Chartist Agitation (1886)

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Author(s) Frederick Engels
Written August 1886


First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. X, Moscow, 1948
Printed according to the manuscript
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 26
Keywords : Chartism, United Kingdom

This original research is based on materials carried by Chartist papers, Engels’ own notes and personal reminiscences. In fact, it is a detailed synopsis of a work on the history of Chartism. It highlights the role of its Left wing, the influence on each other of Chartist agitation in England and the Irish people’s liberation movement. Engels compiled the table at the request of the German socialist Hermann Schlüter to help him write a history of the Chartist movement. The chronology drawn up by Engels by late August 1886 probably provided the basis for Schlüter’s book Die Chartistenbewegung in England which appeared in Zurich a year later.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

1838. August 6. Meeting in Birmingham (speakers: Attwood, Scholefield, F. O'Connor) to petition the Hous e of Common s to mak e the People's Charter law.[1]
September 17. Chartist meeting in New Palace Yard, Westminster. [2]
December 13. Royal proclamation that torchlight meetings and arme d assemblies illegal.
December 20 Meeting of the ANTI-CORN LAW LEAGUE in Manchester.
1839. January 15. ANTI-CORN LAW meeting in Birmingham:

Chartist resolution CARRIED, that universal suffrage takes priority.— In Leeds UNSUCCESSFUL.

January 21 , 22. ANTI-CORN LAW meetings [in] Manchester and Edinburgh.
February 5. In the Queen's Speech Chartists threatened with the law.
March 16. Chartist CONVENTION AT CROWN AND ANCHOR. PHYSICAL FORCE PROCLAIMED BY O'Connor AND Harney
April 1. Meeting in Edinburg h TO SUPPORT ministers. Th e Chartists won and threw the LORD PROVOST out of the CHAIR AND CARRIED THEIR RESOLUTION
April 29. Chartist RIOTS in Llanidloes.—The Chartists in control of the town for a while. (In Newport shortly before, John Frost removed from the MAGISTRACY.)
May 8. H. Vincent arrested FOR INCITING TO RIOT at Newport. (Ministerial crisis—replâtrage.[3] )
May 13. The rest of the Chartist CONVENTION (thus the petty bourgeois out) removed to Birmingham. 50,000 men received and led through the city. Manifesto passed immediately at the first session: TO WITHDRAW ALL THEIR MONEY FROM BANKS, TO DEAL EXCLUSIVELY WITH CHARTISTS AND TO HAVE A SACRED MONTH[4]

AND TO ARM.— F. O’Conno r de -mands that the petition to the Queen[5] to appoint a Chartist ministry should be presented peacefully by 500,000 men armed with rifles.

May 25. Meeting in Kersal Moor. F. O'Connor says he came because the meeting had been declared illegal by the magistracy.
June 14. Attwood presents the Chartist Petition, 1,280,000 signatures. URGENCY REFUSED BY 235:46.
June 18. Grote's MOTION ON BALLOT rejected 333:216.
July 4. Chartist RIOTS in Birmingham, Bull Ring meeting broken up by police and army. Secretary of the CONVENTION[6] arrested. The CONVENTION protests.
July 15. Bull Ring riots again, procession through the town, looting, several shops burnt down. Army called out, NO LOSS OF LIFE.
July 18. Llanidloes RIOTERS SENTENCED TO IMPRISONMENT
July 20. RIOTS [in] Newcastle.
August 2 Vincent & Co. sentenced to imprisonment AT Monmouth.
August 3. Birmingham RIOTERS TRIED, 3 sentenced to death, but REPRIEVED.
August 6. Chartist CONVENTION, now in Arunde l Coffee House , London , decides to postpone the SACRED MONTH set for August 12 owing to lack of preparation, but on the 12th the TRADES which can are to take 2-3 days off and to hold processions an d meetings ON THE PRESENT AWFUL STATE OF.THE COUNTRY.
August 11. St. Paul's Churc h [in London ] and the Manchester OLD CHURCH occupied by Chartists durin g the sermon, which did not lead to anything.
