65

Agitations and disorders ; the great strike of August 66

Attempt to turn the strike into a political demonstration 68

Repression of the agitation 69

Political alliance with Sturge's Complete Suffrage Union ; the conference of

April 72

Chartist activity in the elections for Parliament 73

Failure of the December conference 74

Disappearance of the Complete Suffrage Union 77

CHAPTER III The Disintegration of the Chartist Movement

Weakness of the movement after 1842 78

Increasing influence of O'Connor 7^

The debate with Bright and Cobden 80

O'Connor alienates rival leaders from the party 81

Physical force versus moral force methods 82

O'Connor's land plan ; its failure 84

Continued industrial disorders 93

Revival of Chartist strength , 94

Chartist success in the elections of 1847 94

Chartist revolutionary spirit in 1848 95

Alarm of the government and of the general public 97

The demonstration of April tenth 99

Evidence of the waning strength of the movement as shown by the petition

of 1848 loi

Repressive measures taken by the authorities 102

Loss of popular interest in the agitation 103

Rival reform organizations started 106

Dominant influence of Ernest Jones after 1848 io9

Attempts to revive the Chartist movement no

Failure to sustain the party organization "3

Chapter IV

The Improvement in the Condition of the British Working Class after 1842

Difficulty of determining the influence of economic factors 115

Recovery of business from the depression of 1842 117

Evidence of improved condition of the people 119

Continued high prices of foodstuffs 1 19

Repeal of the Corn Laws 121

Effect on prices 123

257] CONTENTS g

PACK

Limitation of hours of labor in mines and factories 124

Reform in Poor Law administration 127

Industrial depression of 1847 ^^7

Changes in wages during the Chartist agitation 129

In factories 129

In mines 130

In hand labor 130

In agriculture 131

The " golden age " of British agriculture 132

Commercial and industrial prosperity 133

Evidences of a rise in the standard of living among the working classes . 134 Illustration of the effect of changes in wages and prices upon the intensity

of agitation for the Charter 136

CHAPTER V A Discussion of the Causes of the Decline of the Chartist Movement

Failure of 1 848 rather a symptom than a cause of weakness 138

No new working-class movement in politics takes the place of Chartism . 141

Decline not a result of political concessions nor of governmental repression 141

Internal weaknesses of the party 142

Lack of direct representation in Parliament, due mainly to its class character 142

Lack of a definite economic program 145

Lack of agreement on questions of policy 147

Ineffective leadership 149

Harmful influence of O'Connor 159

Incessant friction and jealousy among party leaders 15 1

Loss of popular support not due to increased conservatism or to the progress

of popular education and political reform 153

Effect of remedial legislation 155

Effect of the triumph of the Anti-Corn Law League 156

Unwise attitude towards middle-class radicalism 157

Effect of the return of prosperity 160

Proof of the influence of economic factors , . , 162

Summary of most important causes 166

Chapter VI

The Response of the Ruling Classes of Great Britain to the Chartist Movement

The middle-class Radicals regain control of the movement for political democracy 169

Effect of Chartism as a demonstration of popular discontent 17c lO

CONTENTS [258

PAGE

Chartism but one phase of the general labor movement 171

Activities of the Christian Socialists 172

Patronage of the co-operative movement 174

Championship of the labor unions . 175

Altered attitude of the ruling classes to social problems 177

The emigration movement .... 178

Alliance of the British labor movement with the Irish nationalists broken

up by heavy Irish emigration 179

Attempts in Parliament to reform the franchise 181

The accomplishment of the principles of the Charter 184

Disraeli and the Tory Democrats 186

Gladstone and the new Liberalism 187

CHAPTER VII The Permanent Influence of Chartism on the British Working Class

The working classes adopt " more quiescent means of elevation " .... 188

The co-operative movement absorbs many Chartists 189

Rapid development of trades-unionism 192

Anticipation of Marxian Socialism in the Chartist movement 196

Effect of the movement in training the working classes in self-reliant action 198

Chartism as an educator 199

Interest of the Chartists in the liberal and revolutionary movements of continental Europe i99

