Chartists and Complete Suffragists--Feargus O'Connor--William
Lovett--John Collins--Henry Vincent--Thomas Cooper--Edward
Miall--Reverend Thomas Spencer.
In this chapter, I will give brief notices of some of the more prominent
Chartists and Free-Suffragists.
FEARGUS O'CONNOR has been styled "The Great Chartist Leader." In
advocating the cause, he has suffered for his imprudences, if not for
his principles. He is made up in about equal degrees of the braggart and
the coward, the demagogue and the democrat--a legitimate product of the
rotten institutions and turbulent times in which he was born and has
flourished. With many good qualities and many bad ones, he had not the
moral bravery to lead a reformation, nor the physical courage to head a
revolution. Aspiring to do both, and wanting capacity for either, he
failed in each. Respect for an impulsive man who has proclaimed good
principles in bad times, and sympathy for a weak man who has felt the
thorn of persecution from worse hands than his own, induce me to forbear
further remark on the foibles and follies of one who is shorn of his
influence to do much future good or evil. Better for Chartism if he had
lived and died a Tory; though, with all his sins, he will be kindly
remembered when Toryism rots in contempt.
WILLIAM LOVETT'S manly virtues and vigorous sense adorn a noble
enterprise. Born in extremest poverty, he has struggled upward against
the crushing weight of factious systems, to an influential position in
society. While a young man, he was drafted into the militia--refused to
be degraded into a machine to kill men at the word of command--was
arraigned before a magistrate for the offense--terrified the justice by
the boldness and ability of his defense--and was discharged from the
service after seeing his little property confiscated and his family
reduced almost to beggary. This petty tyranny fixed him in the purpose
of preparing himself to aid in remodeling institutions that taxed him to
the marrow, without allowing him any voice in the selection of his
rulers. He worked at his trade of cabinet-making by day, and cultivated
his mind by night. Throwing himself into all movements for the
improvement of the laboring classes, he first attracted general notice
by his connection with the London Working Men's Association, established
in 1836. The many able addresses which this central body issued to the
working men of the kingdom, and to the laboring classes in Belgium,
Poland, and Canada, were prepared by him. These led the way for the
Chartist movement. In 1838, he assisted Messrs. O'Connell, Roebuck, and
other members of Parliament, in preparing "The People's Charter;" his
part of the work consisting in drafting, theirs in revising, this noble
and painfully celebrated document.
One of the main originators of the Chartist enterprise, he now gave to
it his whole energies; and well would it have been had his pacific
disposition controlled its direction. The National Convention of
Chartists was in session in Birmingham in 1839. The people of that town,
as was their wont, were holding a meeting in "The Bull-ring," to discuss
questions of reform. The police, part of whom had been specially sent
from London, were ordered to break up the meeting. They rushed upon the
assemblage, and, with their bludgeons, knocked down men, women, and
children, and dispersed the meeting. Mr. Lovett, who was secretary to
the Convention, drew up and presented to that body a manly protest
against these outrages. It was printed and circulated through the town.
For writing that paper, he and John Collins (who had carried the
manuscript to the printer) were arrested for sedition, thrust into a
dungeon, indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced to a year's
imprisonment in Warwick jail. On the trial, Lovett defended himself with
skill, and his address to the jury commanded general admiration. While
in prison, Lovett and Collins published a pamphlet of 130 pages,
entitled "Chartism: A Plan for the Education and Improvement of the
People." It is able and eloquent, filled with the noblest sentiments,
and contains suggestions for the instruction and elevation of the
masses, which would, if acted upon by the government, place England a
century in advance of her present position. Near the close of their
confinement, they wrote another paper, which I transcribe entire. The
Melbourne Administration, "which meant but little, nor meant that little
well," became ashamed of its treatment of Lovett and Collins, and
offered to release them on their entering into bonds to keep the peace.
Here is their reply. Read it, and see how contemptible a nobleman looks
in the hands of a cabinet-maker and a tool-maker:
"WARWICK JAIL, May 6, 1840.
