One of the most important political movements of the present century
was the Chartist agitation in Great Britain. This agitation began in
1838. It was an effort of the under man in England to gain his rights.
In the retrospect, it seems to us astonishing that such rights as
those that were then claimed by the common people of England should
ever have been denied to the citizens of any free country. The period
covered by the excitement was about ten years in duration, and during
that period great and salutary reforms were effected, but they were
not thorough, and to this day the under man in Great Britain is mocked
with the _semblance_ of political liberty, the _substance_ of which he
does not enjoy; the same is true in America.
The name _Chartist_ arose from an article called the "People's
Charter," which was prepared by the famous Daniel O'Connell. The
document contained six propositions, follows:
(1) We demand Universal Suffrage--by which was meant rather Manhood
Suffrage than what is now known as universal suffrage, meaning the
ballot in the hands of both sexes. This the Chartists did not demand.
(2) We demand an Annual Parliament--by which was meant the election of
a new House of Commons each year by the people.
(3) We demand the right to Vote by Ballot--by which was meant the
right of the people to employ a _secret_ ballot at the elections
instead of the method _viva voce_.
(4) We demand the abolition of the Property Qualification now
requisite as a condition of eligibility to Membership in the House of
Commons.
(5) We demand that the Members of Parliament shall be paid a salary
for their services.
(6) We demand the Division of the Country into Equal Electoral
Districts--by which was meant an equality of _population_, as against
mere territorial extent.
To the reader of to-day it must appear a matter of astonishment that
the representatives of the working classes of Great Britain should
have been called upon, at a time within the memory of men still
living, to advance and advocate political principles so self-evident
and common-sense as those declared in the Charter, and his wonder must
be raised to amazement when he is told that the whole governing power
of Great Britain, the King, the Ministry, the House of Lords, the
House of Commons, the Tories as a party, the Whigs as a party,
and--all party divisions aside--the great Middle Class of Englishmen
set themselves in horrified antagonism to the Charter and its
advocates, as though the former were the most incendiary document in
the world and the latter a rabble of radicals gathered from the
purlieus of the French Revolution.
The reason for the outbreak of the Chartist reform was the fact that
the Reform Bill of 1832 had proved a signal failure. For six years the
English Middle Classes had sought by the agency of that act to gain
their rights, but they had sought in vain. The people now began to
follow popular leaders, who always arise under such conditions. One of
these, by the name of Thorn, a bankrupt brewer and half madman, who
called himself Sir William Courtenay, appeared in Canterbury. He said
that he was a Knight of Malta and King of Jerusalem--this when he was
only a knight of malt and a king of shreds and patches. Delusion broke
out on every hand. One great leader was Feargus O'Connor. Another was
Thomas Cooper, a poet, and a third was the orator Henry Vincent,
afterward well known in America.
The agitation for reform spread far and wide. The people seemed to be
about to rise _en masse_. The powers of British society were shaken
and alarmed. The authorities put out their hands and the Chartist
meetings in many places were broken up. The leading spirits were
seized and thrown into prison for nothing. Three of the agitators were
sent to the penal colonies, for no other offence than the delivery of
democratic speeches. For several years the movement was in abeyance,
but in 1848, in the month of April, the agitation broke out afresh and
rose to a formidable climax. A great meeting was appointed for the
Kensington common, and there, on the tenth of the month just named, a
monster demonstration was held. A petition had meanwhile been drawn
up, praying for reform, and was _signed by nearly two million
Englishmen_!
After this the Chartist agitation ebbed away. The movement was said to
be a failure; but it failed, not because of the political principles
on which it was founded, but because those principles had in the
meantime been acknowledged and applied. At least three of the six
articles of the Chartist charter were soon adopted by Parliament. The
principle of Manhood Suffrage is virtually a part of the English
Constitution. The right of voting by Secret Ballot, deposited in a
ballot-box, has also been acknowledged as a part of the _modus
operandi_ of all British elections. In like manner the Property
Qualification formerly imposed on candidates for Parliament, against
which the Chartists so vehemently and justly declaimed, has long since
been abolished.