August 12. Manchester, Macclesfield, Bolton, etc. Attempt to go throug h with the three-day SACRED MONTH. Feeble and unsuccessful
August 15. Chester ASSIZES. J. R. Stephens' TRIAL for UNLAWFUL MEETING AND EXCITING TO RIOT AT Cotton Tree, Hyde . That was the meeting where the volleys were fired.— 18 MONTHS Knutsford.
August 27. PARLIAMENT PROROGUED.
August 30. Nouveau replâtrage ministeriel.[7]
September 14. DISSOLUTION OF CHARTIST NATIONAL CONVENTION.
September 20. F. O'Conno r ARRESTED, Manchester, SEDITION.
September 23. Ebenezer Elliott accuses the Chartists of being Tor y agents (Sheffield).
November 4. Newport RIOTS. The HILL MEN under Frost and Williams march on the town, meet up at Tredegar Park with Jones’ column (from Pontypool) and attack the soldiers, who had already been summoned (to protect the assembled magistrates). Skirmish. 9 dead are left lying there, others ... and the wounded carried off. Frost arrested the next morning. The soldiers commanded by a lieutenant! Williams apprehended soon after.—TRIAL December 31-January 8. According to one witness, the Welsh Mail to Birmingham was to be stopped, and its non-arrival was to be the signal to strike in the Midlands and the North . Frost, Williams and Jones sentenced to death, TRANSPORTED FOR LIFE.
1840 January 13. Resumption of ANTI-CORN LAW agitation with BANQUET and meeting in Manchester.
January 16. Parliament opened .
March 16. The ministry twice defeated in the HOUSE OF COMMONS. Start of the BLASPHEMY PROSECUTIONS by HOME SECRETARY'S COMMITTEE.
March 17. F. O'Conno r TRIED at York ASSIZE. NOW DEFERRED.
March 25. Meeting of the ANTI-CORN LAW LEAGUE. Palace Yard. Resolution PASSED.
March 31. To date total of ANTI-CORN LAW petition signatures only 980,352
April 8. Bronterr e O'Brien, Liverpool ASSIZES, 18 MONTHS IMPRISONMENT FOR SEDITION.
April 11. F. O'Connor 18 MONTHS IN York Castle FOR LIBEL, treated like a common criminal (F. O'Connor's letter April 20).
August 4. Lord Ashley CARRIES ADDRESS TO CROWN[8] on child labour (thus only because of LIBERALS' weakness!)
August 11. Parliament closed.
November 6. Hetheringto n condemne d for BLASPHEMY, SENTENCE DEFERRED.
1841. January 21. RADICAL MEETING AT Leeds for unity with the Chartists. But only agreed on UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE, not on the other points of the Charter.
January 26. Parliament opened .
February 16. MINISTRY DEFEATED BY 31 OUT OF 223.
April 29. ANTI-CORN LAW MEETINGS in Deptford, in vain, in Leeds actually broken up by Chartists. Russell wishes to tinker with CORN LAWS.
May 7. MINISTRY DEFEATED 36 OUT OF 598.
May 25. Duncombe presents Chartists' petition (amnesty), 1,300,000 signatures, the ANTICORN LAW only 474,448.
June 2. ANTI-CORN LAW meeting [in] Manchester attacked in vain by Chartists.
June 4. Peel's NO CONFIDENCE IN MINISTRY: 312 for, 311 against dissolution.
June 23. Hetheringto n versus Moxon. BLASPHEMY against Shelley. GUILTY
August 19. Parliament opene d after the elections. Tor y majority.
August 28. Melbourne ministry brought down, MAJORITY—9 1 out of 629. Peel. Peel Ministry—until July 1846.
October 7. Parliament closed. GREAT DISTRESS IN MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS Leeds, Paisley, Glasgow, Bradford, Nottingham, etc.
November 10. Trade Convention in Derby, for FREE TRADE
December 29. Bankruptcies in Glasgow.
1842. January 7. CHARTIST CONVENTION in Glasgow, F. O'Conn or there .
February 1. ANTI-CORN LAW Meeting broken up by Chartists in Southampton with Tory help?