Chartism and the Crimean war 202

Chartist praise of the United States of America 204

Effect on the working classes during the American Civil War 206

Awakening of political interest of working women 206

The equal suffrage Chartists 207

What became of the Chartist leaders after the close of the movement . . , 208

Place of Chartism in history 209

Bibliography 211

Index 215

Introduction

The six demands of the People's Charter: manhood suffrage, equal election districts, annual Parliaments, abolition of the property qualification for members of the House of Commons, vote by ballot, and salaries for members of Parliament, had all been long familiar to British reformers before they attained such a degree of popular support as makes it possible for us to speak of a Chartist viovement. The Chartists themselves claimed that their aim was but to restore the ancient constitution of England as it existed prior to the rise of the centralized Tudor monarchy. History does not justify their faith, but dates the Charter as a political demand from the latter part of the eighteenth century. Major John Cartwright urged four of its six points in 1776, and Charles James Fox later advocated them all. Even the name " Charter " for a political program was no novelty. A pamphlet of 1832, entitled The People's Charter,^ besides recommending such political reforms as universal suffrage, vote by ballot and annual Parliaments, advocated numerous other reforms which it assumed would result from political democracy, such as an untaxed press, factory legislation, a militia instead of a standing army, abolition of the kingship, and the further abolition of numerous abuses; such as, sinecures and high salaries, the established church, the bank monopoly, primogeniture, the com laws, the poor laws. West Indian slavery, the national debt, the peerage, the game laws, imprisonment for debt,

1 The People's Charter, an abstract from The Rights of Nations (London, 1832).

and all taxes except a graduated property tax. All of these aims were congenial to the Chartists, but it seems, on the whole, that the date of this pamphlet is more significant than its title. It did not clearly recommend all of the six points of Chartism and its elaborate detail is characteristic of the doctrinaire radicalism of the years before the Reform Act of 1832,

The germ of the Chartist party was the London Workingmen's Association, under the able leadership of William Lovett. While the phrasing of the People's Charter varied somewhat at different periods, the text of the 1837 petition of the London Workingmen's Association ^ is typical of later forms :

Equal Representation. That the United Kingdom be divided into 200 electoral districts, dividing as nearly as possible an equal number of inhabitants ; and that each district do send a representative to Parliament.

Universal Suffrage. That every person producing proofs of his being 21 years of age to the clerk of the parish in which he has resided for six months, shall be entitled to have his name registered as a voter. That the time for registering in each year be from the ist of January to the ist of March.

Annual Parliament. That a general election do take place on the 24th of June in each year, and that each vacancy be filled up a fortnight after it occurs. That the hours of voting be from six o'clock in the morning till six o'clock in the evening.

No Property Qualifications. That there shall be no property qualifications for members ; but on a requisition signed by 200 voters, in favour of any candidate, being presented to the clerk of the parish in which they reside, such candidate shall be put in nomination. And a list of all the candidates nominated throughout the district shall be stuck on the church door in every parish, to enable voters to judge of their qualifications.

^ Bronterre's National Reformer, Feb. 11, 1837.

26l] INTRODUCTION 1 3

Vote by Ballot. That each voter must vote in the parish in which he resides. That each parish provide as many balloting boxes as there are candidates proposed in the district, and that a temporary place be fitted up in each parish church for the purpose of secret voting. And on the day of election, as each voter passes orderly on to the ballot, he shall have given to him by the officer in attendance, a ballotting ball which he shall drop into the box of his favorite candidate. At the close of the day the votes shall be counted b> the proper officers, and the numbers stuck on the church doors. The following day the clerk of the district and two examiners shall collect the votes of all the parishes throughout the district, and cause the name of the successful candidate to be posted in every parish of the district.

Sittings and Payments to Members. That the members do take their seats in Parliament on the first Monday in October, next after their election, and continue their sittings every day (Sundays excepted) till the business of the sitting is terminated, but not later than the first of September. They shall meet every day (during the session) for business at ten o'clock in the morning, and adjourn at four. And every member shall be paid (quarterly) out of the public treasury £400 a year.

That all electoral officers be elected by universal suffrage.

It will be seen that had the Charter become the law of the land several incidental reforms would have been accomplished as well as the six points; such as the abolition of plural voting, nominations by popular petition, a decrease in the size of the House of Commons and a mandatory working week for the representatives of the people. In 1839 ^ the Chartist proposal increased the number of electoral districts to three hundred and the remuneration of members of Parliament to £500 a year. But no important change was ever made in the Charter except that whereas

1 Chartist Circular, Oct. 5, 1839.

during the first two or three years of the movement it was customary to speak of the " five points," neglecting the question of equal electoral districts/ during the period covered by this study the word " Charter " invariably stood for all six of the fundamental reforms of the party.

