1
Q
What were the origins of the Chartists?
A
- After the 1832 Reform Act, seemed to show that a well-organised campaign, with
demonstrations, meetings, pamphlets and newspapers, all backed up by huge numbers could achieve change in Parliament.
2
Q
Why were people dissapointed with the Reform Act?
A
- Henry Hunt, long-time champion of
universal suffrage lost his seat in Parliament. - In the years following the passing of the Refonn Act of 1832, the working classes felt icreasingly betrayed by the middle classes and the actions of the new Parliament seemed to
demonstrate even more opposition to the interests of the working classes than the unreformed Parliaments had done.
3
Q
What was the Factory Act of 1533 and why were people annoyed by it?
A
- Launched to limit the length of the working day in factories and mines to ten hours.
- All they got out of Parliament were restrictions on the hours that children could work in factories. Men and women would still have to work long hours. The new Parliament showed little interest in the improvement of working conditions.
4
Q
What was the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 and why were people annoyed with it?
A
- Parliament extended the vote for local town councils to all ratepayers. This effectively excluded the working classes from participating in local government because, to be a ratepayer, one had to own property and very few of the working classes did so.
- Furthermore, the new town councils began to establish modern police forces that many of the working classes saw as threatening.
5
Q
What was the ‘war of the unstamped’ press?
A
- Since the Acts of 1819, newspapers had had to pay stamp duty, a special tax imposed by the government.
- However, not all newspapers obeyed the law. The “Poor Man’s Guardian” edited by Henry Hetherington, was priced at a penny and sold over 15,000 copies a week.
- Eventually, the Whig government gave in and, in 1836, lowered the tax to a point where
newspapers could be sold for much less. This was an important victory since an
active press was vital in developing and spreading radical ideas.
6
Q
What were the Anti-Poor Law campaign 1837-8?
A
- The new Poor law, passed by the Whig government in 1834, was designed to cut the increasing cost of poor relief. It abolished ‘outdoor relief’ so that poor relief would only be available in workhouses.
- It stated that conditions in the worikhouse were to be ‘less eligible’ than those of the poorest paid worker outside. It was no wonder that fear and hatred of the workhouse became widespread among the working classes.
- To working people, it looked as if it was designed to rob them of what they saw as their ‘right’ to poor relief by forcing them into the workhouse if they came on hard times.
7
Q
How did radical chartist leaders react to the Anti-Poor Laws?
A
- Radical leaders began to tour the country, giving speeches, raising funds and setting up local clubs to oppose the introduction of the new Poor Law in the industrial north.
- Fergus O’Connor, who was to become the best known and most powerful Chartist leader, started his Northern Star newspaper in Leeds. It played a crucial role in spreading news and views across the country, both in this campaign and in the next ten years as the leading Chartist newspaper.
- When the Radical MP John Fielden proposed the repeal of the new Poor Law in Parliament, the House of Commons voted against it by 309 to 17 votes.
- The conclusion was obvious: working men would have to enter Parliament itself if they wer to secure control over, and improve, their
own lives.
8
Q
What were the six points of the Charter?
A
Written in 1837 by six members of the London Working Men’s Association:
• Universal manhood suffrage
• Vote by secret ballot: so that all votes could be cast without fear of pressure.
• Annual Parliaments: general elections to take place every year.
• EqualI electoral districts: so that all constituencies contained roughly the same number of electors.
• Abolition of the property qualification for MPs.
• Payment for MPs
9
Q
What was the National Petition?
A
- A petition, demanding the six points of the Charter, would be presented to Parliament.
- Those signatures would be collected at mass meetings held all over the country. Also at these meetings, delegates would be appointed
to attend a National Convention which would in turn organise the presentation of this National Petition to Parliament.
10
Q
How many copies was the Northenr Star selling by 1939?
A
By 1839, it was selling 50,000 copies a week, similar in circulation to The Times, the most famous national newspaper.
11
Q
How many signatures were collected for the National Peitition?
A
- Over 1.25 million signatures were collected in support of the petition. Both the size of the petition (it was three miles long) and the level of national co-ordination were unprecedented.
- Yet, in July 1839, Parliament rejected the petition by 235 votes to 46. Most MPs simply decided to have nothing to do with it.