February 2. ANTI-CORN LAW Bazar in Manchester.
February 3. Parliament opened.
February 9. Peel proposes the SLIDING SCALE 20/- at 51/- corn price, 1/- at 73/- corn price. [9]
March 11. Peel's budget—tariffs of £1,200,000 abolished, particularly on raw materials and semi-manufactures. INCOME TAX. The SLIDING SCALE becomes law (ROYAL ASCENT) April 29.
May 2. Chartist Petition with 3,317,702 signatures carried to Parliament in procession from Lincoln's Inn Fields. Ha d to be taken to pieces because the door too small. Duncombs demands that the Petition should be heard by COUNCIL AT THE BAR. 49:287.
May 25. Meeting in Stockport t ON DISTRESS. POOR RATES risen fro m £2,62 8 in 1836/3 7 t o £7,120 ; over V2 the spinners ruined; over 3,00 0 house s empty (Stockport TO LET); in

Heaton Norris V4 of the houses empty an d 1,000 OCCUPANTS RELIEVED BY PARISH.

June 1. STRIKE OF COLLIERS in Dudle y DISTRICT.
June 3. Large meeting of UNEMPLOYED in Glasgow , ending in a BEGGING PROCESSION through the town. In Ireland PROVISION RIOTS, in Ennis a ship carrying flour looted, in Cork futile assault on the POTATO MARKET.
June 7. Ashley introduces a FACTORY BILL, RESTRICTING WOMEN'S AND CHILDREN'S LABOUR IN MINES AND FACTORIES.
June 25 Leeds Mercury says 4,025 FAMILIES, = 1/s of the town's population receiving POOR RELIEF. Great "DISTRESS" everywhere.
June 28. Peel's tariff throug h the Commons. July 4 throug h the Lords 2ND READING.
July 1. DEBATE ON DISTRESS. NO result, as usual. In Ireland AGRARIAN OUTRAGES all the time.
July 2. FOOD RIOTS [in] Dumfries, several mealmongers' shops looted.
July 5. ANTI-CORN LAW CONFERENCE in London. Bright’s threatening speech. Reports that in Sheffield 10,000 PEOPLE IN EXTREME DISTRESS, in Wolverhampton 62 blast furnaces idle, in Stockport the POOR RATE of 2/- in the £ produce s only £3,600, whereas in 1839 l/8d. had produced £5,000. More POOR RATE 3/4d. in the £ and almost daily meetings of workers and SHOPKEEPERS TO SEE WHAT TO DO. Burslem great agitation, MILITARY CALLED OUT.
July 5. FREETRADE CONFERENCE [in] Sheffield. REVEREND W. Bailey: IT WAS NOT WORDS WHICH WOULD MOVE PARLIAMENT, BUT FORCE, a GENTLEMAN is reported to have spoken of Peel's assassination, etc.
July 11. Villiers' MOTION FOR COMMITTEE OF WHOLE HOUSE TO CONSIDER CORN LAWS rejected, 117:231. At the same time several attempts on the Queen's life and Peel's protective law against causing a nuisance to the Queen : transportation and the [colonies].
July 18. Meetings in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds ON DISTRESS, deputation to Peel to do something before the closing of Parliament.
August 1. STRIKE of the COAL and IRON MINERS, Airdrie and Coatbridge, immediately followed by the Glaswegians, FOR ADVANCING WAGES
August 4. Ashton AND Oldham STRIKE—Manchester RIOTS.
August 12. Parliament closed.
August 15. Delegate Trade s Meeting [in] Manchester— peaceful.
August 17. Proclamation by the Chartist NATIONAL EXECUTIVE (in contrast)—warlike.
August 18. "TH E PACIFICATION OF THE NORT H ISCOMPLETED."
August 24. White (George) in Birmingham despite the police, despite warrant goes with guard to meetings and speaks.
September 5. York AND Lancaster SPECIAL ASSIZES, some 156 RIOTERS TRIED.