Besides the text of the Charter itself, and the various preambles to the successive petitions to the House of Commons consisting for the most part of surveys of popular grievances, the best primary records of Chartism are the pamphlets and newspapers of the party. Over fifty Chartist pamphlets are listed in Gotthilf Dierlamm's Die Flugschriftenliteratur der Chartistenbewegung (Naumburg, 1909) ; over sixty periodicals more or less Chartist are given in R. G. Gammage's History of the Chartist Movement (London, 1894) or in other secondary sources. The non- Chartist press devoted no little attention to the movement, and a fairly complete — if not altogether unbiassed — history of Chartism could be compiled from the London Times, the Annual Register, Hansard's Parliamentary Debates and similar external sources without any reference to Chartist authorities. The memoirs or miscellaneous writings of the Chartist leaders, such as William Lovett, Thomas Cooper, J. Bronterre O'Brien, G. J. Holyoake, S. B. Bamford, W. J. Linton and many others, are of course of great value ; but it should always be remembered in reading them that no movement was ever more torn by faction and internal strife than the Chartist, and that it is in consequence hopeless to seek a quite unprejudiced criticism of men and events. Valuable sidelights are thrown upon the course of the movement by the writings of sympathetic contemporary observers, such as Charles Kingsley, Benjamin Disraeli, Thomas Carlyle, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

^ The prayer of the petition of 1839 as given in Hansard, 3d series, vol. xlviii, p. 227, does not mention equal electoral districts.

263] INTRODUCTION 1 5

We are not so well off for secondary sources of Chartist history as for primary. R. G. Gammage's History of the Chartist Movement is indeed the one book which is indispensable to every student of the movement, as much so today as when it was written in 1854. This is not only because it is a full and well-considered outline of the actual events of the movement, not only because of much valuable information assembled by the author, but because Gammage was one of the party leaders and so was possessed of much inside information which is unobtainable elsewhere. But Gammage's book is not impeccable. The 1894 edition contains letters by his fellow Chartists Thomas Cooper and William Ryder correcting errors in his account, and the author acknowledges the justice of many of their corrections. In the Life of Thomas Cooper, by Himself (London, 1872), Cooper criticizes Gammage's History yet further, adding, however, the consolatory remark (true even today) that " I know no person living who could write a History of Chartism without making mistakes." ^ More important than a few minor and inevitable misstatements is the strong partisan bias which Gammage shows on every page, though to no greater a degree than other Chartists. But the chief reason for regarding his work rather as a valuable source than as a satisfactory history is that while an admirable chronicle it is nothing more ; it does not give that economic background which is essential to any understanding of the causes of events. Many brief and well-balanced incidental accounts of Chartism occur in general histories, such as W. M. Molesworth's A History of England from the Year 1830 (London, 1872), vol. ii; H. M. Hyndman's The Historical Basis of Socialism in England (London, 1883), and, the best of all perhaps. The Rise of Democracy, by J. Holland Rose (London, 1897).

Although Chartism was a purely British movement, the student will find secondary material comparatively abundant in languages other than English, particularly in German. The best and fullest account of the Chartist movement as a whole and also of many of its special phases, such as its relation to the feminist movement, is to be found in Hermann Schliiter's Die Chartisten- Bewegung (New York, 191 6). This work, which is an elaboration of Die Chartistenhewegung in England in the Sozial-Demokratische Bibliothek, vol. xvi (Zurich, 1887), is written entirely from the standpoint of orthodox Marxian Socialism. Its only rival for completeness and scope is Le Chartisme, by fidouard Dolleans (Paris, 1912), which is in two volumes and contains over nine hundred pages. This work is rather vague and diffuse, and, while it quotes freely, lacks a bibliography. In German we have also a very valuable study of the origins of the movement in Die Entstehung und die Okonomischen Grunds'dtse der Chartistenhewegung, by Dr. John L. Tildsley (Jena, 1898) ; also Die Flugschriftenliteratur der Chartistenhewegung, op. cit., based in part on Dr. Tildsley's work, and Die Englische Chartistenhewegung, by Lujo Brentano, Preussische Jahrbilcher, vol. xxxiii (Berlin, 1874). In Russian there is a brief account, Chartistskoe dvizhenie, by N. B. Krichevski (St. Petersburg, 1906).

