Chartism

Chartism, British working-class movement for parliamentary reform named after the People’s Charter, a bill drafted by the London radical William Lovett in May 1838. It contained six demands: universal manhood suffrage, equal electoral districts, vote by ballot, annually elected Parliaments, payment of members of Parliament, and abolition of the property qualifications for membership. Chartism was the first movement both working class in character and national in scope that grew out of the protest against the injustices of the new industrial and political order in Britain. While composed of working people, Chartism was also mobilized around populism as well as clan identity.

The movement was born amid the economic depression of 1837–38, when high unemployment and the effects of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 were felt in all parts of Britain. Lovett’s charter provided a program acceptable to a heterogeneous working-class population. The movement swelled to national importance under the vigorous leadership of the Irishman Feargus Edward O’Connor, who stumped the nation in 1838 in support of the six points. While some of the massive Irish presence in Britain supported Chartism, most were devoted to the Catholic Repeal movement of Daniel O’Connell.

A Chartist convention met in London in February 1839 to prepare a petition to present to Parliament. “Ulterior measures” were threatened should Parliament ignore the demands, but the delegates differed in their degrees of militancy and over what form “ulterior measures” should take. In May the convention moved to Birmingham, where riots led to the arrest of its moderate leaders Lovett and John Collins.

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The rump of the convention returned to London and presented its petition in July. Parliament rejected it summarily. There followed in November an armed rising of the “physical force” Chartists at Newport, which was quickly suppressed. Its principal leaders were banished to Australia, and nearly every other Chartist leader was arrested and sentenced to a short prison term. The Chartists then started to emphasize efficient organization and moderate tactics. Three years later a second national petition was presented containing more than three million signatures, but again Parliament refused to consider it. The movement lost some of its mass support later in the 1840s as the economy revived. Also, the movement to repeal the Corn Laws divided radical energies, and several discouraged Chartist leaders turned to other projects.

The last great burst of Chartism occurred in 1848. Another convention was summoned, and another petition was prepared. Again Parliament did nothing. Thereafter, Chartism lingered another decade in the provinces, but its appeal as a national mass movement was ended. With the onset of the relative prosperity of mid-Victorian Britain, popular militancy lost its edge. Many Chartist leaders, however, schooled in the ideological debates of the 1840s, continued to serve popular causes, and the Chartist spirit outlasted the organization. Five of the six points—all except the annual Parliaments—have since been secured.