"_To the Right Honorable the Marquis of Normanby, Her Majesty's
Secretary of State for the Home Department:_
"MY LORD: The visiting magistrate of the county jail of Warwick
having read to us a communication, dated Whitehall, May 5, and
signed S. M. Phillips, in which it is stated that your Lordship
will recommend us to Her Majesty for a remission of the remaining
part of our sentence, provided we are willing to enter into our
recognizance in L50 each for our good behavior for one year, we beg
respectfully to submit the following as our answer. To enter into
any bond for our future good conduct would be an admission of past
guilt; and however a prejudicial jury may have determined that the
resolutions we caused to be published, condemnatory of the attack
of the police, were a violation of the law of libel, we cannot
bring ourselves to believe that any criminality attaches to our
past conduct. We have, however, suffered the penalty of nearly ten
months' imprisonment for having, in common with a large portion of
the public press, and a large majority of our countrymen,
expressed that condemnatory opinion. We have been about the first
political victims who have been classed and punished as
misdemeanants and felons, because we happen to be of the working
class. Our healths have been injured, and our constitutions
seriously undermined by the treatment we have already experienced;
but we are disposed to suffer whatever future punishment may be
inflicted upon us, rather than enter into any such terms as those
proposed by your Lordship.
"We remain your Lordship's most obedient servants,
"WILLIAM LOVETT,
"JOHN COLLINS."
Having been confined to a narrow, filthy cell, and fed on the meanest
fare, Mr. Lovett's health was so seriously impaired, that he did not
recover his wonted vigor till nearly two years after his release from
prison.
Mr. Lovett was a member of the Birmingham Complete Suffrage Conference
in 1842, and his well-balanced mind and lucid speeches gave him a
leading position in that body. For a few years past, he has been engaged
in publishing works adapted to the wants of the laboring classes, and
his pen has been active in their cause. He was the publisher of
"Howitt's Journal," and contributed some of the best papers that
appeared on its pages. In person he is tall and gentlemanly, has an
intellectual countenance, and, take him all in all, is a rare specimen
of the rich ore that lies embedded under the crust of British
aristocracy.
JOHN COLLINS, like William Lovett, came up from the ground tier of
British society, and has brought along with him more of the marks of his
"order" than Mr. L. He has rode out a good deal of rough weather in
defense of Chartist principles. On his release from Warwick jail, he was
received with the warmest enthusiasm by congregated thousands of his
Birmingham neighbors. He afterward made a tour of Scotland, addressing
audiences in the principal towns. I listened to one of his speeches. My
mind having been filled with prejudices against him, I was prepared to
see a monster. But there stood before me a stout, bold man, uttering
the loftiest truths in a practical and pointed style, and with a tone
and bearing conciliatory but firm--a man earnest in vindicating the
depressed classes, who had shown courage in peril, endured persecution
without repining, and now received applause without vanity--a nobleman
by nature, a tool-maker by trade, but who never tried to make a tool of
others, and was the last person who would submit to be made one himself.
The name of the young and eloquent HENRY VINCENT thrills the hearts of
millions of Britain's laboring poor. While an apprentice in a London
printing-office, he aided by extra work during the day in supporting a
destitute mother and her children, while midnight generally found him
absorbed in some book adapted to expand his mind. His intellect outran
his years, and he became a radical reformer when yet a boy. At the age
of 14, he made a speech to his juvenile companions on the then
engrossing subject of Catholic Emancipation. The French Revolution next
possessed his enthusiastic soul. He stood dumb with emotion when he
first saw the handbill at the door of the newspaper office, headed
"Revolution in France!" He rushed home, got his sixpence, bought the
paper, and run through the streets announcing the event to all whom he
met. Soon followed the Reform Bill excitement, which absorbed his
energies. Although but 16 or 17 years old, he was chosen a member of a
Political Union, and participated in its proceedings. Arriving at his
majority in 1836, he resolved to consecrate his powers to the elevation
of the laboring and disfranchised classes of the people. He joined with
Mr. Lovett in the Chartist movements of 1837-8, traveled the country as
a lecturer, and was immediately ranked among the most vigorous and
brilliant advocates of The Charter. Such was his success among the hardy
mountaineers of Wales, that the Government became alarmed, marked him
for its victim, and, on his coming to London to visit his widowed
mother, dragged him from her dwelling at dead of night, on a charge of
sedition, thrust him into a dungeon, tried him, convicted him, and sent
him a year to Monmouth jail. The crime proved upon him was, using
violent language and making the people discontented with the Government!
Just before the close of his term of imprisonment, he was again
arraigned on a similar charge, and doomed to another twelve months'
incarceration. While in prison, he was treated with such barbarity that
fears were entertained of a rescue by the Welsh, with whom he was highly
popular, and he was removed to London. His journey thither was a
triumphant procession, crowds gathering and cheering him at several of
the principal towns on the route. While confined in a solitary cell in
the London penitentiary, Mr. Sergeant Talfourd brought his case before
Parliament, eulogized his character and talents, and arraigned the
Government for the harsh treatment inflicted upon him. This woke up Lord
Normanby, the Home Secretary, who visited Vincent, heard some very plain
talk, had him removed to Oakham jail, and furnished with decent
lodgings, and pen, ink, and paper. After suffering twenty-two months,
(the Government having remitted two,) this pure-hearted young
philanthropist was released, and the same day partook of a complimentary
dinner, when he made a speech in defense of his principles and conduct,
worthy of the theme and the man.