CHAPTER I Chartism as a Class Movement

Chartism may be briefly defined as that phase of the movement for poHtical democracy in Great Britain which centered its hopes upon the six principles of the People's Charter : manhood suffrage, equal election districts, annual Parliaments, abolition of the property qualification for membership in the House of Commons, vote by ballot, and payment for members of Parliament. The Charter was but one of many radically democratic programs which were proposed during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, but it was the only one to find general support among the still unenfranchised classes. The aim of each of the points of the Charter was to win for these classes a majority in the House of Commons ; for it was believed that control of the House of Commons implied control of the government, and that the king and the House of Lords could no more resist a working-class majority in the lower house than they had been able to resist the majority of middle-class reformers in that house in 1832.

Prior to the Reform Bill of 1832, the British working classes had never entered politics as a separate party. The violence of the Luddite machine wreckers, the growth of trades unions and the prevalence of strikes indicated, indeed, the sharpest conflict between manufacturers and operatives in the economic field, but both joined forces to attack the virtual monopoly of power enjoyed by the landlord 265] 17 l8 THE DECLINE OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT [266

class. In 1832, there were two main political groups in Great Britain, the reformers, including both the Whigs and the Radicals, and the anti-reformers, or Tories. But the victory of reform was followed by the division of the reformers into factions. The Whigs, or ministerialists, opposed further political change, at least until the country should have fully recovered from its years of agitation. The Radicals desired extensive changes in the civil and criminal law; the abolition of special privileges, such as the Anglican Church enjoyed; complete free trade, and an immediate extension of the franchise. Most of the Radicals favored household suffrage, the ballot, abolition of the property qualification for the House of Commons, and shorter sessions of Parliament; some of them favored every point of the Charter. They were not sufficiently numerous in the House of Commons to form a ministry or even to organize as a formally separate party, but they criticized the government freely, contested Whig seats at elections, and frequently voted against the ministry on crucial divisions. Their influence was far out of proportion to their numbers, for their leaders included some of the ablest men in Parliament, and had, besides, the moral weight of a widespread popular support.

Before the meeting of the reformed Parliament the Radicals had not regarded themselves nor were they regarded by the people as primarily representatives of the middle classes. They were rather considered as the champions of popular rights and the expounders of popular grievances in general; their political and economic policies were understood to favor the interests of the laborers as well as manufacturing and commercial interests. Some of the earlier Radicals, indeed, specialized in reforms of interest to the working classes. Francis Place, for example, devoted himself chiefly to securing liberty for the trades unions. William Cobbett, one of the older generation of reformers, although new to Parliament, vigorously opposed the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834/ But the Radical leaders most prominent during the period of Chartist activity, Bright, Cobden, Hume, Roebuck and Lord Brougham, were regarded with growing dislike and disfavor by many of the artisans, while retaining the confidence of a large proportion of the middle classes. There were two main causes for this growing political opposition between the working classes and their employers : the fact that the Reform Bill greatly increased the opportunity of the middle classes to obtain representation in Parliament, while leaving the workers practically without direct influence upon the parties in the House of Commons; and the entrance of economic issues, upon which the interests of the two classes were opposed, into the sphere of practical politics. The masses of the people found that the Radicals were no longer representing them, and their discontent continued to grow until it ripened at last into the Chartist movement.

The Chartists, unlike the Radicals, must be reckoned not only a separate political group but a separate political party. They stood quite independent of the Whig and Tory organizations and maintained party machinery of their own. The general policies and tactics of the party were determined in conventions of delegates chosen by local Chartist associations, and their execution was left to a permanent executive committee and to paid lecturers and propagandist agents. The organization was the product of a merger between the London Working Men's Association, led by William Lovett and Henry Vincent; the Birmingham Political Union, including Thomas Atwood and John Collins ; and the political unions organized by Feargus

1 Cf. infra, p. 57.

O'Connor/ In 1840, these organizations took the common name of the National Charter Association. Any person taking out a card of membership, renewable quarterly for the nominal fee of twopence, was admitted. The executive, elected by the whole membership of the association, consisted of a secretary, a treasurer, and five other members. The secretary and the treasurer each received two pounds a week for their services, and the other members thirty shillings a week during their sittings. The executive had at its disposal half the funds of the association.^ Of the many alternative forms of party organization proposed, perhaps the most interesting was that by Dr. McDouall, who suggested in 1841 ^ the organization of the party by trades. There should be, for example, a Shoemakers' Chartist Association, not identified with any trade union but representing the political interests of the shoemakers as an industry.

The separate party existence of the Chartists is often ignored because they were practically without representation in Parliament.* Yet the movement absorbed the larger part of the politically active working class which had given invaluable support to the agitation for reform. The Chartists could not consistently support the Whig ministry, since it was opposed to further popular agitation, but the Radicals would have welcomed the aid of a politically active working class which, even unenfranchised, would have lent weight to their demands. If the Radicals had not lost the confidence of the British working classes there might never

* Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement, p, 15. ' Ibid., pp. 183-4.

