The English tradition, from Godwin to Lovett and the ‘moral force’ Chartists:

Early Parliamentary Reform Movements  Arguments for reform popularised by American Revolution ‘No Taxation Without Representation’  Extreme/fringe radicals start advocating universal male suffrage. John Cartwright, Take Your Choice, 1776  Reaction to the French Revolution Fears from elites of the politicisation of ‘knife and fork’ riots. Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791.

William Godwin ( )  Exponent of utilitarianism; believed in ‘evolutionary anarchy.’  Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) Asks the rich to voluntarily transfer some of their property/wealth to those in need, but opposes violent revolution or expropriation.  Things as They Are or The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794)

Into the Nineteenth Century  Luddism  1815 Corn Law  1816 Spa Fields riots  1817 ‘March of the Blanketeers’  Petitioning and the 1819 Peterloo Massacre  1820 The Six Acts

The Peterloo Massacre, as depicted by Robert Carlile, circa 1819

1832 Reform Act  £10 Householder Franchise Tory Richard Oastler: a bourgeois revolution.  More representation granted to many cities and larger towns throughout Britain, and the some of the smallest, most corrupt boroughs removed altogether.  No platform for the still-fragmented working classes

The People’s Charter, 1837

 A VOTE for every man twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and not undergoing punishment for crime.  THE BALLOT. To protect the elector in the exercise of his vote.  NO PROPERTY QUALIFICATION for Members of Parliament - thus enabling the constituencies to return the man of their choice, be he rich or poor.  PAYMENT OF MEMBERS, thus enabling an honest tradesman, working man, or other person, to serve a constituency, when taken from his business to attend to the interests of the Country.  EQUAL CONSTITUENCIES, securing the same amount of representation for the same number of electors.  ANNUAL PARLIAMENTS, thus presenting the most effectual check to bribery and intimidation.

William Lovett  1836 London Working Men’s Association  1839 Secretary of Chartists  Chartism,  1841 National Association for Promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People

‘Moral Force’  Coined by contemporary historian R. G. Gammage.  Focused on education and political arguments rather than the ‘power’ of 19 th C-style nonviolent protest.  1839 Convention  Too radical? Too naïve?  Other key supporters: James Watson, Francis Place

‘Physical Force’  Feargus O’Connor The Northern Star