Soon afterward, at the general election in 1841, Mr. Vincent was invited
to contest the borough of Banbury for a seat in Parliament, the whole
body of non-electors, and a large minority of the electors, being in his
favor. On the morning of the election, (the result being very doubtful
between the Whigs and Tories,) a committee of the former offered him a
large sum of money to withdraw from the contest. He had scarcely spurned
the proposal, when a Tory deputation offered him L1,000 to abandon the
field. He refused the bribe with scorn. He was defeated, but he retired
with honor, leaving hundreds of converts to his principles behind him.
He subsequently, on special request stood for Ipswich and Tavistock,
having failed of carrying the latter borough by only 44 votes, against
the combined power of the House of Bedford. At the general election of
1847, he polled a very large vote in Plymouth. His chief object in
yielding to the solicitation of his friends to mingle in these contests
was, to improve the opportunity they afforded him for bringing thorough
democratic principles before the people.
Mr. Vincent united with the Free Suffragists in 1842, and during the
past seven years he has traversed England and Scotland, addressing
multitudes in favor of Peace, Temperance, Education, Free Trade, and
Parliamentary Reform, winning a high place among the advocates of
radical reform. His speeches are a continuous flow of rapid, fervid
eloquence, that illuminates the reason, kindles the imagination, and
fires the heart. In person, he is below the middle size, symmetrically
formed, with very handsome features, graceful and elastic in his action
as a deer, and his voice thrills the blood like a war-trumpet.[19]
[19] The trials of Lovett, Collins, Vincent, and others, are reported
briefly in the 9th volume of Carrington & Payne's reports. The legal
points raised on the trials chiefly make up the reports.
THOMAS COOPER is another original genius, who has forced his way into
sunlight through the thick shell of British caste. Eating the bitter
bread of poverty during childhood, he contrived, by means that throw
fiction into the shade, to gratify a native taste for reading, drawing,
and music. Laboring on a shoemaker's bench from the age of fifteen to
twenty-three, he snatched from toil the opportunity to acquire a
respectable knowledge of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French languages,
and of Algebra and Geometry--to commit to memory considerable portions
of Shakspeare and Milton--to peruse the works of Hooker, Cudworth,
Stillingfleet, Warburton, and Paley--and to compose some poetry and
essays of his own. This he did by robbing sleep of its wonted hours, and
while his miserable wages afforded a pittance barely sufficient to keep
him and his mother from starving.
At the age of twenty-three, he dropped his awl and hammer, and emerged
into the world. For ten years he buffeted a sea of troubles, dividing
his time between teaching country schools and writing for newspapers;
now accumulating a choice library of 500 volumes, and then parting with
it, volume by volume, for bread. In 1841, while engaged as a reporter
for the _Leicestershire Mercury_, he was directed to report a Chartist
lecture. It was the first he had heard, and its principles found an echo
in his bosom. He commenced a lecturing tour in support of the Charter,
visiting, among other places, the Staffordshire potteries. While in that
region, in 1842, occurred those serious disturbances which for weeks
tossed the Midland counties on a wild tempest of riots. At first, the
object was to raise the wages of the operatives by a general "strike."
Demagogues fanned the flame, till it broke loose in arson, pillage, and
other violent acts, resulting in a few instances in loss of life. Cooper
was arrested, and finally arraigned on four indictments for riot,
sedition, and arson. He was tried, and, though acquitted on the more
serious charge, was convicted of the minor offenses, against every
principle of law or reason. He was sentenced to two years and three
months' imprisonment. One of the trials lasted ten days. Cooper defended
himself with great ability, proving no unworthy antagonist for Sir
William Follett. The barbarous treatment he received in prison gave him
rheumatism, neuralgia, and other diseases; but it gave to the world "The
Purgatory of Suicides." This poem appeared soon after his liberation, in
1845, having been composed in Stafford jail. It was highly eulogized in
the Eclectic, Britannia, and other literary periodicals, and met with
immediate success. In the preface, the author proudly says:
"I am poor, and have been plunged into debt by the persecution of
my enemies; but I have a consolation to know, that my course was
dictated by heart-felt zeal to relieve the sufferings and
oppressions of my fellow-men. Sir William Follett was entombed with
pomp, and a host of titled great ones, of every shade of party,
attended the laying of his clay in the grave. They propose now to
erect a monument to his memory. Let them build it; the
self-educated shoemaker has also reared his, and, despite its
imperfections, he has a calm confidence that, though the product of
poverty, and suffering, and misery, it will outlast the posthumous
stone block that may be erected to perpetuate the memory of the
titled lawyer."