September 30. Stafford SPECIAL ASSIZES FOR RIOTERS. F. O'Conno r arrested FOR EXCITING TO SEDITION in Manchester, etc., at meetings in August.
October 6. Cobden announce s at Manchester meeting that the League intends to raise £50,000.
December 9. The quaint city COMMON COUNCIL votes for FREE TRADE IN CORN.
December 31. REVENUE FOR QUARTER SHOWS DECREASE £940,062.
1843. January 9. O'Connell announces REPEAL[10] for this year—hence renewed agitation.
January 26. ANTI-CORN LAW WEEKLY MEETING, Wilson announce s renewed agitation, 400,000 TRACTS SENT OUT LAST WEEK, 3 TONS MORE TOMORROW.
February 11. Parliament opened .
February 13. Ld. Howick's motion for COMMITTEE OF WHOLE HOUSE ON DISTRESS. Debate till 17, then defeated, 301:191. Cobden threatening towards Peel.
February 23. Walter's motion for easing the POOR LAW, during which it emerged that the Government has been implementing the new POOR LAW with increasing severity.
March 1. TRIAL OF F. O'Connor and Co. in Lancaster. O'Connor guilty and many others, now RESERVED ON POINT OF LAW.
March 15. From today weekly MEETINGS of the ANTICORN LAW LEAGUE in Drury Lane Theatre resumed.
March 24. FACTORY BILL READ 2ND TIME.[11]
March 31. Revenue a/c rising, but still below last year (EXCEPT NEW INCOME TAX).
April 27. Irish Arms Bill,[12] as many arms bought up there.
May 9. Villiers' CORN LAW Motion, after 5 evening debates, defeated 381:125. Peel declares that he intends to oppose REPEAL absolutely.
May 24. Richard Arkwright's WILL PROVED— £8,000,000.
June 8. MONSTER REPEAL MEETING [in] Kilkenny— 300,000 men .
June 10. Rebecca RIOTS in Wales[13] BEGAN: ABOLITION OF TURNPIKES, OF TITHES AND COMMUTED RENT CHARGES, CHURCH RATE AND NEW POOR LAW.
June 15. REPEAL MEETING [in] Ennis — 500,000 MEN. EDUCATIONAL CLAUSES[14] — IN FACT BILL ABANDONED on account of opposition of the DISSENTERS[15] (petition over 2,000,000 signatures). (All REPEAL MAGISTRATES in Ireland dismissed up to now.)
July 19. Still over a week's debat e Smith O'Brien's MOTION FOR INQUIRY INTO DISTRESS in Ireland defeated 243:164.
July 25. Bright M.P. FOR Durham City
August 15. MONSTER REPEAL MEETING [at] Tar a Hill.
August 24. Parliament closed. Rebecca in Wales continuing.—OUTRAGES in Ireland.—Threat to withhold rent payment , CUTTING CROPS, etc .
September 28. ANTI-CORN-LAW agitation in London re - sumed with meeting in Covent Garden Theatre . 9,000,00 0 TRACTS distributed in previous year.
October 1. REPEAL MONSTER MEETING in Mullaghmust .
October 7. REPEAL MONSTER MEETING [in] Clontarf banned BY PROCLAMATION.
October 10. ROYAL COMMISSION TO INQUIRE INTO Rebecc a CAUSES.
October 14. O'Connel l accused—still no point formu - lated , but QUIT UNDER BAIL TO APPEAR NEXT TERM TO ANSWER ANY CHARGE BY ATTORNEY GENERAL.
October 21. ANTI-CORN-LAW VICTORY AT CITY LONDON ELECTION: Pattison OVER Baring .
October 23. COUNCIL AT HALL in Dublin opened. — O'Connel l now "PEACEFUL" !
October 26. TRIALS OF Rebecca—heavy sentences (Cardiff).
November 8. O'Connel l finally charged .
1844. January 1. Marquis [of] Westminster goes over to the ANTI-CORN LAW LEAGUE. Many ANTI - CORN LAW and PRO-CORN LAW MEETINGS held throughout the country .