* English Chartist Circular, vol. i, pp. S7-8.

* Many of the Radicals in Parliament, however, were in sympathy with the Charter, and some of them, such as Thomas Duncombe, vigorously advocated it on the floor of the Commons.

269] CHARTISM AS A CLASS MOVEMENT 2I

have been a Chartist movement; the poverty and dissatisfaction of the people, no matter how great, would only have increased the number of unrepresented Radicals. During the decade following the Reform Bill, on the contrary, the working class drew away from their old allies and leaders, largely because of the attitude of the reformed House of Commons and even the most active of the Parliamentary reformers towards the questions of social politics which most interested the people.

The Reform Bill of 1832 was a great disappointment to Radicals and Chartists alike. At no time during the Chartist agitation did the number of electors in the counties and boroughs of England and Wales amount to one million. In 1853-4, the number of county electors was officially reckoned at 520,729; the borough electors at 430,311.^ 363,375 electors were qualified under the ten-pound householder franchise; the rest representing older franchises. The Reform Bill not only left political power in the hands of a small minority of the nation, but superseded more democratic systems which had existed in a few of the boroughs. In the industrial borough of Preston, for example, the franchise had been extended to most of the male inhabitants ^ and the Reform Bill came there as a measure of restriction of the suffrage. Gilbert Slater is even of the opinion that as a result of these disfranchisements the proportion of British workingmen eligible to vote was smaller after 1832 than it had been before.^' In any case, the new uniform borough constituencies were marked off from the unenfranchised by a sharper class line than ever,

^Parliamentary Papers, 1854 (69), liii, 219.

*J. McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, 4 vols. (London, 1880), vol. i, pp. 109-10.

^ G. Slater, The Making of Modern England (Boston, igis), P- 97- since the new law enfranchised only the well-to-do and excluded none but the relatively poor.

Both the Radicals and the reformers who were afterwards Chartists were willing to accept the Reform Bill as an instalment of justice. But a political system which might be tolerated as temporary they regarded as unendiqrable if it were tO' be treated as a finality. Lord John Russell, as chief of the Whig ministry, during the debates on the Reform Bill made it plain that he did not expect to see any further extension of the franchise even after the victory of the Reform Bill,^ " because both those who supported and those who opposed it were alike determined to go no further, but to use their best endeavors to preserve the renovated constitution, entire and unimpaired ". As soon as the Radicals became convinced that these words were not merely an attempt to reassure timid supporters of the measure, they accused the Whigs of betraying the democratic cause. Lord Brougham replied to Lord John Russell's defense of his course ^ by a vigorous attack in which he declared his readiness to support franchise reform " even far beyond household suffrage ".^ But every attempt made in Parliament to alter the basis of the suffrage, to introduce the ballot or to abolish the property qualification for membership in the House of Commons met with sharp ministerial opposition and was defeated by a decisive majority.

The Chartists soon came to the conclusion that it was harder to obtain their six points from the reformed House of Commons than it would have been to win them had there been no reform at all, for the very reason advanced

^ Hansard, 3d series, vol. xiii, p. 462. ' Letter to the Electors of Stroud ( 1839) .

* Reply to Lord John RusselVs Letter to the Electors of Stroud (1839), p. 15.

by Lord Russell that the newly enfranchised were in no hurry to share their privileges, while the opponents of reform were more than ever determined to prevent changes from extending further. In the opinion of the Chartists :

The Reform Act admitted the middle classes to a share of that power which was fomierly engrossed by the aristocracy . . . but what is the consequence of the Reform Act to us, the people? Why, that the number of our opponents, of those interested to uphold the monopoly of legislative abuse, is more than doubled ; and, instead of having the middle classes on our side, making common cause with us against the aristocracy, we have to contend against a combination of the aristocracy and middle order. ^

They were resolved never to work again for any extension of the franchise short of manhood suffrage, lest they should be deceived once more by the creation of a new privileged class, the stronger because the more broadly based. In consequence they viewed the Radical efforts to obtain small concessions with positive suspicion as so many attempts to erect barriers against complete democracy. The favorite Radical franchise measure was household suffrage and this the Chartists strongly opposed. Two extracts from Chartist periodicals on this issue will serve to illustrate the general Chartist attitude towards piecemeal reform :