Mr. Cooper subsequently published other works, assisted in editing
Douglas Jerrold's Magazine, contributed to Howitt's Journal, and
delivered courses of lectures before various literary and scientific
institutions in London; but, under all circumstances, giving his heart
and his hand to all efforts to elevate the class of society in which he
is proud to have had his origin.
The bare names of those who have borne a prominent part in the Chartist
movement would fill pages. I must leave them, and have time to notice
two men only who may be classed as Complete Suffragists proper, they
never having acted with the Chartists.
Mr. EDWARD MIALL has been for several years the editor of _The
Nonconformist_. He formerly officiated as a dissenting minister.
Competent judges have pronounced this newspaper one of the ablest of the
English journals; its conductor one of the ablest of English editors.
Undoubtedly it stands in the front rank of _religious_ newspapers. It
has a clear comprehension of the mission of a religious journal in the
current crisis of English affairs, and fulfills it with courage,
integrity, and ability. It is the organ of no sect, but reflects the
views of radical reformers of all denominations. It is the organ of no
party, but utters the sentiments of the friends of progress. While it
gives much attention to ecclesiastical affairs, it discusses all
political matters that occupy the public mind, probing subjects to the
core, laying bare corruption, and excoriating evil-doers in Church and
State, without fear or favor, ranting or cant. The leading
characteristic of its editorials is their searching and philosophical
style of argument; while the hue of the rhetoric, the texture of the
composition, are lustrous and compact, equaling in beauty and grandeur
the essays of the first class of periodicals. It occasionally indulges
in the most pungent sarcasm and lively wit, all the more biting and
inspiring for being exceptions to the general rule. Every line breathes
a deep earnestness for truth, and a warm sympathy with humanity. The
writings of Mr. Miall are models of English composition.
At the last general election, Mr. Miall contested Halifax as the radical
candidate; and his speeches during the canvass were only surpassed in
strength and acuteness by the emanations of his own pen. In the outward
semblances of the orator--the mere frame and gilding--he falls below the
expectations of those familiar with his writings. An attenuated frame, a
thin voice, a stiff demeanor, a monotonous gesticulation, seem too
slight a frame-work to sustain the operations of so mighty a mental
machine as his. Glorious dawn of England's better day, when the seats of
her Parliament are thickly sprinkled with such men as Miall, Cobden,
Sturge, Thompson, and Vincent.
Having stopped a moment to look at the plain garb of a Nonconformist
minister, we will glance at a hardly less radical reformer, arrayed in
the canonicals of the Church of England, "as by law established"--Rev.
THOMAS SPENCER. As this gentleman has traveled and spoken extensively in
our country, it will not surprise Americans to be told that, though a
clergyman of the Establishment, he is also a thorough teetotaler, the
enemy of commercial monopolies, a complete suffragist, and almost a
democrat. Possessing superior talents, a rich flow of eloquence, a
commanding and graceful person, Mr. Spencer has been eminently
successful in instructing and delighting large audiences of his
countrymen, and commending to their judgments and tastes themes that
would have been repulsive in the hands of men of less aristocratic
associations. He took a prominent part in the Birmingham Conference of
1842, which organized the National Complete Suffrage Union, and was
elected a member of the General Council of that association. He has
mingled much with the poor of England, feels deeply for their wrongs,
and boldly advocates their rights. How beautiful and cheering is the
light reflected upon the wide-weltering chaos of surrounding darkness,
by such clergymen as Thomas Spencer and Baptist Noel. They, as well as
many kindred spirits of the Establishment, and the great mass of
dissenting ministers, do not esteem it incompatible with their dignity,
nor unbecoming their sacred calling, to take an active part in all
questions, whether political or ecclesiastical, which vitally affect the
interests of their fellow-subjects. I have never heard that their labors
for the people in the forum diminished their influence over the people
in the pulpit. Nay, it rather increases that influence by convincing the
people that, in becoming ministers, they did not lose their interest in
anything which concerns the well-being of their fellow men.