January 15. O'Connell's TRIAL. Sentenced , confirmed on May 24 by QUEENS BENCH.[16] 12 MONTHS.
February 1. Parliament opened .
February 6. New FACTORY BILL (no t passe d previou s year).
February 12. REVEREND Oastler freed after 3 years in debtors gaol.
1845. June 6. FACTORY ACT , LAW. Railway speculation and autumn potato blight.
July '46-February '62 . Russell
1847 . July 28 . Elections. F. O'Connor and Walter elected in Nottingham .
December 7. F. O'Connor's motion to investigate how the Union with Ireland had been made and what it had achieved, 23:255.
1848. March 13. Chartist Demonstration [on] Kennington Common. Jones spoke forcefully. In Ireland Young Ireland[17] revolutionary, demanding arms. At Trafalgar Square meeting, March 6, ostensibly about INCOME TAX, police knocked down, strengthened to 500 men, new ROW in the evening.—On the 6th RIOT in Glasgow by UNEMPLOYED, some looting, military called out, but the mass dispersed without shooting. Similar in Edinburgh and Liverpool.
April 1. RIFLE CLUBS formed in Ireland.
April 4. NATIONAL CHARTIST CONVENTION in London, demonstration for the 10th. E. Jones for FIGHTING. B. O'Brien for waiting until the people stronger than the law.
April 6. F. O'Connor's motion to pardon Frost, Williams and Jones defeated 91:23.
April 7. A GAGGING ACT[18] against inflammatory speeches introduced by Grey.
April 10. Kennington Common. The Chartists in processions to Kennington Common to assemble there and thence on to the HOUSE OF COMMONS with the MONSTER petition. 250,000 SPECIAL CONSTABLES.—4,300 soldiers to Kennington.— On Saturday evening SPLIT over arming: B. O'Brien for, F. O'Connor against. B. O'Brien withdraws with his LOT. The demonstration fell FLAT, the march to Westminster abandoned, and F. O'Connor handed over the petition that evening in the usual way.
April 13. Debate on the petition, instead of 5,706,000 signatures, said to be only 1,975,496, including much nonsense.
May 16. CHARTIST NATIONAL CONVENTION BREAKS UP
May 27. John Mitchel 14 YEARS TRANSPORTATION.— RIOTS in Clarkenwell Green and Bethnal Green, nothing significant, because of this CONVICTION of Chartists and Repealers.[19]
June GOLD EXCITEMENT IN CALIFORNIA.
June 6. Jones and 3 others COMMITTED FOR SEDITION.
June 6. O'Connell's REPEAL ASSOCIATION BROKEN UP.
June 11. Great precautions in London against Chartist insurrection: bank, mint, government offices, Thames steamers full of soldiers. Parliament moreover provisioned.
June 12. Chartist demonstration a failure it seems, very pitiful. June. Insurrection.[20]
July 7. Jones and 5 others 2 years an d BOUND OVER AFTERWARDS.
July 22. Russell demands suspension OF habeas corpus[21] in Ireland, BILL introduced.
July 25. Smith O'Brien's attempt at insurrection.— [On the] 29th Smith O'Brien apprehended .
August 8. Berkeley's BALLOT MOTION CARRIED AGAINST GOVERNMENT 86:81.
August 14. Chartists' rising [in] Ashton under Lyne. MIDNIGHT ATTACK AGAINST TOWN HALL with pistols and lances—one POLICEMAN shot— broken up .
August 15. 14 Chartist leaders arrested in Manchester for INCITING TO RISE IN ARMS.
August 16. 18 Chartist leaders arrested in London , Orange Street, armed; others in Moor Street. Allegedly they were due to strike during the night. Lot of ammunition seized.
August 25. TRIAL of the London Chartists, 26th, TRIAL of Manchester Chartists. Condemned to 2 YEARS HARD LABOUR.
August 26. TRIAL of those arrested on August 16 in London—TRANSPORTATION FOR LIFE.
