The idea of the Charter--a formal petition embodying the movement's aims--originated in 1836 among artisans of the London Working Men's association of which the most active members were Francis Place and William Lovett. The movement spread throughout the country and was joined by many disparate groups, often with conflicting aims but all determined to bring parliament to heel by forcing it to pass the Charter into law. Drafted by 1838, the petition was circulated widely until some 1,280,000 signatures were appended by supporters. In July 1839 a fleet of horse wagons brought the papers to the House of Commons in London and the petition was introduced in parliament by its middle-class supporter, Thomas Attwood, M.P. It was decisively rejected by 235 votes to 46. The arrest of supporters (dubbed Chartists) followed in the wake of severe disturbances and strike threats and soon the agitation died down.
Two more attempts were made in the following decade to win the rights inscribed in the Charter but each failed in the face of solid middle-class resistance to extending the franchise to those who were held to have no stake in the nation, i.e., to those who did not possess property qualifications. The 1842 petition collected 3.3 million signatures from nearly 500 cities, towns and villages but was even more firmly rejected by 287 votes to 49. The movement's swan-song came in 1848 at the height of a period of acute economic distress, having collected only 1,900,000 signatures on this occasion. In the face of heightened unrest and agitation, the government reacted firmly, preventing demonstrations and arresting leaders. The decision in parliament was a foregone conclusion, losing by 17 votes to 222.
The movement had been riven by conflicting aims and personality clashes, with the moderate suffrage demands of the London activists, such as Lovett, opposed to the radical, anti-industrial fulminations of the unstable Feargus O'Connor. Yet the manifold ills of British society were clearly brought to the fore as is evident in the exuberant rhetoric of the1842 version of the petition that follows--police repression, excessive hours of labor, unhealthy working conditions, widespread poverty . . . as well as the exclusive franchise, the payment of tithes, and even the denial of home rule to Ireland. For all its failure, however, it cannot be denied that the Charter pointed the way to the future, for within the next two generations all but one of the Six Points of the Charter were passed into law.
PETITION: . . . . That the only authority on which any body of men can make laws and govern society, is delegation from the people.
That as Government was designed for the benefit and protection of . . all, therefore all should be equally represented.
. . . . That the existing state of representation is not only extremely limited and unjust, but unequally divided, and gives preponderating influence to the landed and monied interests to the utter ruin of the small-trading and laboring classes.
That the borough of Guildford, with a population of 3,920 returns to Parliament as many members as the Tower Hamlets, with a population of 300,000; [one instance of many] of the enormous inequalities existing in what is called the representation of this country.
That bribery, intimidation, corruption, perjury, and riot, prevail at all parliamentary elections to an extent best understood by the Members of your honorable House.
That your petitioners complain that they are enormously taxed to pay the interest of what is termed the national debt, . . .of the enormous amount expended in cruel and expensive wars for the suppression of all liberty, by men not authorized by the people, and who, consequently had no right to tax posterity for the outrages committed by them upon mankind . . . and whilst poverty and discontent rage over the land. . . .
That in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, thousands of people are dying from actual want; and your petitioners, whilst sensible that poverty is the great existing cause of crime, view with mingled astonishment and alarm the ill provision made for the poor, the aged, and infirm; and likewise perceive, with feelings of indignation, the determination of your honorable House to continue the Poor Law [the workhouse system for the poor] in operation, notwithstanding the many proofs which have been afforded by sad experience . . of its unchristian character . . .
That your petitioners would direct the attention of your honorable House to the great disparity existing between the wages of the producing millions, and the salaries of those whose comparative usefulness ought to be questioned; where the riches and luxury prevail amongst the rulers, and poverty and starvation amongst the ruled.
That your petitioners, with all due respect and loyalty, would compare the daily income of the Sovereign Majesty with that of thousands of the working men of this nation; and whilst your petitioners have learned that her Majesty [Queen Victoria] receives daily for her private use the sum of £164. 17s. 10d., they have also ascertained that many thousands of the families of the laborers are only in the receipt 3¾d. per head per day [i.e., over ten thousand times as much]. . . .