12
Q
What were the disagreements between Moral and Physical force among the Chartists?
A
- Most Chartists were passionate believers in ‘moral force’. They believed that Chartism was so obviously a just and fair cause that they could win people over with the power of their arguments.
- However, most also believed that they needed the sheer force of numbers behind them if they were to persuade a property-owning Parliament to agree to universal suffrage.
- Attwood had said: ‘No blood shall be shed by us; but if our enemies shed blood - if they attack the people - they must take the consequences upon their own heads.’
13
Q
What is ‘defensive force’?
A
It was summed up by the slogan ‘Peacefully if we can, forcefully if we must’.
14
Q
Why did the Convention break up in 1939?
A
- Although the Convention. voted against the idea of a month-long strike, the delegates called for a three-day strike in August.
- Many Chartists refused to leave work and so lose their pay (and their jobs) for what they saw as a short-term gesture. Others, in the most loyal Chartist districts, stayed off work and attended rallies.
- The Chartist Convention broke up in September 1839. There was still much support for direct action, despite the arrest of many leading Chartists, but the rejection of the petition had led to confusion about what to do next.
15
Q
What was the Newport Rising 1839?
A
- In November 1839, nearly 10,000 men marched from towns and villages in south Wales to Newport in Monmouthshire. Most of them were miners and ironworkers. Many of them were armed - with pikes, guns or just wooden clubs - and they marched in military formation.
- There was a small force of troops who started firing and over twenty bodies were left at the scene.
- Three of the leaders were sentenced to death for attempting to overthrow the State by force, but the Whig goverment, keen to avoid making martyrs, changed the sentence to transportation instead.
16
Q
What was Chartism fueled by?
A
- Chartism was certainly fuelled by unemployment, low wages and hunger but
the Charter was seen as the solution. - If working people were to take control of their own lives and bring about social and economic change, they would have to gain political power first.
- Chartism is best seen as both an economic and a political move1nent in that it was co1nposed of political activists who wanted to use politics to improve their living and working conditions and thus make for a more just and fair society.
17
Q
What was the National Charter Association?
A
- While O’Connor was imprisoned in York
Castle, he continued to write articles for the Northern Star. Among other things, he encouraged the establishment of the National Charter Association (NCA). - Set up in 1840, this was to be the most important Chartist organisation for the rest of the decade.
- By 1842, it had 50,000 members in 400 branches across the country.
18
Q
What were the ‘New moves’ adapted by the Chartists?
A
- When William Lovett was released from prison in 1840, he concentrated his energies on promoting education for the working classes. He devised a scheme with schools, libraries and teacher training colleges.
- Respectable behaviour would calm the fears of the propertied classes and show that the working classes were ‘ready’ for the vote.
- O’Connor and his supporters organised the , collection of signatures for a
second petition and the meeting of another convention in 1842. - Three million signatures were collected for the petition. Helped by economic depression and rising unemployment, 1842 was probably the year of Chartism’s greatest strength in terms of mass support. But, yet again, in May 1842, Parliament rejected the petition by a huge majority.
19
Q
What were the ‘Plug’ strikes and riots in 1842?
A
- As the strikers went from factory to factory gaining support, they pulled the plugs from the boilers, to prevent the steam engines from working, and thus forcing the factories to close down.
- In the late 1830s and early 1840s, 6000 troops were deployed in the north.
- They were led by General Napier. He was sympathetic towards the Chartists and attributed many of the distunbances to the new Poor Law.
- He did not underestimate the Chartist numbers but it was pity, rather than fear, which he felt for them: ‘Their threats of attack are miserable.”
20
Q
Why did the Chartists lose mass support in the mid 1940s?
A
- The arrest of many of its leaders
- Divisions among other leaders
- Economic recovery, especially with the boom in railway building
- Reforms carried out by the government.
21
Q
Was Chartism a failure?
A
- Not surprisingly the power of the State was too strong for the Chartists. The army was loyal and professional police forces had been established across most of the country by the 1840s.
- The government had the support of the magistrates and extensive use was made of the courts to pick off and imprison Chartist leaders. The railways enabled troops to be moved far more quickly to where they were needed and the government made good use of another new technology - the electric telegraph speed up communications.
A Level History - Britain
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