1852. June 8. F. O'Connor gets up to silly tricks in HOUSE OF COMMONS, arrested by SERGEANT AT ARMS, taken to madhouse.
1855. August 30. tF. O'Connor in Notting Hill.
1856. May 3. Amnesty for Frost, Williams and Jones and the other transported Irish prisoners.
1869. January 26. tErnest Jones, 50.
  1. ↑ In the manuscript this sentence is crossed out by a vertical line.— Ed
  2. ↑ In the next three dates in the manuscript some of the words are crossed out.— Ed.
  3. ↑ Here: patching up.— ED
  4. ↑ "A sacred month"—the slogan advanced by Chartists in 1839, a call for a general strike.
  5. ↑ Victoria.— Ed
  6. ↑ William Lovett.— Ed.
  7. ↑ New ministerial patch-up.— Ed.
  8. ↑ Queen Victoria.— Ed
  9. ↑ a From the maximum duty of 20s. at the price of 51s. and lower per quarter to the minimum duty of Is. at the price of 73s. and higher per quarter.— Ed.
  10. ↑ The Union with England was imposed on Ireland by the English government after the suppression of the Irish rebellion in 1798. The Union, which came into force on January 1, 1801, abolished the autonomous Irish Parliament and made Ireland still more dependent on England. The demand for the repeal of the Union became widespread in Ireland from the 1820s.
  11. ↑ The reference is to the Bill moved by James Graham for discussion in the House of Commons on March 8, 1843. It provided for the regulation of child and adolescent employment in factories, specifically, reduction of children's working day to six and a half hours. The Bill met with strong opposition on the part of MPs and the various public groups, e.g., the Dissenters (see Note 486). Graham withdrew his motion. On the factory legislation, see also Note 161.
  12. ↑ An Act to amend and continue for Two Years, and to the End of the next Session of Parliament, the Laws in Ireland relative to the registering of Arms, and the Importation, Manufacture, and Sale of Arms, Gunpowder, and Ammunition was passed by the House of Commons in August 1843 following an upsurge in Ireland in the movement for the repeal of the Union (see Note 481)
  13. ↑ Rebecca Riots—popular unrest in 1839 and 1842-43 in South Wales. They were triggered off by the imposition of charges at the toll-gates on the public roads. The name was borrowed from the Bible: "And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them" (Genesis 24: 60). Many participants in the movement were associated with Chartism.
  14. ↑ Educational Clauses—a component part of the Factory Bill proposed by James Graham (see Note 482). Under these clauses, the children living in the industrial regions of Great Britain were to attend school not more than three times a week. However, this was opposed by the Dissenters (see Note 486), who constituted a significant part of the population there and were against the teaching at schools of the Scriptures based on the dogmas of the Anglican Church.
  15. ↑ Dissenters were members of Protestant religious sects and trends in England who rejected the dogmas and the rites of the official Anglican Church.
  16. ↑ The Court of Queen's Bench is one of the high courts in England; in the 19th century (up to 1873), it was an independent supreme court for criminal and civil cases, competent to reconsider the decisions of lower judicial bodies.
  17. ↑ The Young Ireland group was formed in 1842 by the Irish bourgeois and petty-bourgeois intellectuals.
  18. ↑ The reference is to An Act for the Better Security of the Crown and Government of the United Kingdom introduced in the House of Commons by the Home Secretary George Grey and passed on April 19, 1848.
  19. ↑ Repealers—supporters of the repeal of the Anglo-Irish Union of 1801, which had abrogated the autonomy of the Irish Parliament. In January 1847, the radical elements of this movement formed an Irish Confederation. Representatives of its revolutionary Left wing, who stood at the head of the national liberation movement, were subjected to severe repression in 1848. See also Note 481.
  20. ↑ Of the Paris workers on June 22-25, 1848.— Ed
  21. ↑ The reference is to the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679. It introduced a writ of Habeas Corpus, the name given in the English judicial procedure to a document enjoining the pertinent authorities to present an arrested person before a court on the demand of the persons desiring to check the legitimacy of the arrest. The procedure does not apply to persons accused of high treason and can be suspended by decision of Parliament. The British authorities frequently made use of this exception in Ireland.
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