That your petitioners have, with pain and regret, also learned that the Archbishop of Canterbury is daily in the receipt of £52. 10s. per day, whilst thousands of the poor have to maintain their families upon an income not exceeding 2d. per head per day.
That unless immediate remedial measures be adopted, your petitioners fear the increasing
distress of the people will lead to results fearful to contemplate . . .
That your petitioners know that it is the undoubted constitutional right of the people, to
meet freely, when, how, and where they choose, in public places, peaceably, in the day,
to discuss their grievances, and political or other subjects, . . .
That your petitioners complain that the right has unconstitutionally been infringed; and 500 well disposed persons have been arrested, excessive bail demanded, tried by packed juries, sentenced to imprisonment, and treated as felons of the worst description.
That an unconstitutional police force is distributed all over the country, at enormous cost, to prevent the due exercise of the people's rights. And your petitioners are of opinion that the Poor-law Bastilles [i.e., workhouses] and the police stations . . have originated from the same cause, viz., the increased desire on the part of the irresponsible few to oppress and starve the many. . . .
That your petitioners complain that the hours of labor, particularly of the factory workers are protracted beyond the limits of human endurance, and that the wages earned, after unnatural application to toil in heated and unhealthy workshops, are inadequate to sustain the bodily strength, and supply those comforts which are so imperative after an excessive waste of physical energy.
That your petitioners also, direct the attention of your honorable House to the starvation wages of the agricultural laborer, and view with horror and indignation the paltry income of those whose toil gives being to the staple food of this people.
That your petitioners . . . respectfully mention the existing monopolies of the suffrage, . . of land, of the public press, of religious privileges, of the means of travelling and transit, and of a host of other evils too numerous to mention, all arising from class legislation, but which your honorable House has always consistently endeavored to increase instead of diminish.
That . . . your petitioners are of opinion that it is the worst species of legislation which leaves the grievances of society to be removed only by violence or revolution, both of which may be apprehended if complaints are unattended to and petitions despised.
That petitioners complain that upwards of nine millions of pounds per annum are
unjustly abstracted from them to maintain a church establishment [i.e., the
Church of
England], from which they principally dissent [i.e., not being members
of the C. of E.]; . .
Your petitioners complain that it is unjust and not in accordance
with the Christian
religion, to enforce compulsory support of religious creeds, and expensive church
establishments, with which the
people do not agree.
That your petitioners direct the attention of your honorable House to the enormous revenue annually swallowed up by the bishops and the clergy, and entreat you to contrast their deeds with the conduct of the founder of the Christian religion, who denounced worshippers of Mammon, and taught charity, meekness, and brotherly love. . .
That your petitioners maintain that it is . . constitutional right . . of every male inhabitant of the United Kingdom, he being of age and of sound mind, non-convict of crime, and not confined under any judicial process, to exercise the elective franchise in the choice of Members to serve in the Commons House of Parliament.
That . . Parliament should be held once in each year. . . .
That your petitioners complain that possession of property is made the test of men's qualification to sit in Parliament.
That your petitioners complain, that by influence, patronage, and intimidation, there is at present no purity of election; and your petitioners contend for the right of voting by (secret) ballot.
That your petitioners . . contend that . . all representatives should be paid a limited amount for their services.
That your petitioners complain of the many grievances borne by the people of Ireland, and contend that they are fully entitled to a repeal of the legislative union [i.e., that they be governed by their own separate parliament]. That . . should your honorable House be pleased to grant your petitioners a hearing . . your petitioners will be enabled to unfold a tale of wrong and suffering--of intolerable injustice--which will create utter astonishment in the minds of all benevolent and good men, that the people of Great Britain and Ireland have so long quietly endured their wretched condition, brought upon them as it has been by unjust exclusion from political authority, and by the manifold corruptions of class legislation.
That your petitioners, therefore, . . demand that your honorable House do
. . .
immediately, without alteration, deduction, or addition, pass into law the document
entitled 'The People's Charter', which embraces the:
Representation of male adults
Vote by ballot
Annual Parliaments
No property qualification
Payment of members
Equal electoral districts
[Ref.: British Parliamentary Debates, May 3, 1842]
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